Period about the construction for the Temple of Medicine in Huế via historical documents under the Nguyễn Dynasty.

Abstract

PERIOD ABOUT THE CONSTRUCTION FOR THE TEMPLE OF MEDICINE IN HUẾ VIA HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS UNDER THE NGUYỄN DYNASTY
Temple of Medicine in Huế, as the one in Hanoi, is dedicated to the ancestors of Traditionnel Oritental Medicine and to famous Vietnamese doctors in the past. It is currently not difficult to find the information about this temple in historical geographic documents of the Nguyễn Dynasty, in particular most of them were transleted in Vietnamese. However, approaching related documents, we can easilly recognize that there is a inconsistent record of the time when Temple of Medicine was built. If, according to the manuscript of Đại Nam nhất thống chí (Geography of Unified Đại Nam, created probably under the reign of Tự Đức), Temple of Medicine already exist since Gia Long reign (1802-1819), the graver version of Đại Nam nhất thống chí (created under the reign of Duy Tân) as well as the one of Đại Nam Thực lục Chính biên (True Chronicles of Đại Nam) and the one of Khâm định Đại Nam hội điển sự lệ (Collected Institutions of Đại Nam established by imperial order) recorded that Temple of Medicine date under the reign of Minh Mạng. When the Temple of Medicine was built in reality? By investigating the texts of Đại Nam nhất thống chí and historical sources of the Nguyễn Dynasty, especially a primary source - Châu bản (Imperial archives), this article tries to find the answers to manuscript and inscriptions which were not identiccal with the version of of Đại Nam nhất thống chí, pointed out simultaneously that it was built under the reign of Minh Mạng, also it needs to record the graver version of Đại Nam nhất thống chí and the most of historical documents of the Nguyễn Dynasty which are exact.