Temple of Vệ Úy Trực Đạo Hầu Hoàng Công Chế, Thụy Ứng Village, Thường Tín Commune

Temple of Vệ uý Trực đạo hầu Hoàng Công Chế

The Hoàng family temple is a place to worship the ancestors of the Hoàng clan and Vệ uý Trực đạo hầu Hoàng Công Chế. Based on the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Cultural Heritage and current specific criteria, the relic belongs to the type of Historical memorial of a notable person.

According to the accounts handed down by the elders of the clan, the Temple of Vệ uý Trực đạo hầu Hoàng Công Chế was initially built during the Lê dynasty.

Restoration and repair times: First: Nguyễn dynasty; second: 2007.

Based on the clan genealogy (written during the Nguyễn dynasty), Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, documents provided by the Quảng Ngãi Provincial Museum, and the account of the clan head, the background and career of Vệ uý Trực đạo hầu Hoàng Công Chế can be summarized as follows: The Hoàng family of Thụy Ứng Village is a large clan that settled here very early, since the early Lê dynasty. During the reign of Lê Thánh Tông—the most prosperous period of the feudal regime—many talented people emerged, in both civil and military fields; one of those outstanding sons was Hoàng Công Chế. He was a man of great merit and a notable figure who gathered people to reclaim wasteland and establish the villages and hamlets of Vạn Phúc Đông Commune, Mộ Hoa District (now Đức Hòa Commune, Mộ Đức District, Quảng Ngãi Province), after joining Lê Thánh Tông in the campaign against Champa.

Hoàng Công Chế was from Phúc Ưng Village (the old name of present-day Thụy Ứng Village), Thượng Phúc District, Thường Tín Prefecture, Sơn Nam Thượng Region. In the second year of Hồng Đức (1471), he took part in King Lê Thánh Tông's southern expedition against Champa and achieved many merits. Afterwards, he stayed in Mộ Hóa District, Tư Nghĩa Prefecture, gathered people to establish hamlets, cleared forests for fields, built villages, and founded Vạn Phúc Commune, belonging to Quang Đức Canton. He died and was buried by the people in Thượng Lâm, Vạn Phúc Commune.

In recognition of Hoàng Công Chế's merit in opening land and founding villages, and of his fourth-generation descendant Hoàng Trung Thuế, on the 25th day of the 7th month of the 9th Khải Định year (1924), the Nguyễn dynasty posthumously conferred on him and his descendant the title Dực Bảo Trung Hưng linh phù tôn thần.

In the petition to the people of Vạn Phúc Đông Commune, Quang Đức Canton, Mộ Đức District, written by the canton notables, village officials, and scholars on the 23rd day of the 7th month of 1924, it is recorded: 'Our commune and the Hoàng family have as their patron Hoàng Công Chế... During the Hồng Đức period, King Lê Thánh Tông, together with a native official of our commune, Trần Văn Đạt, carried out the southern expedition against Champa, then stayed in Mộ Hoa District, Quảng Nam Region, to call on people to establish hamlets, expand cultivation, and found Vạn Phúc Commune. Public and private land totaled 1,405 mẫu, 3 sào, 5 thước, 8 tấc; public fields were 4 mẫu, 5 sào, 9 thước; private fields were 935 mẫu, 9 sào, 6 thước; wasteland was 74 mẫu, 8 sào, 5 thước.'

This petition also states, continuing Hoàng Công Chế's reclamation work: 'In the Ất Hợi year, Trần Văn Thiết, fourth-generation descendant of Trần Văn Đạt, together with Hoàng Trung Thuế, fifth-generation descendant of Hoàng Công Chế, reclaimed additional land, recruited more people, founded Đông Phúc Commune, and together with Vạn Phúc Commune built a communal house and a pagoda to worship deities and Buddha. Public and private land totaled 812 mẫu.'

From the above data, we can affirm that: Vệ uý Trực đạo hầu Hoàng Công Chế was a typical historical figure of the Hoàng family of Thụy Ứng Village, who had a positive influence on the process of opening, developing, and expanding Quảng Ngãi Prefecture in the historical process of nation-building and defense in the 15th century.