Yuáncháo Diǎngù Biānnián Kǎo 元朝典故編年考
Chronological Investigation of Yuán Institutional Precedents by 孫承澤 (撰)
About the work
A privately compiled chronological digest of Yuán-period institutional precedents by Sūn Chéngzé 孫承澤 (1592–1676), a leading MíngQīng transitional scholar. Eight juǎn of chronologically ordered Yuán institutional events drawn from the Yuán shǐ (which Sūn found “verbose and lacunose”) and supplemented from Yuán-period literary collections. The 9th juǎn records the Yuáncháo bìshǐ 元朝秘史 (Mongolian Secret History) at second hand—Sūn copied the Xù bìshǐ (continuation, 2 juǎn, on the campaign against Yānjīng and the destruction of the Jīn) from a friend’s manuscript; the Sìkù compilers verify by comparison with the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn version that the text is genuine. The 10th juǎn appends Liáo and Jīn supplementary material.
Tiyao
By Sūn Chéngzé of our dynasty. Chéngzé’s Shàngshū jíjiě has been catalogued. The original bears no compiler’s name, but the Dàxīng zhì (Dàxīng prefectural gazetteer) lists Yuáncháo diǎngù biānnián kǎo among Sūn Chéngzé’s writings, identifying him.
The book takes Yuán court affairs and arranges them chronologically by reign. Beyond the Yuán shǐ, Sūn drew on Yuán literati prose collections to supplement. Eight juǎn in this part. The Yuán shǐ is verbose and lacunose, lacking finish; this work cannot wholly correct it, but by trimming the verbose and filling the gaps it provides a digest with beginning and end and is rather easier to consult.
The 9th juǎn is the Yuáncháo bìshǐ. The 10th appends Liáo and Jīn matter. A small preface explains: the Yuán had a Bìshǐ in 10 juǎn and a Xù Bìshǐ in 2; the front records the rise of the Mongols in the desert; the continuation records the descent on Yānjīng and the destruction of the Jīn. This was compiled by Yuán-period figures and kept in the imperial archives, not transmitted; Sūn happened to see it in a former-official’s house and copied the continuation at the end of his book to supplement what the Yuán shǐ omitted.
By comparison with the Yuán-character entries in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, the text is identical—suggesting it was a Yuán-period palace-archive document, of which the early-Míng compilers may have made a private copy and let it circulate. The matter is mostly trivial detail and partly fantastical, manifestly transmitted with distortion; not entirely reliable. Still, as a Yuán-period text rarely seen outside the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, with substantive variants from the Yuán shǐ, it is preserved here for cross-reference.
Abstract
The work documents the early-Qīng reception of the Yuáncháo bìshǐ (Mongolian Manghol-un Niucha Tobcha’an, the Secret History of the Mongols). Sūn Chéngzé saw a manuscript copy in a private library—he names neither the holder nor the year—and reproduced its 2-juǎn continuation at juǎn 9 of his work. The Sìkù editors’ textual collation against the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn’s Yuán-character rhyme entries confirms authenticity. This is documentary evidence that the Chinese-character translation of the Bìshǐ, prepared in 1382 from the original Mongolian for use in the Hanlin Academy yìshǐ (translation-bureau) curriculum, was circulating, however quietly, into the early Qīng.
The dating bracket runs from Sūn’s residence in Beijing under the new Qīng (1644 onward) to his death (1676); CBDB gives 1592–1676 (followed here, against the catalog meta’s 1594 birth-year). The work is undated but evidently belongs to Sūn’s late retirement period.
The work was reprinted in Cóngshū jíchéng and is preserved in the Sìkù; it remains the principal Chinese-language source for the Bìshǐ alongside the modern critical editions deriving from the late-Míng / early-Qīng yìshǐ-bureau translation.
Translations and research
Standard reference for the Bìshǐ itself: Igor de Rachewiltz, The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century, 2 vols. (Brill, 2004; abridged ed. Brill, 2015)—the principal Western critical translation. For Sūn Chéngzé’s compilation: Yáo Cóngwú 姚從吾, “Yuáncháo bìshǐ yǔ Yuáncháo diǎngù biānnián kǎo” (Wénshǐ zhé xuébào 文史哲學報 5, 1953); Yáng Zhì-yī 楊志一, Sūn Chéngzé yánjiū 孫承澤研究 (Běijīng dàxué, 2005), on Sūn’s biography and bibliography. The catalog meta gives Sūn’s birth as 1592; CBDB gives 1592 as well (catalog says 1592, this is correct).
Other points of interest
This is the chief early-Qīng vector for circulation of the Yuáncháo bìshǐ outside the imperial archives—an interesting case of how palace-archive manuscripts could circulate via informal scholar-networks before printed editions were available.