Oral ‘Pretexts’ of Seventeenth-Century Mongolian Chronicles

Abstract

Introduction. In terms of structure, seventeenth-century Mongolian chronicles basically follow the genealogical principle. Clan histories constitute an ‘archetypal’ feature of the Mongolian chronicles, which is characteristic of all Mongolic historiographies up to the early twentieth century. Another one is the compilation principle. So, entire fragments tended to migrate from text to text. Our comparative insights into five seventeenth-century chronicles with the aforementioned features and the thirteenth-century Secret History of the Mongols cannot trace any written source of a particular chronicle for certain. Goals. The study seeks to identify sources behind such similarities in the oral tradition that comprises the lexically fixed historical narratives of the Mongols. To facilitate this, the paper shall describe some major features of seventeenth-century Mongolian chronicles, such as the genealogical principle and that of compilation — to further uncover sources of the five writings. Results. The comparative analysis aims to reveal some hierarchical subordination patterns. All the five chronicles contain fragments that letter for letter coincide with those of the Secret History or themselves. These are most evident for initial parts dealing with the ancestors of Genghis Khan. However, despite all the similarities and coincidences no strict interrelation patterns or subordination schemes can be identified. So, the work concludes quite a variety of plots and motifs inherent to seventeenth-century Mongolian chronicles be rooted in the so called avant-textes, or their oral pretexts.