After its publication, Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư was continually supplemented by other historians of the royal court such as Vũ Quỳnh and Phạm Công Trứ.

Today the most popular version of Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư is the Nội các quan bản edition which was completed in 1697 with the additional information up to 1656 during the reign of the Emperor Lê Thần Tông and the Lord Trịnh Tráng.

The chronicle, which was modeled after Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian, provides a chronological history beginning with the legendary Hồng Bàng dynasty (2888 BCE?)

[6] The new Đại Việt sử ký of Phan Phu Tiên was supplemented the period from 1223 with the coronation of Trần Thái Tông to 1427 with the retreat of the Ming dynasty after the victory of Lê Lợi.

[6] During the reign of Lê Thánh Tông, who was an emperor famous for his interest in learning and knowledge, the scholar and historian Ngô Sĩ Liên was appointed to the Bureau of History in 1473.

[7] Under the order of Thánh Tông, he based on the works of Lê Văn Hưu and Phan Phu Tiên to write the Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư which was compiled in 15 volumes (quyển) and finished in 1479.

[12] Therefore, the Chính Hòa version is considered the most important historical text about the history of Vietnam from its beginning to the period of the Lê dynasty and has been often reduced, revised and corrected by later historians for contemporary needs.

[14] The format of Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư was modeled after the famous Zizhi Tongjian (資治通鑑/Tư trị thông giám, Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government) of the Song scholar Sima Guang, which means historical events were redacted in chronological order like annals.

[15] While Lê Văn Hưu set the starting point for the history of Vietnam by the foundation of the Kingdom of Nam Việt,[6] Ngô Sĩ Liên took a further step by identifying the mythical and historical figures Kinh Dương Vương and his son Lạc Long Quân as the progenitor of the Vietnamese people.

[61] In commenting one event, the historian often cited a passage from Confucianist classics or other Chinese writings such as the Book of Song in order to rhetorically support his own statements.