The Secret History of the Mongols: And Other Pieces

by Arthur Waley

First published in 1963.
The Secret History (so called merely because it was meant for the Mongols and not for the Chinese,) has been chiefly studied from a learned point of view and its quality as literature and hence its value to the lay reader have been greatly overlooked. The Chinese version has been used, but with constant reference to the Mongol text. The parts selected (founded on story-tellers' tales) date from the middle of the thirteenth century.

Genres: History, China, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Arthur David Waley was an esteemed English orientalist and sinologist, renowned for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry. He received numerous honours, including the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1952, the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1953, and was invested as a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1956.
Waley was largely self-taught, and his translations brought Chinese and Japanese classical literature to a broad Western audience. He translated works such as A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), The Tale of Genji (1925–26), and Monkey (1942), making significant contributions to the understanding of East Asian literary traditions in the West. Despite his extensive knowledge, Waley never visited China or Japan, nor did he speak Mandarin or Japanese, focusing solely on written texts.
Born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, he attended Rugby School and briefly studied Classics at Cambridge University before leaving due to vision problems. In 1913, he became Assistant Keeper of Oriental Prints and Manuscripts at the British Museum, where he taught himself Classical Chinese and Japanese. Waley was also active during WWII, working for the Ministry of Information and running the Japanese Censorship Section.
He maintained a close personal relationship with dancer and orientalist Beryl de Zoete, though they never married. Waley passed away in 1966, shortly after marrying poet Alison Grant Robinson. His work left an indelible mark on the field of translation and introduced the high literary cultures of China and Japan to the English-speaking world. His translations continue to be highly regarded and widely published, influencing generations of readers and scholars.

Reviews

[Smiley]

Reading this book by Arthur Waley was a bit tough and time-consuming since it's compiled as an anthology having two parts: the first part presents 23 'articles, broadcasts and so on' and the second one presents 7 Original Pieces. In fact, the book title came from its 20th story briefly introduced by the author in the Preface. This book might be less interesting to you, one of the reasons is that these stories published around 60 (later than 1952) and 91 years ago (some went far back as far as 1921), therefore, these stories are quite remote from our 21st century, that is, not contemporary. However, I think knowing the author would be a solution and thus arouses our curiosity regarding his literary fame and brilliance, especially his expertise in translating the Chinese/Japanese originals into English. Two of his notable works we can find in some good bookstores nowadays are "The Analects of Confucius" (Everyman Library, 2001) and "The Tale of Genji" (Tuttle, 2010). We may wonder if he said something about his talent, from the Preface he humbly stated, "Despite the fact that in this book I translate from Chinese, Japanese, Ainu, Mongol and Syriac. I do not want to give the impression that I am a master of many languages. Chinese and Japanese I do know fairly well; ..." (p. 8).

Indeed, I read his stories off and on, at random, and stopped somewhere a few years ago then early this month I longed to read him, especially on the history of the Mongols (with reference to the Mongol text) in which I found it tedious in some parts. However, from the book's 30 stories, it deserved the 3rd rank from my own preference while the 1st being "Notes on Translation" in which I've never read him and some of his good, practical points on the mater before and the 2nd being "Shiba Kokan" in which I appreciate his narrative and learn more on this outstanding Japanese who spoke/wrote in the name of his identity search and love of his country.

Moreover, I hope to say something more on the three stories mentioned above. For instance, an excerpt selected from each and why I thought these three deserved highest recommendation in reading them once when you're worry-free, happy and self-sufficiency oriented.

1. From Notes on Translationh
I shall begin by saying something that seems obvious, but that cannot really be so obvious or it would not be so often ignored and even contradicted. Different kinds of translation are needed for different purposes. If one is translating a legal document all one needs to do is to convey the meaning; but if one is translating literature one has to convey feeling as well as grammatical sense. The author puts his feelings -- exasperation, pity, delight -- into the original. They are there in his rhythm, his emphasis, his exact choice of words, and if the translator does not feel while he reads, he may think he is being 'faithful', but in fact he is totally misrepresenting the original.
..... (p. 181)

In the meantime, I don't have any reference on the latest theory of translation and I'm not an expert in this field either. I know translation is highly demanding while many students and people tend to assume its primary function as one of the most convenient ways of learning a foreign langauge. I think it might be partly true because some of them find it quite practical, time-saving and inexpensive. Therefore, I think the excerpt is informative and we should keep in mind when one needs to translate any English text into, say, a Thai one interchangably. I mean when we read a translated version from English into our mother tongue, we should have nearly similar feelings and precise understanding from which it needs such formiddable caliber of translation expertise.

2. From Shiba Kokan
'I had a passionate longing for fame and wealth, and it was in pursuit of these two things that I muddled away my time for ten years. As I see it now, fame is merely an inconvenience. It means that if one commits the slightest indiscretion, the whole world immediately knows; whereas if an obscure person does the same thing, no one hears about it. In the end I realized what a mistake fame is, and have come to wish that I have never pursued it. And what after all does it amount to? Heaven and earth will go on forever. One may succeed in being famous for a few centuries. But what is that set against ten, a hundred thousand years?
... (p. 113)

This is such a profound means of seeing things as a sage-like scholar which, I think, he never claimed to be one. The moral from this is that both fame and wealth should be treated by wisdom, that is, they're understandably two forms of illusion. They merely come and go, thus we shouldn't be too fond of them.

3. From Chapter V: The Secret History
Kuchu and others told Chingis's mother Ho'elun what had happened. She got into a cart drawn by white camels and travelling all night she came to where Khasar was just as the sun was rising. There before her she saw Chingis holding Khasar by the sleeves of his coat, having stripped him of both hat and belt, and now engaged in cross-questioning him. When Chingis saw his mother coming he was very much startled and afraid. Ho'elun got down from the cart in a rage, freed Khasar and gave back to him his hat and belt. Then she sat cross-legged and baring her breasts laid them on his knees, asking 'Do you see these? They are the breasts from which you drank. What crime has Khasar committed that you should destroy your own kin? When you were small you drank up all the milk of one breast. Khachi'un and Temuge could not even drink up the milk of one breast. Only Khasar drank up the milk of both my breasts and brought comfort to,me. Because of that you, Temujin, have talent, but Khasar has vigour and can draw the bow. Whenever the peoples have revolted, with his bow and arrows he overcame them. But now that all our enemies are destroyed, you have no use for him.' Chingis waited till he saw that his mother's anger had abated and then said, 'Great is my fear, great is my shame!' And so saying he withdrew. ... (pp. 288-289)

From this excerpt, we can't help admiring Chingis for his love, respect and obedience to his mother. Of course, we do admire his mother as she had her own ways of saying and doing something unique to teach her son in front of his soldiers and they're rightly effective no one having the right and common sense could deny her intrepid request. Therefore, Chingis has since rightly deserved his honorific title to his people as Great Khan, in other words, their supreme Leader of the Mongols. With such power, he could have done the opposite ways as he wished if he hadn't had any good conscience toward his mother and brothers.

I'd like to tell you one thing, an idea just popped up on my mind, we might read any story a night before our bedtime.

Good luck, find a copy (maybe from some good second-hand bookshops worldwide) and enjoy your reading.

[Chasquis]

Some books present a link or links between diverse subject areas. This here is a collection of such charm bracelets. The articles are filled with poetic treasures from Asia, translations from the Mongolian epic 'The Secret History of the Mongols' (which has been tackled by several other writers,) a piece from Kafka, then a discussion of the isolation of Japan during the the Black Ship period from the point of view of a Japanese thinker and artist who realised that there were other territories beyond the horizon and that he wished to be exposed to them; then some of the authors own amazing material, and so on.
It is collection by a Bloomsbury habitué who learned a great many languages and shared his delight in the wonders unveiled by the act of translation into English from those other languages. Recommended to the curious and incurious alike. Genghis Khan for students of history and culture.

[Ariel]

It's not actually a history book, as said in the introduction, this more of a story-telling anthology. Not everything in here is historical or has anything to do with the Mongols, like the Chinese Cinderella story.
The stories were pretty good, kinda wish we had more than an excerpt of all the works, especially the titular 'Secret History of the Mongols'.

[Jack Ross]

A wonderful miscellany of essays and poems, written in Waley's fluent, easy-to-follow style.

[Bryn Hammond]

If The Secret History is what you're after, Waley only gives extracts. As he says himself, "Of The Secret History, I have translated only the parts founded on story-teller's tales." Whatever he means by that, it's loose translation, story-style. He says he doesn't believe in its historical value, so you won't get the text as document here.

There are other texts - mostly Chinese, but also Ainu - and essays. I like the little piece 'Blake the Taoist'.

[Bilguun]

Terribly boring.

[Henry Case]

good read, I would like to meet the author.

[Bill]

Terribly boring.

[Kadbury]

Read the chapter on Chinese Cinderella