中英雙語話史記 第36期:秦朝

Qin Dynasty

秦朝

General

概況

Much of what came to constitute China Proper was unified for the first time in 221 B. C.

中國本土的大部分地區在公元前221年獲得了統一。

In that year the western frontier state of Qin, the most aggressive of the Warring States, subjugated the last of its rival states. (Qin in Wade-Giles Romanization is Ch’in, from which the English China probably derived.)

那一年，戰國時代最具野心的國度——地處西陲的秦國征服了最後一個對手。（“Qin”在威瑪妥式拼音法裏的發音是“Ch’in”，這也是“中國”英文發音的來源。）

Once the king of Qin consolidated his power, he took the title Shi Huangdi (First Emperor), a formulation previously reserved for deities and the mythological sage-emperors, and imposed Qin’s centralized, nonhereditary bureaucratic system on his new empire.

秦朝的國君一確立自己的統治，就自稱“始皇帝”（意爲“第一問君主”），這個名字原先稱呼神和神話中的聖明天子的，現在則被始皇帝用來描述秦國的集中且非世襲的官僚體制。

In subjugating the six other major states of Eastern Zhou, the Qin kings had relied heavily on Legalist scholar-advisers.

在征服東周的其他六個主要國家時，秦國曾經非常依賴與法家學派的諫言者。

Centralization, achieved by ruthless methods, was focused on standardizing legal codes and bureaucratic procedures, the forms of writing and coinage, and the pattern of thought and scholarship.

從冷酷的執政下獲得的中央集權關注於標準化的法令和官僚流程、造幣和書寫的形式以及學派的思考模式。

To silence criticism of imperial rule， the kings banished or put to death many dissenting Confucian scholars and confiscated and burned their books.

爲了消除人們對於帝國統治的異議，秦始皇放逐或處死了許多持不同意見的儒家學派學者，並把他們的典籍沒收和焚燒。

Qin aggrandizement was aided by frequent military expeditions pushing forward the frontiers in the north and south.

秦朝的擴張是藉助於頻繁的軍事遠征來擴大其版圖的北部和南部。

To fend off barbarian intrusion, the fortification walls built by the various warring states were connected to make a 5 000-kilometer-long great wall.

爲了抵禦蠻族人的進犯，由戰國的一些國家建造的防禦城牆被連接起來構成了一個長達5000千米的長城。

What is commonly referred to as the Great Wall is actually four great walls rebuilt or extended during the Western Han, Sui, Jin, and Ming periods, rather than a single, continuous wall.

我們通常所說的長城其實是在西漢、隋朝、晉朝和明朝時期重建和擴展的四座長城而不是一座單一的持續了很長時間的長城。

At its extremities, the Great Wall reaches from northeastern Heilongjiang Province to northwestern Gansu.

長城最遠從黑龍江省的東北部一直延伸至甘肅省的西北部。

A number of public works projects were also undertaken to consolidate and strengthen imperial rule.

還有其他一些公共事業項目在進行以穩固和強化帝國的統治。

These activities required enormous levies of manpower and resources ， not to mention repressive measures.

這些活動需要徵集大量的人力和物力，更不必說一些鎮壓措施了。

Revolts broke out as soon as the first Qin emperor died in 210 B. C.

秦始皇在公元前210年一去世，反叛就立刻爆發了。

His dynasty was extinguished less than twenty years after its triumph.

他的王朝在勝利之後僅僅存在了不到20年。

The imperial system initiated during the Qin dynasty, however, set a pattern that was developed over the next two millennia.

然而，由秦朝首創的國家體系爲今後兩千多年的朝代建立了模式並得以發展。