Branch Secretariats of the Early Mongol Empire Revisited

This article examines the development of the Central Secretariat (zhongshu sheng; 中書省) and Branch Secretariats (xingsheng; 行省) in the early Mongol Empire. Before Chinggis Khan proclaimed the establishment of the Mongol Empire in 1206, the Mongols had already maintained a system of the central government. After occupying parts of North China and Central Asia, the Mongol imperial court appointed officials called “daruġa or daruġači” to many towns to rule the newly conquered agrarian and urban regions. Ögedei Khan employed a ruling system and human resources very similar to those of Chinggis Khan to control North China and Central Asia. During Ögedei’s reign, various official titles rendered in a Chinese style in Chinese sources—for example, zhongshu ling (中書令), zuo chengxiang (左丞相), and you chengxiang (右丞相)—were, in fact, Chinese translations of the Mongolian word “daruġa/daruġači.” In addition, the Central Secretariat installed during Ögedei’s expedition against the Jin Empire in 1231 was created to facilitate and manage the Mongol campaign in North China efficiently, serving as an office in which daruġačis attended and worked. Later, Güyük Khan’s and Möngke Khan’s local administration systems inherited those of Chinggis Khan and Ögedei Khan. Just like the Central Secretariat during Ögedei’s time, xing shangshusheng (行尙書省)—the representative local administrative apparatus during Möngke’s reign—was a Chinese rendition of imperial regional offices where officials like daruġači worked, rather than a Chinese-style institution modeled upon the traditional political system of China. During and after the Qubilai era, the Mongols continued to recognize the Central Secretariat and Branch Secretariats as imperial offices installed in major towns in China, in which high officials worked on behalf of Great Khans. In sum, the Branch Secretariats and local administrative system of the Mongol-Yuan Empire were derived more from the Mongol tradition of local administration than from the Chinese institutions.