Đại Nam thực lục (, lit. "Veritable Records of the Great South", "Annals of Đại Nam", "Chronicle of Greater Vietnam") was the official history of Nguyễn dynasty, Vietnam. It contained the royal records of the Nguyễn lords, and the imperial annals of Nguyễn dynasty emperors up until Khải Định. Just like other official histories, Đại Nam thực lục was written in Classical Chinese. The annals comprised 584 volumes. At first the records were called "Đại Nam thật lục" "". During Thiệu Trị's reign however, "" was changed to "", and its pronunciation changed to "thực", because "實" was against the naming taboo of Empress Tá Thiên, Thiệu Trị's mother. Đại Nam thực lục was the most important primary source regarding the 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 Gia Long began the project soon after he was crowned emperor. However, many records had been scattered and lost during Tây Sơn Wars. In 1811, he gave an order to collect historical records. The compilation process was carried out during Minh Mạng's reign. The 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 had a secret mission- to obtain manuscripts of Ming Shilu from China. It is estimated that the Vietnamese obtained the manuscript in 1833. Then, Minh Mạng ordered the draft to be rewritten following the writing style of Ming Shilu. The new version was completed and handed over to the emperor in 1835. Still, Minh Mạng was still unsatisfied with its quality; he would personally edit the text later. As a form of political censorship, the emperors often became directly involved in the work's compilation. This custom was abolished after Tự Đức's death. Contents Đại Nam thực lục was composed of two parts: Đại Nam thực lục tiền biên (大南寔錄, Prequel Records) Đại Nam thực lục chính biên (大南寔錄, Principal Records). The former were records of the Nguyễn lords while the latter were records of the Nguyễn emperors. Sometimes Đại Nam liệt truyện tiền biên (大南列傳前編, Prequel biographies) and Đại Nam chính biên liệt truyện (大南正編, Principal biographies) were regarded as parts of