page_title: Trần dynasty
section_title: Education and imperial examination system
hierarchical_section_title: Trần dynasty / Education and imperial examination system
context_page_description: The Trần dynasty of Vietnam ruled over the Kingdom of Đại Việt from 1225 to 1400. The dynasty was founded when emperor Trần Thái Tông ascended to the throne after his uncle Trần Thủ Độ orchestrated the overthrow of the Lý dynasty. The final emperor of the dynasty was Thiếu Đế, who at the age of five years was forced to abdicate the throne in favor of his maternal grandfather, Hồ Quý Ly. The Trần dynasty defeated three Mongol invasions, most notably in the decisive Battle of Bạch Đằng River in 1288.
  The Tran improved Chinese gunpowder enabling them to expand southward to defeat and vassalize the Champa. They also started using paper money for the first time in Vietnam.
  The Tran dynasty was considered a golden age in Vietnamese language, arts, and culture; with the first pieces of Chữ Nôm literature written during this period, and first-time introduction of the vernacular Vietnamese language into the court, alongside Chinese. This laid the foundation for the further development and solidifying of Vietnamese language and identity.
context_section_description: Although Buddhism was considered the national religion of the Trần dynasty, Confucianist education began to spread across the country. The principal curricula during this time were the Four Books and Five Classics, and Northern history, which were at the beginning taught only at Buddhist pagodas and gradually brought to pupils in private classes organized by retired officials or Confucian scholars. The most famous teacher of the Trần dynasty was probably Chu Văn An, an official in the royal court from the reign of Trần Minh Tông to the reign of Trần Dụ Tông, who also served as royal professor of Crown Prince Trần Vượng. During the reign of Trần Thánh Tông, the emperor also permitted his brother Trần Ích Tắc, a prince who was well known for his intelligence and knowledge, to open his own school at the prince's palace. Several prominent mandarins of the future royal court such as Mạc Đĩnh Chi and Bùi Phóng were trained at this school. The official school of the Trần dynasty, Quốc học viện, was established in June 1253 to teach the Four Books and Five Classics to royal students (thái học sinh). The military school, Giảng võ đường, which focused on teaching about war and military manoeuvre, was opened in August of the same year. Together with this military school, the first Temple of Military Men (Võ miếu) was built in Thăng Long to worship Jiang Ziya and other famous generals.
  Seven years after the establishment of the Trần dynasty, the Emperor Trần Thái Tông ordered the first imperial examination, in the second lunar month of 1232, for royal students with the purpose of choosing the best scholars in Đại Việt for numerous high-ranking positions in the royal court. Two of the top candidates in this examination were Trương Hanh and Lưu Diễm. After another imperial examination in 1239, the Trần emperor began to establish the system of seven-year periodic examinations in order to select royal students from all over the country. The most prestigious title of this examination was tam khôi (three first laureates), which was composed of three candidates who ranked first, second, and third in the examination with the names respectively of trạng nguyên (狀 元, exemplar of the state), bảng nhãn (榜 眼, eyes positioned alongside) and thám hoa (探 花, selective talent). The first tam khôi of the Trần dynasty were trạng nguyên Nguyễn Hiền, who was only 12 at that time, bảng nhãn Lê Văn Hưu who later became a royal historian of the Trần dynasty, and thám hoa Đặng Ma La. In the 1256 examination, the Trần dynasty divided the title trạng nguyên into two categories, kinh trạng nguyên for candidates from northern provinces and trại trạng nguyên for those from two southern provinces: Thanh Hóa and Nghệ An, so that students from those remote regions could have the motivation for the imperial examination. This separation was abolished in 1275 when the ruler decided that it was no longer necessary.
  In 1304, the Emperor Trần Anh Tông decided to standardize the examination by four different rounds in which candidates were eliminated step by step through tests of classical texts, Confucianist classics, royal document redaction, and finally argument and planning. This examining process was abandoned in 1396 by the Emperor Trần Thuận Tông under pressure from Hồ Quý Ly, who replaced the traditional examination with the new version as a part of his radical reforms of the social and administrative system. Hồ Quý Ly regulated the imperial examination by a prefectural examination (thi hương) and a metropolitan examination (thi hội) following in the next year. The second-degree examination included four rounds: literary dissertation, literary composition, royal document redaction, and eventually an essay which was evaluated by the Emperor in person. For the lower-ranking officials, the emperor had another examination which tested writing and calculating, such as the examination in the sixth lunar month of 1261 during the reign of Trần Thánh Tông.
  During its 175 years of existence, the Trần dynasty carried out fourteen imperial examinations including ten official a
caption: Statue of noble scholar Mạc Đĩnh Chi of Tran dynasty who was the ancestor of emperor Mạc Đăng Dung.
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