The Translation Chapter of the Late Ming Lulongsai L ― Bilingual Sections of a Chinese Military Collection

One of the less researched works is the Sino-Mongol glossary Yibu (‘Translation part’) incorporated in the seventeenth century military work Lu longsai lüe (‘Outline of the Lulong pass’) (LLSL), a late Ming treatise on military issues concerning the territories now belonging to the eastern part of Hebei province in China bordering the western part of Liaoning. Working with a photocopy of the original, which resides in the national Central Library in Tapei, Apat<’o>czky discovers during the reconstruction process that the whole Sio-Mongol material in the LLSL is a recycling of earlier sources: Hy (Hua Yi yiyu), BLYY (Bei lu yiyu), and JFYK (Jimen fang yui kao). He cites two of the main values of LLSL the aid it provides with chronology and the answering of previously unclear philological questions. Noting that the LLSL is far from being homogeneous in terms of lexicon, style and even calligraphy, and does not correspond to any single Middle Mongolian dialect or vernacular, he adds that, due to inconsistencies already existing in LLSL’s sources and the inaccuracy of copyists, the LLSL does not represent a certain linguistic unit. The use of its Mongolian material as a reference for the linguistic status of Middle (or any particular) Mongol applicable for the beginning of the seventeenth century or as a representative of a single linguistic conglomerate is ill-founded and should be avoided in linguistic reference works. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Akos Bertalan Apatoczky, Ph.D. (1974), Karoli University Budapest, is an Adjunct Professor at that university. A specialist of Chinese bilingual works, he has published monographs and numerous articles including Yiyu - An Indexed Critical Edition of a Sixteenth Century Sino-Mongolian Glossary (2009).