Yetgeul › Mongolia
Yuanchao Bishi (The Secret History of the Mongols)元朝秘史
"In the beginning the ancestor of the people of the Yuan was a blue-grey wolf born of Heaven" — the oldest book the Mongols set down in their own hand. It begins with Temujin left fatherless at nine and cast out, carries him through the night in the Onon with only his face above the water, through the cart of wool that hid him and saved his life, and on to the raising of the nine-legged white standard. Hoelun baring both her breasts to rebuke her sons, Jamukha laying out his "four dogs," the men who beg to be killed without their blood being shed — these are the voices the official histories struck out. It stands as the companion piece to the Account of Goryeo in the History of Yuan.
In the source edition each section alternates between the 音譯 (lines that borrow Chinese characters for their sound alone to write Mongolian) and the 總譯 (the summary translation into Chinese added in the Ming). The sound transcription carries no sense when read and cannot be read aloud, so only the summary translation was taken as the original text. The pronunciation marks attached to the transcribed names (中·舌·古) were taken out, while the small characters standing for final sounds (勒·惕·黑·克) were kept. The postface by Qian Daxin (錢大昕) of the Qing at the head of the volume is not part of the original text and was not included.
Complete in one volume
- Volume Fifteen元朝秘史 卷15 · 6 passages · 957 Chinese characters
- Volume Fourteen元朝秘史 卷14 · 12 passages · 2,166 Chinese characters
- Volume Thirteen元朝秘史 卷13 · 18 passages · 3,064 Chinese characters
- Volume Twelve元朝秘史 卷12 · 8 passages · 2,296 Chinese characters
- Volume Eleven元朝秘史 卷11 · 14 passages · 1,683 Chinese characters
- Volume Ten元朝秘史 卷10 · 17 passages · 2,684 Chinese characters
- Volume Nine元朝秘史 卷09 · 10 passages · 2,318 Chinese characters
- Volume Eight元朝秘史 卷08 · 12 passages · 3,600 Chinese characters
- Volume Seven元朝秘史 卷07 · 16 passages · 3,840 Chinese characters
- Volume Six元朝秘史 卷06 · 16 passages · 2,704 Chinese characters
- Volume Five元朝秘史 卷05 · 13 passages · 2,403 Chinese characters
- Volume Four元朝秘史 卷04 · 21 passages · 3,609 Chinese characters
- Volume Three元朝秘史 卷03 · 22 passages · 3,562 Chinese characters
- Volume Two元朝秘史 卷02 · 27 passages · 4,000 Chinese characters
- Volume One元朝秘史 卷01 · 68 passages · 5,320 Chinese characters