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Chinese Literature
Hulan debther (Huangce) 忽蘭迭卜帖兒 (紅冊) "The Red Book"


The Hu-lan deb-ther (Mongolian for: Red Book; Tibetan title: Deb-ther dmar-po) is a history of China from the viewpoint of a Tibetan noble named Kun-dgah rDo-rje ("Gongge Duorzhi" 公哥朵兒只 ). Beginning with the origin of Buddhism in India and some Buddhist dynasties in India, Kungah Dorje describes the Chinese dynasties from the Zhou 周 to the downfall of Song 宋 in 1368. He then proceeds to China's neighbours establishing Chinese-style states, like the Western Xia (Xixia 西夏), as well as the and the Mongols from their origin to the downfall of the Yuan dynasty 元 (1279-1368). The last part of this chapter must have been written by another person - Kungah Dorje died in 1365, just before the Ming dynasty 明 (1368-1644) was founded. The central part of the book is nevertheless the history of Tibet from the early kings to the transmission of Buddhism and the development of the Tibetan schools of Buddhism.
The "Red Book" (Chinese: Hongce 紅冊) is divided either into 26 or 8 parts - depending on the edition.
Kungah Dorje retired from his office as head of the Chaliba XXX in 1352 and started compilingseveral historical books about Tibetan history which are very important for the historiography of Tibet (Tubo 吐蕃 [some authors falsely read "Tufan"]) in its early centuries.


Source: Zhongguo da baike quanshu, Zhongguo lishi, vol. 1, p. 367.

Exemplarious translation:


Translated by .

Chinese literature according to the four-category system

July 11, 2010 © · Ulrich Theobald · Mail