Due to the hasty compilation time and the work of multiple hands, the "History of the Yuan Dynasty" inevitably has many shortcomings and has always been criticized by scholars. At the same time, because it copied many historical materials, it preserved a large amount of original data, making it have a higher historical value than some other official histories. The records of the 13 dynasties of the Yuan Dynasty and the "Classic of Classics" have been lost, and part of the content has been preserved only through the "History of the Yuan Dynasty". The main chronicles and annals of "Yuan Shi" account for half of the whole book, and the main chronicles account for nearly a quarter of the whole book, preserving a large number of lost historical materials. As for the biographies, due to the incomplete data in the historical records of the Yuan Dynasty, *** (especially the literati) often have stele biographies for reference, while the information on some famous Mongolian officials is often nowhere to be found, so less than half of them have official biographies. As for the Mongols and Semu people in the biographies, some of them have no other historical materials for reference. Later generations can only understand the deeds of these influential historical figures at the time through the "History of the Yuan Dynasty". The editors of the "History of the Yuan Dynasty" violated the general practice of compiling history and included some historical facts that Confucian scholars thought were not worth mentioning in the "History of the Yuan Dynasty". For example, Buddhist affairs are recorded in this chronicle, and tours to the imperial city are recorded in the Book of Rites and Music. The biographies list Buddhist and Taoist figures at the top, followed by Fang Ji's biography. Although these contents are contrary to convention, they exactly reflect the real social conditions of the Yuan Dynasty and provide important information for studying Buddhism, especially Taoism, during the Jin and Yuan Dynasties.
"History of the Yuan Dynasty" also has many shortcomings. As far as data is concerned, after a long period of war, many historical records were lost, making it difficult to collect and complete them. The data that has been collected are limited by translation conditions and have not been fully utilized. For example, the "Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty" and the Mongolian classics and archives of the Yuan Dynasty are all very shortcomings. The main problems pointed out are: they are copied as they come, repeated back and forth, and lost in tailoring; they are not mutually correct, and when similarities and differences are determined, contradictions are often found. For example, this chronicle may be written once and for all, and a biography may be written twice by one person. The same proper name has different translations. Translations of historical texts sometimes completely contradict the original meaning. Following the text of the documents, official titles such as Geng Shenzheng, Tian Situ, and Hao Shenzheng appeared in "Hequ Chronicles" and "Sacrifice Chronicles" without recording their names. In addition, the chronology of the prime ministers was compiled based on the case documents, and their official titles were only deleted without verification, so that they had no names.
The biographies of "Yuan Shi" copy the epitaphs and family biographies, and there are many inappropriate choices. The rewriting of the stems and branches of the chronology actually mistakenly extrapolated the situation of sixty years, which completely confused the historical facts. There are many examples of emperors who do not have specific temple names in historical materials, and mistakes were made when rewriting them. For example, Taizu was mistaken for Taizong, Taizong was mistaken for Taizu, Xianzong was mistaken for Shizu, Shizu was mistaken for Xianzong, etc. The compilers were also not familiar with the systems of the Mongolian people in previous dynasties and the Yuan Dynasty. For example, in the Song Dynasty, each state had its own military number and county name. The "Geographical Chronicles" described the evolution, but it was written that a certain state had been changed to a certain army, a certain county, etc. Another example is the Mongolian Khan's O'er, who "kept his tent open" after his death, and his concubines were kept by his descendants to enjoy his gifts. The editor of the "Concubine List" actually listed them as the wives and concubines of a certain emperor based on this list. And so on. Therefore, Qian Daxin, a Qing Dynasty man, ridiculed that "those who compiled the "History of the Yuan Dynasty" are all rotten scholars and are not familiar with anecdotes." Therefore, his writings were "all wrong."
However, since the compilation of "History of the Yuan Dynasty" was only one or two years before the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, some historical materials of the Yuan Dynasty were not available at that time. For example, General Chang Yuchun conquered Kaiping and captured the historical materials that Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty took with him when he fled north. Because it was June of the third year of Hongwu, the "History of the Yuan Dynasty" had been compiled for the second time. There is no time to quote these historical materials. In addition, because the compilers at that time did not understand Mongolian and did not do enough research and editing, many problems appeared in the "History of the Yuan Dynasty". For example, some biographies should have been written but were not, and even the biographies of the founding officials were missing; some A person has two stories. As for errors in historical facts and inconsistent transliterations, there are too many to list. Therefore, when reading "History of the Yuan Dynasty", you should refer to books such as "Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty" and "New History of the Yuan Dynasty".
At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately began to organize the compilation of "History of the Yuan Dynasty" and completed it in a short period of time, mainly due to political needs. His intention was to use this to explain that the demise of the Yuan Dynasty and the rise of the Ming Dynasty were all due to destiny", and he himself was the destined emperor "inherited by heaven".