Bringing Nguyen Dynasty Woodblocks closer to the public

The Nguyen Dynasty Woodblocks, currently preserved at the National Archives Center IV, Da Lat City, are one of the rarest archives of the Vietnam National Archives, recognized by UNESCO as a World Documentary Heritage on July 31, 2009. This is the pride not only of the archives industry but also of the entire Vietnamese nation.

Woodblocks of the Nguyen Dynasty. Source: VNA

Rare heritage

UNESCO's recognition of the Nguyen Dynasty Woodblocks has affirmed that this document has many values, such as the sophisticated production method, especially the recorded content, reflecting Vietnamese history through the ages, from the Hung Kings to the Nguyen Dynasty.

In addition, this document block is also of special value when studying the history and culture of some countries in the world such as Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, China, France, America, Portugal...

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hung - Deputy Director of National Archives Center IV, said: "This precious heritage also contains many documents affirming Vietnam's sacred sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos. This is a valuable document, providing researchers and tourists at home and abroad with a reliable and rich source of historical data when researching Vietnamese history and culture."

Woodblocks are wooden blocks engraved with Chinese characters or Nom characters in reverse, including woodblocks of official works and official history of the Nguyen Dynasty; woodblocks of Confucian classics and woodblocks from the Nguyen Dynasty, transferred from the Temple of Literature (Hanoi) to be stored at the Imperial Academy (Hue) during the reigns of King Minh Mang and King Thieu Tri. These woodblocks were used to print books, and were commonly used in Vietnam during the feudal period.

According to historical records, the first woodblocks in Vietnam were from the early years of the Christian era, at the Luy Lau Buddhist center (now in Bac Ninh province) to print the first Buddhist scriptures in Vietnam. The woodblocks that are still preserved today, dating back to around the 17th century (1665), are the book 'Bach Phap Minh Mon Luan Truc Giai', currently in the book storage of the Institute of Han Nom Studies, with a copy printed in 1665.

Regarding the Nguyen Dynasty Woodblocks, most of the Woodblocks were carved during the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-945). The content of the Nguyen Dynasty Woodblocks is very rich and diverse, reflecting all aspects of Vietnamese society during the feudal period such as history, geography, politics-society, military, law, culture-education, religion-ideology-philosophy, literature, language-writing. There are a total of 152 books with 1,953 volumes.

The number of Nguyen Dynasty Woodblock documents being preserved in a specialized warehouse in Da Lat is 34,619 plates, equivalent to 55,320 Woodblock carvings.

Promoting the value of Nguyen Dynasty Woodblock documents

Currently, the Nguyen Dynasty Woodblocks are protected and preserved very carefully. This precious document block is protected in a special specialized warehouse. At the same time, in order to safely preserve and effectively promote the value of this especially rare document block, they are now backed up, printed on Do paper and digitized with protection software and exploited for use.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hung added that over the years, the Center has promoted the value of Nguyen Dynasty Woodblock documents in many forms such as introducing and promoting domestically and internationally, and introducing through magazines and other media.

After opening to welcome visitors and introducing the Woodblock document versions, many domestic and international tourists came to visit and study.

From this precious heritage, National Archives Center IV has also published 8 books introducing Woodblocks such as 'Hoang Sa and Truong Sa through Woodblock documents of Nguyen Dynasty - World Heritage'; 'Woodblocks of Nguyen Dynasty - General topics'; 'Thang Long-Hanoi examination results through Woodblock documents'; 'The Decree on the transfer of the capital and some masterpieces'...

During the 2013 Da Lat Cultural Tourism Week (from December 27-31), visitors will have more interesting choices. Visitors will be amazed when coming to the Gallery of archival documents “Nguyen Dynasty Woodblocks - World Documentary Heritage.” This gallery will open its doors to visitors for the first time to see the original Nguyen Dynasty Woodblocks.

According to Vietnam+