Đại Namthực lục were Veritable Records of Nguyễn dynasty, Vietnam. It contained royal records of Nguyễn lords, and imperial annals of Nguyễn dynasty emperors until 1925. Just like other Veritable Records, Đại Nam thực lục was written in Classical Chinese. The annals comprised 584 volumes. At first the records were called "Đại Nam thật lục", its Hán tự was "". During Thiệu Trị's reign, "" changed to "", and its pronunciation changed to "thực", because "實" was against the naming taboo of Empress Tá Thiên, whom was Thiệu Trị's mother. Đại Nam thực lục was the most important primary source of Nguyễn dynasty. It was an important reference of Cao Xuân Dục's Quốc triều chính biên toát yếu and Trần Trọng Kim's Việt Nam sử lược.
History of compilation
prepared the project after he crowned the emperor. However, many records were scattered and lost during Tây Sơn rebellion. In 1811, he ordered to collect historical records. The compilation career was carried out during Minh Mạng's reign. Quốc sử quán was established in 1821 to write royal historical records. Nguyễn Văn Nhơn was appointed the chief editor, while Trịnh Hoài Đức served as his deputy. The draft was completed in 1824. In 1830, an envoy was dispatched to Qing China. The envoy also had a secret mission: to obtain manuscripts of Ming Shilu from China. It was supposed that Vietnamese got the manuscript in 1833. Then, Minh Mạng ordered to rewrite the draft following the writing style of Ming Shilu. The new version was completed and handed over to the emperor in 1835. As a sinologist, Minh Mạng was still unsatisfied with its quality; later, he polished it personally. As a kind of censorship, Vietnamese emperors got involved in the compilation directly. This regulation was abolished after Tự Đức's death.
Contents
Generally speaking Đại Nam thực lục contained two parts: Đại Nam thực lục tiền biênĐại Nam thực lục chính biên. tiền biên were records of Nguyễn lords, chính biên were records of Nguyễn dynasty emperors. Sometimes Đại Nam liệt truyện tiền biên and Đại Nam chính biên liệt truyện were regarded as parts of Đại Nam thực lục.
''Đại Nam thực lục tiền biên''
Đại Nam thực lục tiền biên was published in 1844.
''Đại Nam thực lục chính biên''
''Đại Nam liệt truyện tiền biên''
Đại Nam liệt truyện tiền biên was published in 1852.
''Đại Nam chính biên liệt truyện''
Đại Nam chính biên liệt truyện contained two collections. The first collection was published in 1889; the second collection was published in 1895.
Transmission and modern publication
Đại Nam thực lục was kept secretly in the royal palace. Only few people could read the text. Besides the woodblock printing version, there were several manuscript versions. They were all much of a muchness. During French colonial period, Đại Nam thực lục was republished several times as ordered by colonial government. In 1933, a Japanese scholar, Matsumoto Nobuhiro, invited George Cœdès to act as an intermediary, and obtained Đại Nam thực lục and liệt truyện from Nguyễn royal palace successfully. Matsumoto came back to Japan in 1935, he distribed Đại Nam thực lục to Tokyo Imperial University, Kyoto Imperial University, Tōhō Bunka Gakuin, Tōyō Bunko and Keio University. Keio University published it in 1961. Annals No. 6 and No. 7 were completed in 1935, however, they were not published. After WWII, the drafts were achieved in Ngô Đình Nhu's official residence. It was not clear who held the drafts after 1963 South Vietnamese coup. It is supposed that Vietnamese government holds the drafts present day. Đại Nam thực lục was published in Vietnamese alphabet in 1960s. The complete version was published in Vietnamese alphabet in the early 21st century.
Digitization
Đại Nam thực lục tiền biên and part of Đại Nam chính biên liệt truyện sơ tập were digitized by National Library of Vietnam. Part of Đại Nam thực lục chính biên Annal No. 4 and part of Đại Nam chính biên liệt truyện sơ tập were digitized by Temple University. Đại Nam liệt truyện tiền biên was digitized by Bibliothèque nationale de France.
