MONGOLIAN HEROIC LITERATURE

Author(s): David C. Montgomery

Source: The Mongolia Society Bulletin , Spring, 1970, Vol. 9, No. 1 (16) (Spring, 1970),
pp. 30-36
Published by: Mongolia Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43192935

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 MONGOLIAN HEROIC LITERATURE*

by

David C. Montgomery

Introduction

The epic is a form of literary expression which is well developed

among all branches of the Mongolian peoples; the Eastern and Southern
group, which are the Mongols proper of the present-day Mongolian People's
Republic and the Mongolian Autonomous Region of the Chinese People's
Republic; the Northern group, conposed of the Buriats of the trans -
Baikal region in the Soviet Union; and the Western group, being the
Oirats and Kalmyks of western Mongolia. Sinkiang province of the CPR
and of the lower Volga region in the USSR. The style and content of
the epic literature of these peoples have much in common, but I shall
mainly discuss its appearance in the literature of the Eastern and
Southern groups, the Mongols proper.

General features of form and content

The Mongolian epic tales (tuuli üliger) are heroic in conten

verse in form, and are part of the Mongolian oral literary tradition.
It is only relatively recently that they have been written down.

The epics are often of great length and usually portray aristo-
cratic figures in activities which generally reflect the post -Yuan
(from 1368) period of internecine strife in Mongolia. The hero is often
a ruler or noble who meets with hardship but triumphs after many trials.

The epic poetry form consists of a series of two or three initially

alliterated lines. Each line has a restricted number of syllables,
usually seven or eight. There is no poetic rhyme. The alliteration
not only gives poetic form to the epic tales, but also serves as a
memory guide. The liliger is characterized by parallelisms and exagér-
ations; these, however, often appear due to selecting words which fit
the syllabic and alliterative characteristics of the line.
The epic tales were and still are in the memories and mouths of
the general populace; ^there were, and still are a few, professional
story tellers (üligerci) who presented the epic tales in a high art
form. Sometimes there was a stylized ritual for "the narration: there

^"Originally presented on a panel, "Heroic Literature in East Asia," at

the March I969 meeting of the Association for Asian Studies (Boston).

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 31

was a certain time of assembly; the ritually unclean were excluded

from the story circle; for the more familiar tales there were response
phrases from the audience; often the narration was musically accompanied
by notes from the s ingle -stringed horse-head fiddle (mor in zuur).

The historical genesis and background of the Mongolian epics

The Mongolian epics were formed prior to the late seventeenth

century, before the expanding Russian and Chinese enpires restricted
cultural interchange among the Mongolian peoples.

There are two main areas of epic development: that centered on

Chinggis Khan, and that concerned with petty khans and commoners; the
latter group may in part be rework ings of older tribal legends from
the pre -Chinggis Khan period.

Chinggis Khan (Termicin) became the most successful of the tribal

lords, and his successes generated numerous legends and epics about
him. Native accounts of Chinggis Khan mix both fact and fancy. These
were often repeated by later chroniclers. Chinggis Khan became the
object of a cult; stores about him are a cross between epic and didactic
literature. In them Chinggis Khan is not only a hero and the inspira-
tion of knightly heros, but he is also a wise teacher. The tales
centered on Chinggis Khan reflect the "feudal" organization of the
Mongols. The oldest example is the well-known Secret History, an
inter-twining of historical and legendary events. These tales set
forth the aristocratic ideals embodied by Chinggis Khan, particularly,
the relationship of the leader and his followers: the khan has almost
unlimited powers; his vassals must be obedient and faithful. The khan
and his hero-warriors have a symbiotic relationship. A warrior1 s
prestige is enhanced by service to a strong khan, and a khan1 s prestige
is enhanced by having valiant warriors in his service. Eļpic tales of
this period do not exclusively deal with Chinggis Khan, but he is a
central figure as is King Arthur in the Round Table stories. In these
tales the canpaigns of Chinggis Khan are secondary; his personal deeds
and sayings are more prominent. These tales have no local character
and reflect a united Mongolia. They are now widespread among all Mongol
groups.

The social, economic and political decline of the Mongols after

the end of the Yuan dynasty (1368) affected the development of epic-
style literature. Though the image of Chinggis Khan remained untar-
nished, that of his successors as Great Khan was less prestigeous. The
period of Chinggis Khan when the Great Khan had prestige and authority
became en irretrievable golden age. Khans in the later tales appear as
negative figures. Individual lords are the epic heros. The post-Yuan
tales enphasize the rights of the nobles, not obedience to the khan.
The khan is presented often as a most unattractive, unjust and cruel
figure; he is always the cause of strife. The hero is generally honest,
just and gentle. He is innocent in the turmoil started by the khan. This

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 32

possibly reflects the Buddhist influence of the period which taught

against being the cause of death and injury. The anti-khan aspects of
many stories may reflect the fact that most story tellers came from the
lower social and economic classes; however, some bards of noble origin
are mentioned in historical records. The post-Yuan internecine strife
provided great social mobility to the talented and hard -working. The
power of the khan was attainable by individual efforts. The khan's
position had less respect, and he was no longer an ivory -tower figure
like Chinggis.

The Mongolian epic tales do not feature only accounts of conflicts

among human beings. The most prominent alternate villain is the mangus t
a cruel, many -headed man-beast. One description of a mangus is given in
John R. Krueger's translation of the epic of Amar Jargal Khan (Mongolian
Folktales, Stories and Proverbs, Bloomington, Indiana, 1967, p. 53;.

The crooked, black Mangus came, he whose toe nails were blue
iron hooks bent outwards, and whose finger nails were steel
files bent outwards, his thin beard was bristly and scraggly,
and his fifteen heads were erect and looked about.

One is reminded of Grim Grendle in the Anglo-Saxon, Beowulf epic.

Despite his beastly form, the mangus often fulfills the same role as
a khan; he has nobles, vassals, servants, herds and treasures. The
mangus stories possibly have an earlier origin than the khan-warrior
tales, for among the forest -dwelling Buriats, who were less affected
by the wars of the nomadic aristocrats, the epic villain is almost
always a beast of some sort. Because the mangus and khan-warrior epic
tales contain such similar features, it is possible that the story-
teller altered the nature of the villain to suit his audience; thus,
the common people heard about a wicked khan, and the feudal lords
heard about a cruel mangus.

The Tibet o -Mongo lian Geser epic

Though of Tibetan origin, the Geser epic has been incorporated

into the inventory of Mongolian heroic literature. The story cycle,
which has been called the Odessy of Central Asia, concerns the many
deeds of Bogdo Geser Khan, the earth-born son of Khormasta, who came
to earth to fight the evil among men. The exploits of Geser are
believed to have had their origin in tenth century events in the Amdo
region of north-western China when the Tibetan Tangut tribes were con-
tending with the Chinese, Karluk -Turks and Sarigh Uyghur-Turks. The
Geser adventures in their existing Mongolian manuscript forms contain
many narrative passages, thus indicating their translated nature. The
Geser cycle, despite its Tibetan origin, contains marçy features similar
to native Mongolian tales, revealing the common modes of life of these
two pastoral, nomadic peoples.

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 33

The epic -hero tales in recent times

Though the basic epic content and style were formulated before
the end of the seventeenth century, the epic has continued to develop.
New exploits have been ascribed to old heroes, and some new heroes
have appeared. For exanple, there are the tales of Java Batur and
Jingin Batur, whose valorous deeds saved the Kalrrçyks during their
return from the Volga to China in 1771. New elements appear; the hero
may be armed with a gun and smoke tobacco. The first Mongolian hist-
orical novel, the Blue Sutra (Koke sudur), written in the second half
of the nineteenth century by Injinashi, though modeled on the Chinese
novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, incorporated the vigorous action
characteristic of the epic tale. In twentieth century Mongolia "official"
heroic tales commemorating the revolution have been conposed on the epic
model. Mongolian drama of the early 19li0's iras criticized for its pre-
occupation with historical and epic -type themes which were not too
effective in presenting Marxist -Leninist ideology.

The structure of an epic tale

Though each epic tale has its own distinguishing features, all are
characterized by certain common features of content and organization.
Making an oversimplified statement, it could be said that by using the
standard organizational framework and a finite, but varied number of
situations and characters, almost an infinite variety of epic -type tales
could be produced by the mere process of substitution. E£ic tales are
usually structured in the following general pattern:
Introduction: The scene is set. The hero is introduced. His
lineage is given. The hero's character is described, and his family is
portrayed. His flocks and herds are enumerated. For exanple, here is
the introduction to L. Bese1 s translation of the Tale of Jangar Khan,
(L. Bese, "Two Western Khalkha Tales," Acta Orientalia Hungarica. Tomus
XVII, Fase. 1 (196Ì4) , p. 57). Notice the exaggeration and parallelism
which characterize the epic tale:

He lived very long ago - it is told - ,

Uidzen Khan's descendent,
Nasan-aldar Khan's son,
Arin-aldar Khan1 s grandson,
the contenporary majestic little Dzangar Khan.
He had innumerable subjects,
soldiers more than the hair on his head,
summer quarters on a hundred river -heads,
autumn quarters on eighty river heads,
spring quarters at the shore of Satab four seas,
winter quarters on the southern slope of the wadding-white mountain,
a stud proliferated to a million by the sardal 1 s* descendent,
five-thousand yellow castrated camels of an elephant's size,
light-grey sheep covering the plain,
black -grey crossbred yaks covering the hilly field.

*A type of wild ass.

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 3li

The hero is challenged: A wicked, evil and marauding rival

noble or mangus -beast appears and kills or sorely harms the hero.
The hero's wealth may be diminished and his wife stolen. The hero1 s
sad fate is attributed to his preoccupation with other things, to
failure to heed the advice of his family or his horse. (Horses are
important figures in these "wild east" tales just as in the American
"wild west" tales.) Or the hero's misfortune is due to other tenporary
shortcomings. For example, in one of the Geser cycle tales, Geser has
been given a drink of forget fulness by a wicked woman and he dallies
with her while evil khans invade his homeland and capture his wife.
(This is somewhat similar to Ulysses' interlude with Circe in the
Odyssey. )

The hero is revived; By the efforts of his family, friends,

faithful horse or divine intervention the hero is restored to his health
and senses. The hero "girds --up his loins" and sets out after his foe,
sometimes alone, sometimes with his hero -companions (Geser had thirty-
three), but always with a faithful horse. I will quote again from
Bese' s translation of Jangar Khan. Notice the detailed description of
the horse (pp. 62-63):

Then deciding to go to war, the khan, since he was about to go

with his ten white heroes, preparing his horse, took his arms.
The majestic Dzangar Khan's experienced sorrel, stallion colt
by the red mare of the stud, the descendent of the wild ass and
wild horse, generally became a very good horse.

When he was a one-year-old colt, he was frisking on the halter,

when he was unbroken, he got accustomed to the bridle,
cast silver's nosed,
cast silver's lipped,
chalcedon gem's eye-toothed,
trunp et -shell' s nosed,
bright eyed,
lion's broad chested,
pi ier s -j oweled ,
steel hoofed,
rabid elephant's powered,
fine stag's thighed,
fine roe-doe's necked,
fine hind' s eared,
fine wolf' s withersed,
fine rabbit's backed,
fine peafowl' s tailed,
his backgone' s flesh covered with sinews,
his leg' s flesh is full of power,
such a handsome horse he was.

The hero takes revenge: The hero pursues his foe and eventually
defeats the rival khan, prince or mangus through a series of contests
or in a single conflict by means of strength, guile or even magic. In
doing so, the hero recovers his lost possessions, perhaps increases his

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 35

wealth, regains his faithful wife or kills her if she has deceived him.
In this vigorous expisode the hero's wonder steed is often a great aid.
The combat with the foe is often quite formal; when the protagonists
meet, genealogies are exchanged, and the time and place of conflict
are agreed on.

The victory is celebrated: The hero returns triunphantly with

his goods and booty. Evil has been vanquished, and right has been
justified. There is prolonged feasting. Sometimes the hero marries
the fair maiden whom he has saved. I quote again from John R. Krueger1 s
translation of Amar Jargal Khan (p. 59).

He came again past his son's place and led him home and
turned back. So it is said. There where the Thin River rises,
at the spot where eight streams converge, he put up sixty rows
of horse -hitching lines, and caught and bound foals, which were
as numerous as little fishes. He organized a celebration which
lasted sixty years, and he elevated the danshik -mandala"" for
eight days and lived in peace and happiness. So it is said."

Conclusion

Mongolian epic -heroic literature embodies with vigor and color

the traditions and character of a nation in the framework of times-
long -past. Despite great changes in Mongolian society during the last
few decades, the basic ideals set forth in these tales continue to have
an influence on the self-realization process of modern Mongolia.

A Land s t ritual symbol.

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 SOURCE TEXTS

Bese, L. "Two Western Khalkha Tales," Acta Ori entalia Hungarica,

tonus XVII, fase. 1 (1961;), pp. U9-67.

Damdinsiiren, Ts. Istoriceskiy korni geseriady (Moscow, 1957).

Gerasimovic, L. K. Literatura mongol* skoy narodnoy rêspubliki,

1921 -1961t (Leningrad, 1965).

Heissig, Walther. A Lost Civilization, the Mongols Rediscovered

(Londons Thames and Hudson, 19o6).

Krueger, John R. (ed.). Mongolian Folktales. Stories and Proverbs,

in English translation (Bloomington, Inc.: The Mongolia
Society, 1967).

Laufer, Berthold. Ocerk mongol1 skoy literatury (Leningrad, 1927).

Poppe, Nicholas N. Xalxa -mongol1 skiy gêroicêskiy epos (Moscow, 1937).

Vladinârtsov, Boris Y. Mongolo -oy rat skiy gêroicfeskiy epos (Moscow,
1923).

Zeitlin, Ida. Gessar Khan (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1927).

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