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Introduction Introduction 1. The Mongols have been using different kind of scripts throughout their history. The “square script” (known as “’Phags-pa script”, which was used during the Yuan period, occupies an important place in the history of Mongolian literary language and culture. By the XIII century, spoken Mongolian diverged from written Mongolian, which was probably based on the VIII and IX centuries spoken Mongolian. Due to this development, there emerged an inclination, which aimed to make the written language closer to the spoken one. On the other hand, the Yuan Dynasty policy required a new script which would allow the multi-lingual populations of Central Asia to communicate with one alphabet. For these reasons, Khubilai Khan ordered ’Phags-pa blama bLo- gros-rgyal-mts’an (1235-1280), a Tibetan monk (whom Khubilai granted a title of “state preceptor”), to invent a new script. Thus, ’Phags-pa created a new script with which Mongolian, Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Turkic words could be written. The majority of the monuments that have been preserved in this script are in Mongolian and Chinese. Yet, there are also some monuments in Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Turkish. For this reason, late Academician B. Y. Vladimirtsov rightly called the ’Phags-pa script a lingua franca.1 Historically, the language of the Mongolian monuments in ’Phags-pa script is based on one of the eastern Mongolian dialects of the XIII century. Therefore, its language is very similar to that of the “Secret History of the Mongols”, which was written in the court of the Mongol Khans. During the Yuan Dynasty (1260-1368), governmental, legal documents, and historical works were required by a decree of the Emperor to be written in ’Phags-pa script, thus a number of edicts, laws, and books are to be found in ’Phags-pa script. Unfortunately, most of ’Phags-pa documents have been destroyed due to constant warfare and the nature of the nomadic lifestyle. Only some seventy or so monuments have been preserved to our time. The majority of those monuments are the edicts of the Yuan Emperors like Khubilai, Buyantu, Yisüntemür, and Togontemür. Since these edicts were written according to an officially designed standard, their composition, style and vocabulary are close to one another. 1 B. Ja. Vladimircov, Mongol’skij meždunarodnyj alfavit XIII veka, KPV 10, 1931, 32-42 Mongolian Monuments in ’Phags-pa Script Monuments of literary works such as books are very rare among the language Mongolian monuments in ’Phags-pa script and until recently only a few fragments of Subhāsitaratnanidhi, a Buddhist sutra, were the evidence of such literary works. Yet, in the mid 1990s, several decrees produced by xylography were found in Tibet. These are the precious monuments of book printing in the ’Phags-pa script of the Yuan period. One of the important part of Mongolian monuments of ’Phags-pa script is the paizi, issued to the emperor’s envoys and messengers. At present, about ten tablets, of which impressions are very similar to each other, have been found. These tablets are the priceless monuments of Mongolian statehood and jurisprudence. 2. The Mongolian monuments in ’Phags-pa script are invaluable materials for the study of Middle Mongolian language, medieval Mongolian history, and the tradition of Mongolian statehood and jurisprudence. By the first half of the nineteenth century, Russian and European scholars started to study ’Phags-pa script and its monuments. Deciphering of the edict of Buyantu Khan and the impressions of the tablets found in Minusinsk and Nyuki by the Russian orientalists P. R. Savel’yev2, I. J. Schmidt3, and V. Grigor’yev4, marked the beginning of the study of ’Phags-pa script. Later on, A. A. Bobrovnikov5, a well known Russian Mongolist, studied several edicts like that of Buyantu and Widow of Dharmabala. Meanwhile, European scholars started to give attention to the study of ’Phags-pa script. In this way, the French scholar M. G. Pauthier6 compared the ’Phags-pa script to Tibetan, Sanskrit and Mongolian “galig” script. Then, A. Wylie7, Ed. Chavannes8, G. Huth9 studied the edict of Buyantu Khan 2 P. R. Savel’yev, V. Grigor’ev, Mongol’skaja nadpis’ vremen Möngche-chana, Protokol IX zasedanija Archeol. Numizm. Obšč. ot 17 aprelja 1847, ZSPANO, SPb., 1849, ss. 112-113; Mongol’skoe pajze, najdennoe v Zabajkal’skoj oblasti, TVOIRAO 2, 1856, 161-165 3 I. J. Schmidt, Über eine Mongolische Quadratschrift aus der Regierungszeit der Mongolischen Dynastie Jüan in China, Bulletin 4:9, 1848, 129-141 4 V. Grigor’yev, Mongol’skaja nadpis’ vremen Möngké-chana, najdennaja v Vostočnoj Sibiri. 1846, 1-26; Ob’jasnenie drevnej mongol’skoj nadpisi, najdennoj v Sibiri, ZMVD 16, 1846, 126-149 + 1 table 5 A. A. Bobrovnikov, Gramoty vdovy Darmabalovoj i Buyantu-chana, pisannye kvadratnym pis’mom, TVOIRAO 16, 1870, 50-76; Pamjatniki mongol’skago kvadratnago pis’ma, s dopolnenijami V. V. Grigor’eva, ibid. 1-90 6 M. G. Pauthier, De l’alphabet de P’a-sse-pa, et de la tentative faite par Khoubilai-Khan, au XIIIème siècle de notre ère, pour transcrire la langue figurative des Chinois au moyen d’une écriture alphabétique, JA 5:19, 1862, 1-47 7 A. Wylie, Sur une inscription mongole en caractères Pa‘-sse-pa, JA 19:4, 1862, 461-471 8 Ed. Chavannes, Inscriptions et pièces de chancellerie chinoise de l’époque mongole, T’P sér. 2, vol. 5, 1904, 357-447 + 5 tables; vol. 6, 1905, 1-42; vol. 9, 1908, 297-428, Pl. XIX 2 Introduction and the Chu-yung-kuan inscription. The work of the French scholar, R. Bonaparte, in his “Documents de l’époque mongole des XIIIème et XIVème siècles”, was very beneficial to the study of the ’Phags-pa script10. He printed the photographs of the edicts of Buyantu Khan, Prince Anand, and the Chu-yung-kuan inscription. This publication facilitated a direct access to some of the monuments written in ’Phags-pa script. Also, A. M. Pozdneyev11, a famous Mongolist, in the late nineteenth century, in his series of lectures, pushed the study of ’Phags-pa script further by publishing the edicts of Buyantu Khan, Widow of Dharmabala, and some other metallic tablets of Minus and Nyuki with commentaries. The discovery of a fragment of the written document in ’Phags-pa script and the subsequent reading of it by late Professor G. J. Ramstedt12 established the evidence of printed literary works in ’Phgs-pa script. Later on, P. Aalto13, a student of Ramstedt, made detailed research on the aforementioned fragment and established it as part of Subhāsitaratnanidhi. Furthermore, P. Pelliot14, G. Clauson15 and P. Aalto16 published articles on the origin and nature of the ’Phags-pa script. European scholars such as M. Lewicki17, E. Haenisch18, N. Poppe19 and L. Ligeti20 published collections of ’Phags-pa 9 G. Huth, Les Inscriptions mongoles, Note préliminaire sur l’inscription de Kiu-yong Koan, JA 9:5, 1895, 351-360 10 ème ème R. Bonaparte, Documents de l’époque mongole des XIII et XIV siècles, Paris, 1895, II + 5 + Planches 11 A. M. Pozdneyev, Lekcii po istorii mongol’skoj literatuty, čitannyja ordinarnym professorom Sankt Peterburgskogo universiteta v 1896/1897 akademičeskom godu, t. II, St. Petersburg, 1897, 1-221 12 G. J. Ramstedt, A Fragment of Mongolian Quadratic Script, Across Asia from West to East in 1906-1908, by C. G. E. Mannerheim, Helsinki, 1940, 1-5 13 P. Aalto, Fragmente des mongolischen Subhāsitaratnanidhi in Quadratschrift, MIO 3, 1955, 279-290; Zu den Berliner Turfan-Fragmenten T III D 322, JSFOu 61, 1959, 1-21 14 P. Pelliot, Sur l’origine de l’alphabet dit ’Phags-pa, JA 210, 1927, 372 15 G. Clauson, The hP’ags-pa Alphabet, BSOAS 22, 1959, 300-323 16 P. Aalto, Quadratic-Inschriften, Mongolistik {Handbuch der Orientalistik I:5.2}, Leiden/Köln, 1964, 104-107 17 M. Lewicki, Les inscriptions mongoles inédites en écriture carrée, CO 12, 1937, 1-72 18 E. Haenisch, Steuergerechtsame der chinesischen Klöster unter der Mongolenherrschaft: Eine kulturgeschichtliche Untersuchung mit Beigabe dreier noch unveröffentlichter Phagspa- Inschriften, Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig. Philologisch-historische Klasse, Bd. 92:2, Leipzig, 1940, 60-61, 65-66, 71-73; Taf. 3 19 N. Poppe, Kvadratnaja pis’mennost’ {= Istorija mongol’skoj pis’mennosti I}, Moscow- Leningrad, 1941, 1-167; The Mongolian Monuments in hP’ags-pa Script, 2nd edition {= GAF 8}, Wiesbaden, 1957, 1-147 3 Mongolian Monuments in ’Phags-pa Script script monuments consecutively. Professor Junast21, a Chinese scholar, deciphered a number of newly discovered monuments in ’Phags-pa script and published a collection of some forty monuments in Tokyo. His articles on the graphic structure and the linguistic featurers of the ’Phags-pa monuments are a valuable contribution to the study of this script. Recently, several new collections of Mongolian monuments in ’Phags-pa script have been published by D. Tömörtogoo22, Yo. Janchiv23 and Wu. Hugjiltu24. These collections have attracted scholars attention from the fields of Mongolian language, history, and the study of the ’Phags-pa script. In addition, works on the phonology and grammatical features of ’Phags-pa script by N. Poppe25, L. Ligeti26, Sh. Hattori 27 , Sh. Luvsanvandan 28 , D. Tömörtogoo 29 , Ts. Shagdarsüren 30 , Junast 31 , 20 L. Ligeti, Monuments en écriture ’Phags-pa {= MLMC III}, Budapest, 1972, 9-127 21 Junast, The Mongolian Monuments in ’Phags-pa Script II: Collection of Monuments (Basibazi he Mengguyu Wenxian II: Wenxian Huiji), Institute for the Study of Languages & Cultures of Asia & Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, 1991, 228 pp. (in Chinese) 22 D. Tömörtogoo, Мongol dörvölin üsegijn durasxalyn sudalgaa {= Monuments in Mongolian Languages II}, Ulaanbaatar, 2002, I-IV + 1-182 23 Yo. Îančiv, Dörvölžin üsgijn mongol dursgal {= Monumenta Mongolica III}, Centre for Mongol Studies, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, 2002, 195 pp.
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