Poetry
A Debate Between an Orphan Boy and Nine Great Meritorious Ministers of Chinggis Khan
Чингисийн есөн өрлөгтэй өнчин хүүгийн цэцэлсэн шастир
Anonymous · 1300
Synopsis
In a solemn assembly, Genghis Khan, surrounded by his wife, his nine great ministers and five dignitaries, offers fermented mare's milk to the Three Jewels, the gods and the ancestors, then makes this offering a rite of the empire. The debate turns to wine: one wonders whether the assembly would not be dreary without it, others say that it silences reason, reveals true thoughts, ruins wisdom and possessions, or is a matter of free choice. A young orphan then takes the floor.
Context
The poem is taken up in Guush Luvsandanzan's Altan Tobchi, in 1634, and in the Crystal Rosary, in 1775, which differ from it in the opening and the ending; the version taught in secondary school was established in 1956 by a scholar of the country from the two. Specialists date the scene to 1206, to the years 1215 to 1217, or to 1211, and the text is classed among the works of the fourteenth century copied into the chronicles of the seventeenth. Khatanbaatar Choidogsuren published an English translation and a study of it in 2024.
Who it is for
A short poem, in verse, in the form of an oratorical contest; an English translation exists.
Prizes and reception
Studied in literature classes in Mongolian secondary schools; regarded by its most recent commentator as a source on thirteenth-century morality.