纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 023中国西周康侯簋(3)

The Shang Dynasty had seen the growth of China's first large cities.

公元前一千五百年左右，商朝建立，它建立起中国第一批大型城市。

Their last capital, at Anyang on the Yellow River in north China, covered an area of 30 square kilometres and had a population of 120,000-at the time it must have been one of the largest cities in the world.

这一朝代的最后一个首都位于中国北方黄河流域的安阳，占地三十平方公里，人口超过一点二万，在当时必定是世界上最大的城市之一。

Life in Shang cities was highly regulated, with 12-month calendars, decimal measurement, conscription and centralised taxes.

在商代，城市生活已十分规律，有将一年划分为十二个月的历法、十进制的度量衡单位、兵役制度以及中央税收制度。

As centres of wealth, the cities were also places of outstanding artistic production in ceramics and jade and, above all, in bronze, and all these skills continued to flourish after the Shang had been replaced by the victorious Zhou.

城市既是财富中心，也是杰出艺术品如陶器、玉器，尤其是青铜器的制作中心。但在那时，约三千年前的地中海与太平洋地区，已有的社会都在坍塌，新势力将取而代之。

Now making a bronze vessel like our gui bowl is an extraordinarily complicated business.

这样的青铜器是最具代表性的中国古物之一，制作工艺极为繁复。

First you need to mine and smelt the ores that contain both copper and tin, in order to make the bronze itself.

先要将铜矿石与锡矿石熔化以制作青铜，再将青铜液倒进模具铸造。

Then comes the casting, and here Chinese technology led the world.

中国的青铜工艺世界领先。

Our gui was not made as a single object, but as separate pieces cast in different moulds which were then joined together to make one complex and intricate work of art.

这件簋并非一次成型，而是用不同的模具制作出不同的部位，再进行组合，最终成为复杂而精细的艺术品。

The result is a vessel that at that date could have been made nowhere else in the world.

这样的作品，当时世界上没有其他任何国家能够制作。