The Secret History of the Mongols (Mong. Mongγol-un niγuča tobčiyan; Chin. 元朝秘史 Yuan chao bi shi; modern Mong. Монголын нууц товчоо) is the oldest literary monument of the Mongols. It is believed to have been composed in 1240, during the reign of Ögödei Khan, but other dates have also been proposed (e.g. 1228, 1252, 1264; see works on dating).
The Secret History has not come down to us in the script in which it was originally written down, but only in a Chinese-character transcription accompanied by a Chinese translation. The transcription was made at the end of the 14th century for teaching purposes, so that the Chinese could learn Mongolian. This is why one of the authors of the transcription, Huo Yuanjie, used so-called "mnemonic characters": in very many cases a word is transcribed with characters that fit the corresponding Mongolian word not only phonetically but also in meaning. The language of the monument is a very archaic Mongolian, belonging in N. Poppe's classification to the Eastern Middle Mongolian dialect.
Being the most extensive and literarily elaborated of the earliest Mongolian monuments, the Secret History is an invaluable source on the history, language and ethnography of the Mongols. It contains verse passages rooted in folk poetry as well as prose of many genres, from legends and epic elements to samples of chancery language.
European scholars learned of the Secret History thanks to Archimandrite Palladius (Kafarov) of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Peking, who published a translation in 1866.
| Extent | 12 juan (15 in the other recension), traditionally divided into 282 sections (§). |
|---|---|
| Recensions | The 12-juan version (fragments of the Ming print and a manuscript copy reproduced in the Sibu congkan, 1936) and the 15-juan version from the Yongle dadian encyclopaedia (incl. the Palladius manuscript published by B. I. Pankratov in 1962). Much of the text in Mongolian script is incorporated in Lubsangdanjin's Altan tobči (17th c.). See Texts. |
| Main editions | E. Haenisch (1937, 1962), S. A. Kozin (1941), P. Pelliot (1949, ch. I–VI), L. Ligeti (1971), I. de Rachewiltz (1972), B. Sumyaabaatar (1990), J. C. Street (2013, electronic text). |
| Classic translations | Russian: Palladius (1866), S. A. Kozin (1941); German: E. Haenisch (1941); French: P. Pelliot (1949), M.-D. Even and R. Pop (1994); English: F. W. Cleaves (1982), U. Onon (1990, 2001), I. de Rachewiltz (2004, 2013); modern Mongolian: Ts. Damdinsüren (1947) and many others. See Translations. |
Researchers
Palladius (Kafarov), E. Haenisch, P. Pelliot, N. Poppe, L. Ligeti, G. Doerfer, I. de Rachewiltz, B. Ya. Vladimircov.