Secret History of the Mongols
BookWikipedia
57
MENTIONS
8
EPISODES
3
PODCASTS
Search complete. 57 mentions across 8 episodes found for "Secret History of the Mongols".
Oct 21, 2026
RickMODERATOR
to get Chinese history sources and parsing through some of the stories, especially during the early parts of the history.
RickMODERATOR
And do you find the need to use your knowledge of Chinese in getting the source materials?
Chris StewartGUEST
Good questions.
Chris StewartGUEST
It's been an ongoing process of finding whatever sources that I could get my hands on, certainly.
Chris StewartGUEST
And fortunately, I've been able to get some very good ones.
Chris StewartGUEST
But it has to do with not only what is published, but what's been published online.
Chris StewartGUEST
As you mentioned at the beginning of this, I spent most of this show's run very much out of the country and the Western world in China itself, which meant that I was confined largely to online resources.
Chris StewartGUEST
Being in China wasn't super helpful in terms of getting sources either, because they're pretty locked up about the kind of primary sources that they have.
Chris StewartHOST
In accordance with the decree in which Genghis Kayan had named him, they raised up Ogade as Great Khan.
Chris StewartHOST
From the Secret History of the Mongols, as translated by Ergonga Bonon.
Chris StewartHOST
Genghis Khan, the mighty Temujin, great Khan of the steppe, uniter of the Mongols, conqueror of the earth entire, the punishment and the scourge of God himself, was dead.
Chris StewartHOST
He had been, in the language of the ever death-averse Mongolian writers and storytellers, carried off to heaven, as though he himself had ascended to godhood, in the Chinese year of the Water Snake, or mid-August of 1227, while on what would be his last campaign against the Tangut rebels of the Western Xia regime.
Chris StewartHOST
But no creature is born eternal.
Chris StewartHOST
When your body, like an old and withered tree, comes crashing down, to whom will you bequeath your people like tangled hemp? When your body, like the stone base of a pillar, comes tumbling down, to whom will you bequeath your people like a flock of red poles? Which of your four steeds, the sons born to you, will you nominate? From The Secret History of the Mongols, translated by Ergong Unun.
Chris StewartHOST
Temujin well understood that his time on Earth was growing short.
Chris StewartHOST
His latest attempt to achieve eternal life by recruiting a supposed Chinese Taoist immortal had proved a bust on that account.
Jack MeisterGUEST
99 commanders of a thousand.
Jack MeisterGUEST
at the Khorotai of 1260s are recorded in the Secret History of the Mongols.
Jack MeisterGUEST
So this allows us to roughly estimate that the Mongol army in 1206 has a nominal manpower of roughly 100,000 men, give or take a few thousands.
Jack MeisterGUEST
And that's not including the Kashyyyk, which in 1206 is expanded to another 10,000.
10 MINS LATER
Jack MeisterGUEST
Well, it is...
Jack MeisterGUEST
Interesting to make that comparison because the episode is not a flattering one to Chinggis.
Jack MeisterGUEST
Because even in the Secret History of the Mongols, it's in the episodes about Tebtengri.
Jack MeisterGUEST
And as I discussed in this video I did on him here.
Chris StewartHOST
After appointing resident commanders and garrison commanders, they returned.
Chris StewartHOST
From The Secret History of the Mongols, translated by Urgung Onon.
Chris StewartHOST
The vast empire of Ala ad-Din Muhammad II, Amir of Khwarezmia, who had been hailed as the second Alexander the Great by his contemporary scholars, and held rule over a territory spanning from the mountains of Afghanistan to the shores of the Caspian Sea, was no more.
Chris StewartHOST
It lay a crumbling, burning ruin, its people subject to slaughter, cities despoiled and put to the torch, and its once mighty king condemned to die a poor, broken shell of a man on a tiny, abandoned island in the middle of the Caspian Sea, hounded to his very last breath by the conquerors who rode around the shores of that body.
36 MINS LATER
Chris StewartHOST
They are Jebe and Kublai.
Chris StewartHOST
They are Jelme and Subutai, and they come for us.
Chris StewartHOST
Jamukha to Dayan Khan in The Secret History of the Mongols, translated by Urgung Onon.
Chris StewartHOST
The governor of the Azerbaijani city of Derbent that sat at the footholds of the Caucasus Mountain, a man named Rashid, had been commanded by Subutai and his Mongol army to give them guides, guides to take them over the mountains and to the lands beyond.
Jack MeisterGUEST
And I s- I explained in our previous episode all these decimal units and things.
Jack MeisterGUEST
These are still all present, but now these have all been assigned to the loyal generals of Chinggis Khan, and we have an exact list of them, 99 commanders of 1,000 at the kurultai of 1260s are recorded in The Secret History of the Mongols.
Jack MeisterGUEST
So this allows us to roughly estimate that at your l- the Mongol army in 1206 has a nominal manpower of roughly 100,000 men, give or take a, a few thousand.
Jack MeisterGUEST
Um, and that's not including the keshig, which in 1206 is expanded to another 10,000, and you have a couple other subject peoples who are allowed to maintain their own, um, divisions and not be split up in this way.
9 MINS LATER
Jack MeisterGUEST
That this is the guy who was like, "You are gonna be the great power.
Jack MeisterGUEST
You are gonna be the top dog." And that this is the guy even giving him this idea of larger conquests.
Jack MeisterGUEST
Now, he appears in The Secret History of the Mongols very negatively, or he's portrayed very negatively, and they write out his ideological roles and are just having him show up where he's plotting against Chinggis and going...
Jack MeisterGUEST
He's kind of a, a Gríma Worm- Wormtongue kind of character, uh, who's going, "Your brothers are conspiring against you, and they want to take the throne for themselves." And, uh, he's apparently even-
JackGUEST
because it's too many mouths to feed or something.
JackGUEST
But what we actually see in the sources, such as the secret history of the Mongols, is there's a period of time in between these two events where some of these other widows who are within the kind of broader community that Yesugei's group was operating in, they're excluding Ugolun, Temujin's mother, Yesugei's widow, from some of these sacrifices and events.
JackGUEST
And it looks like it's not so much that they're abandoned because it's too many mouths to feed, but they're basically politically maneuvered out of the community.
JackGUEST
Usually what happens in the Mongolian society when a man dies, his brother actually will inherit his widows, or his sons from another wife will inherit the brother's wives.
JackGUEST
And then they report, hey, actually, there's one less of these kids running around.
JackGUEST
Now, that's a very big thing, Temujin killing his brother.
JackGUEST
And this is only coming to us from one account, the secret history of the Mongols.
JackGUEST
So this is worth talking about a little bit first, because we're going to be referring to it a lot in terms of the rise of power of Chinggis Khan.