BBC中国故事第一集祖先 Part 8 甲骨文记载祭祖及活人献祭

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[00:09.76]In the 1930s a Chinese scholar called Dong Zuobin worked on the Bronze Age inscriptions scratched into the oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty.1930年代，中国学者董作宾研究青铜器时代刻在商代甲骨上的文字。
[00:22.40]Thousand upon thousand of them, and through the 1930s, when China was driven by civil war and Japanese invasion, 他研究了许许多多的甲骨文。而在1930年代，中国正值内战和日本入侵
[00:32.86]he worked transcribing these inscriptions in what, I suppose, you could call self-effacing loyalty to the Chinese past,他将这些碑文誊抄下来，怀着一种对中国历史的忘我忠诚
[00:42.62]while the catastrophes of the modern world surrounded him.尽管他周围的现实世界正遭受着前所未有的灾难。
[00:45.17]You see there his transcription of one of the turtle shells with all the splits and the inscriptions on them.你看，这就是他所誊抄的一份龟壳和上面的裂痕以及碑文内容。
[00:52.98]And he worked out the order of the Shang kings and their calendar and their rituals and their journeys.他发现了商帝的在位顺序、所用历法、仪式典礼还有出行记录。
[01:05.90]What he discovered was that the kings came back to do special rituals at the city called Shang.他发现，商帝们回到一个叫做商的城市进行一个特殊的仪式。
[01:12.57]That was here.就是这里。
[01:14.22]Its name meant "the place where the ancestors were worshiped".这个名字的含义是祭拜祖先的地方。
[01:18.59]So state and ancestors were tied together.因此，国家与宗祠紧紧相连。
[01:25.88]And amazingly, cults and legends about the Shang still survive here at a mysterious temple at the edge of town.最神奇的是，小城边一座神秘的庙宇里信仰和传说依然存在。
[01:36.23]The Mound of Shang, it's a great artificial hill.商王朝的墓堆是一座雄伟的假山。
[01:41.76]The legends say this mound was built before the Great Flood, that here mankind first got fire, stolen from the gods.传说这座墓堆建于大洪水之前，人类就是在这里第一次从天庭偷来了火种。
[01:53.19]And tradition also said this had been a kind of observatory where the Shang kings watched the stars that protected their dynasty.也有传说，这里曾经是观星台，商王在此观察保卫王朝的群星。
[02:04.63]Because they believed that the stars were powers in heaven and if we understood them properly then we'd know best how to run our kingdom.因为他们相信星辰代表着上天的力量。如果能读懂星辰就能找到治国之法。
[02:18.96]So the oracle bones and the later myths are clues to early Chinese beliefs about society and the cosmos.所以甲骨文和后来的神话都暗示着：早期中国人对天地和谐的信仰。
[02:27.22]Divination, ritual and writing were the basis of state power.占卜、仪式和文字是国家权力的基础。
[02:37.41]For their sacred ceremonies they cast beautiful bronzes to hold food and wine offerings to the ancestral spirits, which were consumed at the royal feasts.为了神圣的仪式，他们铸造精美的青铜器盛装酒食，拜祭祖宗神灵。祭品在皇家盛宴中供人们食用。
[02:48.37]Some of them bear the symbols of the different lineages of the royal and noble families.其中一些青铜器上篆刻着不同皇家世系的标志。
[02:58.87]Like the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians, the Shang practised human sacrifice.跟古埃及和苏美尔一样，商王朝也有活人献祭。
[03:06.32]The oracle bones list the victims.甲骨上列着受害者的名单。
[03:08.90]They were captives from the subject peoples the Shang ruled, killed as offerings to the powers of nature, 他们是从商管辖的民族中挑选出的俘虏，作为祭品被处死，献给上天。

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BBC中国故事 第一集 祖先 Part 8 甲骨文记载祭祖及活人献祭

BBC中国故事第一集祖先 Part 8 甲骨文记载祭祖及活人献祭