纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 064大卫对瓶（5）

 

"Iran, and what's now Iraq, are the kind of areas where this sort of colouring comes in. This is a technique that comes from elsewhere, and therefore it tells us something about this period, when China is unprecedentedly¹ open to the rest of Asia as part of this huge empire of the Mongols, which stretches all the way from the Pacific almost to the Mediterranean². Certainly the openness to the rest of Asia is what brings about things like blue-and-white, and it probably had an impact on forms of literature. So from the point of view of cultural forms coming into being, the Yuan period is extraordinarily³ important."And among the happy consequences of this cultural openness are the David Vases. The crucial significance of the vases is that as well as their decoration, they have inscriptions⁴ - inscriptions that tell us that they were dedicated⁵ in the year 1351, in fact on Tuesday 13 May 1351. It's a level of precision that's wonderfully Chinese, and it's proof positive that fine quality blue-and-white porcelain⁶ pre-dates the Ming. But the inscriptions tell us much more than that. There are slight differences between the inscriptions on the two vases, but this is the translation of the one on the left:

伊朗和今伊拉克地区是这种颜料的来源地。这种来自异域的技术告诉我们，当时的中国作为自太平洋横贯地中海地区的蒙古帝国的一部分，对亚洲其他地区采取的开放程度是前所未有的。正是这种开放为中国带来了青花瓷，也对其文学形式产生了影响。

就文化形式的构成而言，元朝对后世有着极为重要的影响。大卫对瓶便是文化开放的积极产物之一。除了白地青花装饰外，它们的重要性还在于瓶身的题字。借助这些文字，我们得知，它制造于一三五一年五月十三日，星期二。如此精确的记录正是中国特色的绝妙体现，同时也是早在明代之前优质青花瓷便已存世的铁证。

它们所传达的信息还不止于此。两只花瓶上的题字略有不同，左边一只上写的是：

 

1 unprecedentedly   

adv.空前地

参考例句：

• The National-Day celebration this year was an unprecedentedly great occasion. 今年国庆日庆祝仪式空前盛大。
• "This is undoubtedly a good one," the teacher insisted. "Unprecedentedly good! Just listen -- " 洋教师说，“这文章写得当然好，而且绝妙无比，你们听——” 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译

2 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

3 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

4 inscriptions   

（作者）题词( inscription的名词复数 )； 献词； 碑文； 证劵持有人的登记

参考例句：

• Centuries of wind and rain had worn away the inscriptions on the gravestones. 几个世纪的风雨已磨损了墓碑上的碑文。
• The inscriptions on the stone tablet have become blurred with the passage of time. 年代久了，石碑上的字迹已经模糊了。

5 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

6 porcelain   

n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的

参考例句：

• These porcelain plates have rather original designs on them.这些瓷盘的花纹很别致。
• The porcelain vase is enveloped in cotton.瓷花瓶用棉花裹着。