YU Wonsoo. (2011). Some remarks on Mongolian solar terms: With special reference to the construction, meaning, and a Khalkha description of each solar term. Altai Hakpo 21: 79-108. The Altaic Society of Korea.

This paper investigates Khalkha Mongolian solar terms which were originated and established in Chinese culture, and borrowed to Mongolian through loan translations.

Mongolian solar terms are collected from various texts, and analyzed together with Inner Mongolian forms to find out the grammatical structure and the lexical meaning of each term. Dagur, and Manchu solar terms, which are also loan translations from Chinese, are compared with Mongolian forms.

Some centuries old texts of Korea and China such as Dong mun yu hae (1780), Yu zhi man zhu meng gu han zi san he qie yin qing wen jian (1780), Mong eo yu hae (1790), and Wu ti qing wen jian (1794), etc. were looked up to see if there is any trace that suggests the time or the purpose of borrowing.

This paper also reviews the descriptions on each solar term presented in a Khalkha publication to see how the concepts from Chinese sedentary agricultural traditions are adopted to the nomadic cattle raising Mongol soil.

Keywords: Mongolian solar terms, Mongolian, Dagur, Manchu, loan translation, Khalkha description of solar terms