Not so many woodblocks of official book sets in the world were compiled and carved by a central royal court like the Royal woodblocks of Nguyen Dynasty

The symbol of a dynasty

The collection of the Nguyen Dynasty’s woodblocks with many valuable book sets is the symbol of the Dynasty. Every single book set was complied, carved and printed following the Emperors’ order.

In 1844, after considering report of high-ranking mandarins on carving the Prequel record of the Annals of Dai Nam, Emperor Thieu Tri ordered: “I’m very happy seeing the report. Keeping reliable historical source for future generations is very important. Therefore, let’s carve on wood from the peal tree and apple tree for long-term use. With the Principle records of the annals of the Gia Long (Thế tổ Cao hoàng đế) and Minh Menh (Thánh tổ Nhân hoàng đế), after completing compilation, let’s carve to keep in the store to enhance prestige of Dai Nam and pass on rules and regulations to the future”  

The Emperor carefully chose the words to show his respect to the previous emperors in his order and the mandarins followed the spirit, showing their respect to the court’s books. In comparison with other collections of woodblocks of the same time, the Nguyen Dynasty’s Woodblocks followed a strict procedure of creation and were always kept in the best condition by the royal court.

The art of carving

Many researchers and visitors share the same idea when talking about carving technique of the Nguyen Dynasty’s woodblocks:  “Each woodblock is a marvelous piece of art” due to sharp, smooth and steady characters appearing on the wood grain like  handwriting of  famous calligraphers.  

The pinnacle of the Nguyen Dynasty’s Woodblock carving technique is the art of carving detailed patterns in maps, diagrams, emperors’ seals, etc. lively and smoothly. For this reason, the Royal woodblocks has high artistic value and becomes an essential object of study when conducting research on calligraphy, painting and sculpture especially. 

Royal woodblocks of Nguyen Dynasty
Royal woodblocks of Nguyen Dynasty

The invaluable historical resource

There are many precious sets of books in the holding of Nguyen Dynasty’s Woodblocks, especially the official historical book sets carefully compiled by the royal court with valuable and precise information. 

Besides, Nguyen Emperors highly appreciated book sets compiled and carved in Le Dynasty. In the 8th year of Minh Mệnh reign, the Emperor asked a mandarin of the North Capital to “examine printing woodblocks of the books Ngũ kinh (or Five classics), Tứ thư đại toàn (or Four books) and Vũ kinh trực giải (woodblocks of the National university in Le Dynasty) besides Tiền Hậu chính sử (private woodblocks of Nguyễn Bá Khoa) and Tứ trường văn thể (private woodblocks of Hai Duong Defense Command Governor Tran Cong Hien) to preserve in the National university in the Capital”. That’s the reason why the Royal woodblocks of the Nguyen Dynasty are rich and precise in content, diversified in origin.

Today, when researching about the history, culture and society of ancient, medieval and modern Vietnam, researchers mainly rely on the information provided by remained works such as: Complete Annals of Đại Việt, Annals of Dai Nam, Supreme Court Rule on Adoption, Dai Nam Comprehensive Encyclopedia, etc. Those series of books were all printed from the Royal woodblocks of Nguyen Dynasty – World Documentary Heritage preserved in the National Archives Center No. 4.