Đào Nguyên Communal House

Đào Nguyên Communal House is located in Đào Nguyên Village, An Khánh Commune, Hanoi City. Ancient Đào Nguyên shared the same stretch of land as Ngự Câu in Thượng Ốc area, Từ Liêm District, Quốc Oai Prefecture, Sơn Tây Circuit.

Đào Nguyên Communal House was built facing west, in the chữ đinh (T-shaped) plan. From Hanoi capital, the former Hà Đông town along National Highway 72 Hà Đông - Quốc Oai, travel about 10 km to Thanh Quang dike, follow the dike road for about 2 km, turn right for 100 m to reach Đào Nguyên Communal House.

Đào Nguyên Communal House is an architectural work with two main functions: a religious center worshipping the village tutelary god and a community cultural center. Based on these functions, Đào Nguyên Communal House can be classified as a communal-house-type religious architectural relic; it is a place to worship deities who made great contributions helping King Thục An Dương Vương defeat the Qin invaders and save the country.

According to the original Han-character thần phả currently kept at the relic, together with the edicts of conferment, Đào Nguyên Communal House worships a deity associated with the Thục An Dương Vương period. The content of the legend is as follows: 'In the reign of King Thục An Dương Vương, there was a man of the Đỗ family named Thiện. He had two wives, the first wife from the Kim family and the second from the Chu family. They lived in a very harmonious and prosperous family, generation after generation cultivating virtue and accumulating merit.'

On the 10th day of the first lunar month in the year of Giáp Tý, the first wife, of the Kim family, dreamed of a white snake coiling around a pink cloud, which then bloomed into three white lotus flowers, and she reached out her hands to receive them. More than a year later, on the 13th day of the third lunar month in the year of Ất Sửu, she went into labor. The next day she gave birth to a bundle of three daughters. She and her husband named the three girls Ả, Hai, and the third Bảo. Five years later, in the year of Canh Ngọ, on the 15th day of the third lunar month, she again gave birth to a bundle that opened, producing three sons named Đức, Ngũ, and Thẩm; all three sons had unusual complexions and noble appearances.

On the 13th day of the eighth lunar month, the wife of the Chu family gave birth to three sons of peerless beauty, with radiant features that made birds fall and fish sink, the moon hide and flowers yield; flowers were enamored and matched in beauty, jade dared not compete in fragrance; they were talented in both letters and martial arts. When they grew up, the country was in turmoil as the Qin invaders encroached. King Thục ordered the old ministers and everyone with strategic talent to recruit soldiers and fight the enemy.

At that time, Ngũ Đạo Đại Vương, Bố Bố Đại Vương, and his daughter, the sixth princess, had recruited 300 brave warriors and came to ask to go fight the enemy and save the country. King Thục was delighted and granted them titles: the five were made Ngũ Đạo Generals and commanders of the guard; Bố Bố was made Commander-in-Chief; and the six princesses were conferred the title Huyền Vũ, specially overseeing the infantry and leading troops to Lĩnh Nam to fight the enemy. Nhâm Hựu (Nhâm Ngao) was hit by a poisoned arrow and fled; the enemy army was utterly defeated. King Thục was overjoyed, held a banquet at court to entertain the soldiers, and conferred titles on them.

On the 10th day of the twelfth lunar month, Đỗ Thiện, Kim Thái, Chu Vân, Tam Tôn, and Đại Hạ all passed away. Several years later, one day on the 10th day of the seventh lunar month, heaven and earth suddenly darkened, heavy rain and strong wind arose, thunder and lightning broke out, rivers and waters stretched vast, and aquatic creatures such as turtles, serpents, shrimp, and fish were all swept up in the swirling waters. Lady Bảo and some of her brothers and soldiers disappeared without illness.

Three years later, on the full moon of the first lunar month, King Thục urgently summoned a council to discuss and assess the merits of the generals and soldiers. The king assigned the areas of Ngự Câu, An Hạ, and Đào Nguyên to jointly worship the famous generals. Later, the first meritorious official of Thượng Village, whose taboo name was Ngũ, was worshipped. Trung Village—that is, Ngự Câu Village—worshipped the second meritorious official, whose taboo name was Thẩm. Hạ Village, that is, An Hạ Village, worshipped the third meritorious official, who was conferred by King Thục Phán - An Dương Vương as the sixth princess, whose taboo name was Bảo.

King Thục returned to court to review merits and grant rewards, promote the deities, and ordered the ministries to draft edicts conferring deity ranks and funds to build temples and grant sacred wood for worship. The elders of Thượng Ốc area, Ngự Câu page, Sơn Tây circuit, sent people to receive 12 edicts of conferment and bring them back for worship. The elders invited a famous geomancer to examine the astronomy and geography of the area, changing the Càn-Tốn (Southeast) direction to a Mão-Dậu (West) direction and a Chấn-Khôn (Southwest) direction. The land produced many healthy, handsome sons who succeeded in study and examinations. Every year they worship fully with reverence, generation after generation reminding and passing it down; such respect is truly worthy, never ending. The birthday of Princess Bảo was the 1st day of the seventh lunar month. Her death/transformation day was the 10th day of the seventh lunar month.

According to Vietnamese history: 'Before the resistance war against Qin, the Tây Âu tribal alliance of Thục Phán had close relations with the Văn Lang state of Hùng Vương... When they advanced into our country, the Qin army first encroached on the residence area of the Tây Âu people, who naturally had to stand up to organize and lead the resistance against Qin. The deeper the Qin army advanced southward, the more fiercely they encountered resistance from the Tây Âu and Lạc Việt peoples. The Vietnamese leaders, due to the demands of the struggle, exalted Thục Phán as the supreme commander. The struggle lasting five or six years tightened the existing bonds of solidarity and further consolidated and enhanced Thục Phán's prestige not only among the Tây Âu but also among the Lạc Việt. The thần phả of Đào Nguyên Village Communal House records the event that the village tutelary god was a person of great merit who helped King Thục An Dương Vương defeat the enemy and save the country.'

Traveling on the Đáy River dike, many villages are built inside the dike or at varying distances such as Phương Viên, Ngự Câu, Đào Nguyên... Visitors often notice an ancient communal house lying far from the dike base, but from the dike one can clearly see a panoramic scene with the communal-house pond, pillars, enclosing wall, and moss-covered ancient roof, beautiful as an old painting. As a typical landscape of a Vietnamese village, that picture is Đào Nguyên Communal House. According to ancient books, Đào Nguyên Communal House is situated at Mão facing Dậu. That is how people in the past referred to the west. It is on the right side of the ritual palace of the patron saints of Thượng Ốc canton. This also explains why the three villages of Thượng Ốc canton, although jointly worshipping the deities, did not establish a single common place of worship. According to a Lê dynasty stele currently standing in the communal house yard, Đào Nguyên Communal House was originally built long ago.

After many restorations, the communal house still retains the following architectural components: outside are the system of pillar walls, enclosing walls, and cannon gates built elaborately. The pillars are decorated and painted with multiple tiers of dragons and phoenixes, lanterns, and four square faces for carving couplets praising the village communal house landscape. The two cannon gates are built in the style of two tiers and four roofs. Outside, coconut trees cast shadows onto the village road in front of the communal house. Through a large brick-paved yard is the main worship hall.

The main worship hall is built on a high foundation and consists of five bays. From the outside, the main hall is built with closed gable ends. Each gable end has a pillar, and on top of each pillar is a relief of a kneeling mythical beast. The communal house roof is covered with old-style ri tiles. On the ridge are two reliefs of kìm dragons facing the center of the ridge, where there is a sun. The veranda columns of the main hall rest on stone bases shaped like tied gourds. The entire door system of the main hall is made in the folding-panel style, with relief and openwork carvings of themes from the four sacred creatures and four seasons. Inside, Đào Nguyên Communal House's main hall is structured with four rows of wooden columns, and the roof truss is in the chồng rường con nhị style. The roof frame is made in the upper-three, lower-four style with a front veranda. In terms of carving, the main hall generally favors solidity and smooth planing. On the đầu dư and kẻ bẩy, some stylized floral and leaf patterns are carved in relief, and the folding-door system has turned-wood bars. Notably, the interior of the main hall is adorned with an ancient Nguyễn dynasty altar carved with multiple tiers of dragons, phoenixes, and flowers and leaves, a carved curtain door with two dragons flanking the moon, a set of long swords and eight treasures, all brightly lacquered and gilded.

Next to the main worship hall is the rear sanctuary. The rear sanctuary is formed from two main columns in the central bay with corner beams connected inward to create the rear sanctuary. Like many other village temple works, this component favors solidity and smooth planing, worshipping the tutelary gods to show reverence. Since ancient times, in the rear sanctuary ancestors created a large wooden shrine enclosed with wooden panels; inside the shrine are arranged a dragon throne and spirit tablet worshipping the village tutelary god. This is also a place preserving precious relics, thần phả, edicts of conferment, and ritual texts.

Notably, Đào Nguyên Communal House witnessed the heroic years of the resistance war against the French. On February 10, 1946, French troops poured from Phùng down into Đào Nguyên Village to go to Mai Lĩnh. They burned and destroyed the village, causing much damage. On February 20, 1947, resistance cadres and militia mobilized the people to build resistance mounds to prevent French troops from marching along the village dike. On March 3, 1947, cadres and the people overturned a DMC vehicle and killed a French soldier. In retaliation, they poured in and burned the village and this communal house. Many elderly people and children were tortured and shot by them. With hatred for the enemy and determination to protect their homeland, cadres, guerrillas, and the people persistently held their posts and defended the village, achieved many victories, promptly evacuated and protected the communal house's precious relics, and did not let them loot or seize invaluable assets.

Ancient relics still remain, such as stone steles from the Lê and Nguyễn dynasties, the box of thần phả and edicts of conferment, the dragon throne, spirit tablets, and curtain door, all evacuated in time. Immediately after the enemy withdrew, the communal house was restored in time. Therefore, Đào Nguyên Communal House today still looks ancient, beautiful, and spacious.

Đào Nguyên Communal House was ranked as a national-level historical-cultural relic according to Decision No. 2890-VH/QĐ dated September 27, 1997, of the Ministry of Culture and Information.