OLD SCHOOLBOOKS – RETELLING ANCIENT STORIES IN TODAY’S WAY
Ancient learning materials—a topic that might initially seem dry and tedious. However, through the heritage education program at Văn Miếu – Quốc Tử Giám, it becomes gentle and accessible.
The students from Nguyễn Đình Chiểu Primary and Secondary School’s Book Introduction Club actively engaged by listening to concise core knowledge; independently connecting ideas, researching information, and thinking critically to answer questionnaires; applying the lessons learned through hands-on practice on site and producing tangible results to take home.
Seeking refuge from the summer sun under the cool shade of trees, the students listened to a guided introduction about the historic site. The heritage education officers presented clear, age-appropriate explanations, focusing on key points that suited the students’ levels.
Today’s theme was "Books and Learning at Quốc Tử Giám" — the first national university in Vietnam. Accordingly, the students learned about Thám hoa Lương Như Hộc — a doctoral graduate of the 1442 imperial examination, regarded as the forefather of the woodblock printing craft. His name is inscribed on the examination stele erected at Văn Miếu – Quốc Tử Giám in the same year.
The site preserves original woodblocks for book printing, allowing the students to observe. These woodblocks are intricately carved from wood, with characters engraved in relief and reversed, so that when printed, the text reads correctly. Once the perfect woodblock was prepared, printers would apply ink and print on Dó paper, creating book pages.
The raw material for making Dó paper is fresh Dó tree bark. Dó paper is soft, durable, lightweight, resistant to insect damage, and long-lasting. Printed sheets were folded in half with the printed side out, aligned carefully, then tied into bundles with paper strips and sewn into volumes.
If modern students learn from textbooks in math, literature, English, and so on, what did students in the past study? The students explored the classic Four Books and Five Classics, gaining a basic understanding of these texts, comparing their knowledge and also the structure, weight, color, and materials of old and modern books.
The students absorbed the knowledge shared by the heritage educators, then searched for more information in the exhibition space at the site, answering practical questions closely related to what they had just learned. For example, listing types of paper or naming the primer books of old students.
After grasping the knowledge and reviewing it through small exercises, the students practiced making books by hand following the exact structure and materials of ancient learning books — from folding pages, rolling paper strips to make binding threads, until completing a whole book.
The students were allowed to take home their finished products as gifts for their parents or grandparents, or to use as notebooks.
Thanks to lively, humorous presentation, easy-to-understand information, and constantly varied activities requiring quick physical and mental engagement, the students seemed to forget the summer heat, participating enthusiastically and with great curiosity. The 90 minutes passed very quickly — the students did not just have a visit, but also gained new knowledge about the cultural and educational heritage of their homeland.
Heritage education is a program for students from kindergarten to high school, featuring nearly 30 diverse themes such as: Old school lessons; Searching for mythical creatures on ancient architecture; Exploring Doctoral Steles; Learning about Quốc Tử Giám — the first national university; Imperial examinations; Ancient learning books; and more. These heritage education themes are designed to help students explore heritage through engaging experiential activities, sparking their interest in history and culture.
Through the program, students not only acquire heritage knowledge but also develop thinking skills (observation, questioning, note-taking, analysis) and practice soft skills (teamwork, leadership, presentation, etc.).
To learn more about heritage education themes, visit: http://vanmieu.gov.vn/en/heritage-education/
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