Two Song envoys' notes on the Mongols under Ogodei: the steppe, climate, herds, hunting, the ruler's tent and court, the army, taxes, trade, the postal relay, the Uyghur and Khitan clerks, and the subject peoples. For 1200 it gives no narrative, but its description of nomad life, of the Kereyit and Naiman remnants, and of how the Jin had used the Tatars and Onggud on the frontier is the clearest Chinese picture of the world Temujin grew up in. Written for the Song court by hostile but careful observers.
About this source
- Title
- Hei Da shilüe (黑韃事略)
- Author
- Peng Daya (彭大雅) with notes by Xu Ting (徐霆)
- Author's dates
- Peng Daya active 1232 to 1245; Xu Ting active 1235 to 1237
- Written
- 1237 (Peng Daya's text from a 1232 to 1233 embassy, Xu Ting's notes from a 1235 to 1236 embassy)
- Language
- Chinese
- Covers
- the Mongols of the 1230s, with explanations reaching back to Chinggis Khan
- Kind
- Travel account
Olbricht and Pinks (1980) give a German translation, not free. The vostlit link verified here is the preface page of the Russian translation; the text follows it on the same site. Christopher Atwood's English translation (The Rise of the Mongols: Five Chinese Sources, Hackett, 2021) is under copyright.
Where to read it
Editions
- Wang Guowei (ed.), Hei Da shilüe jianzheng (黑韃事略箋證, 1926) (not freely online)