Woodblocks Of Nguyen Dynasty
Under the Nguyen Dynasty (1802 -1945), due to the need to popularize social standards, compulsory articles of law, kings' and lords' life and career and historical events, the Imperial Court relied on official documents to compile and carve woodblocks in Chinese or Chinese transcribed Vietnamese in reverse to print books, maps, pictures. During the past activities, it helped to form a special type of records which were woodblocks. The Woodblocks of Nguyen Dynasty are par-secularly rare documents in Vietnam as well as In the world. In addition to the value of documentary and artistic, its ma-insulating technique furthermore represents a landmark In the development of woodblock carving and printing in Vietnam.
The Woodblocks of Nguyen Dynasty were created primarily during the past activities of the Historiographer's Office (Quoc Su Quan) established in 1820 under the Minh Mang reign in Hue. In 1849, the Nguyen Dynasty had set up a house, called Tang Ban Duong behind the Historiographer's Office to storage wood-blocks which were increasing. The wood-blocks represent an important part of the country's feudal history. They are original with clear origin from its creation. Most of them were compiled by the Court on the basis of official documents which were carefully verified and were man-aged by state bodies through different historical periods. Due to such significant characteristics, woodblocks were considered as national treasure in feudal period and only accessed by authorized people and staff of Historiography's Office. Apart from the woodblocks of official literature and history of Nguyen Dynasty, wood-blocks also included classic and historical books which were collected from the Temple of Literature - Imperial College (Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam) in Hanoi and transferred to Imperial College (Quoc Tu Giam) in Hue under the reigns of Minh Mang and Thieu Tri.
Since 1960, the entire Woodblocks of Nguyen Dynasty in Hue have been trans-furred to Da Lat. At present, most of woodblocks are being preserved in the National Archives Centre No.4 - under the State Records and Archives Department of Vietnam. This is regarded as a valuable library that has very rich contents with varied topics: history, geography, military affairs, legislation, prose and verse, religion - ideal - philosophy, language - literature, socio-politics, culture
- Education. Woodblocks are sources of reliable history to help to study, compare, review relevant history materials to serve better for researching different times of Vietnamese history.
On 30 July 2009, the Woodblocks of Nguyen Dynasty have been recognized as a World Documentary Heritage at the meeting of the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of the UNESCO in Bridgetown (Barbados), from 29 to 31 July 2009. They became the first entry of Vietnam in the list of UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme.
The Process of Making Wood-blocks
Regarding method of making the records, this was a close procedure costing a lot of time and effort: Firstly, the king launched a royal decree to allow compiling book. Then the Historiographer's Office was responsible in researching, editing, carving and printing those books. The office researched old books and Imperial records to compile books. The completed manuscripts were submitted to the king. Then these manuscripts were sent back to the Office and they corrected as the king's suggestions. After that, these manuscripts were written down clearly and submitted with a petition to the king. After being approved, the manuscripts of the works were carved on woodblocks under the close control of the mandarins who were ap-pointed by the king's edict. Then, wood-blocks were used to print into books. People could only carve books under the kings' order.
Technique and Art of Manipulating
The average size of woodblock is 43cm x 27cm, 2 - 4 cm thick, weighs about 300 - 400g. However, some woodblocks are larger (120cm x 60cm) and heavier. Normally, woodblocks to print history books have size from 30cm x 24cm to 36cm x 24cm, approximately 2 to 2.5cm thick. Woodblocks to print maps or picture have larger size. Woodblocks to print poems or writings of kings have smaller size, or are half size of the official history book.
To manipulate the woodblocks, the His-choreographer’s Office had to recruit many skilled carvers from widely in localities across the country where were famous for wood carving with manual tech-inquest. A woodblock was often carved two sides, fixed two pages per side, the inscription of book title; volume number and page number were between two pages. The characters were carved on wood as contained all the enthusiasm of each worker. There are many books that characters were carved on a small area of only 0.4cm2. Chinese transcribed Vietnamese is square in form, including multiple strokes. Some characters with more than 30 strokes were also fully, delicately and sharply carved on such small area. It showed the technique of printing with carved wood blocks was very refined. Each record is a precious material and also a unique work of art. Therefore, the woodblocks have marked the develop-ment of woodblocks carving and printing profession in Vietnam.
According to some documents, most of the wood blocks were made of thi (diospyros decandra) wood and nha dong (or long mat) tree, which is both soft and smooth with an ivory colour. These kinds of wood are especially good for preserving the shape of the carvings. Therefore, even gone through hundreds of years the woodblocks have been still in good physical condition. In addition, le (pyres) and too (ziziphus Mauritian) trees were also used for carving woodblocks.
Content of Woodblocks
The Woodblocks of Nguyen Dynasty contains information about many areas of the feudal dynasties in Vietnam's history. The National Archives Centre No.4 has been preserving 34,618 woodblocks, equivalent to 55,318 records to imprint on giay do (handmade paper), formed more than 152 sets of books with about 1,935 books.
History: there are 30 sets of books (in-clouding 836 books), recording history of Vietnam from the Foundation of the Nation (thousands years ago) to period of Nguyen Dynasty. The collection boasts many valuable and rare books such as Dai Vietsu ky toan thu (Complete Annals of Dai Viet, compiling from the 13th century to the 17th century) and Dai Nam thuc luc chinh bien de nhat ky (Royal Annals of Great Vietnam) compiling in 88 years, from 1821 to 1909), Kham dinh Viet su thong giam cuong muc,... Geography: 2 sets of books (including 20 books), most typical ones include Dai Nam nhat thong chi (History of the Unification of Great Viet Nam) and Hoang thanh noi (Imperial City) recording geography of Vietnam with the evidences relating to the Paracel Islands (Hoang Sa) and Hue Imperial City.
Socio-politics: 5 sets of books (including 16 books), recording the strategies of Vietnamese feudal dynasties, of which the very valuable book is Lich trieu sach luoc (Strategies of past dynasties). Military affairs: 5 sets of books (including 151 books), recording the quelling up-risings in North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Binh Thuan Province and some other places, the most typical one is the book of Kham dinh tieu binh iuong ki nghich phi phuong luoc chinh bien (about strategies to suppress the rebellion in North Vietnam and South Vietnam). Legislation: 12 sets of books (including 500 books), recording official regulations and codes of Nguyen Dynasty, of which the typical one is book of Hoang Viet luat le (often referred as the Gia Long Code) and Kham dinh Dai Nam hoi dien su le. Culture - Education: 31 sets of books (inclouding 93 books), recording people who got bachelors and doctoral degrees in the period of Nguyen Dynasty, the typical books include Quoc Trieu Huong khoa luc and Quoc Trieu dang khoa luc.
Religion - ideal - philosophy: 13 sets of books (including 22 books), writing about the approachment of Confucian classics, the most notably ones include Dich kinh dai toan, Dai hoc tan uoc, Luan ngu tan uoc, Manh Tu tan uoc, Thi Kinh dai toan, Thu Kinh tan uoc.
Prose and verse: 39 sets of books (includ-ing 265 books), recording poems and literature works written by prominent kings and Confucianist scholars; in which the value books as Bach Van am thi tap (writ-ten by philosopher Nguyen Binh Khiem); Danh thi hop tuyen (written by the famous Vietnamese poets); Ngu che lich dai de vuong thi tap and Thanh che thi tap (written by prominent kings like Minh Mang, Thieu Tri and Tu Duc...)
Language - literature: 14 sets of books (of 50 books), typical ones include the Three Character Classic (teaching Chinese characters); Luan ngu thich nghia ca (Analects explained by Demotic scripts); Then thu (text books in seal scripts)...
In addition to historical and cultural values at national level, the Woodblocks of Nguyen Dynasty also have international value as recording the culture and history of other countries such as Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, China, France, UK, USA, and Portugal...
National Archives Centre No. 4
The National Archives Centre No.4 (formerly Tran Le Xuan Private Residence) is the place where stores and preserves the originals of the Nguyen Dynasty wood-blocks, and displays reproductions of these records for visiting and researching. At the showroom, visitors are introduced to the values of the Nguyen Dynasty woodblocks, and also can touch and ad-mire the reproductions of woodblocks. The National Archives Centre No.4 has become as a tourist attraction in Da Lat, spreading information and knowledge about the nation's history and culture for domestic and international tourists.
At present, the centre continues to collect, gather more precious woodblocks that are being owned by Individuals and organizations in the country.