The largest ancient stone stele in Vietnam
Khiem Cung Ky stele was built at Khiem Lang (Tu Duc vua mo), located in a narrow valley in Duong Xuan Thuong village, Thuy Xuan ward, Hue city. This is a stele engraved with a text drafted by King Tu Duc himself in the 24th year of Tu Duc (1871) and engraved in the 28th year of Tu Duc (1875).
With 150 years of age, Khiem Cung Ky stele is identified as the tallest, heaviest and with the most characters in Vietnam. Khiem Cung Ky stele is also a unique symbol, marking historical events, stories and thoughts of a king.
The Vietnamese historical book also records that King Tu Duc himself composed the stone and built the stele, the Great Man book recorded: Ding Mao, Tu Duc in the year 20 (1867) in the fall of July, Khiem Cung finished, the king marched the queen out to play together. The personal officers, princes and military officers from military documents, military officers from military documents and above all wear shirts with court decrees, bird's ban and a rank, after the king, they make Khiem Cung's personal notebooks but wait until they are carved into stone, build a stele house before building it".
As a king with more than 100 wives but no successors, in 1870, King Tu Duc himself composed the text Khiem Cung instead of the "Sang Van Phuc Cong" of the kings and children made for the kings and kings when they were young and it was not until 1875 that it was engraved on stone steles.
The stele is placed in the stele house - a brick structure with two floors and eight roofs, inside are 4 large pillars, creating a separate space in the Khiem Cung Ky stele area. The 4 pillars in the stele house are decorated with patterns according to the "long Van" motif, characterized by the beauty of the Hue royal aesthetics. Khiem Cung Ky stele is created in a pillar stele, rectangular shape with the characteristic of the By- lo stele style of the Nguyen Dynasty.
Khiem Cung Ky stele is placed on a large, solid Thanh Hoa stone pedestal, 100 cm high, 309 cm wide and 162.5 cm thick. The stele is created in the style of "knee-legged fish stele", carved very elaborately. The surface is carved with carved and embossed with patterned projects according to the squatting model, reliefs and reps in the shape of double S-shaped lettering.
Khiem Cung Ky Beer National Treasure weighs up to 22 tons, 407 cm high, 259 cm wide; in which the stele front is 97 cm high, 287.5 cm wide; the stele ears on each side are 22 cm wide, the thickest part is up to 48 cm. On both sides of the stele are engraved up to 4935 Chinese characters, which is also the stele with the longest content among the stone steles of the Nguyen kings.
The "self-telling" photo of King Tu Duc
The stele Khiem Cung signed is engraved with all the contents that King Tu Duc had previously prepared. Unlike any stele placed in the tombs of the Nguyen Dynasty kings, the Khiem Cung stele records the construction process of Khiem Lang, describing the landscape and terrain.
In particular, most of the stele's content is about the life of King Tu Duc, his feelings and concerns for the country as well as his private life. This has created a special value for this stele, a unique quality that no stone stele has in all the steles signed by the Nguyen kings.
King Tu Duc's health was already weak, in the bible there is also a verset that reads: "We were born weak physically, when we were just born, our mother was sick for several months before recovering, our breast could not be clean and careful, our mother told us but did not listen, because we were afraid that we would be poor, so when we were old, we quickly stopped him from breastfeeding us anymore, then our mother took care of us all by herself.
Since then, our illness has continued and has become more and more dangerous, our mothers have had a very hard time hugging and struggling in the early afternoon; "Our enthusiasm is weak, our bodies are often thin, while our youth is stable, it is difficult for us to comfort the expectations of our parents, it is too embarrassing".
Although the king's health was not good, he had a great patriotism, and in the stele there were also concerns that King Tu Duc was concerned about, such as: "Oh! Dilapidated but used to live in peace and poverty, but in a high-rise house with wide doors, I don't know how to defend, I'm a talented general and I'm more miserable than half, how many people can restore our ancestors' advice on guarding the border to help us step out of the cycle of sin..."; "The dynasties have worked hard to open up land to gather the people, suddenly suddenly suddenly they suddenly decided to take a small disaster, so they used death to escape the King's life, shall we be that way?...
The only stele of the Nguyen Dynasty
As a special stele, reaching many different records, Khiem Cung Ky stele also has all the characteristics of Nguyen Dynasty Ky stele. A standard stele in the style of the Nguyen Dynasty in the form of a rectangular stele includes: a stele front with a canopy, on four corners is a stele ears, especially with decorative motifs typical of the Nguyen Dynasty such as "blue stele"; "long thang", "long giang"; "double daily dragon and triet" ...
Khiem Cung Ky Beer is considered a work of art in shaping, decorating and artistically and containing the most unique Korean beer among all the stone beers of the same type in Vietnam. Through the decorative patterns on Khiem Cung Bi stele, it shows the noble position of King Tu Duc and the artistic value of stone stele.
With the overall values of historical, cultural, and artistic values on stone stele, on 25.15. In 2015, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 2382/QD-TTg recognizing Khiem Cung Ky stele as a National Treasure of Vietnam.
