THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE MONGOLS

The Secret History of the Mongols is the only genuine Mongolian account of Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan) and his family's history and was most likely assembled a few decades after his death in 1227. The original text of the Secret History of the Mongols was written in the vertical Uighur script which the Mongols had adopted from the Turkic Uighurs at about the turn of the 13^th century. The only extant copies of this work are in Chinese titled Yüan pi-shih or Secret History of the Yüan Dynasty from the archives of the Ming government. However, regardless of its Turkic component, the Secret History of the Mongols remains a truely original Mongol product, unique of its kind, for no other nomadic or semi-nomadic people has ever created a literary masterpiece like it, in which epic poetry and narrative are so skillfully and indeed artistically blended with fictional and historical accounts. The Secret History of the Mongols is above all a source of the first magnitutude for the social history of the Mongols before the establishment of their world empire.

This excerpt from Professor Igor de Rachewiltz's translation of the famous thirteenth century epic chronicle known as the Secret History of the Mongols is the product of thirty years' continuous investigation of this difficult text. It presents a more accurate translation of The Secret History of the Mongols than previous efforts by other translators of this important work. Over 1,300 primary and secondary sources, as well as monographs and essays in many languages, have been consulted by the author who is a specialist in Sino-Mongolian Studies at the Australian National University, Canberra. Its chief value lies in the historical and philological commentary accompanying the translation, by far the most extensive of its kind. The translation itself, while close to the original, is at the same time eminently readable. The lengthy introduction provides a valuable and original insight into the history of the text and its importance as a historical sources and literary monument. The three comprehensive indices (of names, subjects, grammar and lexis) also make this book a useful reference work for research on a variety of subjects related to Central Asia and China in the 12^th and 13^th centuries.

Excerpt from Professor Igor De Rachewiltz's translation of "The Secret History of the Mongols'; A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century. Translated with a historical and philological commentary.

Published by Brill Inner Asian Library, 2004. www.brill.nl

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE MONGOLS

CHAPTER ONE

The origins of _inggis Qa'an.

At the beginning there was a blue-grey wolf1, born with

His destiny ordained by Heaven Above. His wife was a

Fallow doe. They came across the Tenggis.2 After they

had settled at the source of the Onan River on Mount

Burqan Qaldun, Bata_iqan was born to them.

The son of Bata_iqan was Tama_a; the son of Tama_a,

Qori_ar Mergen; the son of Qori_ar Mergen, A'ujam

Boro'ul; the son of A'ujam Boro'ul, Sali Qa_a'u; the son of

Sali Qa_a'u, Yeke Nidün; the son Yeke Nidün, Sem So_i;

the son of Sem So_i, Qar_u.

The son of Qar_u, Borjigidai Mergen, had as a wife

Mongqoljin Qo'a. The son Borjigidai Mergen, Toroqoljin

Bayan, had a wife named Boroq_in Qu'a, a young

lad3 named Boroldai Suyalbi, and two fine geldings, Dayir

and Boro.4 Toroqoljin had two sons, Du'a Soqor and Dolbun

Mergen.

Du'a Soqor had a single eye in the middle of his

forehead: with it he could see for a distance of three stages.5

One day Du'a Soqor went up to Burqan Qaldun with his

younger brother Dobun Mergen. Du'a Soqor looked out

from the top of Burqan Qaldun, and, as he did so, 6 he saw

in the distance a band of people on the move who, following

the course7 of the Tunggelik Stream, were coming

that way. He said, 'Among these people on the move who

are coming this way, there is a fine girl in the front seat of a

black covered cart.8 If she has not been given to another

man, we shall ask her for you, my younger brother Dobun

Mergen!' So saying, he sent his younger brother Dobun

Mergen to have a look.

When Dobun Mergen reached those people, he saw that

she was indeed a beautiful and charming girl, and of

excellent reputation. Her name was Alan Qo'a and she had

not yet been given to any other man.

As for that band of people, the matter stood thus. The

daughter of Barqudai Mergen, lord of the Kšl Barqujin

Lowland, was a girl named Barqujin Qo'a, and she had been

given in marriage to Qorilartai Mergen, a chief of the Qori

Tumat. At Ariq Usun,9 in the land of Qori Tumat, that

girl named Alan Qo'a was born to Barqujin Qo'a, wife of

Qorilartai Mergen.

As in their land the Qori Tumat had imposed bans

on one another's sable, squirrel and wild game10 hunting

grounds, and mutual relations were bad as a result,

Qorilartai Mergen separated from the Qori Tumat and took

the clan name Qorilar. Saying that the land of Burqan

Qaldun was good, and that it was suitable for game hunting,

He was now moving into the territory of the Uriangqai

Burqan Bosqaqsan and Šin_i Bayan, lords of Burqan

Qaldun.10a

This is how Dobun Mergen asked there and then for

Alan Qo'a, a daughter of Qorilartai Mergen of the Qori Tumat

born at Ariq Usun, and how he took her as his wife.

After Alan Qo'a had come to Dobun Mergen, she bore

him two sons who were named Bügünütei and Belgünütei.

Du'a Soqor, his elder brother had four sons. Before

long, the elder brother Du'a Soqor died. After Du'a Soqor's

death his four sons no longer regarded their uncle Dobun

Mergen as a member of the family but, looking down on

him, they left him and moved away. They took the clan

named Dšrben and became the Dšrben tribe.

After that, one day Dobun Mergen went out hunting on

the Toqo_aq Heights.11 In the forest he met a man of the

Uriangqai tribe who had killed a three-year old deer and

was roasting its ribs and entrails. Dobun Mergen said,

'Friend, share the quarry!'12 'I will give it to you,' said the

man, and keeping for himself the main portion of the animal

which has the lungs,13 and the skin, he gave all the meat of

the three-year old dear to Dobun Mergen.

Dobun Mergen went on, carrying the three-year old

deer on the back of his horse. On the way he met a poor

man on foot who was leading his son by the hand. Dobun

Mergen asked him, 'To which clan do you belong?' The

man said, 'I am a man of the Ma'aliq Baya'ut, and I am in

desperate straits. Give me some of the meat of that animal

and I will give you this child of mine.' At these words

Dobun Mergen cut off one thigh of the three-year old deer

and gave it to him, and he took the child to be a servant in

his house.

Before long, Dobun Mergen died. After his death, Alan

Qo'a, although she had no husband, bore three sons who

were named Buqu Qatagi, Buqatu Salji and Bodon_ar

Mungqaq.14

Belgünütei and Bügünütei, the two sons born earlier to

Dobun Mergen, said to each other, behind the back of their

mother Alan Qo'a, 'Although this mother of ours is without

brothers-in law and male relatives, and without a husband,

she has borne these three sons. In the house there is only the

man of the Ma'aliq Baya'ut. Surely these three sons are

his.' Their mother Alan Qo'a knew what they had been

saying to each other behind her back.15

One day in spring, while she was cooking some dried

lamb, she had her five sons Belgünütei, Bügünütei, Buqu

Qatagai, Buqatu Salji and Bodon_ar Mungqaq sit in a row.

She gave an arrow-shaft to each of them and said, 'Break

it!' One by one they immediately broke the single arrow-

shafts and threw them away. Then she tied five arrow-

shafts into a bundle and gave it to them saying, 'Break it!'

The five sons each took the five bound arrow-shafts in turn,

but were unable to break them.

Then their mother Alan Qo'a said, 'You, my sons

Belgünütei and Bügünütei, are suspicious of me and said

to each other, "These three sons that she has borne, of

whom, of what clan, are they the sons?Ó And it is right

for you to be suspicious. Every night, a resplendent yellow

man entered by the light of the smoke-hole or the door top

of the tent, he rubbed my belly and his radiance penetrated

my womb. When he departed, he crept out on a moonbeam

or a ray of sun in the guise of a yellow dog.

How can you speak so rashly?

When one understands that, the sign is clear:

They are the sons of Heaven

How can you speak, comparing them

To ordinary black-headed men?

When they become rulers of all,

Then, the common people will understand!'

Further, Alan Qo'a addressed these words of

admonition to her five sons: 'You, my five sons, were born

of one womb. If, like the five arrow-shafts just now, each of

you keeps to himself, then like those single arrow-shafts,

anybody will easily break you. If, like the bound arrow-

shafts, you remain together and of one mind, how can

anyone deal with you so easily?' Some time went by and

their mother Alan Qo'a died.

After the death of their mother Alan Qo'a, the five

brothers divided the livestock16 among themselves. Belgü-

nütei, Bügünütei, Buqu Qatagai and Buqatu Salji all took

their share; to Bodon_ar no share was given, for they said

that he was a fool and a half-wit, and they did not regard

him as one of the family.

Bodon_ar, seeing that he was no longer counted as one

of the family, said, 'Why should I stay here?' he got on a

white horse with a black sore back and a mangy tail.17 'If I

die, I die; if I live, I live!18 he said and left riding fast

downstream along the Onan River. He went on and when

he reached Baljun Aral19 he built a grass hut20 and made his

home there.

While he was living there, he once saw a grey female

hawk eating a black grouse that it had caught. He made

a snare with the hair of his white horse with the black sore

back and mangy tail, caught the hawk and reared it. When

he had nothing to eat, he stalked the wild game which

wolves had penned in on the cliffs. He shot and killed the

game, and fed on it together with the hawk; they also

gathered up and ate the food left over by the wolves. And

so, feeding his own gullet and his hawk, he got through that

year.21

When spring came and the ducks began to arrive, he

starved his hawk and let it loose. The ducks and wild geese

which the hawk had caught he placed all about, so that

Every tree stump reeked with their stench

Every dead tree with their foul smell.

From the northern side of Mount Düyiren, a band of

people on the move came following the course of the

Tünggelik Stream. After he had loosed his hawk in the day-

time, Bodon_ar used to go to those people and drink kumis

with them: at night he returned to his grass hut to sleep.

Those people asked Bodon_ar for his hawk, but he

would not give it to them. Thus they got along together

without the people asking Bodon_ar whose son he was and

to which clan he belonged, and without Bodon_ar for his

part asking them what people they were.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE MONGOLS

The origins of _ inggis Qa'an.

His destiny ordained by Heaven Above. His wife was a

The origins of _inggis Qa'an.