The Secret History of the Mongols: The Life and Times of ...

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE MONGOLS

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE MONGOLS

OF ALL TIMES, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE

MONGOLS

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHINGGIS KHAN

TRANSLATED, ANNOTATED, AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

Urgunge Onon

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First Published in 2001 by RoutledgeCurzon Press 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon,

Oxon, OX14 4RN

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

"To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge's

collection of thousands of eBooks please go to eBookstore.tandf.co.uk."

? 2001 Urgunge Onon

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,

mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information

storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record of this book is available from the British

Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested

ISBN 0-203-98876-0 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-7007-1335-2 (Print Edition)

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1

CHAPTER ONE

39

CHAPTER TWO

63

CHAPTER THREE

85

CHAPTER FOUR

109

CHAPTER FIVE

127

CHAPTER SIX

145

CHAPTER SEVEN

165

CHAPTER EIGHT

181

CHAPTER NINE

201

CHAPTER TEN

217

CHAPTER ELEVEN

233

CHAPTER TWELVE

257

APPENDIX

281

BIBLIOGRAPHY

289

INDEX

293

vi

INTRODUCTION

The East has known only three great men. Sakyamuni was born a prince around 500 BC in what is now Nepal. Distressed by human suffering, he left his family, achieved enlightenment through meditation, and became the Buddha. According to his teachings, life is painful, the origin of pain is desire, the end of pain can be achieved by ending desire, and the way to this is through right living. This philosophy of `cause and effect' spread northwards into Tibet, where it absorbed the popular Bon religion and changed greatly in nature. The resulting synthesis, known as Lamaism, can be criticised as passive and fatalistic. Lamaism became popular among the Mongols1 during the reign of Qubilai Qahan (1215?1294).

Confucius was born at around the same time as the Buddha, into China's lower aristocracy. Confucius wanted to restore China to a golden age of peace. He also said that `the universe belongs to the public', but although he emphasised the need for ethical conduct, he believed implicitly in a society shaped by the hereditary right of aristocrats. He helped to endow Chinese with the idea that China lay at the centre of the universe; and he persuaded ordinary Chinese to confine their loyalties to their family

1 The word `Mongol' was used as a tribal name until 1206, when Tem?jin (Chinggis Qahan) was elevated to Great Qahan. The name then became synonymous with the state until 1271, when the Great Qahan Qubilai introduced the name Yuan Dynasty. Since then, `Mongol' has been used as a general name for the Mongol people.

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