Emperor Le Thanh Tong

A row of stone steles stands quietly in a courtyard. Each one is taller than a person and rests on the back of a stone turtle. Deep lines of writing crowd the face of every stele. Many seasons of rain and sun have passed, and the wind has crossed the courtyard again and again, but the writing is still there, as lasting as the stone. These are the names of scholars who studied well and passed their examinations. The man who thought of carving their names in stone was an emperor named Lê Thánh Tông.

His birth name was Lê Tư Thành. He was born in 1442, the fourth son of Emperor Lê Thái Tông. He took the throne in 1460, when he was only 18.

He stayed on the throne for a long time, about 38 years. At first he named his reign Quang Thuận. Later he changed it to Hồng Đức. That name came to stand for an age that people remembered for generations, an age when books, law and poetry all flourished.

He was a man who loved learning, and he treasured talented people the way others treasure gold. In 1484 he had the Temple of Literature and Imperial Academy repaired and enlarged. At that time it was the largest school in the country. Then he came up with a fine idea. He set a custom of raising stone steles to carve the names of those who passed the doctoral examination.

Those scholars were doctoral laureates, who passed the royal examinations, held to select talented and virtuous people to serve the state. Whoever passed had the name cut deep into the stone by a stonecutter. The stele then stood in the middle of the Temple of Literature, where thousands could see it. The name of a diligent, gifted scholar stayed with the mountains and rivers far longer than a single lifetime.

But this emperor who loved books did not care only for schooling. He also wanted his people to live in peace and contentment. In 1483 he issued a great code of law called the Quốc triều Hình luật. Ordinary people knew it as the Hồng Đức Code.

The code was thick. It ran to six volumes and held 722 articles. Each article looked after some small matter in the lives of ordinary people. What stands out is how many of them shelter the weak. Some defend women. Some show kindness to children. In so distant an age, to think of protecting the vulnerable showed a truly admirable heart.

He also had a map of the whole country drawn, which later generations call the Hồng Đức map. One can picture a vast painting of every mountain, river and village, so that everyone would know where their hometown lay and grow fonder of it.

By day this emperor sat listening as his officials reported on the affairs of the country. He read through the articles of law so that his people would not suffer wrong. When night fell, he went back to his own private joy, which was poetry. He loved poetry and literature with a passion. Late in life he headed a poetry society right in the court. The emperor and the masters of the written word recited verses and answered one another's lines together. They wrote about the moon, the flowers and the mountains and rivers of the land. In 1494 the emperor and the officials of the society made a collection of poems called Quỳnh uyển cửu ca. The name alone sounds as fragrant as a garden of flowers.

By day he worked on laws so that his people would be treated fairly. By night he wrote poems so that life would be more beautiful.

He gave his whole heart to two things, laws that shelter the weak and poetry that cherishes beauty. And he left both behind to endure, as lasting as those rows of stone steles.