The Precious Summary: A History of the Mongols from Chinggis Khan to the Qing Dynasty

The Mongols, their khans, and the empire they built and ruled in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries exert an enduring fascination. Caricatured as a marauding horde that ravaged surrounding peoples, in reality the Mongols created institutions, trading networks, economic systems, and intellectual and technological exchanges that shaped the early modern world. However, the centuries after the waning of Mongol power remain overlooked in comparison to the days of Chinggis Khan.

The Precious Summary is the most important work of Mongolian history on the three-hundred-year period before the rise of the Manchu Qing dynasty. Written by Sagang Sechen in 1662, shortly after the Mongols' submission to the Qing, it chronicles the fall of the Yuan dynasty in China, the Mongol-Oirat wars, and the revival of Mongol power during the reign of Dayan Khan in the sixteenth century. Sagang Sechen's masterful account spans Buddhist cosmology, Chinggis Khan, the post-Yuan Mongols, Chinese history, and the Mongols' conversion to Buddhism--and throughout, it attempts to come to terms with the new Manchu state. Featuring extensive and accessible annotations and explanations of historical context, Johan Elverskog's translation of the Precious Summary offers invaluable perspective on Inner Asian and Chinese history, Mongolian historiography, and the history of Buddhism in Asia.


About the Author

Sagang Sechen was born in 1604 into an important aristocratic family in Ordos in what is now the southwest part of Inner Mongolia. He distinguished himself in both military and bureaucratic service, including advising his local ruler to submit to the Manchu Qing dynasty in 1635. Little is known about his later life.

Johan Elverskog is Dedman Family Distinguished Professor, professor of religious studies, and, by courtesy, professor of history at Southern Methodist University. His books include The Buddha's Footprint: An Environmental History of Asia (2020).