The earliest outside description of the Mongols, by a Song envoy sent to the Mongol commander Muqali at Yanjing (Beijing) in 1221. It is a report on origins, the ruler's family, military practice, horses, provisions, officials, customs and dress, with a short account of how Temujin rose, his service against the Tatars for the Jin, and the Jin frontier that he broke. For 1200 it is background rather than narrative: it preserves Song and Jin ideas of the Mongols' earlier obscurity and of the Jin's northern defences. The attribution to Meng Gong is an old error; the author was Zhao Gong.
About this source
- Title
- Meng Da beilu (蒙韃備錄)
- Author
- Zhao Gong (趙珙), formerly attributed to Meng Gong (孟珙)
- Author's dates
- active 1221; a Song envoy
- Written
- 1221
- Language
- Chinese
- Covers
- the Mongols as seen in 1221, with notes reaching back to Temujin's rise
- Kind
- Travel account
No free English translation; Olbricht and Pinks, Meng-ta pei-lu und Hei-ta shih-lüeh (Wiesbaden, 1980), German, is under copyright. The vostlit page does not name the translator on screen but the text is Munkuev's 1975 edition.
Where to read it
Editions
- Wang Guowei (ed.), Meng Da beilu jianzheng (蒙韃備錄箋證, 1926) (not freely online)