The fate of this wonderful book, its dissemination and acceptance process, is also full of legend. Because it is related to the national secret, it was kept secret when the Mongols entered the Central Plains in the Yuan Dynasty, and because of the change of characters, it was prevented from spreading among their own people. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, although the income was listed in some large books and series, it was far from the people. By the time it was republished in the middle of Qing Dynasty, it had become a knowledgeable book.
The General Catalogue of Sikuquanshu during the Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty concentrated the orthodox ideas and viewpoints of Confucian scholars in the Central Plains, including the idea of distinguishing between China and foreign countries and the idea that classics and history are higher than literature. He attached this book to the Summary of the Unreceived Bibliography of Sikuquanshu, pointing out that the chronology of this book has the characteristics of "using rats and rabbits instead of raising sheep", and said that "this book is still written in paper money and translated in Mandarin, recording the deeds of Yuan Taizu and Taizong Dynasties."
In the early Ming Dynasty, Song Lian and others were eager to write the history of Yuan Dynasty. Although the articles were preserved, they were as busy as a bee. In this way, there will be eleven generations by the end of Yuan Dynasty. The description of ancestors in the Chronicle of Taizu only starts from the fork at the end of the mountain, and so on, which is enough to correct historical mistakes. Although the words are vulgar and unadorned, they are worthy of textual research and are not abandoned by people who read history. "This attitude of simply looking for historical materials without exploring the great national spirit is really a great misunderstanding.
It should be said that The Secret History of Mongolia is the most vigorous and energetic era of this nation. It is a great product of transforming inner energy and vitality into words, and it is a memory, imagination and record of Mongolian genesis. The first volume of the Christian Bible, that is, the first 50 chapters, describes the creation of heaven and earth, the creation of human beings, and the ancestry of human ancestors and their first descendants. Isn't it called genesis? The secret history of Mongolia is the "Genesis" of hunting nomads in Mongolia. This is their origin, occurrence and establishment of accounts, and this is their origin.
13, 14 century, there appeared many heroic narrative poems around Genghis Khan's feats in Mongolian grassland, such as the legend of conquering 300 Thai warriors and two horses of Genghis Khan. In other words, the success of Genghis Khan and his descendants in Genesis made this nation burst into full confidence as a great nation, thus tracing back to the source and recording their mental journey in the form of secret history.
The Secret History of Mongolia, with a total volume of 12 or 15, has 282 sections. It is famous for recording the historical materials in the early days of Mongolia's prosperity, and is full of vast hunting spirit and nomadic culture. It absorbed the essence of ancient Mongolian folk culture and created Mongolian writing culture. It is a classic document on Mongolian history, Yuan history and world medieval history, full of epic flavor.
This book, just as many nations have just entered the written age to record their national origin and prehistoric lineage, for example, the earliest written work of the Japanese nation, Ancient Stories, records their ancient myths, legends, ballads, historical stories and imperial genealogy, which was written in the eighth century and can be compared with this secret history of the Mongols. The Secret History of Mongolia is similar to the Ancient Story narrated in ancient Chinese and recorded in Japanese with Pinyin Chinese characters, and it is a Mongolian text spelled with Chinese characters.
It can also be seen that China culture, especially its historical biography culture, has a great radiation effect on local multi-ethnic groups and foreign ethnic groups. In this sense, The Secret History of Mongolia is the comprehensive result of Mongolian creative spirit and the influence of Central Plains historical biography literature, from which we can realize the collision, mutual promotion and integration of various civilizations.
This is a book with rich and heavy connotation and full of grassland heroism. It contains a lot of information about the history of social changes, cultural customs, religious beliefs and aesthetic spirit, and preserves myths, legends, religious beliefs and ceremonies, stories, fables, poems, aphorisms and proverbs of Mongolian and Central Asian nationalities. Thus, in an almost encyclopedic way, it has become a peak of human hunting nomadic culture that deserves high attention in the world. In the final analysis, Genghis Khan's army struggled to rise, and the autumn wind swept away the fallen leaves and unified the Mongolian Plateau. It artistically depicts the wildness and will of Genghis Khan and his followers. They are all-powerful men with bronze heads and arms, and they completely put out the strategy and courage of their opponents.
"Historical Records of Zhou Benji" describes Zhou Muwang's dog recruitment, saying that "four white wolves and four white deer will return, and the loser will not come, naturally". This reveals the totem worship of wolves and deer by hunting nomads in the north from the perspective of Central Plains culture. In the Secret History of Mongolia, the names of the ancestors of the two nationalities mean "White Deer" and "Canglang" respectively. The story of this deer marrying a wolf and feeding its offspring with milk symbolizes this wild and powerful nation, and it is the noble, beautiful, fierce and strong dual character of Canglang who grew up drinking the milk of the doe. This legend can be compared with the legend that romulus and Lemos, ancestors of Rome, were thrown into the river and drowned, but grew up drinking wolf milk.
This book appeared in the Han nationality areas around The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin, indicating that the East-West Movement and the North-South Impact in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties showed the vitality of the Chinese nation in its formation. The bold narrative structure, exuberant character, complicated comprehensive style, natural colors, multiple metaphors and rough language style of The Secret History of Mongolia all reflect the majestic beauty that a nomadic grassland hunter can add to literary creation when he rises rapidly. As long as we understand that the long-term collision and integration between ancient agricultural civilization and hunting nomadic civilization is a key to explain the history of China ancient civilization and even the history of multi-ethnic ancient civilization, the great value of this book is self-evident. The Executive Committee of UNESCO made a resolution to commemorate the 750th anniversary of the publication of The Secret History of Mongolia, saying that The Secret History of Mongolia, with its unique artistic, aesthetic and literary traditions and genius language, not only made it a unique work in Mongolian literature, but also made it naturally enter the world classic literature treasure house. This theory is extremely fair. Therefore, we hold the commemoration of the 760th anniversary of the Secret History of Mongolia, with a concrete great case to commemorate the beauty of the momentum and inexhaustible source of strength of the civilization created by Chinese civilization for many nationalities.
Since the publication of The Secret History of Mongolia, China scholars have been taking it as the research object. For example, the phonetic writing of Chinese characters in the secret history of the early Ming Dynasty is a textual research; However, foreign scholars began to study the secret history from the19th century. 1866, Russian scholar Paradi published a Russian annotation. Scholars from many countries have been studying it since then. According to the book Catalogue of Documents Related to the Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty by Japanese scholar Hiroshi Harayama, there are as many as 36 1 species of documents related to the study of the secret history. So a discipline of studying "secret history" was formed.
What kind of book is The Secret History of Mongolia, and why has it attracted the attention of so many Chinese and foreign scholars?
The secret history of Mongolia is a Chinese translation of Mongolian. In ancient times, it was translated into Manghuolun Niucha Case, also known as the Secret History of Yuan Dynasty, or the Secret History for short. This is the oldest Mongolian literary classic in history and a world cultural heritage. The original work was written in Mongolian, that is, ancient Mongolian, and was written in the Krulun River Basin in the Mongolian Plateau (now the Krulun River in Mongolia). About the thirteenth century, the author is anonymous.
The Secret History of Mongolia preserved today is neither the original Mongolian nor a history book written in ancient classical Chinese, let alone recorded in modern Chinese. The secret history preserved today is a peculiar historical book, which is different from ordinary China books. Later, for the convenience of research, some researchers divided the book into 12 chapters and 282 sections.
At that time, Mongolian ancient historians generally referred to the historical books recording Genghis Khan's Kim family as "golden books", "simplified books" or "taking off cloth and blushing". The Secret History of Mongolia is a kind of "no beauty" which has been revised many times by scholars and historians. It mainly recorded the deeds and genealogy of Genghis Khan's ancestors, as well as the social situation, military affairs, economy, culture and politics, education and medical care at that time.
Why is the title of The Secret History called The Secret History of Yuan Dynasty?
At that time, it was the13rd century, when Mongolian nobles entered the Central Plains, established the Yuan Dynasty, and made Beijing their capital. The ancestors of the emperor were called "Jin's family", and the genealogy files and hereditary genealogy books left behind were all treasured in the palace, which was the case for emperors of all dynasties, and recorded the social situation of the Yuan Dynasty at that time. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming army went north and besieged Dadu (now Beijing). After being preserved by the Ming army, Wang Ming of Zhu Ming compiled the History of the Yuan Dynasty in only 33 1 day, among which the most important documents came from the golden book of the imperial court of the Yuan Dynasty. Because this book is hidden in the palace, not only outsiders can't see it, but even historians in the imperial court have never seen it, so it is called the Secret History of Mongolia, and because it records the changes and development of the Yuan Dynasty, it is also called the Secret History of the Yuan Dynasty.
What is the main content of the secret history of the Yuan Dynasty?
The secret history is extensive, involving all aspects of production and life in ancient Mongolian nomadic society. From the time point of view, from the Mongolian totem and the distant ancestor of Genghis Khan to the reign of Genghis Khan's son Wokuotai Khan. Geographically, it spans the Mongolian Plateau. The content of the book is divided into 12 chapters and 282 sections, which are roughly divided into three parts: first, the ancestor pedigree of Genghis Khan; The second is the activity history of Genghis Khan himself, and the third is the activity history of Wokuo Tai Khan.
How do Mongolians live in Mongolian society? What about its social organization? What military activities are there? What about the social mentality "reason" and moral concept of ancient Mongols? The secret history of Mongolia is recorded in detail from different angles and sides.