뉴스레터

The Northeast Asian History Foundation published An Annotated Translation of the Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobči (annotated translation by Kim Jang-gu) in November 2014. This book is a translation of Quriyangɤui Altan Tobči written in 17th-century Mongolian script (Mongol bichig), and it is about the so-called 'Golden Lineage (Altan urag)' of Chinggis Khan.

The original manuscript of this book had been owned for generations by the family of Batmend, a nomad who lived in Govi-Altai aimag, until 1997, when he made it known to the world by providing it for Professor Sh. Choimaa, one of his younger friends from home. Professor Sh. Choimaa spent years studying this history written in ancient Mongolian script, and finished a transliteration of the entire text into the modern Monglian language for publication in 2002. By 2011, it had been updated and published as a study complete with an annotation, an index, and photographs of the original manuscript.

This book's author and year of publication are unknown, but scholars estimate that it was published in the early 17th century. As is known, the oldest Mongolian history written by the Mongol themselves is The Secret History of the Mongols (元朝秘史). Unfortunately, however, it is only a Chinese transliteration of this book, not the original Mongolian manuscript, that is extant. Whatever Mongolian history written by the Mongols in the ensuing 300-year period until the early 17th century is not extant. That makes the so-called Golden Summary (Altan Tobči) the second oldest Mongolian history in existence, next to The Secret History of the Mongols, and the oldest history in Mongolian script.

Korean and Mongolian Historians in Collaboration for 'Northeast Asian Regional History'

As part of its aggressive response to China's distortion of Korean history, the NAHF has collaborated since its establishment with academic institutions in countries like Mongolia, Russia, and Vietnam under the MOUs for conducting joint research and holding conferences on a regular basis, in an effort to establish a shared perception of national history with Central Eurasian as well as Northeast Asian regions. An MOU on comprehensive research with Mongolia was signed in this context as early as in 2007. And it led to the establishment of the Institute of History and the Institute of Archeology under the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and to the foundation of the 'Council of Korean and Mongolian Historians (the "Council")' in November 2011.

The projects that the Council has agreed on and is undertaking one at a time include: research on the history of Korea-Mongolia relations; research on the history of the Northen peoples; exchange of experts and materials for research; joint exhibitions; and joint response to the distortion of history by neighboring countries.

The NAHF's recent publication, An Annotated Translation of the Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobči, is a result of the Council's projects. In 2012, the NAHF selected Altan Tobči and Erdeni-yin Tobči as the first two of historical records written in ancient Mongolian script to be translated. Now that An Annotated Translation of the Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobči has been published first, an annotated translation of Erdeni-yin Tobči is also scheduled for publication in 2015.

Three-Fold Rationale for Translating Mongolian History into Korean

The NAHF has the following three-fold rationale for publishing a translation of the Mongolian history. The first is to restore the Mongolia and the world around it as viewed from the Mongolian perspective. The second is to understand and restore Northeast Asian history with non-Chinese texts. The third is to set Korean history right. China being the closest neighbor bordering Korea throughout history, there have been constant exchange and conflicts between the two countries. From circa 90 B.C, China started compiling historical records that are not available to us Koreans. For the study of Korean history, we have to use their historical records, whether we like it or not. However, as is known, Chinese historical records were written according to Sino-centrism and Sino-barbarian dichotomy, a view that the Chinese is the center of the world and there are four non-Chinese barbarian peoples surrounding it, and include strongly distorted descriptions of the peoples and histories of neighboring countries.

Therefore, in order to correct the distorted images of neighboring countries painted by Chinese historians and establish the history and culture that flourished in the Korean Peninsula and the regions north of it while dealing with the problem with the less-than-objective historical records, it was necessary to give attention to studying the historical records left by non-Chinese peoples and countries and their archeological sites and relics as the reflections of their lives.

I don't mean to claim that the NAHF's recent publication of An Annotated Translation of the Mongol Chronicle Altan Tobči is an instant cure-all solution. But if our such efforts added up, and Northeast Asian regional history was cross-examined based on non-Chinese historical records, the images distorted by China's self-centered world view would be corrected and restored to their original, complete state.

The reader of this book is invited to examine the sometimes explicit and other times figurative descriptions of the world view and life of the 17th-century Mongols as a nomadic tribe, what efforts they made to maintain their identity and what they valued most.