3 Vietnamese teachers that make foreigners respect

Ngo Mien Thieu (1499-?) was from Tam Son village, Bac Ninh province. Famous for his intelligence and quick wit, in 1518 he passed the royal examination, became an official of the Le dynasty, held the positions of Royal Historian, Minister of Rites, Grand Scholar of the Eastern Palace, and titled Trinh Khe Ba.

In 1527, Mac Dang Dung dethroned the Le Dynasty. Ngo Mien Thieu did not become an official but returned to his hometown to open a school. According to historical records, Ngo Mien Thieu was an exemplary teacher, intelligent and virtuous. In 8 years, he trained many talented people for the country, who later passed the exams with high scores.

His two sons, Ngo Dien, passed the doctoral exam in Canh Tuat year 1550 and Ngo Dich, passed the doctoral exam in Binh Thin year 1556. His adopted son Nguyen Gia Muu passed the doctoral exam in 1559.

Even though he had retired from office, with his extraordinary talent, teacher Ngo Mien Thieu was still loved and relied on by feudal dynasties.

In 1533, the Ming Dynasty sent Mao Ba On to lead an army to approach our country's border. Mao Ba On sent a letter to question the Mac Dynasty and included a poem "Vinh Beo" with a threatening tone, saying that if our country had no one to oppose us, he would send troops to attack.

In this arrogant poem "Vinh Beo", the Northern general intentionally played a trick on King Mac Dang Dung, because he knew that Mac Dang Dung's grandfather's name was Mac Binh (binh means duckweed):Floating rice fields as small as needles / Everywhere you look, you see shallow rice growing /No branches, no roots, no roots / Dare to have roots, have heart /Who knows where to disperse, only knows where to gather / Only knows when to float and when to sink /In the middle of the storm suddenly arose / Sweeping the tarpaulin out to sea, there was no way to find it.

When the letter and poem "Vinh Beo" were sent to the Mac Dynasty's court, no one could respond, so the Mac King had to send someone to Tam Son to invite Thieu. This time, Thieu agreed to help the Mac Dynasty for the sake of the country, not for fame or profit.

Ngo Mien Thieu looked at the poem and said: "Without passionate words, how can we repel the Ming army? If the king wants, it's not difficult." He then imitated Mao Ba On's poem and drafted a letter to the Ming army, signed by Head of State Mac Dang Dung.

The poem by Ngo Mien Thieu is translated as follows:The brocade scales are so thick that no needle can penetrate them/ The leaves are attached to the roots and grow on shallow shelves/Silver clouds do not give water rays / Pink light cannot easily shine on the heart /Thousands of waves cannot break / Thousands of winds cannot sink /The dragon and fish more or less take refuge there / The fishing rod of Lu Vong has given up hope.

After receiving the poem "Vinh beo" and the letter from Ngo Mien Thieu, Mao Ba On knew that the Southern country still had talented people and would not be easily defeated, so he withdrew his troops.

Luong The Vinh (1441-1496), from Vu Ban district, Nam Dinh province today. Since childhood, Luong The Vinh was famous for his good study. He passed the royal examination in Quy Mui (1463). In addition to his work in the royal court, Luong The Vinh also taught and was considered a very different teacher.

His educational views were different from those of his colleagues, valuing that learning must go hand in hand with practice, and that it was close to nature. He boldly proposed many times educational reforms, examinations, and opened schools to the countryside. Trang Luong also cared about teaching ethics and knowledge applied in practice. The bookGreat Success MathHis is a typical achievement of feudal times.

When he was a teacher, many of Luong The Vinh's students achieved high results, notably Dr. Luong Dac Bang, who later became the teacher of Trang Trinh Nguyen Binh Khiem.

Being good at reading and respecting talented people, when the king saw that Luong The Vinh was intelligent and talented, he loved him very much, often kept him by his side, and assigned him important tasks both domestically and internationally.

The bookVietnamese AmbassadorOnce, the Ming envoy Zhu Xi challenged him to weigh an elephant. Liang Shirong put the elephant on a boat and marked the water's edge. Then, he led the elephant up and poured boulders into the boat until the boat sank to the same mark. All that remained was to put each boulder on the scale and add up the results.

Chu Hy was impressed but continued to challenge him to measure the thickness of a sheet of paper torn from a book. When he heard him say that he only needed to measure the thickness of the entire book and divide it by the number of sheets to get the result, Chu Hy looked up to the sky and exclaimed: "The Southern country is full of talented people!"

Luong The Vinh replied that the person who came up with the way to weigh elephants was actually Cao Chong, son of Cao Cao. This made the Ming envoy even more ashamed because he did not know his country's history.

Le Quy Don (1726-1784), from Dien Ha district (now Hung Ha, Thai Binh). He was the son of doctor Le Trong Thu. Famous as a child prodigy throughout Son Nam town, at the age of 26, he passed all three exams with the highest score.

Later, after passing the imperial examinations, he became an official and held many important positions in the royal court. Le Quy Don was a scholar with profound knowledge, almost mastering all the knowledge of that time.

During his diplomatic mission to the Ming Dynasty in 1759, he brought some of his works to show to many Chinese scholars. They were very impressed. The Guangxi Governor Zhu Peilian, a famous scholar of the Qing Dynasty, commented: “My country has many talented people, but only a few are as talented as you.”

Le Quy Don was known as “the wise man of the era”, and history books considered him an outstanding teacher. In addition to working as a private teacher at the Imperial Academy, Le Quy Don also opened a school and had many students who achieved high grades.

Unlike contemporary masters, Le Quy Don soon realized the limitations of contemporary education with the method of "parrot learning" to pass the mandarin exams, only knowing how to cram classics and history, while disregarding other educational subjects. In the bookCloud Terrace Language, he proposed a change: "Textbooks must cover all six arts, including literature and weapons."

He advocated that learning must grasp the main points, have reasoning ability, not rely on books, as written in books.Snow White: “Books are endless, words are endless… one must understand the hidden meaning of the sage beyond the book” or “reading a book a foot is not equal to practicing an inch”.

Assessing the talent of teacher Le Quy Don, the mandarin Bui Huy Ich of the Le - Trinh dynasty, affirmed: "He has extensive knowledge, outstanding literature, is the most intelligent person in his generation, and writes tirelessly. In the past two hundred years, our country has only had one person like him."