Central Asia
longer appears only as a military hero but as a rhetorical leader who
The Oratory of Khans and
Queens
Reading The Secret History of the
Mongols Rhetorically
By Phillip P. Marzluf
The Secret History of the Mongols is a thirteenth-century Mongolian
text that describes the epic biography of Genghis Khan,1 beginning
with the mythical origins of his ancestors, followed by his miracu-
lous birth and then his gradual rise to power and death. Among the
literary traditions of Central Asia, its significance is immense. Ac-
cording to one scholar, Igor de Rachewiltz, The Secret History “
remains a true and original Mongolian product, unique of its kind,
for no other nomadic or semi-nomadic people has ever created a lit-
erary masterpiece like it.”2 It holds a special, if not sacred, place in
Central Asian literature. Although the “secret” in the title may indi-
cate that it was written for a select group of Mongolian readers and
listeners—the direct
descendants of Genghis
Khan—twenty-first-cen-
tury students and teach-
ers in North America
can benefit from its in-
sider’s perspective. It
provides a direct
account of twelfth- and
thirteenth-century
Central Asia that is not
influenced by the per-
spectives and special
interests of European,
Middle Eastern, or
Chinese sources.
Consisting of 282
sections and an ex-
tremely complicated
textual history, The Se-
cret History includes
Cover of an edition of The Secret History of the Mongols. poems, ruling decrees,
Source: Creative Commons at http://tiny.cc/ipaq5w. legal policies, folktales,
eyewitness and secondhand accounts of historical events, and songs
and stories about heroes.3 As an epic biography of Genghis Khan, it
has served many literary, linguistic, historical, and cultural pur-
poses—especially after its “rediscovery” in the late nineteenth cen-
tury by Western scholars and its translation into Russian, English,
and other languages. And after the collapse of the Soviet Union and
the introduction of democracy and a free market economy in Mon-
golia in the early 1990s, The Secret History now helps define Mongo-
lian identity through the authority of Genghis Khan.
What many readers and scholars have ignored, however, is the ex-
tent to which The Secret History is a rich rhetorical text, an impor-
tant source for speeches and oratorical styles that can tell us a great
deal about the values of elite Mongolians in the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries. Additionally, a rhetorical reading of The Secret
History provides a new way of looking at Genghis Khan, who no
1 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 18, Number 3
both listens carefully and speaks persuasively. Finally, The Secret His-
tory reveals an important communicative role for Mongolian
women.
Rhetoric can be loosely defined as the use of language by a
speaker or writer to produce some effect on a listener or reader. In
The Secret History, fitting for its epic scale, the rhetoric is heightened
and dramatic, demonstrating how Genghis Khan, his ancestors, and
his immediate descendants used language to persuade, induce coop-
eration, align themselves with other individuals and groups, or sym-
bolically separate themselves from others. Examples include
Genghis Khan when he prayed toward Mount Burkhan Khaldun to
praise the mountain for protecting him and when his sworn friend,
Jamukha, plead for Genghis Khan to execute him because of his dis-
loyalty.
A rhetorical reading will be sensitive to the different types of
speeches in The Secret History as well as to the ways in which the
characters interact with each other and represent themselves. Read-
ers should ask who is speaking to whom, about what, and for what
purposes and also examine the ways in which the speaker changes or
shapes the message (the “what”) for different audiences and pur-
poses. Examining Genghis Khan praising Mount Burkhan Khaldun,
students can pose these rhetorical questions and begin to unpack
what this short speech of praise reveals about the khan. How can
making this mountain a sacred site of worship be useful for Genghis
Khan? How does his direct address of the mountain serve as a mes-
sage for future Mongolian rulers—Genghis Khan’s descendants—
who he commands should continue this worship? How does
speaking about objects of the natural world aid his political cause?
While the speeches in The Secret History cannot be considered
faithful transcriptions of Genghis Khan, his followers and his ene-
mies (we have no idea what Jamukha’s last words were, and we can
be rightly suspicious about whether this final dramatic scene be-
tween Genghis Khan and Jamukha actually occurred), the fact that
these speeches are idealized—that they have been carefully selected
and crafted—does not detract from a rhetorical reading. Instead,
these idealized speeches may tell us a great deal about Genghis
Khan’s intellectual world and the core community values that were
used to support arguments and appeals, their rhetorical purposes,
the authority of the speakers, the audiences, the conditions of speak-
ing, and decisions about style.
The Rhetoric of Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan talks, argues, worships, plans, chastises, cites authori-
tative proverbs, and condemns in The Secret History. He also listens.
In fact, despite his image as the conquering warrior and leader, he is
surprisingly persuadable. He endows several of his followers, includ-
ing women, with the right to speak and to freely argue with him, re-
warding those who speak well. Furthermore, he acknowledges the
power of speech and recognizes the authority and permanence of
writing.
Many types of speeches exist in The Secret History, and it is im-
portant to remember that they support Genghis Khan’s political and
military leadership. In short, these speeches are “political,” making
Genghis Khan’s power (as well as that of his descendants) over Cen-
tral Asia and beyond appear natural, unquestionable, and inevitable.
In order to do so, almost every speech appeals to conservative and
militaristic values, such as unity, honesty, allegiance (which entails
individual self-sacrifice), and discipline. The use of authoritative
proverbs by Genghis Khan and other characters is one important
rhetorical strategy to support these values, linking them to older
Winter 2013
 Central Asia
traditions and long-lasting belief systems. Regardless of the speaking
strategy, the important point is that rhetoric makes new leadership
seem natural, including the belief that Mongolian rule is universal and
divinely sanctioned from Eternal Heaven.
Though marriage negotiations, poetic speeches of thanks and
praise, and prophecies exist in The Secret History, we shouldn’t be sur-
prised that many of the speeches are devoted to military decisions, in-
cluding pronouncements of military rulings and policies, speeches of
revenge, speeches about the military intentions of Genghis Khan’s en-
emies, and speeches from Genghis Khan’s advisers to persuade their
leader to take a different course of action. These latter types of
speeches are especially important, given how rhetoric functions in the
hierarchical and authoritative style of Mongolian leadership. The im-
portant point is that Genghis Khan can be persuaded and reasoned
with. In one scene, when Genghis Khan has decided to attack and de-
stroy his only remaining uncle on his father’s side, three of Genghis
Khan’s advisers recommended leniency, basing their argument largely
on the appeal to family. Genghis Khan reacts to this reasoning: “And
they reasoned with him until he was so moved that / He snuffled, as if
/ He had smoke in his nose.”4 Unlike unreasonable tyrants, the khan
can be moved by language, making him appear even more human. On
other occasions,
Genghis Khan de-
scribes the benefits of
persuasion by claim-
ing to one of his ad-
visers, “You urged me
to carry out what was
right, / You persuaded
me not to do what was
wrong, / and in this
way made me gain
this throne.”5 In other
words, Genghis Khan
links the persuasive
role of his advisors to
the consolidation of
his power. The ability
to be persuaded by his
advisors—not merely
military success—
A portrait of Genghis Khan. Source: Wikimedia Commons, made him successful.
http://tiny.cc/v5ge8w. Consistent with the
values that reinforce the rhetoric of the Mongolian leadership, two
important types of speeches in The Secret History are the allegiance
speech and the reward speech. In the allegiance speech, characters
submit themselves to Genghis Khan, swear an oath of loyalty, extol
the benefits they will bring to the khan, and define their responsibili-
ties as well as the consequences if they fail to meet their obligations.
For North American students and readers, we rarely find ourselves
having to address our allegiance in such formal ways, although mar-
riage vows and other pledges and oaths may share a similar rhetorical
purpose.
Whereas the allegiance speech projects upward, the reward
speeches function in reverse, shifting the power and resources from
the khan to those who have served him and have pledged their loyalty
and allegiance. A series of reward speeches occur directly after
Genghis Khan receives his title as leader. Consequently, these
speeches strengthen his new leadership, and the khan recognizes the
services that his followers have rendered, thus completing the
reciprocal cycle of allegiance and reward. In this type of speech,
Genghis Khan first reports the services that have been offered,
which may include prophecies that foresaw his rise to power and re-
vealed the divine sanctioning of his rule, sound advice and persua-
sion, and examples of honesty and self-sacrifice. Genghis Khan then
enumerates the rewards, which can be access to women, the location
where the loyal subject can sit in relationship to himself, a title of au-
thority, the privilege to advise him, the command over a tribe or
group of soldiers, grazing and territorial rights, and immunity from
prosecution for future crimes.
As the descendants of Genghis Khan invaded other cultures,
these rhetorical qualities of The Secret History became even more
important. After all, the power of Genghis Khan and his descen-
dants did not rest solely on military strength and violence; their rule
required rhetoric to legitimize them to the nations they defeated. A
text such as The Secret History became extremely useful, for it
stretched back to the founding ancestral myths of Genghis Khan,
making him the ultimate divinely sanctioned authority. Who could
question the greatness of a leader whose sacred text links him di-
rectly to Eternal Heaven? For contemporary readers, a rhetorical
reading provides one additional benefit. Similar to the work of pop-
ular historians such as Jack Weatherford, who has placed Genghis
Khan in the center of the development of the modern world, a study
of Genghis Khan as a careful speaker and a thoughtful listener helps
challenge or at least complicate his connection to barbarity, violence,
and rapaciousness.
Unity Speeches: The Rhetoric of Mothers, Wives, and Queens
In The Secret History, women play important roles as orators, teach-
ers, and advisers—an exceedingly rare feature in the history of rhet-
oric. Genghis Khan, though he assumes that the communicative
abilities of women are inherently weaker, does recognize moments
in which individual female oratorical performances outperform
those of men. For example, he praises Old Usun, a woman whose
honest counsel was useful to him, and grants her future access to
him.
Oftentimes, women in The Secret History step in and respond
during important exigencies—a term for those problems, conflicts,
disturbances, crises, or social imbalances that affect a community
and that motivate speakers to reach out to audiences in order to
counter the ill effects of these exigencies. Exigencies can provoke a
response at the level of the nation, such as concern over the security
of national borders, or can stir a specific group into action, such as
faculty at a state university responding to the exigence of low salaries
(or students at the same school arguing over the exigence of in-
creased tuition fees).
As North Americans argue over the exigencies of privacy, immi-
gration, and gun violence, The Secret History suggests that elite male
Mongolians worried a great deal about unity—an anxiety that may
be caused by external threats, questions about paternal legitimacy,
the ways in which power and goods were distributed, or other rea-
sons. In five scenes, Genghis Khan and other male characters talk or
act in ways toward an exigence that compromises the unity of the
family or the nation. In response, authoritative mothers or wives in-
tervene and emphasize the core value of unity by using their own
bodies as symbols, repeating traditional proverbs, and relying on
other instructional means.
In an early scene, which depicts a mythical time with Genghis
Khan’s distant ancestors, it is easy to understand why family unity
has been called into question. Alan “the Beautiful” has five children,
yet her last three were born after the death of her husband. Her
2
 Central Asia

eldest two children are understandably suspicious about the paternity maintain the khan’s power. In short, rhetoric gains its potential because
of their three younger brothers. Acknowledging their suspicion, Alan of the authority of Genghis Khan, but at the same time, it is severely
first provides a physical demonstration of the power of unity. In the limited by the fact that rhetorical power flows so closely around this
well-known “arrow scene,” which had been circulated among folk tra- figure. This is not to say that the value of unity is only an empty phrase,
ditions predating those in Mongolia, Alan produces five arrows and a lie to bolster the khan’s power, or an early example of Mongolian
asks her sons to snap the individual arrows in half.6 Then, bundling five propaganda. No, these unity speeches and didactic scenes are far too
arrows together, she has her sons attempt to break them, which they important in how they structure The Secret History and illustrate
cannot. Alan explains this lesson, referring to the unifying symbol of Genghis Khan’s rise to power. That being said, unity lies as an unre-
her womb: solved rhetorical exigence in these speeches, a community value and
You, my five sons, were born of one womb. If, like the five arrow- anxiety that orators, storytellers, and writers will continue to
shafts just now, each of you keeps to himself, then, like those sin- explore.
gle arrow-shafts, anybody will easily break you. If, like the bound Conclusion
arrow-shafts, you remain together and of one mind, how can For students, a reading of The Secret History that is at least a little in-
anyone deal with you so easily?7 formed by rhetoric allows them to see this epic beyond its usual func-
Her lesson and explanation support a brief speech, which is part super- tion to reveal something about Central Asian history, philology,
natural explanation and part prophecy. The father of the three youngest linguistics, and culture. Rhetorical questions can allow students to iso-
sons is the Sun, “a resplendent yellow man” who enters “by the light of late speaking strategies, examples of style, community values, and key
the smoke-hole or the door top of the tent,” making her youngest three events and scenes. They enable students to define rhetoric and catego-
the “sons of Heaven.”8 Alan prophesizes that they are destined to be- rize the roles of speaking/writing and listening/reading—and to ques-
come rulers—a prophecy that comes true once Genghis Khan is de- tion the ways in which they are defining and categorizing these
clared ruler over all the Mongolian tribes. communicative acts. Students can search for examples of strong rheto-
The next scene, set during Genghis Khan’s youth, highlights another ric, in which language itself is regarded as something that has real, ma-
strong female orator, Hoelun, the mother of Genghis Khan. She re- terial effects. Rhetoric that can kill, for example, is exemplified by
sponds to another crisis over unity, yet this time the reasons for the Jamukha’s ability to terrify and destroy the morale of Genghis Khan’s
conflict are less clear. Her oldest two sons are fighting with their two enemies by his words alone. Conversely, students can search for exam-
younger half-brothers, who share a different mother, over small thefts ples of weak rhetoric in which language is assumed to be a weak reflec-
of fish and wild game. Referring to the “arrow scene” above, Hoelun ar- tion of real action. Finally, a rhetorical reading can hint at the roles that
gues for the need of unity and cites an old proverb: “We have no friend speaking and writing play in the rise of Genghis Khan and the Mongo-
but our shadow, / We have no whip but our horse’s tail.”9 Later in The lian empire—alongside, beyond, and crucially in place of military
Secret History, a much older Hoelun again appeals to the khan’s values actions and violence. Entertaining the possibility of a speaking and
of unity after she discovers that he is questioning the loyalty of his
brother and roughly interrogating him. Hoelun bares her breasts,
which she depicts, along with her womb, as physical symbol of unity:
“They are the breasts that suckled you, and these are the ones who,
rushing out of my womb, / Have snapped at their own afterbirth, /
Have cut their own birth cord.”10 In the final two unity-focused rhetori-
cal scenes, two of Genghis Khan’s wives take over oratorical roles, and
they share a common concern: how to motivate Genghis Khan to pro-
mote the unity of his family and his newly formed nation by protecting
his sons and brothers from the insults of a powerful rival family and by
determining his successor.
The outcomes of these speeches are troubling. Once Alan “the Beau-
tiful” passes away, her sons do not remember her teaching and words
about unity but rather immediately divide up their property and ex-
clude the youngest brother from his share. After Hoelun’s speech to the
young Genghis Khan, he does not live peacefully with his half-broth-
ers. He murders one of them. In the third unity speech, the older
Genghis Khan reports feeling shame at his mother’s use of her body,
her authority, and her anger. Yet afterward, he acts in ways that indicate
the rhetorical effect of Hoelun’s powerful performance was only fleet-
ing. After backing down from his mother, Genghis Khan quietly orders
his younger brother to be stripped of much of his power.
Why are these speeches such failures? Why do they not induce the
cooperation of the listeners? Why do they not serve to strengthen the
audience’s attachment to the core values of unity? These scenes may tell
us something about the limitations of rhetoric itself in a period when
the authority of who can speak and for what purpose belongs solely to
Genghis Khan. Even the core rhetorical value of unity gets tempered, at
least in the first three unity speeches, by the compulsion to assert and

3 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 18, Number 3 Winter 2013

 Central Asia

listening Genghis Khan—a rhetorical Genghis Khan—can help

readers and students see beyond his more limited image as warrior,
invader, and tyrant.

NOTES

1. For the sake of consistency, the hero of e Secret History is re-

ferred to as Genghis Khan throughout this article. is spelling is the
most commonly recognized, though if rendered phonetically “Ching-
gis Khan” is closer to the Mongolian pronunciation. Until he was de-
clared leader or khan, Genghis Khan was known as Temujin.
2. Igor de Rachewiltz, trans., e Secret History of the Mongols: A
Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the irteenth Century (Leiden: Brill Aca-
demic Publishers, 2006), xxvi.
3. For accounts on how e Secret History was composed, interested
readers should consult John Man, Genghis Khan: Life, Death, and Res-
urrection (New York: omas Dunne Books, 2005), 23, 31-37; and
Rachewiltz, xxix-lix.
4. Rachewiltz, 167. Rachewiltz’s translation of e Secret History of the
Mongols is used throughout this article.
5. Ibid., 138.
6. Larry Moses, “e Quarrelling Sons in the Secret History of the
Mongols,” e Journal of American Folklore 100, no. 395 (January
1987): 63.
7. Rachewiltz, 5.
8. Ibid., 4.
9. Ibid., 20.
10. Ibid., 169.

PHILLIP P. MARZLUF is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Kansas

State University. From 1994 to 1996, Marzluf worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mon-
golia. and he has returned many times to conduct research about the impact of English
upon Mongolians’ attitudes toward language and their reading and writing practices.
Currently, he is working on a book-length project about how literacy helps reveal the
enormous social changes that have occurred in Mongolia over the past 100 years.