世界小史 第109期:鞠躬行礼

 　　It may seem to you that what Confucius¹ taught was obvious.

　　孔子和他的弟子们这样教导说。

　　But that was exactly his intention².

　　因为诸侯的首要职责是当他的全国居民的榜样。但这恰恰是他希望的。

　　He wanted to teach something that everyone would find easy to grasp, because it was so just and fair.

　　他想教一些大家都觉得容易掌握的事情，因为它非常公正和公平。

　　Then living together would become much easier.

　　那样的话，共同生活就会容易得多。

　　I have already told you that he succeeded.

　　我已经说过他成功了。

　　And, thanks to his teaching³, that enormous⁴ empire, with all its provinces, was saved from falling apart.

　　由于有了他的学说，这个有着众多省份的大国最终也没有瓦解。

　　But you mustn't think that in China there weren't other people more like the Buddha,但是你却不可以认为，中国不曾有过其他更像释迦牟尼那样的人，for whom what mattered was not living together and bowing to one another, but the great mysteries of the world.

　　这些人不注重共同生活，不注重向其他人鞠躬行礼，而是注重世界的各重大秘密。

　　A wise man of this sort lived in China at about the same time as Confucius.

　　差不同和孔子同一时期，中国也出了这样一位智者。

　　His name was Lao-tzu. He is said to have been an official who became tired of the way people lived at court.

　　他叫老子。据说他曾当过官，但是他厌倦了官场上人们的生活方式。

　　So he gave up his job and wandered off into the lonely mountains at the frontier⁵ of China to be a hermit⁶.

　　于是他就辞去了官职，走进中国边境地区的孤寂的群山过着隐居的生活。

　　A simple border guard at a frontier pass asked him to set down his thoughts in writing, before leaving the world of men. And this Lao-tzu did.

　　据说一个普通的边境上的关卡官吏曾请求他在离群索居之前把他的思想给他记录下来。老子这样做了。

　　But whether the border guard could make head or tail of them I do not know, for they are very mysterious and hard to grasp.

　　但是那个关卡官吏是否理解了他的思想，我不知道，因为它们非常神秘和深奥。

 

1 Confucius   

n.孔子(中国古代教育家、儒家创始人)

参考例句：

• Confucius was one of the wisest teachers of all times.孔子是有史以来最为博学的教师之一。
• Confucius's many words are wisdom.孔子的很多话都是至理名言。

2 intention   

n.意图；目的；打算

参考例句：

• I'm sorry I offended you,but it wasn't my intention.对不起，冒犯你了，但我绝不是有意的。
• We understood her intention.我们明白了她的心意。

3 teaching   

n.教学，执教，任教，讲授；(复数)教诲

参考例句：

• We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
• He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。

4 enormous   

adj.巨大的；庞大的

参考例句：

• An enormous sum of money is injected each year into teaching.每年都有大量资金投入到教学中。
• They wield enormous political power.他们行使巨大的政治权力。

5 frontier   

n.国境，边境；尚待开发的领域

参考例句：

• The frontier station was starved for food and water.边防站急需食物和水。
• Areas near the frontier were rough and lawless in the old days. 过去边远地区混乱不堪，而且没有法律。

6 hermit   

n.隐士，修道者；隐居

参考例句：

• He became a hermit after he was dismissed from office.他被解职后成了隐士。
• Chinese ancient landscape poetry was in natural connections with hermit culture.中国古代山水诗与隐士文化有着天然联系。