Hue - Tu Duc Tomb built on the blood of people

Hello everyone, how are your guys today?

• Tu Duc Tombs _ ( Tu Duc - last emperor of free Vietnam) 

  

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 In order to continue with my family’s holiday in Hue, today I am very happy to introduce to you a must-visit site in Hue, which I have longed for visiting when I was young.

First of all, I would like to inform you  that Hue is the capital of Vietnam when Vietnam was a kingdom with a king, so Hue was notorious not only for the living monuments such as  The imperial palace that I saw Hue is also famous for the dead monuments which is the system of tombs that King Nguyen built for himself on the Perfume River.

1. First I will introduce a bit about this tomb area.

Well, let's look at the map after passing through Hum Mon, taking the paved path that will lead us to the area of the tomb area, to the left of the road that is the area around Liu Khiem Lake, On the way will meet the tombs Le Thien Anh Queen, wife of King Tu Duc - along with the tomb of King Kien Phuc King 7th Nguyen Dynasty is the adopted child King Tu Duc. Look at the map, there are black ripe and ripe red spots, black spots are buildings destroyed by time and war and the red spots are the points that are still preserved today.

•  Liu Khiem Lake

  

First we visited the area around Liu Khiem Lake then the area of the king's tomb and finally the area of palaces.

Moreover, I know that Tu Duc is also an example of filial piety, in his birth; he set the date for motherhood, odd days for the government, which took place regularly during the 36 years of his reign.

Tu Duc is a physically weak king who lacked finality. This may have led to a series of setbacks in the administration of the country, particularly the loss of six provinces in the legal field, followed by a series of treaties, such as the Treaty of Nice  The Treaty of Patenot divided the country into three periods under the protection of the French Empire.

In the face of repeated failures in the administration of the country, as well as the internal sorrows of the King himself, he thought of building his second chakra as a place of sorrow and precaution as well.

Tu Duc King's Tomb began construction for more than 10 years  then finished it is named of "Van Nien Co" with the dream of forever will remain forever, the project is expected to complete in 6 years with about 3000 soldiers and laborers, but to attack with the king construction supervision officials forced laborers suffering in the condition of toxic forest water. To shorten construction time. In the face of heavy exploitation, the militia took part in the insurrection under the leadership of the diocesan brothers to advance the bible to overthrow King Tu Duc. Although the insurrection failed after 3 days, but the name of King Tu Duc heavy losses, from this event that in the folk sentence:

•  People rised up against the building of tomb

Thousands years which thousands years?

Built by the body of soldier, built by the blood of people.

And guess what?

Yes, he changed the name "Thousand Years" to "Humble Palace".

I can summed up the panorama of Tu Duc Tomb as a large park, the very creativity of man, the wonderful combination between architecture and nature, made the tombs a paradise of grass flowers. .. All tombs are distributed on two axes parallel to the mountain of Giang Khiem as a criminal record, taking the Mountain of Yang Xuan as the standard, Luo Khiem Lake as the main road. If the tomb is built of stone material, the area of the tomb is made of wood.

We first learn about the area around Liu Khiem Lake. The lake is designed by the designers to take advantage of the natural spring water, deepening, expanding, lying on the land that the city. The lake is the place where the king cruises the scenery and is also the place where lotus scenery is created. In the middle of the lake that makes up the Tinh Khiem Island to grow trees, people create many caves of Liu Khiem Lake and Tinh Khiem Island, which is a good reason for the future generations.

2 .General history information about the habit of building tombs for the King

Before I introduce the works of this tomb, I think it is very important for your guys to learn a little about the history of Nguyen Dynasty. I will summarize the main ideas thui, Nguyen dynasty experience 143 years, with 13 kings. Of these 13 kings, only seven were built for historical reasons. Tu Duc Tombs that we visited today are one of the 7 tombs and this is a beautiful mausoleum, the same poetry, the dream, it partly reflects the personality and soul of the poet - Tu Duc.

According to the custom of Asia, every king after gaining the throne was thinking of finding the land to build his house for his life, and so did King Tu Duc after his ascension to the throne. For myself, because of the Eastern philosophical concept of "Birth of the Canon", living on earthly life is only temporary, the death of the afterlife is the eternal realm. It is worth mentioning here in the 7 tombs are 6 tombs still unfinished or not built when the king had died King Tu Duc after completing his tomb he survived to 16 years.

Before learning about the architecture of the mausoleum, I would like to give an overview of the life, career as well as the historical context of the reign.

3. Life of Tu Duc

King Tu Duc, Nguyen Phuc Hong Nham was the second son of King Thieu Tri. From early childhood Hong Nham mother taught strict protection from the way to go counterparts are consistent with court rituals, with counter-correspondence nature corresponds to the royal court rituals, plus intelligent intelligence study Training yourself should be very loving king father father. In 1848 he ascended the throne according to the king's father's diary, taking the title of Tu Duc - the fourth king of the Nguyen Dynasty and the longest reigning king among 13 kings.

I am very supportive of this, do you know? In the feudal sense the eldest son would be the successor of his father, which was clearly seen in the Chinese dynasties, but for the Nguyen dynasty, this was not a mandatory principle. If you are a smart, clever and intelligent person, you are the king of your beloved father who can still be chosen as successor and King Tu Duc is the same.

Tu Duc is a very intelligent person who has deep knowledge in many fields such as art, history, philosophy, and so on. He was the most knowledgeable of Oriental education, especially the Confucian scholar of 13 Nguyen Dynasty.

Tu Duc was also a writer, a great poet with 600 texts, 4,000 poems and hundreds of poems and scripts, his poetry express the nature of a smart man, sentimental, love nature, love art.

 

4. Visiting different places in the tomb of Tu Duc

Now, I will introduce to your guys the most important area of a mausoleum, which is the king's grave.

My first impression of Tu Duc's mausoleum is that it is a large structure, like a resort, a palace rather than a tomb.

Because of this, the tomb area is quite wide and there are many different sightseeing places, so I would like to introduce the area of the king's tombs which includes works such as: chapel, Bi Dinh, two pillars, Khiem and Buu Thanh.

I will present in such order so your guys know more about the tomb area. Now, we will turn to visit each of the above mentioned works.

5. Dragon Courtyard

When I first walked into the ruins, I saw the Dragon Courtyard, which was just the courtyard that I had just stepped into.

Do you know why it is important to have it here?

I see Dragon Court is a work can be encountered in all the mausoleums of the Nguyen Dynasty kings. Perhaps it was to represent the king's position, when he was alive, the king was considered as the son of heaven, so he had a dragon couryard. It was a large courtyard, with two rows of martial arts and elephants standing in line to wait for the king.

As far as I know, this comes from the idea that, after death, the king continues to be king in another world, still reigning and having followers. Therefore, when building a tomb for a king, people want to recreate the scene as when the king lived, with the belief that in the afterlife, the king was still a dynasty and was promoted to martial arts. And in front of you are stone statues decorated with martial arts and horse elephants standing in two rows to worship the king. It seems they are still waiting for the king's loyalty in a spiritual world.

Looking at the costumes of the statues, I can distinguish literature mandarin and army mandarin as follows:

The sword holder is the army Mandarin, who has a longer lap at the wrists and holds a literature mandarin.

Personally, I remember when I visit the Bai Dinh Temple in Quang Binh Province,  If in the Citadel, the statues of civilization in Bai Dinh courtyard are arranged in the order "Ta Van Huu Vo", here as well as other tombs, statues are arranged in order " The position of the king looking down, the officer in front must be the mandarin, and then the new martial arts. Based on the position that is always prioritized by the mandarins, we can see an important literary conception under feudalism at that time. If you will find that these statues are very modest, this is no coincidence.

It is thought that, at birth, King Tu Duc is only 1m53, so the statue is not allowed to build higher than the king. In addition, I believe in another hypothesis, rather it is an ancient Vietnamese conception, one conceives of dying, the human form will shrink, and that can also be a theory. It explains why the statues are so small. Along with the lucky relics remaining after the war, these statues in the historical relics are also one of the valuable evidence to help people later understand more about the costumes of court officials under the rule of Nguyen kings - The last feudal dynasty of Vietnam.

6. Bi Dinh – the largest stone stele of Vietnam

Now I turn to the left, I will continue to introduce to your guys this work called Bi Dinh, inside it has the largest stone stele in Vietnam.

 According to what I read, this plaque was brought back from Thanh Hoa, a land of beautiful brick production and also the site of the famous Nguyen family. On the beer is inscribed Khiem Cung Kí by King Tu Duc himself wrote. He wrote this article in place of the "Holy Spirit of God," which, as in other tombs, should have been written by the successor to praise the merits of his father.

However, I also find it unhappy for the king, because he has no children, knows his circumstances, so he pity for himself to this plate and write the 4935 words Khiem Cung Cung to narrative . From his childhood, until his father King Thieu Tri ceded the corn and during the 36 years of rule, and the ups and downs of the dynasty, King Tu Duc has publicly attributed his death and impeachment to history. Through the post we will be more knowledge about the life of a talented king, but encounter many unhappiness.

As introduced earlier, from early childhood, Tu Duc was soon known as a smart, studious, or beautiful letter writing, under the rigorous teaching of mother that was later Tu Du, King Tu Germany was soon loved by the king, and although he was only a minor, he was awarded the throne. His elder brother, Hong Bao, was not dressed up, always dreaming of reigning. It is because of this that King Tu Duc repeatedly faced coup plot and rebellion in relation to this brother. When the Red Shirts rebelled and died in prison, many claimed that King Tu Duc was involved in the death of his brother.

Later, the son of Dinh Dao continued to involve the rebellion of the Doan brothers - also known as Chay Voi, and after the rebellion failed, Dinh Dao was also condemned to death. For a throne that fratricide fratricide, killings kill him, kill me. This is also a sorrow that later the king also want to address in the post Khiem Cung to the future is clear.

In my opinion, I could say that  Tu Duc was one of the most learned and talented of the Nguyen kings at that time and he was an active Confucian follower. As I have learned some of his artwork when I was still studying at school,  I really admire his talents and his characteristics.

Honestly, I like him because Tu Duc king was a good king, not an aggressive one, he loves art and music so his mind is kind of weak and humanity. As a result, he is not strong enough to lead the nation to deal with the desire of expanding colonials in Asia from the French.

 

7. Tu Duc king – an unlucky King.

Firstly, he has no children as I have mentioned above, he could not give birth as he had a disease when he was young, so in traditionaly way that the grand son would have to write about his father, about the story of life, about the good things and the bad things, however  Tu Duc king was the only in history of Vietnam that had to write for himself.

Stop here a little bit! When I think about that when I nearly pass away, there are no relatives, no sons or daughters besides me, I would feel very lonely, especially if your guys take the case of family culture in Vietnam.

Being a lifelong reader of the sage, ethical, is a filial son who does not have children himself - it is the biggest dishonesty.

 It can be said that this is a great sadness in the life of King Tu Duc.

Second: helpless before the time.

Tu Duc's reign lasted but weak, there were many risky events for the country. At that time, I know that not just Viẹtnam but other nations in Asia such as China and India all must deal with internal and external injuries, especially the expansion of colonials from the European Invaders.

For the case of my nation, at the end of Tu Duc’s reign, The French has already occupied the West of the nation, and they aggressively invaded the North. The invasion of French colonialism took place almost entirely under the emperor Tu Duc. In that process, Tu Duc's court went from failure to failure. He himself is the head of a country that is facing invasions leading to dehydration, which during the reign of decades he has not been able to rise to the ground, it is an irrevocable responsibility before history. . And in Khiem Cung Cu Ky, he also acknowledged his responsibility for the inability to lose the lands of the nation for the foreign force of France.

I think that if it was for a king, it was a heavy defeat.

Third: in the face of difficult country circumstances, a king like Tu Duc does not have a devotional spirit to assist and share great concerns. Even the ruler who was considered the strong supporter of the Tuo King at that time was Truong Van Que was also a very conservative. Standing on the throne, Tu Duc became more and more a lonely and helpless king, his poetry so much melancholy, anxious.

As I know that many opinions suggest that Emperor Tu Duc was so opposed to the Confucianism that his philosophy was outdated and more literary than military strategy. That is why, in the days that followed, this was very harmful to Tu Duc, making him too earnest with traditional values while the country was demanding renewal.

Actually, I strongly believe that  this king himself has internal conflicts of his own. The king has many rigid traditional views, but he also has ideas for reforming the country.

Tu Duc himself was a harsh critic of the trade, but when he learned about his country, and especially after reading Hong Kong's, found that the renaissance of the country was necessarily anti-conservative, for training, shipbuilding, casting guns, sending people to study foreign languages, etc. ... and ... he wanted to execute immediately. However, the mandarins in the court back, said that our country other than you, want to change must also be done slowly. The supporters, the back. Eventually, many reform plans failed. In part because the king is indecisive, he himself has many conflicts with himself should do hesitate.

Another great difficulty of King Tu Duc that I think was a compromise for him was that he was king at the time of opposing views in the court and the Confucius. As Western force wanted to invade Vietnam, King Tu Duc did not have enough brains to confirm an option when standing between the two sides. In the end, big things do not work. In the post Khiem Cung, the king also claimed responsibility: "Not wise in knowing people, it is my sin. Hundreds of failures, all my sins ... "

Even, I realized that his hesitation reflected in his reference before his death. When deciding to transfer the throne to the oldest adopted child to avoid the divine (which had happened to him), he was so hesitant that in the diocesan that he was lack of virtue, had many disabilities bad, ... v ... v ... And this has brought tragedy to the successor King Duc Duc as well as later kings and this contributed to the Nguyen Dynasty as further weakened.

9. So far, your guys have read my article; do you agree that it is definitely not easy to be the king as we have always thought about right?

When you were the king, you would be the unexpected great responsibility for the fate of the whole country? Your decision will be judged again by later generations.

 Next, I looked at the two stone stele houses and I could see two magnificent pillars, showing the authority and virtue of the king. This type of Pillar is usually built in important national works, when you see this pillar, it is understood that this is a place of solemnity, respect, silence, not allowed to speak. noisy. Above the pillars is the image of a lotus, one of the hallmarks of Buddhism displayed in the architectural works under the Nguyen dynasty, where Buddhism flourished.

Standing here looking to the right, I saw it as the tomb of the Empress Queen - Princess Thien Anh, her real name is Vo Thi Duyen. She was the son of Crown Prince Thai Bao, the East Academician, and Quoc Tu Gian, Vo Xuan Can.

Far away is the grave of King Kien Phuc. Phuc Phuc was one of the three adopted children of King Tu Duc, who was later crowned king. The two brothers of King Kien Phuc was the son of Kien Thai Vuong. He had three sons, Nguyen Phuc Ung Dang, Nguyen Phuc Ung Lich and Nguyen Phuc Ung Duong.

The King has  adopted children and later turn the throne, the three kings Kien Phuc, Ham Nghi and Dong Khanh. In this person, Kien Phuc is the most loved child of Tu Duc. Unfortunately, he was only 8 months old when he died, and due to the troubled situation, King Kien Phuc was buried here. The story of King Kien Phuc's death still has many questions, if you are interested in, then I will come back to you later. Now, please come inside.

10. Tieu Khiem Lake

Then I continued passing by a green lake called Tieu Khiem Lake. The lake is semicircular, the intention is to say that the moon and moon will be full again, life is low and there will be a moment, and everything will be fine. This is also a very meaningful concept to Tu Duc, when his life has so many events and unhappiness and this is where he wants to mix into the landscape, , with the natural vegetation to find forgotten.

Also, for us Asians, the lake built right in front of the king's grave has a deeper meaning: a rainwater tank for the soul of the king to baptize - this shows the fulfillment of the king. the king in accepting death. Hồ Tiểu Khiem was built right in front of Bửu Thành's own place, which is where burial of King Tu Duc's remains. Now continue to go inside to visit the king.

Then I entered the tombstone area of the king. The front- and back-facing panels are the forensic and post-occipital, the lake is the element of the road and the surrounding area is surrounded by four walls.

In the middle is a stone tombstone. However, the body of the king is in place no one knows. Legend has it that, when the king dies, the king's mournful crew sails down Liu Khiem Lake and then comes here to dig a tunnel down the grave and burial the king's body in a secret place, then fill it with Stone bars and structures have the appearance as we see. Later, these mourners will never return. And the secret of buried remains of the king remains unknown. Some people believe that only the prince knows the king, but how real damage has not been revealed to date.

11. The position of King’body is kept secret.

I will tell you a special thing is not just what Tu Duc chose secretly buried so. In most of the tombs of other kings in the Nguyen Dynasty, the position of the king's body or also kept secret. There are many reasons. Emboldened from the information king continues to live and enjoy riches in another world, people often buried with the remains of precious gold and jewels. So the king would easily become the target of the burial tomb. Like the Paraong tombs in Egypt.

Next to this cause, I know that the tomb needs to be kept secret for a profound root, to avoid revenge. To understand this, we have to go back to the past to find out the relationship between the Nguyen and the Tây So) n - Quang Trung (Nguyen Hue).

I will tell briefly, at the time when the Tay Son insurrection succeeded, King Quang Trung ascended the throne but still not fully assured of his newly built body

However, I knew King Quang Trung wanted to eliminate the reincarnation of the lineage of the Nguyen King, so he went to find the graves of the Nguyen King from the Nguyen Hoang onwards and to dig up the hacic . Moreover, I was astonished when I was learnt that the remains and each part are thrown away. He said that by doing so, the prosperity of Nguyen's descendants would never be restored.

Later, when Nguyen Anh defeated the Tay Son court and took the throne, proclaiming Gia Long, he also sent soldiers to hunt and unearth King Quang Trung's grave and had retaliated for his ancestors in that manner. .

And perhaps, I admit that this feud was a painful experience that the Nguyen kings never wanted to repeat. Thus, I strongly assure that when the tomb is built, the king's corpse is kept secret. Of course, there is a story on the margins of history that I provide for you, but how history has historically been varied.

 And if you want to find out more, I'm sure there are a lot of interesting things not revealed behind these tombs. Now I will move to the next part.

 11. Hoa Khiem Palace

Right now I am standing in front of Hoa Khiem, from here I can see the group can see Khiem Cung Mon, also known as Tam Quan Gate, consists of 2 floors: the lower floor has 3 entrances, the middle gate for the house But when the king died, the gate was closed.

 

The two sides are two gates for officials and mandarins working for the King.

I just went through the gate for army mandarin so I was just doing army mandarin for a few seconds

I looked up and I met the upper floor of Khiem Cung Mon is the place for the king to look at the sky idle time. On the roof of the port also picture 2 dragons are in the position of "double dragon". The two sides describing the whole group is French Khiem and Le Khiem, two rows of houses for the bureaucracy and military.

 

The back of the delegation is Hoa Khiem Dien, as I told you earlier, this is where the king worked while he was alive, and when the king died, this place was used as a place of worship for kings and queens. Khiem Cung is considered the second king of the palace, Tu Duc is more in this place than in the Citadel. And unlike the tomb area built of stone stonework, the works are impregnated with electricity made of wood to make the area close to nature. Now invite me to the inside of palace, I will introduce to the palace furniture, only one thing that we please do not take pictures inside the interior.

 

Now, I will introduce one from outside to inside, the first will be the altar at the outermost position, followed by the altar, in the third place is the king where the king used to work with the press. martial arts. Because unlike the other kings of the Nguyen dynasty, Tu Duc was a good little health king, weak in nature, so the king did not use the throne, he only used this collapsed with a few pillows to support himself. into the reception of the spirit. Inside is a meditation chapel, where the king's right hand tablet and Queen Le Thien Anh are on the left.

 

On this side I find that the display of the king's possession includes a pair of comedies, a poetry book, a pair of metal needles, this kind of chopsticks used in food poisoning.

You know not every meal of the king before about 30 to 50 dishes, each dish will be cooked in small earthenware and are named people cooked on each item to prevent poisoning in the food of The king is easy to trace clues. However, this is rather rare, because before the king to eat will have a supervisor using the same needle wand as I said above to try the poison then the new king to use, there are also some pottery pot In addition, this area also displays some pictures of the life, boats on the river, including some poems of King Thieu Tri that Tu Duc chose and raised.

12 . The mirror which is a gift from France

Next is the mirror, this is one of the first mirrors that the fine female used before, this is also a valuable gift that France gave the king.

I will tell you a secret, in the past when you want to look at the mirrors of the cocker who just look at the water or just on the wood is the main. Previously in the electricity also display a clock desk is also a gift to the French gift to the king, but now people have moved it from Hoa Khiem.

 13. Minh Khien Duong - Vietnam oldest theater.

I introduced you to the entire interior of Hoa Khiem, now I will introduce to Minh Khiem Duong - Tu Duc Theater.

 

This is Minh Khiem Duong, built in the 19th century, can be said that this is the oldest theater in Vietnam, the age of this theater is longer than the Market Street that I wrote yesterday in the first post about Hue. This is also the only theater built in the mausoleum that makes the tomb of Tu Duc different from the other Nguyen emperors. Tu Duc is not only the king of poetry, but also of music, he wrote quite a few plays and performed at Minh Khiem Street. The king often sat at the end of the stage watching the play, while the area with curtains was only where the king was sitting. This is a way to fool people who want to love the king.

On top of the stage I saw that it was the "octave", consisting of 28 stars, previously on the stars with small glass blocks attached; And when the king looks at Tuong, all Minh Khiem's doors will be closed, inside candles will be lit, the candles from the bottom with the glass blocks will create a fanciful scene. for theater. But now these glass blocks have been taken.

Then, I visited Luong Khiem Duong, which was a formerly area where the king rested. Later, it was used as a place of worship to Tu Du, Mother of Emperor Tu Duc. She is credited with the country. It was she who helped the king a lot in ruling the country. Currently in Ho Chi Minh City has a big hospital named her is the hospital Tu Du. And Tu Duc is also a very filial son, every day he came to question her mother three times, except the time when the king

Looking to the left, I saw many tablets, these are the tablets of the concubines who were living with the king and they are the ones who died before the king.

First of all, these tablets are placed in the place where I was introduced just now, but with the wars and warfare of this project was severely damaged, so people put some tablets into the temple near here..

14: On Minh Duong

Next is the On Minh Duong, where the king's treasures are kept.

Traveling along the Wenjiang Road corridor, we will arrive at the site of the top 10 emperors of Tu Duc.

Next is the Tri Khiem and the Meditation Palace, where the royal concubines live. And when the king died, the concubines also stayed here to watch over the king's tomb.

However, time has made this place nothing but brick and some walls are not intact, this is also the last works in the area of palace.

15.Conclusion

I thought that the mausoleum also exemplifies its owner's character. At Tu Duc Tomb, you will find softness, while for Minh Mang Tomb the whole architecture here will give you a different view, unLike the tomb of Khai Dinh it also has a unique character.

After this article, I will write down another article about Khai Dinh Tomb which he has made it in the European Style.

I am very glad that I have helped your guys to go through the history of Vietnam to learn about the king of poetry and music, fortunately,  the romantic poet will be resting permanently with nature, the vast green pine forest through the four seasons.

Hope you enjoy it, then I will come back to your soon with the tomb of Khai Dinh King – a westernized tomb. 

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