History of Yuan

Not to be confused withHistory of the Yuan dynasty.

History of Yuan
Chinese	Nguyên sử
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yuán Shǐ Southern Min HokkienPOJ Goân-sú Tâi-lô Guân-sú

TheHistory of Yuan(Yuán Shǐ), also known as theYuanshi,is one of the official Chinese historical works known as theTwenty-Four HistoriesofChina.Commissioned by the court of theMing dynasty,in accordance to political tradition, the text was composed in 1370 by the official Bureau of History of the Ming dynasty, under direction ofSong Lian(1310–1381).

The compilation formalized the official history of the precedingYuan dynasty.Under the guidance of Song Lian, the official dynastic history broke with the oldConfucianhistoriographicaltradition, 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 theYuan dynastyfrom the time ofGenghis Khan(c. 1162–1227) to the flight of the last Yuan emperor,Toghon Temür( "Emperor Huizong", 1333–1370), fromKhanbaliqin 1368.

The chapters are, in turn, subdivided into the following:

• 47 Imperial biographies (Bổn kỷ), detailing the lives of the Yuan emperors, including the pre-Yuan Mongol khans Genghis,Ögedei,GüyükandMöngke
• 58 Treatises (Chí), detailing socio-economic history, laws and rituals
• 8 Chronological tables (Biểu)
• 97 Biographies (Liệt truyện), detailing important non-imperial people of the era

The Treatises include the Geography (Địa lý) section, which spans volumes 58–63. This describes the regionalAdministrative divisions of the Yuan dynasty,organized by province (Hành tỉnh). The Selection of Officials (Tuyển cử) 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 theHistory of Yuanand how it relates the issues of the time.The section Official Posts (Bách quan), 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

TheHistory of Yuanwas first commissioned by theHongwu Emperorin 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 byXu Da.A team of 16, led by Song Lian with contributions from Wang Yi (Vương y) (1321–1372), Zhao Xun (Triệu huân),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.

TheHistory of Yuanis 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 theHistory of Yuanwas the mainVeritable Records(Thật lục) 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 theJingshi Dadian(Kinh thế đại điển), now lost.

Criticism

TheHistory of Yuanwas criticised by imperial Chinese scholars for its lack of quality and numerous errors, attributed to the haste with which it was compiled. TheQing-era historian and linguistQian Daxincommented 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 asSubutai,as well as inconsistent transliterations of the same name -Phagspa,for example, was transliterated in three different ways.

TheQing dynastyQianlong Emperorused theMongolian languageto "correct" inconsistent and erroneous Chinese character transcriptions of Mongol names in theHistory of Yuanin his project: "Imperial compilation of the Three Histories of Liao, Jin, and Yuan explained in the National Language" (Khâm định liêu kim nguyên tam sử quốc ngữ giải). Qianlong's "corrections" ended up compounding the errors and making the transcription of some foreign words in theHistory of Yuaneven 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,replacedHa-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 Mongolianriver 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 Daxincompleted some treatises and tables, andKe Shaomin,a late Qing historian, re-compiled a 257-chapter text over thirty years, completing it in 1920. Ke's recompilation, theNew History of Yuan,was given official historical status by theRepublic of Chinain 1921, and was included as one of theTwenty-five histories.

Translation

TheHistory of Yuanwas translated intoManchuasᠶᡠᠸᠠᠨ
ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ ‍‍ᡳ
ᠰᡠᡩᡠᡵᡳ(Wylie: Yuwan gurun i suduri,Möllendorff:Yuwan gurun i suduri).

Mongolian scholar Dandaa translated the whole history intoClassic Mongolianin the early 20th century. The effort was funded by the government ofMongolian People's Republic,and it is now kept in theNational Archives of Mongolia.

Schurmann contains an annotated translation of volumes 93 and 94.

Xiao includes a translation of volumes 98 and 99.

References

Sources

• Boyd, Kelly (1999).Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing.Taylor & Francis.ISBN1-884964-33-8.
• Abramowski, Waltraut (1976). "Die chinesischen Annalen von Ögödei and Güyük: Übersetzung des 2. Kapitels des Yüan-shih".Zentralasiatische Studien(in German).10:117–167.
• Abramowski, Waltraut (1979). "Die chinesischen Annalen des Möngke: Übersetzung des 3. Kapitels des Yüan-shih".Zentralasiatische Studien(in German).13:7–71.
• Farquhar, David M. (2014). "Structure and Function in the Yuan Imperial Government". In Langlois, John D. (ed.).China Under Mongol Rule.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 25–55.
• Hambis, Louis (1954).Le Chapitre CVIII du Yuan che, les fiefs attribués aux membres de la famille impériale et aux ministres de la cour mongole(in French). Brill:Leiden,South Holland.
• Lao, Yan-Shuan (2014). "Southern Chinese Scholars and Educational Institutions in Early Yuan: Some Preliminary Remarks". In Langlois, John D. (ed.).China Under Mongol Rule.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 107–134.
• Ratchnevsky, Paul (1937).Un Code des Yuan(in French). Paris, France:Collège de France.
• Schurmann, Franz (1956).Economic Structure of the Yüan Dynasty.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Wilkinson, Endymion Porter (2015).Chinese History: a New Manual.Cambridge and London: Harvard University Asia Center.
• Xiao, Qiqing (1978).The Military Establishment of the Yuan Dynasty.Cambridge, MA: Council of East Asian Studies, Harvard University.

External links

• History of Yuan《 nguyên sử 》Chinese text with matching English vocabulary