The Secret History of the Mongols: Fall of the Tangut

Описание: Continuing our series on both primary sources and coverage on the Tangut Xi Xia, in this video we spend some time with the Secret History of the Mongols, and look at how the Mongols remembered the fall of this enemy. Included is its helpful description of Chinggis Khan's own demise!

The Mongol Destruction of the Tangut Kingdom:    • The Mongol Destruction of the Tangut Kingd...  

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SECRET HISTORY TRANSLATIONS AND SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS:

The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the
Thirteenth Century. Translated by Igor de Rachewiltz. Edited by John C. Street.
University of Wisconsin: Madison, 2015 https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.... See Chapter 12, page 185/section 265. The Secret History is generally quoted by section rather than page number, but in these videos I use the page number as I figure it's easier for people to track that down. de Rachewiltz's translation is essentially the gold standard. This free edition does not include his extensive commentary, unfortunately, but still serves as a reliable and faithful companion.

The Secret History of the Mongols: For the First Time Done into
English and out of the Original Tongue and Provided with an Exegetical Commentary.
Translated by Francis Woodman Cleaves. London: Harvard University Press, 1982.
http://altaica.ru/SECRET/cleaves_shI.pdf Probably the translation I'd least recommend, a difficult and hard to read version

The Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan (Expanded Edition)
An adaption of the Yüan Ch’ao Pi Shih, Based Primarily on the English Translation by
Francis Woodman Cleaves. Translated by Francis Woodman Cleaves. Cheng and Tsui Company: Boston, 1984.
https://books.google.ca/books?id=GKCt... an adapted and edited version of Cleaves' translation. This isn't quite the full text, but provides some background and a comparison to the other editions.

The Secret History of the Mongols: The Life and Times of Chinggis Khan.
Translated by Urgunge Onon. RoutledgeCurzon Press: Abingdon, 2001.
https://jigjids.files.wordpress.com/2... Perhaps the most readable translation, Onon is a native Mongolian speaker whose particular dialect (Da'ur) is closest to the 13th century Mongolian. He provides more notes than the other open access versions (not nearly as much of de Rachewiltz's full version though).

A part of de Rachewiltz's notes to the Secret History provided by Google Books: https://books.google.ca/books?id=zfKB...

Links to transliterations of the Secret History into Mongolian (in latin alphabet), and some translations in Chinese, Bulgarian, Czech, Russian and French: http://altaica.ru/e_SecretH.php

For those of you really in the mood for a challenge, here's the first chapter in Middle Mongolian, written phonetically in Chinese characters (the only version which survived to the modern day was written in that manner: bless the poor souls who translated that!) while also transcribed in traditional Mongol script, alongside romanizations of both. http://www.linguamongolia.com/The%20S...

And here's a comic by Mongolian artist E. Otgonbayar Ershuu illustrating the first and a part of the second chapter of the Secret History. His intention was to do the entire work, but I am not sure if the project is still ongoing. The comic is in German, but it shouldn't be hugely difficult to figure out if you're already familiar with the Secret History. You can come to me if you need a English translation of a page, since I can read German. http://mongolian-art.de/01_mongolian_...

MUSIC USED:

Lost Frontier by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Final Count by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Himalayan Atmosphere by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Cambodian Odyssey by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: http://incompetech.com/