Calligrapher to recreate Royal Edict
21/01/2008
To celebrate the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long – Hanoi as
Vietnam’s capital, the Vietnam Calligrapher Association is writing King
Ly Cong Uan’s Royal Edict to Move the Capital, using calligraphic arts,
on bronze and timber.
Calligrapher Nguyen Van Bach, 83, has been assigned to this
important task. Bach worked for the Oriental Medicine Institute and
studied Chinese to translate Chinese medicinal texts into Vietnamese.
After, he also translated many famous Vietnamese scholars, such as
Nguyen Binh Khiem, Le Quy Don and Nguyen Quang Bich, who wrote
in Chinese, into modern Vietnamese.
He cooperated with the Hanoi Museum and other local museums to
recover or write new parallel sentences, which are now hung the Van
Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam (Temple of Literature), Vietnam’s first university,
Ngoc Son Temple, Lang Pagoda in Hanoi, Hung Kings Temple in Phu Calligrapher Nguyen Van
Tho and others.
Bach
He wrote Nguyen Trai’s Binh Ngo Dai Cao (Proclamation of Victory Over Foreign Aggression),
one of Vietnam’s famous declarations of independence three times on white silk for display at
exhibitions, one was brought to Japan.
The calligrapher knows by heart King Ly Cong Uan’s Royal Edict to Move the Capital (in which
the King decided to move his capital from Hoa Lu in Ninh Binh province to Dai La, what is now
called Hanoi). As of 2004, Bach began to practice writing this document, using calligraphic arts.
Unexpectedly, Bach met with a bronze carver named The Long and the two decided to cast
bronze letters for this document and stick them into a wood panel. Their idea was warmly
supported by the Calligraphy Club under the Vietnam Craft Village Association.
The Long is a bronze carver from Dai Bai craft village in the northern province of Bac Ninh. Long
said that it is costly and time-consuming to make the 250 letters for the Royal Edict to Move the
Capital by gilded bronze. Long said he can only make one letter per day. The letters will then be
fixed into 12 wood panels and be on display in October 2008.