| Article | |
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| Article name | Some Remarks on Gu’s Certified Copy of The Secret History of the Mongols |
| Authors | Ulaan Borjigijin .. Professor, ulaan0404@yahoo.com |
| Bibliographic description | |
| Section | CULTURAL STUDIES |
| UDK | 398 |
| DOI | |
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| Annotation | Gu’s Certified Copy of The Secret History of the Mongols held in the rare book section of the Chinese National Library is the best manuscript copy of The Secret History of the Mongols among all those preserved and known to us so far, both for its origin from a good facsimile copy of the printed edition made in the early Ming and for the least number of mistakes it contains. This certified copy was completed in 1805 and was divided into 12 chapters. Later it came into the possession of the imperial clansman Shengyu of the late Qing. At the end of the 19th century Li Wentian and Wen Tingshi separately prepared a facsimile text on the basis of the copy in Shengyu’s collection. Not long after, Wen asked someone to make a copy of his own copy for the Japanese scholar Naitō Konan. Ye De-hui made a printed edition from the first facsimile copy of Wen and published it in 1908. This is generally known as the Guan Gu Tang edition. It was from the copy available to Naitō Konan that Naka Michiyo was able to publish his famous annotated translation of The Secret History of the Mongols entitled “The Veritable Records of Činggis Qan”. Not long after Shengyu’s death, Gu’s certified copy was acquired by the Commercial Press, Shanghai. The Commercial Press reproduced it photographically and published it in 1936 in the 3rd series of the Si-bu-cong-kan. This edition contains 41 leaves of the printed edition of the early Ming discovered in the Imperial Palace of Beiging in 1933, which replaced the corresponding original leaves in Gu’s certified copy. Hence, the new edition is regarded as the best modern edition of The Secret History of the Mongols. Gu’s certified copy was nearly lost during the war in the 1930s, but fortunately escaped destruction and now lies safely in the collection of the leading library of China. As for the relationship between Gu’s certified copy, the leaves of the Ming printed edition discovered in the Imperial Palace and the edition in the 3rd series of the Si-bu-cong-kan, there are still some questions that need to be clarified. |
| Key words | The Secret History of the Mongols, the Gu’s Certified Copy, the leaves of the Ming printed edition, the edition in the 3rd series of the Si-bu-cong-kan |
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| Full article | Some Remarks on Gu’s Certified Copy of The Secret History of the Mongols |
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