Materials of the Chinese official chronicles of the imperial dynasties Song and Yuan on the time of the massacre of the Alan warriors during the Mongol conquest of Southern China

Abstract

Based on the information presented in the official chronicles of the Chinese imperial dynasties Song and Yuan, the author discusses the issue of the time of the massacre of the Alan warriors in Mongol service, that occurred during their occupation of the southern Chinese city of Zhenchao. The study of this issue seems relevant, since the information of the mentioned Chinese official chronicles, in the same way conveying the general plot of this event, diverges in the designation of its time, attributing it to different reign years of the first emperor of the Yuan dynasty Kublai (Shi-zu) and to one of the years of the sixteenth emperor of the Song Dynasty Zhao Xian (Gong of Song). The materials for the study were the original texts of the official “History of Song [Dynasty]” and the “History of Yuan [Dynasty]” as well as some other Chinese written sources. The study introduces new information from sources about this event, which have not previously been translated into Russian. A brief historiographic review of this issue is given. The purpose of the study is to definite the time of the massacre of Alan warriors in Southern China. In the course of the study the inductive method, the method of comparative historical analysis, systemic chronological and retrospective analytical methods were applied. It was found that the information about the time of the event in question contained in various sections of the “History of the Yuan [Dynasty]” is erroneous, while the similar information about the time of the event in question contained in the “History of Song [Dynasty]” is correct, as it was indicated by P. Pelliot. The translation of the latter information into the modern chronology system allows to determine the time of this historical episode on April 28, 1275.