Secret History of the Mongols
Year of the Rat in the 13th century (c. 1228/1229, 1240, 1252, 1264) |
The Secret History of the Mongols (Mongolian: ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ ᠤᠨ
ᠨᠢᠭᠤᠴᠠ
ᠲᠣᠪᠴᠢᠶᠠᠨ Mongɣol‑un niɣuca tobciyan, Khalkha Mongolian: Монголын нууц товчоо, Mongoliin nuuts towchoo; Chinese: 蒙古秘史; pinyin: Měnggǔ Mìshǐ) is the oldest surviving literary work in a Mongolian language. Written for the Mongol royal family some time after the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, it recounts his life and conquests, and partially, the reign of his successor Ögedei Khan.
The author is unknown and wrote in the Middle Mongol language using Mongolian script. The date of the text is uncertain, as the colophon to the text describes the book as having been finished in the Year of the Mouse, on the banks of the Kherlen River at Khodoe Aral, corresponding to an earliest possible figure of 1228.[1]
While the Secret History was preserved in part as the basis for a number of chronicles such as the Jami' al-tawarikh, Shengwu qinzheng lu, and Altan Tobchi, the full Mongolian body only survived from a version made around the 1400s at the start of the Ming dynasty, where the pronunciation was transcribed into Chinese characters as a tool to help interpreters[1] under the title The Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty (Chinese: 元朝秘史; pinyin: Yuáncháo Mìshǐ). About two-thirds of the Secret History also appear in slightly different versions in the 17th-century Mongolian chronicle Altan Tobchi (lit. 'Golden Chronicle') by Lubsang-Danzin.
The Secret History is regarded as the single most significant native Mongolian account of Genghis Khan. Linguistically, it provides the richest source of pre-Classical Mongol and Middle Mongol.[2] The Secret History is regarded as a piece of classic literature in both Mongolia and the rest of the world, and has been translated into more than 40 languages.[3]
Content
The work begins with a semi-mythical genealogy of
Value
Scholars of Mongolian history consider the text hugely important for the wealth of information it contains on the ethnography, language, literature and varied aspects of the Mongol culture.[5][6] In terms of its value to the field of linguistic studies, it is considered unique among the Mongol texts as an example free from the influence of Buddhism prevalent in later texts. It is especially valued for its vivid and realistic depictions of daily tribal life and organization of Mongol civilization in the 12th and 13th centuries, complementing other primary sources available in the Persian and Chinese languages.[7]
Its value as a historically accurate source is more controversial: whereas some experts, such as René Grousset, assess it positively in this regard as well, others, such as Igor de Rachewiltz, believe that the value of the source lies primarily in its "faithful description of Mongol tribal life",[6] and Arthur Waley even claimed that the Secret History's "historical value [is] almost nil".[8]
In 2004 the
Scholarship
The Secret History ends with a colophon stating its original date of completion at Khodoe Aral:
The writing of this book was completed at the time when the Great Assembly convened and when, in the Year of the Rat, in the month of the Roebuck, the Palaces were established at Dolo’an Boldaq of Köde’e Aral on the Kelüren River, between Šilginček and [...]
— translation by Igor de Rachewiltz, Section 282
The original text corresponding to this date has not survived to the present day. The Year of the Rat in question has been conjectured to be 1228 (Cleaves, Onon), 1229 (Rachewiltz), 1240,[6] 1252 (Atwood), and 1264 (Hung). Proponents of the earlier dates argue that portions of the work whose events post-date the Year of the Rat were added at a later date. This is however disputed by some including Atwood, arguing that thematic elements and chronology posits that the text was always intended to lead up to, and including, the reign of Ögedei Khan. The month of the Roebuck corresponds to the seventh lunar month, i.e. middle of summer.
Some scholars beginning with Naka Michiyo have argued that this original work was shorter and titled The Origin of Chinggis Khan (Chinggis Qan-u ujaγur) – corresponding to the first words of the text.[6]
The common name of the work as it is referred to today is The Secret History of the Mongols, corresponding to the edited work compiled in the late 1300s with the Chinese title Secret History of the Yuan (元秘史; Yuán bìshǐ) and the Mongolian title Mongγol-un niγuča tobčiyan, re-transcribed from Chinese (忙中豁侖紐察脫卜察安; Mánghuòlún Niǔchá Tuōbǔchá'ān—the 卜 is not included in the Chinese-transcribed titles of the copies known today, but that may be the result of a corruption[10])
This title was altered to Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty (元朝秘史; Yuáncháo bìshǐ) when it was included as part of the Yongle Encyclopedia. While modern definitive versions are all based on these Ming-era copies, various partial copies of the text have been found in Mongolia and Tibet (Tholing Monastery). The most notable of these is the Altan Tobchi (Mongolian: ᠯᠤ᠋ ᠠᠯᠲᠠᠨ
ᠲᠣᠪᠴᠢ ), an expanded Mongolian Buddhist-influenced narrative written in 1651 and discovered in 1926 that contains two-thirds of the Secret History verbatim.[1]
Hanlin Academy text
The Ming-era text was compiled at the Hanlin Academy as an aid to help interpreters learn Mongolian, consisting of three parts: a transcription of the Mongolian pronunciation in Chinese characters; an interlinear gloss in Chinese; and a running, often abridged translation into Chinese. Due to this work's compilation almost a century after the original, it has been noted that the Mongolian transcriptions would likely reflect the pronunciation of the then-Mongols in Beijing, rather than the original Middle Mongol of Genghis Khan's era. This text, divided according to length into 12 parts and 282 sections, was eventually folded into the Yongle Encyclopedia as a 15-part work in 1408. The original 12-part work was also published around 1410 in Beijing. After the fall of the Ming and rise of the Qing dynasty these texts began to be copied and disseminated. The oldest dated full copy is of the 12-part version in 1805 by Gu Guangqi (1766–1835), kept in the National Library of China. A copy of the 15-part version was made by Bao Tingbozh (1728–1814) around the same time, and this copy is kept by Saint Petersburg State University. A version based on the 1805 text was published in 1908 by Ye Dehui, with subsequent scholarship collating this and other partial copies of the Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty to high accuracy.[1]
Altan Tobchi
After the disintegration of the Mongol Empire, the Mongols retreated to form the Northern Yuan, and a cult of worship formed around the image of Genghis Khan as a supernatural being amidst a decline in literacy. This resulted in works such as the Chinggis Qaan-u Altan Tobchi (lit. 'Golden Chronicle of Genghis Khan') containing an apocryphal image of the Khan that replaced the semi-historical narrative of the Secret History. Starting in the late 16th century, Tibetan Buddhism gained a foothold amongst the Mongols, and an increase in literacy resulted in a new Altan Tobchi being created by an unknown author in the 1620s. This Altan Tobchi included the earlier parts of the Secret History and combines it with the earlier apocryphal legend cycle. In 1651, the monk Lubsang-Danzin expanded this narrative (now usually called the Lu Altan Tobchi after the author) and included a full two-thirds of the Secret History.[1] This was discovered in 1926 by Duke Jamiyan from Dornod, as part of the academic and cultural revival in the Mongolian People's Republic.
Translations
The Secret History has been translated into over 40 languages.[3] In foreign scholarship, Russian monk and
Mongolian
Duke Tsengde (1875–1932) was the first native Mongolian scholar to attempt a reconstruction of The Secret History, in 1915–17, though it was only published posthumously in 1996. Tsengde's son Eldengtei and grandson Ardajab continued this work and published a translation in 1980 in Hohhot.[12]
The Inner Mongolian authors Altan-Ochir and Bokekeshig independently published reconstructions of the text in
English
In the English language
References
Citations
- ^ ISBN 978-0-241-19791-2.
- ISBN 978-90-04-13159-0.
- ^ a b "Г.Билгүүдэй: "Монголын нууц товчоо"-г 30 гаруй оронд, 40 гаруй хэл рүү орчуулсан". www.unuudur.mn (in Mongolian). 2023-07-28. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
- ISBN 9781474415477.
- JSTOR 3247970.
- ^ .
- ^ Bela Kempf, Review (Acta Orientalia Vol. 59 No 4, 2006), p. 493.
- OCLC 47062433.
- ^ ""Монголын нууц товчоо"-г мөнхөд эрхэмлэн дээдлэх тухай | Монгол Улсын Ерөнхийлөгч Цахиагийн Элбэгдорж". President.mn. 2004-02-18. Retrieved 2013-10-13.
- ^ William Hung, 'The Transmission of the Book Known as "The Secret History of the Mongols"', Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 14, No. 3/4 (Dec 1951), p. 440.
- ^ "IOM RAS: Sinologica – Sinology at the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences". Sinologica.orientalstudies.ru. 2009-03-17. Retrieved 2013-10-13.
- ISBN 978-1-135-79556-6.
- ^ Harvard-Yenching Institute, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Sources
- Urgunge Onon (1993). Chinggis Khan: The Golden History of the Mongols (hardback). revised by Sue Bradbury. London: The Folio Society.
- Igor de Rachewiltz (18 July 2013). The Secret History of the Mongols, VOLUME 3 (Supplement): A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-25858-7.
- Paul Kahn; Francis Woodman Cleaves (1998). The Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chinghis Khan (expanded Edition) : an Adaptation of the Yüan Chʼao Pi Shih, Based Primarily on the English Translation by Francis Woodman Cleaves. Cheng & Tsui. pp. 191–. ISBN 978-0-88727-299-8.
- Igor de Rachewiltz (11 December 2015). The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine.
- Urgunge Onon (2001). The Secret History of the Mongols: The Life and Times of Chinggis Khan. London: ISBN 0203988760.
- Christopher P. Atwood (2023). The Secret History of the Mongols (paperback). ISBN 9780241197912.
External links
ONYAKU-MÔBUN-GENCHÔ-HISHI
A ROMANISED REPRESENTATION OF THE YÜAN-CH'AO-PI-SHIH (A SECRET HISTORY OF THE MONGOLS) IN ITS ORIGINAL MONGOLIAN SOUND by Shiratori Kurakichi, Tōyō Bunko, Jan. 1943.
- The Secret History of the Mongols: full text, history, translations into Russian, English, French, Bulgarian, Spanish and Czech, original transliteration (Mirror)
- The Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty: full text of the 1908 copy by Ye Dehui
- Transcription with flexional morpheme boundaries and other additional annotation by John C. Street
- The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century: Open Access translation by Igor de Rachewiltz
- Lingua Mongolia: first 21 paragraphs of the Secret History in Chinese transcription, Pinyin, and Traditional Mongolian script Archived 2021-04-21 at the Wayback Machine
- Modern Mongolian Version Archived 2007-09-07 at the Wayback Machine (and audio files) -ELibrary.mn
- "Proposal to add 10 ideographs used in the Secret History of the Mongols" (PDF). Unicode.