Yuan History
"History of the Yuan Dynasty" is a history of the Yuan Dynasty written by Song Lian and others in the Ming Dynasty. There are a total of 211 volumes, including 47 volumes of the Chronicles, 58 volumes of the Chronicles, 8 volumes of the Table, and 99 volumes of the Biography. Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, ordered the revision of the "History of the Yuan Dynasty" in the second year of Hongwu (1369), based on the "Records of the Thirteen Dynasties" obtained by Xu Da from the capital of the Yuan Dynasty and the "Jingshi Dadian" of the history of the canonical system of the Yuan Dynasty, and appointed Li Shanchang, the prime minister of the left, as the supervisor, and the former "Living Note" Song Lian and Zhangzhou Prefecture sentenced Wang Yi as the referee, and the sixteen people who conquered the mountains and forests, including Wang Kekuan, Hu Han, Song Xi, Tao Kai, Chen Ji, Zeng Lu, Gao Qi, Zhao Zhu, Zhang Wenhai, Xu Zunsheng, Huang Chi, Fu Shu, Wang Qi, Fu Zhu, and Xie Hui, were the compilation and repair officials[1]. Started in the Tianjie Temple, Song Lian was the main person in charge, and on August 11, he completed the thirty-seven volumes of the book, the fifty-three volumes of the chronicles, the six volumes of the table, and the sixty-three volumes of the biography. Due to the actual record of Emperor Yuan Shun after Timur took off Huan, it was temporarily paid to the past, and the whole book was not completed; Zhu Yuanzhang sent Ouyang You and 12 others to collect historical materials. In the third year of Hongwu, Ming Taizu once again issued an edict to rebuild the "History of the Yuan", and reopened the history bureau on February 6, still with Song Lian and Wang Yi as the referees, and Zhao Xun, Zhu You, Pei Qiong, Zhu Shilian, Wang Lian, Wang Yi, Zhang Yujian, Gao Xunzhi, Li Mao, Zhang Xuan, Li Wen, Zhang Jian, Du Yin, Yu Yin, Yin Bi and other fifteen people as the compilation and repair officials. On July 1 of the same year, it was compiled into ten volumes of the first dynasty of Emperor Shun, five volumes of chronicles, two volumes of tables, and thirty-six volumes of biography. So far, the "History of the Yuan" has been completed, and the museum has been opened twice to repair the history, and it only takes 331 days to complete the book. Remembering the Yuan Taizu Genghis Khan (1206) to the 28th year of Emperor Yuan Shun (1368).
The "Benji" and "Zhi" of the "History of the Yuan" account for half of the whole book, and the "Benji" accounts for nearly a quarter of the whole book, and the "Wenzong Ji" is almost a volume a year. Qing Dynasty scholar Qian Daxin (1728-1804) said: "The speed of ancient and modern history is not as fast as the "Yuan History"; And the text is not as bad as the "Yuan History". It is mainly believed that its compilation work is too hasty and full of errors, and Wang Huizu's "Yuan History Ben Zheng" of the Qing Dynasty pointed out more than 3,700 errors in the "Yuan History". For example, there is a lack of one person and two transmissions in the "History of the Yuan", such as Subutai and Xuebutai are originally one person, the complete one and the complete one are both the same person, and Shi Mo is also the same person as Shi Mo Axin, and there are two biographies listed in the "Yuan History". In addition, the translation names are different, such as Ba Si Pa, also translated as Ba Si Ba, Ba Si Ba, Ba He Si Pa, etc. Qian Daxin had the ambition to rewrite the history of the Yuan Dynasty, but only completed the "Clan Table" and "Art and Literature Chronicles". Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, many scholars have made corrections and reconstructions, but they have never been able to replace the "Yuan History".
After Hong Jun of the Qing Dynasty sent to European countries, he found that there was a lot of research on Mongolia in Western countries, so he collected Western books about Mongolia at that time and translated them into "Yuan History Translation and Supplement", which shocked the historical circles and caused China to refer to Western books to reconstruct Yuan history, such as: Wei Yuan's "New Compilation of Yuan History" and Shao Yuanping's "Yuan History Class Edition".
It was not until the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China that Ke Shaoxian (1848~1933) collected 30 years of hard work to write the "History of the New Yuan Dynasty", where there were 257 volumes, that there was an unsatisfactory history book of the Yuan Dynasty. In 1921, Xu Shichang, the commander of the Beiyang government, ordered the "New Yuan History" to be listed as the "official history", which was called the 25th history together with the old 24 histories.
Even so, from the perspective of historiography, since books such as "The Unification of the Great Yuan Dynasty" and "The Great Canon of the Classics" have been dispersed, the value of the "Yuan History" as the original historical material for the study of the Yuan Dynasty cannot be ignored.
Sources of the above:Wikisource