The Temple of Nguyễn Thì Trung, Instructor at the Quốc Tử Giám - father of Nguyễn Trực, the Two-Country Trạng Nguyên

Nguyễn Trực, pseudonym Sư Liêu, courtesy name Công Dĩnh, was a native of Bối Khê Commune, Thanh Oai District, Hà Tây Province (now Tam Hưng Commune, Thanh Oai District, outskirts of Hanoi). In diplomatic history, Nguyễn Trực is recognized as the first Two-Country Trạng Nguyên when even the Ming court of China admired his talent.

Nguyễn Trực's father was Nguyễn Thì Trung, a native of Bối Khê Village, Thanh Oai District (now Bối Khê Hamlet, Tam Hưng Commune, Thanh Oai District, former Hà Tây Province). Folk tradition says that Nguyễn Trực's father built a hut on the old house foundation of the Nguyễn family, which had prestige since the Trần Trùng Quang period (1409–1413). Nguyễn Trực's ancestor was Nguyễn Hữu, who under the Trần dynasty held the position of Hàn lâm thị giảng concurrently Thẩm lĩnh viện sứ. His grandfather was Nguyễn Bính, who held the position of Nho học huấn đạo.

Nguyễn Thì Trung was a man of letters and continued the family tradition. At the time of the Hồ dynasty's troubles, when Ming troops invaded, Nguyễn Thì Trung did not cooperate with the enemy and took refuge in the west at Tiếu Động Mộng Hamlet, Nghĩa Bang Village (Nghĩa Hương Commune, Quốc Oai District, former Hà Tây Province). After Lê Lợi pacified the whole country and issued a decree seeking worthy talents who had been left behind, learning that Thì Trung was a man of letters and virtue, the king invited him to the capital to take the post of Thư khố at the Quốc Tử Giám. Later, when old and weak, he asked to return to teach students and lecture on books to his son, Trực. Many people near and far followed him to study.

Documents record that he held important educational positions at the Quốc Tử Giám, such as: Giáo thụ Quốc Tử Giám, Quốc Tử thư, or Quốc Tử Giám thị thư (depending on how each source records it).

These were positions in the highest education system of the court, responsible for teaching, training, and managing the studies of scholars.

Nguyễn Thời Trung is regarded as the person who laid the academic foundation for his son, Nguyễn Trực. Thanks to the scholarly family environment, Nguyễn Trực soon became famous for his intelligence, passed first in the provincial examination at the age of 17, and became Trạng nguyên in 1442 under the reign of Lê Thái Tông. Later, when he went as an envoy to China, his talent was admired by Ming scholars, and he was from then on honored as the “Two-Country Trạng Nguyên”

Nguyễn Thời Trung is a typical example of the Confucian intellectual class in the early Lê dynasty: of scholarly origin, he participated in building the national education system and nurturing the next generation of talents. Nguyễn Trực's success reflects the studious tradition of the whole clan, in which the merit of his father – the Instructor at the Quốc Tử Giám – played a very great role