用英語說中國秦朝

　　把英語融入到閱讀當中，可以有效提高自己的英語水平。小編在此獻上用英語來了解中國的歷史文化，希望大家喜歡。

　　：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”在威瑪妥式拼音法裡的發音是“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”意為“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.

　　為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.

　　為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線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充套件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專案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為今後兩千多年的朝代建立了模式並得以發展。

　　：The Despotic Rule of Qin 秦的暴政

　　The First Emperor not only unified the country's territory, he also unified the laws, the written language, currency, and a system of weights and measurements.

　　秦始皇不僅統一了中國，還統一了法律、文字、貨幣和度量衡。

　　The writ of the Qin Empire spread far and wide, giving rise to its international name “ China”，which was a transliteration of “Qin”.

　　秦朝的法令廣為流傳，它因此獲得了一個國際名號“China”，這是“Qin”的音譯。

　　Unification of the country freed the people of incessant wars.

　　國家的統一使人們免於接連的戰爭。

　　The despotic rule of the emperor， however， plunged them into another abyss of suffering.

　　然而君主的暴政將他們推入了另一個苦難的深淵。

　　Qin law was harsh and merciless, embodied by many gruesome punishments.

　　秦朝的法令是嚴酷且殘忍的，具體表現為很多可怕的懲罰。

　　The death penalty could be carried out by tearing apart the convict alive by typing his four limbs and head to five wagons pulling in five directions, or slashing him into halves by the waist, cutting open his belly, or boiling him in a big pot, etc.

　　死刑的執行可能是將罪犯的四肢和頭綁在五匹馬車上向五個方向活生生地拉死，也可能是從腰部將其砍成兩段又或是剖開犯人的腹部或將他放入大鍋中煮沸。

　　Other punishments included the cutting off of a foot, a nose, or the inscription and inking of marks on the face, etc.

　　另外一些懲罰還包括砍掉一條腿或鼻子、在臉上刻字或刻圖案等等。

　　Even petty mistakes could bring on severe punishment.

　　就算是小錯也可能帶來嚴厲的懲罰。

　　Also, when a man got into trouble, his family, friends, and colleagues could all be incriminated.

　　如果一個人犯了錯誤，他的家人、朋友和同事也同樣會被治罪。

　　As the First Emperor believed only in power politics, his ministers vied to cater to his whims by wantonly meting out punishment.

　　因為秦始皇只相信強權政治，官員們爭先通過肆意行刑來迎合他的喜好。

　　Harsh laws and cruel officials made life near impossible for the people.

　　嚴酷的刑法和殘忍的官員讓人們幾乎難以生存下去。

　　The terracotta warriors and horses in the tomb of the First Emperor and the Great Wall built on his orders are regarded as wonders of human civilization.

　　秦始皇陵裡的兵馬俑和在他指令下修建的長城被認為是人類文明的奇觀。

　　They also stand as testimony to the sweat and blood shed by the builders.

　　但它們同樣是建造者血汗的證明。

　　Research has shown that it would have taken two months for five to six people to construct each life-size terracotta soldier or horse.

　　研究顯示，建造每一個真人大小的陶俑需要耗費五到六個工人兩個月的時間。

　　It boggles the imagination as to how many people had to toil for how long to produce the tens represent merely one of the numerous large-scale projects carried out during his reign.

　　我們簡直難以想象有多少人在其在位間會要做多久的苦工來建造他數以萬計的大規模工程中有代表性的一個。

　　The population was about 20 million back then, with more than 2 million people subject to forced labor every year!

　　那個時候的人口大概有20000000，每年卻又超過2000000的人被迫去做苦力。

　　Moreover, the First Emperor did everything to control peopled thinking.

　　不僅如此，秦始皇用盡一切辦法來控制人們的思想。

　　For instance, he ordered the burning of all books in 213 B.C, with the exception of the few that were sanctioned by the government.

　　比如，他在公元前213年下令焚燬所有書籍，除了被政府許可的。

　　The next year he ordered the killing of more than 460 Confucian scholars by burying them alive.

　　一年後，他下令活埋超過460名儒學學者。

　　These atrocities caused immeasurable damage to Chinese culture.

　　這些暴行對中國的文化造成了難以估量的損害。

　　The First Emperor died during an inspection tour in the 7th month of 209 BC.

　　秦始皇死於公元前209年7月的一場巡視。

　　His second son usurped the throne to become to Second Emperor.

　　他的二兒子篡權奪位，成為了秦朝的第二任皇帝。

　　He imposed an even more barbarous rule.

　　秦二世實行了更為殘暴的統治。

　　The peopled dissent and anger were now brewing like the lava inside a volcano atop of which the dynasty stood.

　　人民的反對與仇恨就像是這個朝代所站立在的火山內部將要噴湧而出的岩漿。