Among the twenty-four histories, "Yuan History" is definitely the most difficult to read. This point was pointed out by Wei Yuan, a Qing Dynasty person. He said in the "New Edition of the History of the Yuan Dynasty": "Since the pre-national dynasties, the territory has not been outlined in the Yuan Dynasty, and the history books are not more than the Yuan Dynasty." This means that the territory of the Yuan Dynasty is very large, but the book "History of the Yuan" is also very bad. Some people even say that many of the names in this book are messed up, not only do they not understand the reading, but they all sound like they are foreign devils.
The first problem in the History of the Yuan Dynasty is that the lineage is very chaotic, and the entire Yuan Dynasty from Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, to the end of the reign of Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty, ruled the whole of China for only 98 years, which is less than half the length of the Qing Dynasty. However, the number of emperors produced by this dynasty was 11, which was one less than the 12 emperors of the Qing Dynasty. The speed of changing emperors is comparable to that of five dynasties and ten kingdoms.
This is not the point, the most terrible thing is that the Mongols did not have a descendant to inherit. The inheritance between the thrones is like a family, one moment is the father dies and the son succeeds, the other time is the brother and the younger brother, and then there are the ancestors and grandchildren, there are also the side lineage to seize the heir, and even the emperor who retreats and restores. The Yuan Dynasty demonstrated almost everything that could happen in the process of inheriting the ancient throne. Moreover, there are only six generations between these 11 emperors, which is equivalent to saying that half of them are people of the same generation who pass on the throne to each other, and it is almost a mess.
Even if the lineage is chaotic, the terrible thing is that many names in the "Yuan History" are translated randomly. For example, the three names of Wuliang Hedai, Wuliang Hetai, and Wuliang Hegang actually refer to the same person. There are also things like Subutai and Xuebutai, which are actually the same person, but they are divided into two biographies. And the general who conquered the Western Regions in this era is called Batu, and in the biography, the name is written as Badu, which is completely two people. Reading such a history book, even if you look for Emperor Yuan Shun, then he will be confused.
This is not over, "Yuan History" will not only give people a situation where there is more than one person, but also a situation where there will be more than one person. Like Timur, Boyan, and Tokhtar, a lot of them can pop up. At first, I thought it was one person, but later it turned out that it was completely two people, or even three people. In addition, there are also those who misremember the temple number, such as Taizu wrote Taizong, Xianzong wrote Shizu, and Shizu wrote Xianzong.
Wang Huizu of the Qing Dynasty said in his "Yuan Shi Benzheng" that there are nearly 3,700 errors in the "Yuan History". This level is not as good as stall literature. "Yuan History" can be written like this, largely because he wrote it too fast. The Yuan History Museum was opened in February of the second year of Hongwu, and the book was finished in August. But this version of "Yuan History" is so bad that even Zhu Yuanzhang can't stand it. It was the second time that Hongwu opened for the second time in three years, and on the basis of the previous year, it took another four months to sew and mend. "Yuan History" can be regarded as completely completed.
The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang was in such a hurry to finish the "History of the Yuan" was because the political value of this book far exceeded the historical value of the Ming Dynasty. In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, the country was not safe in the field of national defense. The Ming Dynasty occupied only the southeast, plus northern China. On three sides of the surrounding area, the Mongols remained in their sphere of influence. It is recorded in the "Records of Ming Taizu" that until the 30th year of Hongwu, when the Ming Dynasty had been attacking continuously for so many years, Mongolia still had huge combat effectiveness. This is also the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly sent a large number of sons to the north to be the king of Sai. In order to tell the world that the Yuan Dynasty had completely ended, Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly finished the "History of the Yuan" when he first ascended the throne, with the purpose of nailing him to the coffin board of the Yuan Dynasty.
After the completion of the "History of the Yuan Dynasty" in the third year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately told the Yuan Dynasty Sect about the people in the river. It means that I have finished the "Yuan History", and your side will be an illegal organization from today onwards. It is precisely because of this excessive pursuit of legitimacy that the quality of "Yuan History" was let go and became the bottom of the twenty-four histories.