The Secret History of the Mongols
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The ''Secret History of the Mongols'' is the oldest surviving literary work in the
Mongolic languages The Mongolic languages are a language family spoken by the Mongolic peoples in North Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe mostly in Mongolia and surrounding areas and in Kalmykia and Buryatia. The best-known member of this languag ...
. Written for the
Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...
royal family some time after the death of
Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...
in 1227, it recounts his life and conquests, and partially the reign of his successor
Ögedei Khan Ögedei Khan (also Ögedei Khagan or Ogodei; 11 December 1241) was the second Khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. The third son of Genghis Khan, he continued the expansion of the empire that his father had begun. Born in 1186 AD, Öged ...
. The author is unknown and wrote in the
Middle Mongol Middle Mongol or Middle Mongolian was a Mongolic languages, Mongolic koiné language spoken in the Mongol Empire. Originating from Genghis Khan's home region of Northeastern Mongolia, it diversified into several Mongolic languages after the coll ...
language using
Mongolian script The traditional Mongolian script, also known as the Hudum Mongol bichig, was the first Mongolian alphabet, writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic script, Cy ...
. 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. While the ''Secret History'' was preserved in part as the basis for a number of chronicles such as the ''
Jami' al-tawarikh ''Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh'' () is a work of literature and history, produced in the Mongol Ilkhanate. Written by Rashid al-Din Hamadani (1247–1318 AD) at the start of the 14th century, the breadth of coverage of the work has caused it to be call ...
'', '' Shengwu qinzheng lu'', and '' Altan Tobchi'', the full Mongolian body only survived from a version made around the 15th century at the start of the
Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...
, where the pronunciation was transcribed into
Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...
as a tool to help interpreters under the title ''The Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty'' (). About two-thirds of the ''Secret History'' also appear in slightly different versions in the 17th-century Mongolian chronicle '' Altan Tobchi'' () 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 Middle Mongol or Middle Mongolian was a Mongolic languages, Mongolic koiné language spoken in the Mongol Empire. Originating from Genghis Khan's home region of Northeastern Mongolia, it diversified into several Mongolic languages after the coll ...
. The ''Secret History'' is regarded as a piece of classic literature in both
Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
and the rest of the world, and has been translated into more than 40 languages.


Content

The work begins with a semi-mythical genealogy of
Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...
, born Temüjin. According to legend, a blue-grey wolf and a fallow doe begat the first
Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...
, named Batachiqan. Eleven generations after Batachiqan, a widow named
Alan Gua Alan Gua (, ''Alun gua'', ''lit. "Alun the Beauty"''. ''Gua'' or ''Guva/Quwa'' means ''beauty'' in Mongolian) is a mythical figure from ''The Secret History of the Mongols'', eleven generations after the greyish white wolf and the red doe, and t ...
was abandoned by her in-laws and left with her two boys Bügünütei and Belgünütei. She then bore three more sons with a supernatural glowing man who came in through the smoke-hole at the top of the ger. The youngest of Alan Gua's three divinely-born children was Bodonchar, founder of the
Borjigin A Borjigin is a member of the Mongol sub-clan that started with Bodonchar Munkhag of the Kiyat clan. Yesugei's descendants were thus said to be Kiyat-Borjigin. The senior Borjigids provided ruling princes for Mongolia and Inner Mongolia u ...
. The description of Temüjin's life begins with the kidnapping of his mother, Hoelun, by his father Yesügei. It then covers Temüjin's early life following his birth around 1160; the difficult times after the murder of his father; and the many conflicts against him, wars, and plots before he gains the title of
Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...
in 1206. The latter parts of the work deal with the campaigns of conquest of Genghis and his third son Ögedei throughout Eurasia; the text ends with Ögedei's reflections on what he did well and what he did wrong.


Value

Scholars of Mongolian history consider the text hugely important for the wealth of information it contains on the
ethnography Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...
, language, literature and varied aspects of the Mongol culture. 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 Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
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. 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", and
Arthur Waley Arthur David Waley (born Arthur David Schloss, 19 August 188927 June 1966) was an English orientalist and sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Among his honours were ...
considered the ''Secret History's'' "historical value almost nil". In 2004 the Government of Mongolia decreed that a copy of ''The Secret History of the Mongols'' covered with golden plates was to be located to the rear part of the Government Palace in
Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Mongolia, most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipa ...
.


Scholarship

The ''Secret History'' ends with a colophon stating its original date of completion at Khodoe Aral: 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, 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 have argued that this original work was shorter and titled ''The Origin of Chinggis Khan'' (''Chinggis Qan-u ujaɣur'') – corresponding to the first words of the text. 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'' () and the Mongolian title ''Mongɣol-un niɣuča tobčiyan'', re-transcribed from Chinese (—the is not included in the Chinese-transcribed titles of the copies known today, but that may be the result of a corruption). This title was altered to ''Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty'' () when it was included as part of the
Yongle Encyclopedia The ''Yongle Encyclopedia'' () or ''Yongle Dadian'' () is a Chinese ''leishu'' encyclopedia commissioned by the Yongle Emperor (1402–1424) of the Ming dynasty in 1403 and completed by 1408. It comprised 22,937 manuscript rolls in 11,095 vol ...
. 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'' (), an expanded Mongolian Buddhist-influenced narrative written in 1651 and discovered in 1926 that contains two-thirds of the ''Secret History'' verbatim.


Hanlin Academy text

The Ming-era text was compiled at the
Hanlin Academy The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution of higher learning founded in the 8th century Tang China by Emperor Xuanzong in Chang'an. It has also been translated as "College of Literature" and "Academy of the Forest of Pen ...
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 Middle Mongol or Middle Mongolian was a Mongolic languages, Mongolic koiné language spoken in the Mongol Empire. Originating from Genghis Khan's home region of Northeastern Mongolia, it diversified into several Mongolic languages after the coll ...
of Genghis Khan's era. This text, divided according to length into 12 parts and 282 sections, was eventually folded into the ''
Yongle Encyclopedia The ''Yongle Encyclopedia'' () or ''Yongle Dadian'' () is a Chinese ''leishu'' encyclopedia commissioned by the Yongle Emperor (1402–1424) of the Ming dynasty in 1403 and completed by 1408. It comprised 22,937 manuscript rolls in 11,095 vol ...
'' as a 15-part work in 1408. The original 12-part work was also published around 1410 in
Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
. After the fall of the Ming and rise of the
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
these texts began to be copied and disseminated. The oldest dated full copy is of the 12-part version in 1805 by (1766–1835), kept in the
National Library of China The National Library of China (NLC) is the national library of China, located in Haidian, Beijing, and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It contains over 41 million items as of December 2020. It holds the largest collection of Chine ...
. A copy of the 15-part version was made by (1728–1814) around the same time, and this copy is kept by
Saint Petersburg State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...
. 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.


Altan Tobchi

After the disintegration of the Mongol Empire, the Mongols retreated to form the
Northern Yuan The Northern Yuan was a dynastic state ruled by the Mongol Borjigin clan based in the Mongolian Plateau. It existed as a rump state after the collapse of the Yuan dynasty in 1368 and lasted until its conquest by the Jurchen people, Jurchen-led ...
, 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'' () 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 Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...
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''. This was discovered in 1926 by from Dornod, as part of the academic and cultural revival in the
Mongolian People's Republic The Mongolian People's Republic (MPR) was a socialist state that existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia. Its independence was officially recognized by the Nationalist government of Republic of China (1912 ...
.


Translations

The ''Secret History'' has been translated into over 40 languages. In foreign scholarship, Russian monk and
sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...
Palladius was the first to offer a translation of the abridged Chinese running translation in 1866 while serving as the head of the Russian Orthodox mission in Beijing. Using Bao Tingbo's copy, he also attempted an unpublished transcription of the phonetic Mongolian in 1872–78. Japanese historian Naka Michiyo published a translation in 1907. The first reconstructions of the Mongolian text were done by the German sinologist Erich Haenisch in 1937, with a translation published in 1941 (second edition 1948). Russian scholar Sergei Kozin published a separate reconstruction and translation in 1941, while French scholar
Paul Pelliot Paul Eugène Pelliot (28 May 187826 October 1945) was a French sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and the Silk Road regions, and for his acquisition of many important Tibetan Empire-era manuscripts and ...
worked on a full reconstruction and translation into French that was published posthumously in 1949. The latter two scholars had access to the ''Lu Altan Tobchi'' as a contributing source. B. I. Pankratov published a translation into Russian in 1962.


Mongolian

(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 Hohhot,; abbreviated zh, c=呼市, p=Hūshì, labels=no formerly known as Kweisui, is the Capital (political), capital of Inner Mongolia in the North China, north of the China, People's Republic of China, serving as the region's administrativ ...
. The Inner Mongolian authors Altan-Ochir and Bokekeshig independently published reconstructions of the text in Kailu in 1941 as part of the national revival in Mengjiang. The most influential adaptation of the work into modern Mongolian was completed by Tsendiin Damdinsüren in 1947 using
Mongolian script The traditional Mongolian script, also known as the Hudum Mongol bichig, was the first Mongolian alphabet, writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic script, Cy ...
, a subsequent version in Mongolian Cyrillic was published in 1957 and is considered a classic of modern Mongolian literature.


English

In the English language
Arthur Waley Arthur David Waley (born Arthur David Schloss, 19 August 188927 June 1966) was an English orientalist and sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Among his honours were ...
was the first to publish a translation of the ''Secret History'''s running Chinese, while the first full translation into English was in 1982 by Francis Woodman Cleaves, titled ''The Secret History of the Mongols: For the First Time Done into English out of the Original Tongue and Provided with an Exegetical Commentary''.Harvard-Yenching Institute, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982. The archaic language adopted by Cleaves was not satisfying to all and, between 1972 and 1985, Igor de Rachewiltz published a fresh translation in eleven volumes of the series Papers on Far Eastern History accompanied by extensive footnotes commenting not only on the translation but also various aspects of Mongolian culture, which was published as a two-volume set in 2003. In 2015 this was republished as an open access version omitting the extensive footnotes of the original. The Daur Mongol scholar Urgunge Onon published the first translation into English by a native Mongolian in 1990, based on a 1980 Inner Mongolian version by Eldengtei. This was republished as ''The Secret History of the Mongols: The Life and Times of Chinggis Khan'' in 2001. A further English translation by Christopher P. Atwood appeared in 2023.


References


Footnotes


Citations


Sources

* * * * * *


External links


''The Secret History of the Mongols''
full text, history, translations into Russian, English, French, Bulgarian, Spanish and Czech, original transliteration

* ''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 Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...
translation by Igor de Rachewiltz
Lingua Mongolia: first 21 paragraphs of the ''Secret History'' in Chinese transcription, Pinyin, and Traditional Mongolian script

Modern Mongolian Version
(and audio files)'' – ELibrary.mn'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Secret History of the Mongols, The 13th-century history books History books about Mongolia Mongolian literature Biographical books Epics Works of unknown authorship Genghis Khan Mongol Empire