The Rise of the Mongols: Five Chinese Sources

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Rise of the Mongols offers readers a selection of five important works that detail the rise of the Mongol Empire through Chinese eyes. Three of these works were written by officials of South China's Southern Song dynasty and two are from officials from North China writing in the service of the Mongol rulers. Together, these accounts offer a view of the early Mongol Empire very different not just from those of Muslim and Christian travelers and chroniclers, but also from the Mongol tradition embodied in The Secret History of Mongols.

The five Chinese source texts (in English translation, each with their own preface):

• Selections from Random Notes from Court and Country since the Jianyan Years, vol.2, by Li Xinchuan
• "A Memorandum on the Mong-Tatars,"by Zhao Gong
• "A Sketch of the Black Tatars,"by Peng Daya and Xu Ting
• "Spirit-Path Stele for His Honor Yel, Director of the Secretariat,"by Song Zizhen
• "Notes on a Journey,"by Zhang Dehui

Also included are an introduction, index, bibliography, and appendices covering notes on the texts, tables and charts, and a glossary of Chinese and transcribed terms.

Reviews

"Our modern fascination with the Mongol empire only increases with each passing year. One global myth even claims that Chinggis Khans DNA can be found among most of the races of the world todaya story of genetic seeding that surely testifies to the obsessive awe with which the rulers ofthe largest empire in the history of the world are still held. The Rise of the Mongols: Five Chinese Sources,is thus a timely, important, and welcome addition to the limited sources on the Mongols currently available to us in English translation. Unlike theYuanshithe Chinese history of the Mongol dynasty that is retroactively writtenChristopher Atwoods and Lynn Struves five Chinese sources recount the important early days of the Mongol ascension to power through contemporary and even eyewitness accounts situated in both southern and northern China. Whether you're teaching Marco Polo, or The Secret History of the Mongols, or courses in early globalism, youll find this invaluable collection of newly-translated Chinese sources indispensable."
Geraldine Heng, author ofThe Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages, and Founder and Director of the Global Middle Ages Project
"Christopher Atwood, one of the world's leading Mongolists and an outstanding historian and linguist, has made some of the earliest historical sources on the emerging Mongol empire accessible at last to non-Sinophone readers. The publication of these highly readable translations from classical Chinese, finely illustrated with maps and images, is a landmark event for scholars and teachers of the history of the Mongol conquests."
Shao-yun Yang,Denison University
For scholars of the medieval West used to seeing the Mongols through the eyes of Matthew Paris, William of Rubruck, or Marco Polo, AtwoodsThe Rise of the Mongolsis a revelation. In five Chinese source texts dating from the time of Chinggis Khan to that of his grandson Qubilai, we see the emergence of the Mongols and their conquest of northern China not as a suddenfait accomplibut as a complex process of military exploit and cultural negotiation. Ideal for the World History classroom, the volume's extended introduction offers an invaluable guide to Chinese and Central Asian history and culture.
Sharon Kinoshita, University of California Santa Cruz
"Atwood has produced an excellent volume of primary source translations hitherto inaccessible to many scholars and most students. This volume is ideal for classroom use. With clear and functional maps and other ancillary materials to accompany the lucid translations, Atwood offers instructors everything they could ask for in a classroom textbook. This work can easily accompany other primary sources (Western and/or Islamic) to provide a holistic view of the Mongol Empire. The translations are clear and accompanied by, but not burdened with, informative footnotes so one can use the text as a standalone volume or as an accompanying text. Undoubtedly, this volume of translated Chinese sources will become a standard text that all classes on the Mongols and researchers will put to excellent use."
Timothy May, University of North Georgia
"In addition to a highly readable English translation and their authoritative and up-to-date commentary, the editors have contributed the identification of new readings on the basis of a wide range of manuscripts and modern printings. No less valuable are the introductory sections on traditions associated with Chinese state-building and on the conventions of Chinese historical writing. In sum, Atwood and Struve have rendered a signal service to scholarship on the history of the thirteenth-century Mongols. Scholars who (like this reviewer) lack a knowledge of Chinese will warmly welcome this collection."
Peter Jackson, Keele University, inThe Medieval Review
Atwoods scholarly enterprise contributes immensely to a holistic understanding of the emergence of the largest contiguous empire, by making the Chinese records accessible. . . . Taken together, the five sources not only provide many fascinating details about the early Mongols and north China under their rule, but also highlight the collision and coexistence between the Chinese and Mongol ways of life on the eve of the Mongol conquest of the whole of China. The translation is lucid, accompanied by many (but not too many) informative notes, and a full array of aids such as a chronology, maps, tables of dynastic genealogies, reign titles, and even weights and measures, as well as a glossary of Chinese and non-Chinese names and terms, and notes about the texts consulted. All these help the reader contextualize the sources, while the various images scattered across the pages make the reading more appealing. Atwood has done a tremendous service to scholars and students of the Mongol Empire by making these important sources accessible in such a superb way. . . . Im sure that it will be constantly used for both teaching and research for many years to come.
Michal Biran,The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, inJournal of Chinese History

Author Bio

Christopher P. Atwoodis Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania.