usually impersonal in tone, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese,
and Tibetan sources cover the MONGOL EMPIRE from
beginning to end and supply vast amounts of informa- tion. Chinese writings on the conquest begin in 1221 with the Meng-Da beilu (A complete record of the Mong- TATARS) of Zhao Gong, an envoy of the Song, which is the first written account in any language of the Mongol con- quest and the only one written during the reign of CHING-
GIS KHAN himself. Later the Song envoys Peng Daya and
Xu Ting combined their accounts to produce the impor- tant Heida shilue (A sketch of the Black Tatars, 1237). In Zhao Gong’s time the Song considered using the Mongols as allies against the Jin, but by Peng and Xu’s time, the Song saw the Mongols as their new northern rival, and attitudes hardened. Few records on the Mongols from
writers serving the Jurchen JIN DYNASTY in North China
have survived. The Runan yishi (The lost cause at Runan, translated as Fall of the Jurchen Chin) of Wang E (1190–1273) described the Jin dynasty’s last stand in
1234. In 1260 QUBILAI KHANordered the collections of Jin
records to prepare the defunct dynasty’s history, but dis- agreement over how to handle the issue of legitimacy long delayed publication. A commission under the Mon-
gol grand councillor TOQTO’A (1314–56) finally pub-
lished the Jin shi (History of the Jin) and the Song shi (History of the Song) in 1344 and 1345. Both sources contain valuable information, although the Mongol edi- tors eliminated much sensitive information from the Jin shi in particular.
Taoist writings on the Mongols began with Chinggis
Khan inviting the Taoist adept MASTER CHANGCHUNto his
mobile court in Afghanistan. The journey of the Taoist Changchun to Chinggis Khan’s court in Afghanistan sup-
plied the occasion for the earliest writings by Chinese scholars in the employ of the Mongols. In 1228 Changchun’s disciple, Li Zhichang (1193–1256), and
Chinggis’s Confucian secretary, YELÜ CHUCAI, wrote
opposing accounts, entitled Xi yu ji (Notes on a journey to the West, translated as Travels of an Alchemist) and Xi yu lu (Record of a journey to the West), respectively. Li Zhichang’s work is usually published with a number of Mongol decrees written for the Taoist patriarch. Qubilai’s interviews with Chinese Confucians in the 1240s pro- duced several accounts, of which the Lingbei jixing (Trav- els north of the range, 1248) by Zhang Dehui (1194–1274) is extant. Wang Yun (1227–1304) in the Zhongtang shiji (Records of the secretariat’s office) described QUBILAI KHAN’s early conferences with his Con- fucian ministers.
Su Tianjue (1294–1352) collected prose writings of Chinese scholars under the Mongol YUAN DYNASTY, such as memorials, prefaces, and obituaries, in his Guochao wenlei (Anthology of the dynasty) and used the biograph- ical material to compile the Guochao mingchen shilue (Sketches of the dynasty’s eminent ministers, 1328). The latter work, which assembled biographies of North Chi-
nese, Mongols, and a few SEMUREN (Central and West
Asians) dating from the time of Chinggis Khan to the accession of Ayuribarwada (titled Renzong/Jen-tsung, 1311–20), was the first Chinese summation of Mongol rule. Su portrayed the Yuan as a true Confucian dynasty that unified the previously divided world. He focused on Chinese Confucians but also praised the Mongol noble- men who assisted them in fighting against corrupt offi- cials. Geng/shen waishi (The unofficial history of 1380), written by Quan Heng in the succeeding MING DYNASTY, chronicled the Yuan from 1328 to its fall in 1368 in jaded
but objective terms. The Zhuo geng lu, a wide-ranging compendium of anecdotes and miscellaneous informa- tion by Tao Zongyi (fl. 1360–68), and the imperial cook- book, Yinshan zhengyao (1330), by the Uighur Hu Sihui (Qusqi), reflect different facets of Yuan society.
The Yuan dynasty sponsored little public history writing in Chinese. (On the court chronicle, or Veritable Records, see MONGOLIAN SOURCES ON THE MONGOL EMPIRE.) One of the few extant official historical works is the Ping Song lu (Record of subjugating the Song) by Liu Mingzhong (1243–1318). Official publications on law and administrative policy include two extant collections of administrative decrees, the Yuan dianzhang (compiled 1320–22) and the Tongzhi tiaoge (1321), which are extremely valuable despite being written in an often impenetrably literal translation from Mongolian into Chi- nese. The dynasty also sponsored a complete digest of Yuan administrative history in more readable Chinese. This Jingshi dadian (Compendium on administering the world, 1330) has mostly been lost, although its chapter prefaces and its chapters on Mongol horse administration and the Korean and Burmese conquests have survived.
After the fall of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in 1368, the new Ming dynasty rapidly compiled the YUAN SHI (History of the Yuan, 1370) using sources such as the Jingshi dadian and the Guochao mingchen shilue as well as a host of others, mostly now nonextant. Because the sources are not usually identified, it is thus a digest of many of the Chinese accounts of Mongolian history.
In Korea the Kory˘o sa, or standard history of the Kory˘o dynasty (918–1392), compiled in Chinese in 1451 under the succeeding Chos ˘on or Yi (1392–1910) dynasty according to the same annals-treatises-biographies format as the Yuan shi, contains unusually detailed accounts of the Mongol invasions and occupation. Other Korean sources include the annalistic Tongguk t’onggam (Com- prehensive mirror of the eastern kingdom, 1484) by S ˘o K˘ojong, and Ikchae-chip, the complete works of the poet and scholar Yi Chehy ˘on (1287–1367). The earliest extant
history of Vietnam, Ngô S˜i Liên’s –Dai Viêt Su’ K´y Toàn
Thu’ (Comprehensive volume of the historical records of Vietnam, 1479) makes use of earlier annals to describe the Mongol invasion. The An Nam Chí Lu’o’c (Annan zhilue, Sketch of Annam), compiled in Chinese by Lê Tác (Li Ze), a Vietnamese defector to the Yuan who settled in China in the 1280s, covers the Yuan invasions of Vietnam from the Yuan perspective.
The most important Chinese Buddhist source on the Mongols is the Fozu lidai tongzai (Complete records of the Buddhist patriarchs through history), by Shi Nian- chang (b. 1282), which covered Buddhist activities in China chronologically up to 1331. Chinese Buddhist monks also played a key role in transmitting information
about China to other cultures. RASHID-UD-DIN FAZL-
ULLAH’s history of China was derived from a compilation like Nianchang’s, transmitted by two Chinese Buddhist
monks in Iran. In 1285 another Chinese monk translated Chinese historical records into Tibetan. Kun-dga’ rDo-rje (1309–64) incorporated these translations into his pio- neering general history of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, the Hu-lan deb-ther (composed 1346–63). The invaluable 1434 genealogical encyclopedia rGya-Bod yig-tshang (Sino-Tibetan records), by Shribhutibhadra (Tibetan dPal-’byor bZang-po), quoted wholesale from Yuan law codes and documents about Tibet, giving the most detailed surviving picture of myriarchy (khri-skor, Mon- gol tümen) organization in sedentary regions. Other mon- uments of the new Tibetan historiography under the Mongols include the Si tu’i bka’-chems, or testament of Byang-chub rGyal-mtshan (1302–64), and the memoirs
of the INCARNATE LAMARang-byung rDo-rje (1284–1339)
at the Mongol court, incorporated into the 1775 history of his Karma-pa lineage, Karma Kam tshang brgyud-pad.
See also BUDDHISM IN THE MONGOL EMPIRE; CONFU- CIANISM; FOOD AND DRINK; MEDICINE, TRADITIONAL; TAOISM IN THE MONGOL EMPIRE; TIBET AND THE MONGOL EMPIRE.
Further reading: Dan Martin; Tibetan Histories: A Bibliography of Tibetan Language Historical Works (Lon- don: Serindia, 1997); Lao Yan-shuan, “The Chung-t’ang shih-chi of Wang Yün: An Annotated Translation with an Introduction,” Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1962; 6
S. Bira, “Some Remarks on the Hu-lan Deb-ther of Kun- dga’ rdo-rje,” Acta Orientalia 17.1 (1964): 69–79; Hok- lam Chan, China and the Mongols: History and Legend under the Yuan and Ming (Hidershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 1997); Hok-lam Chan, The Fall of the Jurchen Chin: Wang E’s Memoir on Ts’ai-chou under the Mongol Siege (1233–1234) (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1993); Peter H. Lee and Wm. Theodore de Bary, ed. Sources of Korean Tra- dition, vol. 1, From Early Times through the Sixteenth Cen- tury (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997). Eastern Mongols SeeINNER MONGOLIANS; KHALKHA. Eastern province (Dornod) One of the original provinces created in the 1931 administrative reorganiza- tion, Eastern province occupies Mongolia’s far eastern frontier with the Hulun Buir region of Inner Mongolia in China. It also abuts central Inner Mongolia and Russia’s Chita district. It was renamed Choibalsang province (after Mongolia’s then ruler MARSHAL CHOIBALSANG) in 1941 but was changed back to Eastern (Dornod) province in 1963.
Composed entirely of KHALKHA Mongolia’s prerevolution-
ary Setsen Khan province, the province has received as
immigrants Buriat Mongols from Russia, BARGAMongols
from HULUN BUIR, and ÜJÜMÜCHINMongols from central
Inner Mongolia. The province’s 123,600 square kilometers (47,720 square miles) are occupied mostly by Mongolia’s low-lying eastern steppe. Khökh Nuur Lake, at 554 meters (1,818 feet) above sea level, is Mongolia’s lowest spot. Its population of 35,100 in 1956 increased to 74,200 in 2000.
Eastern’s total livestock herd is 826,600 head. Dornod’s capital, Choibalsang, had a population of 41,700 in 2000, making Eastern one of Mongolia’s most urbanized provinces. The city was originally Sang Beise-yin Khüriye, a monastery town and seat of the grand duke of Achitu Zasag banner. It was renamed Bayantümen in 1923 and Choibalsang in 1941. Linked to the Soviet Union by a rail- way constructed for military purposes in 1938–39, Choibalsang was developed as a food-processing and light industrial city, powered by the nearby Aduunchuluun coal mine, and accounting for 2.7 percent of Mongolia’s whole industrial output in 1985. It also had a major Soviet mili- tary presence. The 1990 transition to an open economy struck Eastern province particularly hard. Light industries and arable agriculture have almost collapsed, and unlike elsewhere, animal husbandry has not picked up the slack. By 2000 unemployment had grown to 12.6 percent, the highest in Mongolia.
See also BURIATS OF MONGOLIA AND INNER MONGOLIA; DAMDINSÜREN, TSENDIIN; MINING; SOVIET UNION AND MON- GOLIA; YADAMSÜREN, ÜRJINGIIN.
East Gobi province (East Govi, Dornogov’) One of the original provinces created in the 1931 administrative reorganization, East Gobi lies in southwestern Mongolia with a long frontier with Inner Mongolia in China. The
urban province Gobi-Sümber (see CHOIR CITY) was
carved out of its territory in 1994. Its territory lies
mostly in KHALKHA Mongolia’s prerevolutionary Tüshi-
yetü Khan province with some taken from Setsen Khan province. The province’s 109,500 square kilometers (42,280 square miles) are mostly pure gobi (habitable desert), with a dry and hot climate. Its population has increased from 23,400 in 1956 to 51,100 in 2000, but still slightly fewer than one person inhabits every two square kilometers (1.3 per square mile). The TRANS-MON- GOLIAN RAILWAY, completed in late 1955, made East Gobi’s mineral resources accessible; these include the oil wells at Züünbayan and the fluorspar mines at Khar- Airag. The railway border town of Zamyn-Üüd serves both visitors from China and transit passengers. The 1,036,600 head of livestock (2000 figures) have a typical gobi composition, with relatively many camels (29,800 head), sheep (453,900 head), and goats (344,600 head). The capital, Sainshand, had 25,200 people in 2000, and posted Mongolia’s hottest recorded temperature of 40.8°C (105.4°F). American atlases frequently misiden- tify Sainshand as Buyant-Uhaa. The museum of the
province’s famed author DANZIN-RABJAI(1803–56) is the
city’s principal cultural attraction.
See also GOBI DESERT; MATRILINEAL CLANS; MINING; SANGDAG, KHUULICHI.
economy, modern In 1940 Mongolia had a private herding-based economy, with a small state-owned indus-
trial sector serving domestic needs. After 1970 Soviet assistance created a hothouse of industrialization that transformed Mongolia’s lifestyle and foreign trade profile. Moving from a Soviet-bloc economy to a globalized econ- omy after 1990, small-scale provincial industries were devastated, leaving the decollectivized herds and the vast Soviet-era mining enterprises as the main economic pil- lars. Through all these transformations, however, the Mongolian economy has been plagued by persistent trade imbalance and dependence on foreign aid.