Văn Xương Temple

There are two origins for Văn Xương Đế Quân. First, Văn Xương Đế Quân is the Đẩu Khôi star group, consisting of six stars arranged in a semicircle in front of the North Star, each with its own name, governing literary fortune and examination honors. Second, according to the Confucian-Buddhist-Daoist dictionary: Văn Xương Đế Quân was a real person named Trương Á (or Trương Ác), who after death performed many miracles and was conferred as the Tử Đồng deity. In the reign of Nhân Tông of the Yuan dynasty (1316), the Tử Đồng deity was conferred the title “Phụ Nguyên khai hóa Văn Xương Tư Lộc Hoằng Nhân Đế Quân”. Since then, the Tử Đồng deity and the Văn Xương star have been combined under the name Văn Xương Đế Quân.

In the book "Trấn Vũ Lục Quán",, Thanh Hòa Tử recorded: During the reign of King Lê Thánh Tông (1460–1497), Minister Nguyễn Địch Tâm (1461–?) went as an envoy to China and obtained a statue of the deity to bring back and establish a temple in Hoàng Xá commune. Later, students going to examinations who came to pray for dreams often had their prayers answered. In the 6th year of Thiệu Trị (1846), it was conferred as a top-ranking deity.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

The temple is halfway up Hoàng Xá Mountain. Inside the temple is a statue of Văn Xương Đế Quân wearing a phốc hat and a bổ phục robe. Standing on the Upper Temple, one can view the entire Hoàng Xá cave area and the whole grounds of Hoa Vân Tự Pagoda (Hoàng Xá Cave Pagoda), looking down at the village scene appearing and disappearing beneath the village bamboo hedges, a peaceful landscape.

The temple is built in a Dinh-shaped structure. The first item of the temple is the temple gate - consisting of one main path. The upper part is two tiers with eight curved roofs, imitation tubular tiles, and below is brick paving laid in overlapping layers, forming the path leading to the main item.

From the gate, after about 100m is the front worship hall. The front worship hall is a three-bay, two-wing horizontal building, structured with closed gable walls, roofed with ri tiles, and paved with bricks. In front is a system of panel doors, above are wooden lattice bars and turned balusters.

The interior trusses are made uniformly in the style of “upper stacked beams, lower brackets” on four rows of column bases. This architectural style bears strong marks of the Nguyễn dynasty. On both sides are arranged altars and statues, incense bowls, and some other relics.

The rear sanctuary is a vertical room connected from the central bay to the rear. In this item are arranged a worship platform, a statue of Saint Văn Xương, and some other relics.