Book Of Yuan
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The ''History of Yuan'' (), also known as the ''Yuanshi'', is one of the official Chinese historical works known as the ''
Twenty-Four Histories The ''Twenty-Four Histories'', also known as the ''Orthodox Histories'' (), are a collection of official histories detailing the dynasties of China, from the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in the 4th millennium BC to the Ming ...
'' of
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. Commissioned by the court 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 ...
, in accordance to political tradition, the text was composed in 1370 by the official Bureau of History of the Ming dynasty, under direction of Song Lian (1310–1381). The compilation formalized the official history of the preceding
Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...
. Under the guidance of Song Lian, the official dynastic history broke with the old
Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...
historiographical Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...
tradition, establishing a new historical framework asserting that the influence of history was equal in influence to the great Confucian classics in determining the course of human affairs.


Layout and contents

The historical work consists of 210 chapters chronicling the history of the
Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...
from the time 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 ...
(c. 1162–1227) to the flight of the last Yuan emperor,
Toghon Temür Toghon Temür (; Mongolian script: ; ; 25 May 1320 – 23 May 1370), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Huizong of Yuan (; ), bestowed by the Northern Yuan, Northern Yuan dynasty, and by his posthumous name as t ...
("Emperor Huizong", 1333–1370), from
Khanbaliq Khanbaliq (; , ''Qaɣan balɣasu'') or Dadu of Yuan (; , ''Dayidu'') was the Historical capitals of China, winter capital of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty in what is now Beijing, the capital of China today. It was located at the center of modern ...
in 1368. The chapters are, in turn, subdivided into the following: * 47 Imperial biographies (), detailing the lives of the Yuan emperors, including the pre-Yuan Mongol khans Genghis, Ögedei, Güyük and Möngke * 58 Treatises (), detailing socio-economic history, laws and rituals * 8 Chronological tables () * 97 Biographies (), detailing important non-imperial people of the era The Treatises include the Geography () section, which spans volumes 58–63. This describes the regional
Administrative divisions of the Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty was a Mongols, Mongol-led Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial Chinese dynasty. During its existence, its territory was divided into the Central Region (腹裏) governed by the Zhongshu Sheng, Central Secretariat (Zhongshu Sheng ...
, organized by province (). The Selection of Officials () section spans volumes 81–84, describing the education and examination system. Volume 81 contains an imperial edit issued in 1291 regulating the establishment of schools and academies. Lao provides a description of some of the key terminology used in this section of the ''History of Yuan'' and how it relates the issues of the time. The section Official Posts (), which spans volumes 85–92, describes the agencies and positions within them that made up the Yuan imperial government. Farquhar explains the important terminology and organization of this section.


Compilation

The ''History of Yuan'' was first commissioned by the
Hongwu Emperor The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328– 24 June 1398), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizu of Ming, personal name Zhu Yuanzhang, courtesy name Guorui, was the List of emperors of the Ming dynasty, founding emperor of the Ming dyna ...
in the second year of his reign (1369), using materials such as the court historical records of the Yuan dynasty, which were stored in Khanbaliq and captured by Xu Da. A team of 16, led by Song Lian with contributions from Wang Yi () (1321–1372), Zhao Xun (), Li Shanchang, and others, compiled the first draft of the history within months. However, due to the paucity of court records for the last years of the Yuan, compilation had to be paused while more historical material was sourced. In 1370, after a second commission, the History of Yuan was completed with new materials. Altogether, the 210-chapter history took a mere 331 days to compile. The ''History of Yuan'' is unique among the official histories in that no commentary or evaluation of any biographical subjects was given by the compilers.


Sources

Wilkinson states that the main source of the ''History of Yuan'' was the main '' Veritable Records'' () compiled over the period 1206-1369 during the 13 reigns from Taizu to Ningzong, which needed translation into Chinese. Farquhar mentions that the section of the Treatises on Official Posts was largely based on the ''Jingshi Dadian'' (), now lost.


Criticism

The ''History of Yuan'' was criticised by imperial Chinese scholars for its lack of quality and numerous errors, attributed to the haste with which it was compiled. The
Qing 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 ...
-era historian and linguist Qian Daxin commented that of the official histories, none was more quickly completed—or worse in quality—than that of the Yuan dynasty. Wang Huizu, another Qing-era scholar, compiled a work on the history pointing out more than 3,700 factual and textual errors in the text, including duplicated biographies for important figures such as
Subutai Subutai (c. 1175–1248) was a Mongol general and the primary military strategist of Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan. He ultimately directed more than 20 campaigns, during which he conquered more territory than any other commander in history a ...
, as well as inconsistent transliterations of the same name - Phagspa, for example, was transliterated in three different ways. 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 ...
Qianlong Emperor The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, personal name Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of China, emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China pr ...
used the
Mongolian language Mongolian is the Prestige (sociolinguistics), principal language of the Mongolic languages, Mongolic language family that originated in the Mongolian Plateau. It is spoken by ethnic Mongols and other closely related Mongolic peoples who are nati ...
to "correct" inconsistent and erroneous Chinese character transcriptions of Mongol names in the ''History of Yuan'' in his project: "Imperial compilation of the Three Histories of Liao, Jin, and Yuan explained in the National Language" (). Qianlong's "corrections" ended up compounding the errors and making the transcription of some foreign words in the ''History of Yuan'' even worse. Marshall Broomhall wrote that "So unscientific was this work that the K'ien-lung editions of the Liao, Kin, and Yüan histories are practically useless." Both the old and new transliterations were shown in the Qianlong edition. The Manchu word for village, ''farkha'', replaced ''Ha-li-fa'', a transliteration of Calif. Bie-shi-ba-li, a transliteration of the Turkish term for the city Bishbalik, was turned into Ba-shi-bo-li, with the explanation that "bashi" and "boli" were translations of "head" and "kidneys" in Arabic. Gi-lu-rh was created to sound more aesthetic than the transliteration K'ie-lu-lien, the name of the Mongolian river Kerulun.


New history

Given the many errors in the text, efforts were made during the Qing and subsequent decades to re-compile the history of the Yuan. Qian Daxin completed some treatises and tables, and Ke Shaomin, a late Qing historian, re-compiled a 257-chapter text over thirty years, completing it in 1920. Ke's recompilation, the '' New History of Yuan'', was given official historical status by the
Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
in 1921, and was included as one of the Twenty-five histories.


Translation

The ''History of Yuan'' was translated into
Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic peoples, Tungusic East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized Ethnic minorities in China, ethnic minority in China and the people from wh ...
as (Wylie: Yuwan gurun i suduri, Möllendorff: Yuwan gurun i suduri). Mongolian scholar Dandaa translated the whole history into Classic Mongolian in the early 20th century. The effort was funded by the government of
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 ...
, and it is now kept in the National Archives of Mongolia. Schurmann contains an annotated translation of volumes 93 and 94. Xiao includes a translation of volumes 98 and 99.


References


Citations


Sources

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External links


''History of Yuan''
Chinese text with matching English vocabulary {{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Yuan Yuan 14th-century history books History books about the Yuan dynasty Ming dynasty literature 1370 works