The outer side of the wood book at Bo Da Pagoda – The prayer woodblocks kept at Bo Da.

“Ngu che van” is the preamble written by Emperor Yongzheng for a Buddhist book titled “Van thien dong quy”. The characters were engraved in the square style. Each side of the blocks contains 17 text columns, divided into two pages. Each page has eight columns. Between the two pages there was a column for the title of the book and the block’s serial number.

The “Loi dan moi san khac” (The New Preamble) was written in the At Mao Year (1855) in the Tu Duc reign by King Nguyen Duc Tong. The woodblocks were engraved at Bo Da Pagoda, with the characters in the square style. The following is a summary: 

The woodblocks at Bo Da Pagoda.

“I’m not really good at literature, so I could only record the meaning of the old preamble, and add the preface compiled by Emperor Yongzheng in the original version. However, the introduction was more than half missing than the original version. My book was written in spring of the At Mao Year (1855) in the Tu Duc reign (1855). I once visited the head monk at Hai Ninh Pagoda, Kim Thanh, Hai Duong, which belongs to the Bo Da complex, Lam Te sect in Bac Giang province. I had an opportunity to read valuable sutras and discovered that a lot of information was missing from the original version, including the “Van thien dong quy” by Emperor Yongzheng. I saw notes written by monk Khanh Quang, so asked to have the books. Monk Pho Huy presented them with pleasure, but the fifth one was missing. I ordered the search for monk Khanh Quang in pagodas in the country, but no monk with that name was found. Many years later, I visited Xuan Loi Pagoda to meet with patriarch Tam Hoi, and had the chance to read the original version written by monk Vinh Minh. I was so happy, and borrowed it to make five copies.”