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

Author Bio

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