This paper, by reconstructing the system of document materials during the Mongol-Yuan period, seeks to display the various ways that these materials spread, and also to discuss the current state of research on such materials. The object of this study is document materials in areas within the vast Mongol Empire, including the so-called Great Yuan State (Dai Ön Ulus), where most document materials are in Chinese. Thus, the areas under investigation here are primarily China and adjacent regions. I first specify what I mean by “documents” and “official documents.” Next I discuss how the functions of documents were transmitted and preserved. Then I divide document materials, according to their use, into original documents and copies, and present the particular functions of each. The copies that I will focus on are official documents on stelae and compilations of official documents. These two types of copies are important official document materials during the Mongol-Yuan period for the following two reasons. The first is that official documents on stelae tended to faithfully reproduce the original document’s format and calligraphy style, and on occasion, even the seal impression and stylized signature. The second is that a compilation of official documents is a collection composed of various types of official documents formatted according to the citation format used when the documents were created.
Yoshiyuki Funada (2024) studied this question.