Art. XIV.—Two Early Sources for Mongol History

Extract

Will you allow me to supplement Professor Julg's very interesting account of the authorities and materials available for Mongol history and philology by some additional notes upon two works overlooked by him. By far the most important of these is a work published by the Archimandrite Palladius in a Russian translation in the fourth volume of the Memoirs of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission at Peking, and which he styles the Yuan chao mi shi. The syllable mi being the popular pronunciation of the character pronounced pi in the Mandarin dialect, Dr. Bretschneider has adopted the title Yuan chao pi shi, in which I have followed him in a detailed account of Chinghiz Khan and his Ancestors, which I have been publishing for some time in the Indian Antiquary, and in which the contents of this work are incorporated. The Yuan chao pi shi is in every way a remarkable work and contains the most valuable materials for the earlier life of Chinghiz Khan, and for that of his ancestors, which are available anywhere.