Translation as Reinterpretation: The Manchu Version of the Yuan Shi and Its Relationship to Mongolian Chronicles

The Qing state’s translation of Chinese-language histories into Manchu and Mongolian raises complex political and philosophical questions that remain little understood. This is in part because these translations are wrongly seen as mechanical products in which translators had little room to interpret or alter the text, and in part because very few documents survive to describe the methods guiding the translation process. This paper attempts to reconstruct some of the principles behind these translations by examining a particularly complex and sensitive case, the translation of the Yuan shi (History of the [Mongol] Yuan Dynasty) into Manchu and Mongolian in the decade after 1635. This history recorded Mongolian names in Chinese script; Qing translators had the option of either rendering these names in Manchu and Mongolian by a simple character-by-character phonetic transcription, or attempting to decipher and reconstruct the underlying Mongolian name. Interestingly, translators variously employed both options: Some names were left in transcription, while reconstructions were offered for others. This paper argues that there is evidence to support the hypothesis that translators were making reference to written manuscripts or oral traditions in contemporary Mongolia, which referred to some, but not all, of the figures recorded in the Yuan shi. It also considers whether the translators’ decision to augment or delete certain episodes in the life of Chinggis Khan indicates an attempt to make the translated text better correspond to Mongolian sources. On the basis of these two case studies, it argues that Qing-era official translation projects should consider not only the Chinese text being translated, but the political and cultural context in which the translators operated.