Tomb of Vo Truong Toan

Almost nothing that Võ Trường Toản wrote has come down to us. Only one piece is still passed on, a work called Hoài cổ phú, twenty-four lines long, according to the Bến Tre tourism portal.

If Nguyễn Đình Chiểu is remembered as the teacher of the scholars of the southern region, then Võ Trường Toản was the teacher of those teachers.

He left no ministers at court, no merit steles, no career in office. What he had was students. Trịnh Hoài Đức and Lê Quang Định were among them. So were Ngô Nhân Tịnh and Ngô Tùng Châu, along with many other Confucian scholars of the south. They set his name down in the history of learning in the southern land.

He was a famous teacher of the south in the 18th century, described as a great Confucian scholar and a gifted educator. He lived in seclusion, cared nothing for fame or gain, and never took office, whether under the Tây Sơn or under the Nguyễn lords. The Tây Sơn were three brothers who led an uprising from 1771 and for a time ruled Vietnam. The Nguyễn lords were a noble family who ruled southern Vietnam from the 16th to the 18th century.

He taught at Hòa Hưng, in old Gia Định, and trained many who made their names among the scholar class. He died on the ninth day of the sixth month of the year Nhâm Tý, which was July 27, 1792, in that same village of Hòa Hưng. When he died, the Nguyễn lord, moved by affection, granted him an honorific title: Gia Định Xử sĩ Sùng Đức Võ tiên sinh.

That was all he had: an honored name, given after his death.

But his students did not forget. The most important story tied to his tomb happened after the three eastern provinces of Nam Kỳ fell into French colonial hands. Nam Kỳ was the name then used for southern Vietnam. Three scholars talked it over: Phan Thanh Giản, Nguyễn Thông and Phạm Hữu Chánh. They agreed that their teacher's grave could not stay in land the French had taken. The remains of Võ Trường Toản, his wife and his daughter were reburied on the 28th day of the tenth month, in the eighteenth year of Emperor Tự Đức's reign. They were carried to the village of Bảo Thạnh, now Bảo Thạnh commune, in the Ba Tri area.

People of later times often call this the bond between teacher and students. It is better understood as integrity. At a time when the country was occupied, these scholars chose to do something that brought themselves no advantage. It would not win back any land, and it would not free any province or town. They only brought their teacher's grave to land that was still free. In that small act they kept hold of something larger: respect for a teacher, and the integrity of men of the pen in a time of disorder.

Today the site stands in Thạnh Nghĩa hamlet, Bảo Thạnh commune, in the old Ba Tri area. Since the 2025 reorganization, Bảo Thạnh has belonged to Vĩnh Long province. The site was recognized as a national monument by Decision 95, dated January 24, 1998.

It holds three tombs, built in the style called voi phục, the crouching elephant. The tomb of Võ Trường Toản and his wife's tomb lie side by side. His daughter's lies apart, on the right. Around them, trees called dầu, phượng and sứ keep the grounds cool and solemn.

The most important place to pause is a stele of white marble. It stands 1.2 meters high. It is 80 centimeters wide and 20 centimeters thick. It was carved in 1867 in Chinese characters, and its text was composed by Phan Thanh Giản. It praises the pure example and the teaching of Master Võ. More than 150 years old, the stele stands quiet among the trees, carrying the words of a student who honored his teacher without reserve.

Every year on the ninth day of the sixth month by the lunar calendar, people of the area come to burn incense in his memory. In 2022, the Bến Tre Museum worked with the People's Committee of Bảo Thạnh commune to hold an incense-offering ceremony, on the 230th anniversary of his death. This tradition of remembrance is living proof of what Võ Trường Toản left behind. He left it not in books and not in rank, but in the people he taught.