The History of Yuan (Chinese: 元史; pinyin: Yuán Shǐ) is one of the official Chinese historical works known as the Twenty-Four Histories of China. The historical work consists of 210 chapters chronicling the history of the Genghisid Yuan Dynasty from the time of Genghis Khan (1162–1227) to the flight of the last Yuan Emperor Huizong (Toghun Temür, 1333–1370) from Dadu in 1368.
Yuanshi,commissioned by the court of the Ming Dynasty, was composed in 1370 by the official Bureau of History of the Ming Dynasty, under direction of Song Lian (1310–1381). The compilation formalized the official history of the preceding Yuan Dynasty. Under the guidance of Song Lian, the official dynastic history broke with the old Confucian historiographical tradition, establishing a new historical framework asserting that the influence of history was equal in influence to the great Confucian classics in determining the course of human affairs.
Only parts of The History of Yuan have been translated into European languages. Mongolian scholar Dandaa translated the whole history into Classic Mongolian in the early 20th century. The effort was funded by the government of Mongolian People's Republic and it is now kept in the National archive of Mongolia.[1][2]
In China, Yuanshi has long been considered to be hastily compiled, and consequently its quality does not rival that of the other works of the Twenty-Four Histories. In Taiwan the New History of Yuan is used; this history was proposed by Xu Shichang and was compiled prior to 1920. However the New History of Yuan does not have a books categorization system (艺文志).
[edit] References
- Kelly Boyd, "Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing", Taylor & Francis, 1999, ISBN 1884964338
- Abramowski, Waltraut (1976), “Die chinesischen Annalen von Ögödei and Güyük: Übersetzung des 2. Kapitels des Yüan-shih”, Zentralasiatische Studien 10: 117-167.
- Abramowski, Waltraut (1979), “Die chinesischen Annalen des Möngke: Übersetzung des 3. Kapitels des Yüan-shih”, Zentralasiatische Studien 13: 7-71.
