The Study Of Tu Ji’s Meng Wu Er Shi Ji

Tu Ji was a famous historian,geographer,and litterateur in the Late Qing and early Republican period.He wrote extensively throughout his life,Hei Long Jiang Yu Tu,Hei Long Jiang Yu Tu Shuo and Meng Wu Er Shi Ji as the main representatives.In the period of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic period when Tu Ji lived,the society was turbulent and the border areas of our country were constantly invaded.Under such a historical background,Tu’s historical research changed in response to the changing times.On the one hand,this change is reflected in the shift of research content from poetics and parallel prose to frontier geography and Mongolia and Yuan history.On the other hand,Changing the Qian Jia method of textology,which focused only on the correction of ancient texts and the identification of forgeries,and instead innovating on the basis of the Qian Jia school,he advocated the positivist research method of “eye-rule” and focused on the content of the historical sites of the frontier and the Mongolia and Yuan.The book Meng Wu Er Shi Ji is the research result of the transformation of the above two aspects.Therefore,this book not only contains Tu Ji’s application-oriented research thinking,but also reflects the social situation at that time to a certain extent.Scholars have always given high praise to Tu Ji’s Meng Wu Er Shi Ji,mainly because it has more historical value than other Yuan history books in terms of compilation characteristics.First of all,in terms of style,Tu Ji broke through the previous research boundaries of Yuan history in the process of writing Meng Wu Er Shi Ji,using a perspective that connects ancient and modern times,and selected the style of biographical general history to compile a special history of Mongolian nationality.Secondly,in terms of compiling content,the scope of time was extended,the contents of “Shi Ji” and “Hou Ji” were added,and at the same time,the geographical scope of the Central Plains Dynasty was broken through,and the history of the Four Great Khanates and the Western Expedition of Mongolia that were missing in other Yuan history works were added.It gives a complete picture of the development of the Mongolian people.Thirdly,in terms of the use of historical materials,extensive collection of historical materials was collected,Chinese and foreign historical materials were collected,and an upsurge of using Western historical materials was set off.Meng Wu Er Shi Ji also has high academic value in terms of specific content.First of all,in terms of textual research content,Tu Ji conducted textual research and identification of the dates,characters,lineages,official titles,geography,and tribes in the history of the Mongolia and Yuan Dynasties,and found out many important historical facts,events,and personal deeds.Secondly,in terms of supplementing historical facts,the book Meng Wu Er Shi Ji made up for the lack and insufficiency of Yuan Shi in the content of the life of the emperor,biographies.Thirdly,the clan table and geographical records in Meng Wu Er Shi Ji also have high historical value.Among them,“Mongolian Clan List” corrects the shortcomings of Qian Daxin’s Yuan Shi Shi Zu Biao,mainly re-examining the Mongolian clans and classifying them according to different tribes,making the Mongolian lineage clearer.In the “Table of the Se Mu Clan”,Tu Ji corrected the errors in the research of Tao Zongyi and Qian Daxin,and clarified the issue of Se Mu race to a certain extent.In terms of geographical records,Tu Ji wrote a volume of “San Fan Geography Interpretation”,which provided a wealth of historical materials for the study of Northwest geography.When Tu Ji was conducting research on geography and the history of the Mongolia and Yuan Dynasties,he always adhered to the application-oriented research thinking.Therefore,he pursued the empirical research method of seeking truth from facts,and strived to achieve the purpose of academic research serving the reality.At the same time,in the book of Meng Wu Er Shi Ji,Tu Ji also expressed his views on related ethnic issues,and when evaluating the characters and events in the Mongolia and Yuan Dynasties,he also reflected out of his modern democratic thought.Through the above research on Tu Ji and Meng Wu Er Shi Ji,we can not only discover the contribution of Meng Wu Er Shi Ji in the study of Yuan history,but is also of great significance in exploring the development of historical geography and Yuan historiography on the northwest frontier in the Late Qing and early Republican period.