Nghia Vu Communal House

Nghia Vu Communal House is located in Nghia Vu village, Duc Tu commune. Before 1945, Nghia Vu village was also called Det (Diec) camp. This land was originally a flooded wasteland belonging to Dong Dau commune, Duc Tu canton, Tu Son district, Bac Ninh province. Later, Nghia Vu was a village in Duc Tu commune, Tu Son district, Bac Ninh province. From 1961, Duc Tu commune was merged into Dong Anh district - Hanoi city and has kept that name to the present. The Nghia Vu communal house relic was first built during the Le Trung Hung period and was restored in the 11th year of Minh Menh (1830). In 1972, the rear hall collapsed due to American bombing, and in 1976 the communal house was restored and has retained its architecture as it is today. The communal house worships Thanh Hoang Nguyen Quang Phuc (Phuc Cong), also known as Phuc Than Dai Vuong – a general with many merits during the Later Le period. Legend has it that he was intelligent, talented, thoroughly knowledgeable, well versed in history and books, and also skilled in martial arts. He built a house in the Dong Trang Thuy Van area, opened a martial arts school, often wrestled with the villagers, later became an official during the Later Le period, and was appointed Quan Thong Do Ho Quoc Cong Dai Tuong Quan, leading troops to fight the enemy and protect the country. Returning in victory, he paid homage to the king, and the king was very happy and held a great feast for the troops. At noon on the 10th day of the 11th lunar month, the sky and earth darkened, a whirlwind arose, and he lay down in the house and passed away. The king witnessed this and considered it strange, mourned a subject who had contributed to the founding of the country, and ordered the officials and people to hold a mourning ceremony, place him in a coffin, and bring him back to his homeland, Dong Dau camp, for the funeral and burial. The king had a shrine built in the Trieu Dong Thuy Van area (his maternal homeland) for worship and conferred on him the title Thuong Dang Phuc Than. Nghia Vu Communal House is located on land in the center of the village, facing south; around the communal house there is a wall and many old trees, and in front there is a large pond. The communal house was built in the form of the character “đinh” consisting of a ceremonial gate, front hall, and rear hall. The ceremonial gate is built in the four-pillar style; facing the communal house pond, it has one large gate in the middle and two small gates on either side, connected to each other by four pillars (two large and two small). The two large pillars are symmetrically made; at the bottom are pillar bases decorated with chrysanthemum leaf patterns, on the pillar bodies are carved parallel sentences, around the borders are attached white-glazed ceramic pieces painted in blue, on the four-sided lantern panels are reliefs of the four sacred creatures, the next tier has a tiger tally and dragon heads extending to four sides, and at the top are four phoenixes facing each other. Connected to the two large pillars are small gates on both sides, made with two roof tiers, curved knife edges, decorated with stylized dragon and cloud motifs, with seal-script patterns on top and two relief characters, Ta Mon and Huu Mon, on the front. The communal house yard is paved with square bricks; on the right is a martyrs' memorial and auxiliary works, and on the left is a garden. The front hall is a five-bay, two-wing house, built in the style of closed gable walls with armchair supports and pillar symbols, roofed with di tiles, and floored with red bricks. In the center of the roof ridge are two dragons facing the sun; on both gables are reliefs of kim heads, and the gable ends have tiger-tally reliefs attached with ceramics... In front, a wooden door system opens in the three central bays in a folding-panel door style, while the two side bays have walls with windows in the shape of the character “Longevity”. On both sides are two pillar symbols, with unicorn-facing reliefs on top and four sacred creatures on the lantern panels. The roof-supporting frame has five rows of column bases. The truss structures are made in pairs: the central-bay truss is in the thuong gia chieng style, with middle and lower braces, front cantilevers, and rear wind boards connected to the rear hall. In the central bay, four beam ends are carved with dragon heads with bulging eyes, upturned noses, mouths holding pearls, and manes and beards like blades flying backward in many layers. The brace panels are concentrated in the central bay, using relief carving to depict themes such as a lone dragon rolling in water, the four noble plants (pine, chrysanthemum, bamboo, apricot), phoenixes dancing, and the character Longevity. The rear hall is a five-bay house connected to the central bay of the front hall to form the character “Dinh”, the roof-supporting truss is made in the style “upper gong frame, middle and lower beams resting on the wall”, the roof is covered with di tiles, and the floor is paved with Bat Trang bricks. Inside the rear hall, there are altars and a statue worshipping the Thanh Hoang. Nghia Vu Communal House still preserves a rich collection of worship objects made of lacquered and gilded wood, such as: an incense table, horizontal plaques, parallel sentences, worship altars, spirit tablets, saint statues, the eight treasures, a curtain door, two large worship cranes, worship horses, a seal box, a scroll… some worship objects made of bronze and ceramics such as: a bronze ding, a large gong, worship lamps, worship cranes, vases, incense bowls… A stone stele dated to the 11th year of Minh Menh (1830). The communal house also preserves copies of one saint legend and three royal edicts of Nghia Vu village dating to Canh Hung year 28 (1767), Tu Duc year 10 (1857), and Khai Dinh year 9 (1924); the copies date to Bao Dai year 13 (1938). Currently, the saint legend and royal edicts of the communal house are kept at the Institute of Social Sciences under the code TTTS 3347, pages 501–507. Every year, the people organize a festival on the 10th day of the 2nd lunar month, the birthday of the deity. During the festival, rituals, quan ho singing, and folk games are usually organized. According to the village elders, Nghia Vu village has a custom of twinning with Lai Hoang village and Lien Dam village (Yen Thuong commune, Gia Lam district). On the village festival day, the twinned villages all invite delegations from their elder and younger twinned villages to attend the ceremony at the village communal house. After that, they together carry their village's saint palanquin to the communal house to open the Saint's birthday festival and then carry the saint palanquin back to the village communal house. Nghia Vu Communal House was ranked as a city-level historical and architectural art relic by decision No. 7533/QD-UBND dated December 12, 2013.