Emperor Le Thai Tong

In 1442, the court held a solemn examination for doctoral laureates. Doctoral laureates were scholars who passed the royal examinations, held to select talented and virtuous people to serve the state. In all, 33 people passed. The first place went to a man named Nguyễn Trực, who became Trạng nguyên. That was the title of the top graduate of the royal examinations.

The man who set up examinations like this, and opened the door for so many to walk through, was an emperor who took the throne as a very small child. He was Emperor Lê Thái Tông.

He was the second son of Emperor Lê Thái Tổ, who is also called Lê Lợi. Lê Lợi was the hero of the land of Lam Sơn. He had only just rebuilt the country and founded a new dynasty when his son had to carry it on. The boy came to the throne in the year Quý Sửu, which was 1433, while still very young.

A boy who should have been running about and learning his letters now had to worry about a whole country. The distance between a small child and the weight of a kingdom seems very great.

Yet the boy grew a little more each day, right there on the throne. From very early on, he looked after the business of the court himself. Each morning, by a lamp still dim and with roosters crowing outside the citadel, the young emperor sat at his writing desk, opened the registers page by page, and studied carefully how to run the country.

A fine quality slowly took shape in the young emperor. He valued talented people. He understood that one emperor alone could not manage everything. For the country to be peaceful and strong, it needed many capable, upright people to share the load.

He needed a way to find them. The young emperor chose a good one, and people still use it today. He held examinations.

In his reign the court set a clear rule. From 1438, a great examination was held every three years to choose talented people for the country. An examination held so regularly was a wide-open door. Each time, students in plain cloth shirts came from every corner of the land to the capital for the great examination. They carried their brushes, their inkstones, and years of study by lamplight. The hope has always been the same: anyone who studies hard and truly has talent will find a road to being known and trusted with great tasks.

For the 33 who passed, the day brought great joy. After so many years of study by lamplight, they were called by name by the emperor and trusted with the work of helping the people and the country.

That year's examination left something very special behind. It began the custom of carving the names of doctoral laureates on stone steles at the Temple of Literature. The steles were raised later, to record the names of those who passed. A name cut into stone stays for a very long time, much longer than a human life. The seed of respect for talent that the young emperor planted so long ago was still thriving ages afterward.

The boy who had taken the throne so young had grown into an emperor who loved learning and honored wise people. He reigned for nine years and worked to strengthen the dynasty his father had founded. When his life ended, he was buried in his family's home region of Thanh Hóa, the land where his whole line began.

He was an emperor who came to the throne in childhood, and who, once grown, opened the door wide for talented people to enter, so that anyone with heart and strength had a road to help the country.