Ｓ ＨＡ Ｎ ＧＨ Ａ Ｉ ＩＮ Ｔ ＥＲ ＮＡＴ Ｉ Ｏ Ｎ Ａ Ｌ Ｓ Ｔ ＵＤ Ｉ Ｅ Ｓ Ｕ Ｎ Ｉ ＶＥ Ｒ Ｓ ＩＴ Ｙ




 （ 题目 

）



英汉翻译
一 一

以
中 的 文 化 识 别 与 文化 回 译策 略
《


中 西 文 化 融 合教 程 》 为 例



 学 科 专 业 翻 译 硕 士 （ 英语 笔 译 

）

 届别 
２ ０２
１
？




 姓 名 
苑李艳 



？ 

＝
 上海外国语大学
硕士学位论文

英汉翻译中的文化识别与文化回译策略

——以《中西文化融合教程》为例

院 系：高级翻译学院

学科专业：翻译硕士（英语笔译）

姓 名：茹李艳

指导教师：龚 锐

2020 年 11 月
 Shanghai International Studies University

STRATEGIES OF CULTURE RECOGNITION AND BACK

TRANSLATION IN E-C TRANSLATION
—A CASE STUDY OF A COMPARATIVE COURSE ON CHINESE
AND WESTERN CULTURES

A Thesis
Submitted to Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translation
In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for
Degree of Master of Translation and Interpretation

By
Ru Liyan

Under Supervision of Professor Gong Rui

November 2020
 学 位 论文 原 创 性 声 明



本人郑重声 明 ：
本 学位 论 文是 在 导 师 的 指 导 下 ，
本人 独立 进 行研



宂 取得 的 成 果 。 除 文 中 己 经 加 以 标 注 和 致谢 的 部 分 外 ，
本 论文不 包 含



任 何 其他 个 人 或 集 体 己 经 发 表 或 撰 写 过 的 作 品 和 成 果 也 不 包 含本 人

 ，

为 获 得 任 何 教 育 机 构 的 学 位 或学 历 而 使 用 过 的 材料 对 本 文 研 宄 做 出

 。

贡 献 的 个人 或 集 体 ， 均 已在文 中 以 明 确 方式说 明 。
本 人 对所 写 的 内 容



负责 ， 并完 全 意 识 到 本 声 明 法律 结 果 由 本人 承 担 

。

学 位 论 文作 者 签 名 ： Ｉ 冷 热 



签名 日 期 ：
？ 年 ／ 丨 月 日



学 位 论文 使 用 授 权 声 明



本 人完 全 了 解 学 校 有 关 保 留 、 使 用 学位 论 文 的 规 定 ，
同 意 上海外



国 语 大 学保 留 并 向 有 关 部 门 或 机 构 送 交 论 文 的 书 面 版 和 电 子 版 ， 允许



论 文 被 查 阅 和 借 阅 本 人授 权 上 海 外 国 语 大 学 将 本 论 文 的 全 部 或 部 分
。 


内 容 网 上 公 开 或 编 入 有 关数 据 库 进 行 检 索 ， 可 以 采用 影 印 、 缩 印 或扫

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描 等方 式保 存 和 汇 编 本 论 文 。 对 于保 密 论 文 ，
．

按 保密 的 有 关 规 定 和 程



序处理 

。

２
ｅ签 名 日 期ｆ
％ｔ ｆ
＜７

￣ ２＾
学 位论 文 作 者 签 名 ：   年 月 

日

导 师 签 名 ： 量 見  签 名 日 期必 弃 ２ （
丨
月 日


、
 答辩委员会成员

主席：顾韶阳教授

成员：吴刚教授，何雯婷讲师
 致谢

时光逃去如飞，在上外学习的日子已然悄悄过去大半。在这些平凡却不平淡
的日子里，是因为有老师和朋友们的帮助，我才得以跨越一个一个的障碍一路朝
前走，在这里我要衷心地表达我的谢意和敬意。
特别是我的导师龚锐老师，在我撰写此论文之际对我帮助莫大。在论文初期
准备阶段，龚老师就认真听我讲述选题想法，对我的选题方向和论文大纲提出重
要的修改意见，为我指点迷津；论文成稿后，龚老师又在繁忙之中细致地帮助我
修改不合适之处，循循善诱，认真负责。我非常感激龚老师在论文和平素的学习
生活中对我的帮助和教诲，她严谨的治学态度和丰富的专业知识令我钦佩，对我
的翻译学习和工作发展都有着深远的影响。
同时，我还要感谢姚锦清老师、黄协安老师、吴刚老师、李安谆老师在专业
课学习上给予我们的指导，他们学识渊博、经验丰富、谦虚治学，能够成为他们
的学生实属一大幸事。还要感谢李红玉老师和郑晔老师，在她们的课上我学到了
论文撰写和翻译理论方面的知识，对本论文的写作帮助巨大。此外，我还想对樊
世琛老师和王卫萍老师两位辅导员表达感谢之意，她们为我们统筹组织各类活动，
整理我们读书期间所有的档案，辛苦了！谨在此对所有老师深表谢意和敬意！
最后，我要对无私奉献的父母说声感谢，他们是我一路上的力量之源。我还
要感谢我的朋友们和排球队的球友们，谢谢他们让我的生活如此丰富多彩。我会
带着爱和感恩一路前行。

I
 摘要

随着中国“文化强国”战略的推进，中国文化也加快了对外传播的步伐，越
来越多的中国文化叙事被翻译为外文，以期世界对中国能够有更加深入的了解。
同时，一种独特的文本——用外语直接讲述、传播中国文化的异语写作文本也越
来越受到人们的关注。本文以高校文化类教材《中西文化融合教程》的英译中项
目为案例，讨论了在文化回译（将用外语描写的中国叙事译回中国文化语境）过
程中的文化识别和翻译策略，以期能用自身的经验为同类文本的翻译活动提供借
鉴。
本文首先介绍了案例项目的文本语言特点：异语写作而成、事实性强、多含
固有信息。接着针对项目特点，通过对典型案例讨论分析，总结出了在翻译过程
中使用到的三种文化识别和翻译策略：识别语境，根据中文文化语境进行翻译；
识别习惯用法，根据汉语语言的使用习惯进行翻译；识别原文指称词所指，根据
中文文化的真实存在进行翻译。最后笔者根据自身的翻译实践和感悟，提出译者
在回译文化类文本时，要坚持培养文化敏感性和发挥译者主动性的原则，争取最
大程度地使中文译文符合中文读者的期待。

关键词：文化回译；异语写作；语境；习惯用法；原文所指

II
 Abstract

As China is calling for “a country with a strong socialist culture”, it also steps up
the pace to push Chinese culture to “go global”. As a result, the passages telling Chinese
stories but written in foreign languages have garnered much attention from writers and
translators. The present paper is a case study on culture back translation of the book A
Comparative Course on Chinese and Western Cultures. By discussing the strategies of
culture recognition and back translation used when translating the book, this paper
expects to provide some insights for future culture-related back translation projects.
The paper firstly introduces the book’s language features: it is about Chinese
culture written in English and is fact-based, both of which have an influence on how
the texts are to be translated. Then this paper, giving typical examples, discusses the
three major culture recognition and back translation approaches the translator used: 1.
Recognize context and translate based on the Chinese cultural context. 2. Recognize
common usages and translate according to the routines of Chinese language. 3.
Recognize referential expressions and translate in line with the reality. At last, the
present paper puts forward two principles for back translating cultural texts: translators
need to have a nose for the words expressing specific cultures and to bring their
initiatives into full play when translating, trying to meet the reading needs of readers.

Keywords: culture back translation; foreign language creation; context; common

usages; referential expressions

III
 目录
致谢................................................................................................................................ I

摘要............................................................................................................................... II

Abstract ........................................................................................................................ III

引言................................................................................................................................ 1

第一章《中西文化融合教程》项目概述.................................................................... 2

一、项目介绍........................................................................................................ 2

二、文本特点........................................................................................................ 2

第二章 英译汉中的文化回译现象及理论综述.......................................................... 4

一、文化回译相关概念定义................................................................................ 4

（一）文化与翻译........................................................................................ 4

（二）文化回译的定义................................................................................ 4

（三）异语写作与无本回译........................................................................ 5

二、文化在文本中的表现方式............................................................................ 5

三、常用文化识别方法........................................................................................ 6

四、文化回译研究的意义.................................................................................... 6

第三章 文化识别与文化回译策略.............................................................................. 8

一、识别语境，根据语境进行翻译.................................................................... 8

二、识别习惯用法，根据汉语习惯进行翻译.................................................. 11

三、识别原文所指，根据真实存在进行翻译.................................................. 15

结语.............................................................................................................................. 21

参考文献...................................................................................................................... 22

附录一：《中西文化融合教程》节选........................................................................ 23

附录二：百度网页“罕见字”搜索结果（2020 年 7 月 18 日）........................... 72

附录三：百度网页“生僻字”搜索结果（2020 年 7 月 18 日）........................... 74
 引言

语言是人类思考和沟通交流的工具，是文化的载体。一个民族的语言必定带
有该民族的文化特征。翻译涉及到不同语言之间的交流，因此在翻译实践中，译
者不可避免地要处理不同文化间的沟通交际问题。
中华民族历史悠久，在五千多年的发展历程中沉淀了博大精深的中华文化。
古老、独特的“方块字”承载着中华文化，是人类文明中不可缺少的宝藏。在中
国喊出“建设社会主义文化强国”口号的新时代，中华文化正在逐步增强文化自
信。向世界译介中华文化就是中国走向世界的重要一步。出于一些原因，译者有
时要将已经译为外文或本由异语写作描述的中国文化回译到汉语中来，准确的回
译文本对于本族文化的自审自省具有莫大帮助，更能进一步推动中华文化的对外
传播。
本论文将要讨论的案例是《中西文化融合教程》英译中项目。该项目历时两
个月，是笔者在某出版社实习期间参与翻译的高校文化类教材，主要用于教学目
的，内容涉及中西方的建筑、语言、音乐、审美和哲学等文化现象。由于编者在
描写中国文化时使用了英语写作，因此在英译中的翻译过程中，准确识别英文文
本中的文化现象，并恰当地用中文表述出来，就成为了产出高质量译文的重要一
步。笔者根据自身的翻译实践，探讨了在翻译文化类书籍时，怎样进行文化识别，
并提出了相应的文化回译策略。
在论文撰写前，笔者通过对比分析初稿和终稿，将文中的文化负载词语按照
翻译方法进行了分类整理，撰写本论文时挑选各个类别中较具代表性的案例进行
了分析。第一部分是本案例项目的概述，介绍了项目基本情况和文本特点。第二
部分对文化回译现象进行了理论综述。首先具体阐释了与本文相关的几个重要概
念，包括文化、文化回译、异语写作和无本回译；然后总结了文化元素在本项目
中的表现形式；其次，笔者解释了在项目翻译过程中较为容易、使用频率较高的
三种文化识别方法；最后对文化回译研究的意义进行了阐释。第三部分为案例分
析，开始探讨文化识别和文化回译的策略及原则。在翻译过程中，译者要识别语
境，根据语境进行翻译才能恰得其所；识别习惯用法，根据汉语习惯进行翻译才
能合乎规范；识别原文所指，根据真实存在进行翻译才能不张冠李戴。由此，在
回译时，译者需要培养自身的文化敏感性，做好查证工作，发挥译者主动性，加
强原文的分析，才能使译文质量越来越好。
论文中的文化识别和回译难点解决方法主要基于笔者自身的项目翻译经历，
因而无法将涉及到回译的难点及应对策略详述殆尽，具有一定的局限性，但笔者
希望文中提出的翻译思路能够为同类文本的翻译提供借鉴。

1
 第一章 《中西文化融合教程》项目概述

一、项目介绍

本文即将探讨的案例项目是《中西文化融合教程》，为笔者在某出版社实习期
间参与翻译的高校文化类教材，项目为英译汉，历时两个月。本书一共有九个单
元，每个单元需要翻译两篇相对独立的文章，一篇为由英文写作描述的中国文化
现象，另一篇为西方文化现象，同一单元中的两篇中西文化内容属于同一话题，
因此具有可对比性。笔者负责翻译的单元涉及建筑（北京四合院和巴黎圣母院）、
语言（中文书写系统和字母文字书写系统）、音乐（《二泉映月》和《贝多芬 D 大
调小提琴协奏曲》）、审美（中式缠足和西式束胸）和哲学（孔子和苏格拉底），
约计 2 万中文字。
《中西文化融合教程》是上海外语音像出版社和商务印书馆联合出版的一系
列大学公共外语教材之一，本项目产出的译文主要用于教学目的，教师上课时将
其作为教材配套译文使用，因此对于译文的准确性和通俗性具有较高的要求。笔
者进行初译，初译稿先由出版社编辑老师审阅后，再由本书主编进行审校修改，
最终定稿。

二、文本特点

《中西文化融合教程》是由中国高校老师编写的英语类文化教材，语言简洁，
题材多样，可读性强，是中国文化走出国门之际，推动中国学生跨文化能力培养
的应时教材。就语言上来说，本教材具有如下特点：
第一，异语写作。本项目的特点之一是异语写作，即用英文写作描写中国的
文化现象。在将异语写作的英文文本翻译回中文时，不可避免地就遇到了文化回
译的问题。由于英中语言存在差异，且原作者写作具有个人特点，包含个人的理
解和观察视角，准确识别英文文本中的中国文化元素就成为了一个需要注意的事
项。笔者将在本文中总结翻译过程中使用到的文化识别方法并进行案例分析。
第二，事实性强。本教材语言和内容上注重描述，目的在于对学生进行文化
层面的输出。通过较强的事实性和一定的思辨性，讲述中西文化差异，强化学生
用英语传播中国文化的能力。因此本教材大部分语言较为浅显易懂，结构脉络清
晰，风格平铺直叙，但当涉及到较为专业、具体的内容时，由于缺乏相关的背景
知识，会给译者造成一定的难度。

2
 第三，固有信息。本项目案例作为一本文化类教材，正如上条所言，事实性
强，因为所刻画描写的均为社会上已经形成的文化现象。虽然无原文可依，但是
所描写的都已镶嵌在了特定的文化区域当中，这便是回译的依据（高晓仙、赵国
月，2019：129）。因此产出的译文要符合现实逻辑：语境正确，符合习惯表达，
具有指称意义的词语符合真实存在。
笔者将初稿和终稿对比分析之后，发现如若不注意这些特点，译文将会出现
诸多问题。本文将选取一些具有代表性的案例，并就这些案例具体分析，探讨如
何产出准确、流畅的回译文本。

3
 第二章 英译汉中的文化回译现象及理论综述

一、 文化回译相关概念定义

（一） 文化与翻译

“文化”的概念包含范围很广，包括一个群体在发展过程中所创造的物质和
精神总和（张红玲，2007：127）。当人们总结某种文化在特定时期所涵盖的所有
内容时，应该包括构成这种文化的“所有语言、习惯、节日庆典、宏伟建筑、工
具、神话、音乐、艺术等元素”
（丹尼尔，2019：4）。由此可见，
“文化”一词可
以指代人类群体所有的物质和精神成果。
当不同民族的语言之间相互交流时，由于语言规则和思维习惯不同，交流所
涉及的话题各有差异，交流双方就需要关注这些文化差异，求同存异跨越障碍，
才能使交流变得顺畅。因此，影响翻译活动的文化因素也渐渐进入了翻译研究学
者们的视野。

（二） 文化回译的定义

翻译中的主流文化转向研究多注重一种语言转换为另一种语言时，译者需要
考虑的跨文化因素。翻译实践中还有一种文本类型——回译文本——正在受到越
来越多的关注。
“回译”，顾名思义，指将译为其他语言的文本再译回源语言文本。聂家伟
（2019：99）将回译称为“文本语言的复归”，并将回译分为两类：狭义回译和
广义回译。狭义回译是“A 文本—B 文本—A 文本”的过程，广义回译是“A 文
化—B 文化—A 文化”的过程。梁志芳老师（2013：51）将回译称为“跨国文学
作品或跨文化文学作品”，即“将用 A 国语言创作的有关 B 国文化的作品翻译为
B 国语言”。就中国而言，即为描写中国题材的外语文学作品。梁志芳老师借用
“杂合理论”，提出“文化回译”是文化与语言的交叉杂合。
因此，
“文化回译”既与语言翻译有关，更与文化翻译有关。丹尼尔（Daniel）
在《文化的进化》（The Evolution of Culture）（2019：4）一文中提到，文化会随
着时间进化。文化更像是一个数据库，随着时间的流逝，这个数据库中消失了一
些事物，增加了一些事物，合并了一些事物，或者改变了一些事物。技术的发展
推进社会的迅速大变革，这些文化元素的变化也都给文化回译带来了挑战。

4
（三） 异语写作与无本回译

在“异语写作”的话题上，王宏印教授的研究和论述是开拓性的。在经过一
系列自我反思和修正之后，王宏印教授提出，所谓的“异语写作”，就是指“用
外语写作本族或本国文化”，或另一种情况“用本族语写作外国文化”，这一现象
的本质是写作符号（能指）和所写内容（所指）之间发生了错位（王宏印，2017：
25-26）。异语写作的作者通常可以分为三类：本国作者（出身生长背景与所描写
的文化具有一致性，如宋庆龄用英文写作《孙中山传》）、侨民作者（旅居国外，
但是仍在写作中描述本国文化，如林语堂用英文创作《京华烟云》）、外国作者（生
长背景与所描写的文化不一致，如荷兰作家高罗佩所著的《大唐狄公案》）
（王宏
印，2015：3-4）。
当需要把异语写作创造的文本翻译回与所描述文化一致的语言时（如本文案
例，用英文写作所描写的中国文化），就涉及到了“回译”。由于原文是用英文写
作的，这种翻译为汉语的回归就是“在语言上不存在以原作为根据的回译”（同
上），即“无本回译”。但是该文本要回归的文化就是回译的根本（王宏印，2017：
26）。
本文将要讨论的案例即为异语写作的无本回译。从译者的角度来看，异语写
作的作者有很大的自由度，可以通过多种翻译策略，如音译、意译、解释等，将
本土文化译介到外语文化中。在这个过程中，一部分本土文化得到了再生和传播，
一部分则遭遇了错位和亏损，这是不可避免的（高晓仙、赵国月，2019：125）。
无本回译没有原作作为回译的根基，在翻译时，译者一方面处处受到本土文化的
约束，另一方面，本土文化却为产生合适、地道的译文提供了借鉴和引导。

二、文化在文本中的表现方式

《中西文化融合教程》的英译中项目涉及的中国文化领域有建筑、文字、音
乐、审美和哲学。中国文化在该书中的表现形式有以下两种：
1.用来描述中国文化的专用名称，如四合院、五行、八卦、活字印刷、文言
文、雅乐、《二泉映月》、竹笛等有特定指称意义的专有名称；
2.讲述中国文化的叙事，多用描述性语言讲述文化背景，如四合院内的生活
方式和理念、象形汉字的发展、缠足的起源等。
在回译时，笔者认为，针对不同类型的文化表现方式，采用的翻译策略也各
有侧重。但不变的原则是译者要对文本话题有深入的了解，具备识别源文化的能
力和分析查证能力，才能提高译文质量。

5
三、常用文化识别方法

通常来说，文化识别有以下几种常用方法，这也是在翻译本项目时笔者使用
较多的识别方法：
1. 特殊符号，包括大写首字母和斜体字母。英文书写通用的规则是专有名词
需要进行首字母大写，出版物名称、音乐作品、艺术品电视节目等需要使用斜体
字母加以区别，以方便读者的阅读和识别。因此在翻译过程中，如遇到句中首字
母大写或者显示斜体的单词或词组，译者需要注意该特殊格式，查询是否代表了
特殊的文化现象。如在本项目翻译中遇到的以下词语和词组：the Shang Dynasty
（商朝），the Forbidden City（紫禁城）
，the Eight Diagrams of Divination（八卦），
The Moon over a Fountain（《二泉映月》），Shi Jing（《诗经》）。
2. 汉语拼音。异语写作的作者可以选择多种策略来表达某个概念，对于具有
中国文化特色的概念来说，一个较为容易识别的策略为使用汉语拼音。在对外传
播的过程中直接使用汉语拼音来表达特定概念并不是新鲜事物，许多词汇已经为
人熟知并经常使用，如 Gao Kao（高考），Jiao Zi（饺子）等等。拼音表达可能存
在的不足是由于语言障碍，无法顺畅地传递文化内涵，但是这带来的好处是不会
带来信息和文化误传的问题，这一过程的结果是正影响力逐渐增强，而负影响力
逐渐减弱（王爱，2014：106）。且汉语拼音的使用和被接受显示了中国文化对世
界产生影响的过程。本项目就较为频繁地使用拼音写作策略，如 siheyuan（四合
院），yayue（雅乐），caoshu（草书），erhu（二胡）等等。
3. 特定词组搭配。有一些文化表达不含有特殊格式，也不似汉语拼音一样好
辩认，但可以通过观察前后出现的特定词语或者词组进行文化识别。如本项目中
出现过的定义句式：The buildings adjacent to the main house and facing west and
east are called east and west side houses. 此句中的“are called”就为读者和译者提
示了后面的词组应为一个具有指称意义的名词，与此相似的有“be known as”
“be
regarded as”“be termed”“be named”的表达。除此之外，还有一类加了范畴词
的句型，如：A wide variety of traditional Chinese instruments, such as guzheng and
dizi are indigenous…此句中的“traditional Chinese instruments”即为范畴词，为读
者提示了后文将出现的“guzheng”“dizi”等含有特定文化意义的指称词。

四、文化回译研究的意义

文化回译有本土文化作为支撑，甚至在异语写作的过程中，原作者许多时候
就是把头脑中的中文文本翻译为英文的，回译的文本涉及到的文化不以译者的主

6
观意识而改变。但回译仍不是一件轻而易举之事。有学者曾经将回译比作“对自
己学识的招供”，尤其是当涉及深厚的专业背景时，最容易暴露译者外语水平和
知识结构的漏洞（周红民、程敏，2016：25）。令人失望的案例如 Chiang Kai-shek
（蒋介石）译为“常凯申”，Mencius（孟子）译为“门修斯”应该为译者敲响警
钟——回译也要认真打磨。
文化回译对于更好地发展本族文化也有着莫大帮助。
首先，通过回译文，一个民族可以了解本族文化在国外的传播过程，哪些元
素被“激活”，又有哪些元素被“遮蔽”
（聂家伟，2019：104），由此审视外来文
化如何看待本族文化，透过外来视角更全面地认识和反省自我文化。
其次，回译的过程也是了解本族文化在对外传播过程中如何产生“偏移”的
过程，译者和读者可以通过对比分析，更深入地了解两种文化间的意识形态、心
理结构、以及审美差异（梁志芳，2013：52），使未来的文化传播过程更好地做
到求同存异。
再次，回译产生的回译文本对于本族的外语学习者来说是一笔财富，学习者
能够通过研究，掌握如何用外语思维表达本族文化，并通过反思本族文化在对外
传播中的困境，改进本族文化的传播方式，这对于未来本族文化的“走出去”具
有重要意义。
2007 年，在以“中译外——中国走向世界之路”为主题的高层论坛上，时任
国务院新闻办公室主任的蔡武在发言中指出，当中国在新世纪迎接全球化挑战之
时，应更加注重向世界介绍中国和中国文化五千年悠久璀璨的历史文化。中国理
应为世界文化格局的形成和发展献力（2007）。因此，文化回译的研究符合中国
文化“走出去”战略的大局，不容轻视。

7
 第三章 文化识别与文化回译策略

上文已经说到，“文化回译”这一现象是文化与语言的交叉杂合，它不仅涉
及到语言翻译，还会涉及到文化翻译。由于异语写作产出的文本并无原本做参考，
如何在异语文本中识别含有本族文化元素的语言（文化识别）并将其准确传达出
来就成为译者要重视的问题。
上一章中列出了三类文化识别方法，这三种方法在翻译中较为容易，也是较
为常用的。但在实际的操作中仍存在许多表面特征不明显的文化元素，此时译者
要保持文化敏感性，注意识别词语语境、习惯用法和实际所指，关注文化元素并
发挥译者的主动性，力求准确识别和传达原文所指。
在本节中，笔者将在翻译过程中使用到的文化识别方法进行了归类总结，认
为中国文化识别和回译应注意：识别语境，让译文符合中国的文化语境；识别习
惯用法，回译文本的表达应符合汉语使用习惯；识别原文所指，让产出的中文译
文符合真实存在。下面将借用一些具有代表性的案例对这三种识别和翻译方法进
行阐述。

一、识别语境，根据语境进行翻译

语言中存在着一词多义的现象，在不同的语言环境中，多义词产生的语言意
义也各异。因此，无论是在阅读时，还是在翻译实践中，充分考虑到词语的语境
才能地道地理解和表达文本意图。这里的“语境”可以解释为从具体的情境中抽
象出来的对参与者产生影响的因素，而这些因素可以决定话语的形式、合适性和
意义（王正良，2006：44）。
将用英文创作的中国叙事译回中文，让中国叙事返回到中国语境，译者要考
虑目标文本（中文回译文本）要如何被呈现出来。这个途径涉及到的既有“所译
源文本的语言因素”，又有“其原初语境的文化因素”（谭载喜，2018：24）。因
此，在这个过程中，源语语境（西方语言语境）和译语语境（中国文化语境）同
等重要，且这两者是不可分割的。由此，回译过程应该是：从“小”到“大”，
即从“语言”到“文化”层面，细致分析考察，再形成正确的目标文本（同上）。
笔者在着手翻译时，首先对英文文本进行直译，传达英文文本的字面意思，然后
根据源文本的直接上下文或者源文本所描述事件的文化背景进行调整，寻找符合
中文文化的表述，使目标译文符合中文的文化语境。

8
 【例 1】
【原文】According to Mencius, a powerful ruler once asked him whether it was
moral if he preferred popular music to the classics. The answer was that it only mattered
that the ruler loved his subjects. (Unit Six Music)
【译文】据《孟子》一书记载，一个强大的统治者曾经问孟子，喜欢世俗之
乐胜过先王之乐是否符合道德。孟子答曰，统治者爱他的臣民，能够与民同乐才
是唯一重要的。

分析：
初译该例时，笔者的译本如下：据《孟子》一书记载，一个强大的统治者曾
经问孟子，喜欢流行音乐而不是古典音乐是否符合道德。孟子答曰，统治者爱他
的臣民才是唯一重要的。
初译过后在原文分析时，笔者注意到这句话的文化背景不可忽视。
《孟子》成
书于战国中期，众所周知，彼时人们的讲话方式与现代白话文不同，而此句描写
的又是发生在当时的一个历史事件，因此“流行音乐”和“古典音乐”的称呼就
显得不符合语境。但是知道了这一文化描述出自《孟子》，就可以顺藤摸瓜找到
这本书中描述的原文，试着借用原文的说法进行回译。
此句语出《孟子·梁惠王章句下》：
“他日见于王曰：
‘王尝语庄子以好乐，有
诸？’王变乎色，曰：‘寡人非能好先王之乐也，直好世俗之乐耳。’”孟子某次
被齐王召见时，提到齐王好乐之事，齐王回答说不是好“先王之乐”，而是好“世
俗之乐”。看到此处，笔者就将这两个词摘出来放在译文中。此时，中国叙事才
算回归了中国语境。而“流行音乐”和“古典音乐”二词放在这个语境中含义是
有偏差的。这两个中文词语本由英文中的“popular music”和“classical music”
翻译而来，指的是两种不同的音乐风格，双方在时长、和音、旋律、曲式结构等
方面都有差别。而“先王之乐”和“世俗之乐”强调的则是中国古时用于宫廷及
祭祀大典的“雅乐”和流行于民间的“俗乐”的差别。从这个意义上来看，单从
英文文本的字面含义来阐释时，非常容易望文生义，不能将真正的文化内涵传递
出来。
在后半句中，笔者最终确定的译文中增加了英文文本没有体现出来的“与民
同乐”一词。因为据《孟子》记载，孟子对齐王自称好“世俗之乐”是如此回应
的：
“王之好乐甚，则齐其庶几乎！今之乐犹古之乐也。”孟子认为世俗的音乐和
先王的雅乐差不多，重要的是王能够“与百姓同乐”，因为与民同乐之意无古今
之异。英文源文本此处只写出了统治者爱臣民，但没有表达出来的“与百姓同乐”
之意是藏在字面背后的。儒家重视音乐的教化功效，明白了这一层文化语境就能
够把“与民同乐”显化出来了。且在此处点出这层含义，更能使后半句与前半句

9
更好地衔接。

【例 2】

【原文】Almost every emperor took folk songs seriously, sending officers to

collect songs to inspect the popular will. (Unit Six Music)

【译文】几乎每位皇帝都重视民歌，派官员“采风”，收集民歌，采集民意。

分析：

笔者的初译稿如下：几乎每位皇帝都重视民歌，派官员收集民歌，调查民意。
初译稿先按照英文文本的字面含义进行回译。接下来将本句的描述放回中文的文
化语境下思考，既然中国很多皇帝都会以收集民歌的形式来调查民意，那么在古
时这应是非常常见的现象，说不定也已经成为一个完整的体系。抱着这样的考虑，
将“收集民歌，采集民意”作为关键词在浏览器中可以搜索到“采诗”“采风”
的表达。
古之“采风”的“风”即为诗，取自《诗经》
“国风”。
“国风”是民间风谣，
因此又有“采风谣”
“采诗”之说。周朝设有“采诗官”，周以后各朝代虽不再设
此官职，但是采诗事不废（马斗全，2020）。关于“采诗”之用，
《汉书·志·艺
文志》给出了解释：
“《书》曰：
‘诗言志，歌咏言。’故哀乐之心感，而歌咏之声
发。诵其言谓之诗，咏其声谓之歌。故古有采诗之官，王者所以观风俗，知得失，
自考正也。”可见古代官员采诗，以体察民情和政治得失。由此可见，
“采风”一
词用在此处正符合文本要表达的含义。
笔者曾经思考，就算译文中不体现“采风”一词，照字面也能译出来“收集
民歌，调查民意”的含义。但是从英文写作者（英语语言语境）的角度来看，原
作者在写作时很清楚“采风”的含义就是采集诗歌，为了集中在对中心话题“音
乐”的论述上，不掺杂很多与中心话题关系不大的文化概念，才选择了将“采风”
意译到英文语境。但在文化回译的时候，译者有参与民族自我形象建构的责任，
因为翻译是民族形象建构或重构的重要途径（谭载喜，2018：19）。回译中在不
改变原文意图的前提下，将涉及到的本族的特色文化重现出来，能够有效增强民
族意识，促进民族文化的传承。本项目文本作为教学用书，在这方面的责任更是
责无旁贷。

10
 【例 3】

【原文】The gate at the southeast corner was the “wind” corner, and the main
house built on the north side was believed to belong to “water”, an element that prevents
fire…(Unit Two Architecture)
【译文】东南角的大门是“巽”位，北侧的正房属“水”，
“水”克“火”……

分析：
此例中的“wind corner”一词颇具文化内涵，初译时笔者曾译为“‘风’角”。
此句所在的段落是在描述北京四合院建筑背后的文化，指出四合院的设计布局遵
循了传统的五行和八卦学说。当按照字面含义将“wind”处理为“风”后，通读
本段便会发现译文的问题：五行的基本元素为木、火、土、金、水，八卦包括乾、
坤、震、巽、坎、离、艮、兑。这两种符号体系中都没有“风角”一说，但八卦
中的“巽”代表“风”。
实际上，
“风角”一词确有其说法，但指代的另有其物。如研究员梁满仓所述
（1995：50-51），
“风角”是一种预测之术，指通过观察自然界中风的走向来占卜
吉凶，在历史上曾被用于预测战争胜负和吉凶等。可见，若不考虑译文在目标文
化中的语境，就会出现错译、误译的现象。此时，为使回译文符合中国文化语境，
就要调整英文的字面语言。
笔者接着查证到，一座标准的四合院布局是坐北朝南，大门开在东南角。这
是按照八卦方位设计的。八卦主张“坎宅巽门”，“坎”即为正北方向，从水位，
因此“坎宅”可避免火灾。
“巽”则指东南方位，代表着风位，
“巽门”可以出入
保平安。经过查证，“wind corner”最终处理为“
‘巽’位”。
在翻译中，尤其是回译时，译者一方面需要不断进行文化积累，另一方面要
培养敏感性，即使一些语言根据字面翻译也能为人理解，也要对源语和译语的文
化语境具有敏感性，即将“语言回译”置放于“文化回译”的框架内（谭载喜，
2018：24）。只有如此，才能充分还原出异语文本的本来面目。上述的“文化语
境”，既可以通过异语文本的直接描述中获得（如例 1），也可以通过分析所描写
的文化背景获得（如例 2 和例 3）。

二、识别习惯用法，根据汉语习惯进行翻译

在异语写作（用英文描述中国文化）的过程中，由于两种不同语言体系之间
的差异，和英文写作者个人的理解和风格特点，中国文化元素的表达必然会受到
英文语言的表达限制。英文以铺陈、迂回或阐释的方式陈述中国历史文化，因此
表达上会更曲折，语义上更明晰，风格上更直白，但文化意向上会有所缺位（周

11
红民、程敏：2016：27）。在将这样的英文文本译回中文语境下时，译者就需要
注意语言求真的问题，即在词语、句子、风格等层面让汉语译文回到汉语的真实
自然状态。这样才能实现“文化真实感的最大化”，让地道的汉语与中国文化和
谐相处，否则翻译腔只能“销蚀汉语的文化色彩”（同上）。
因此在回译时，笔者认为应该顺应中文读者的文化诉求，贴近汉语的习惯表
达、使用四字格、化长句为短句，做到在词和句子层面保证译文的流畅度，让译
文回归汉语的本真状态。

【例 4】
【原文】A dictionary produced in the eleventh century contained more than fifty-
three thousand characters. Even when one takes into account that many of these
characters represented rare words and many others were merely different ways of
writing the same word, the number still seems staggering. (Unit Four Language and
Writing Systems)
【译文】一本于 11 世纪出版的词典包含五万三千多汉字。即使考虑到这其
中有许多都是生僻字，许多字仅仅是同一词的异体字，这个数量仍是惊人的。

分析：
笔者初译时看到“rare words”一词，就自然地翻译为了“罕见字”。这一词
的处理主要是根据单词“rare”的英文释义思考的（如 Collins 对 rare 一词的定
义：An event or situation that is rare does not occur very often.）。但是在本书主编审
稿时，将“罕见字”改为了“生僻字”。开始笔者认为这是因为笔者和主编的书
写习惯不同，这两个词应是可以替换使用的。但考虑到本书主编作为这个领域的
专家，此处的修改一定有其因由。
在经过一番查证之后，笔者发现与“罕见字”比起来，
“生僻字”更为常用。
首先笔者通过百度网页搜索“罕见字”，在前二十条检索记录中（检索记录按
照相关度排序），关键词“罕见字”一词只出现了 6 次，但在这一搜索项下“生
僻字”却出现了 35 次（搜索网页结果见附录二）。而在“生僻字”作为关键词的
搜索项下，“罕见字”没有出现，“生僻字”出现了 65 次（搜索网页结果见附录
三）。
为进一步求证，笔者使用了北京语言大学的 BCC 汉语语料库，该语料库规
模大，总约 150 亿字，语料来源于文学、报刊、微博、科技、综合和古汉语等多
领域，可以全面反映当今社会语言生活。笔者将“罕见字”和“生僻字”作为关
键词放在该语料库的各个分语料下，得到了下列数据：

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 表 1.“罕见字”和“生僻字”在 BCC 语料库中的出现频率（2020 年 7 月 18 日）
领域
文学 报刊 多领域 微博 科技 古汉语 篇章检索
次数

罕见字 0 0 1 0 2 0 2

生僻字 1 139 135 111 291 146 102

由此可见，在 BCC 语料库的所有领域下，

“生僻字”的使用频率都大大超过
了“罕见字”。但就统计数据来说，BCC 语料库有其劣势，因其在不同的领域，
检索到的例句有重复项。为此，笔者又在具有权威性的北京大学 CCL 中文语料
库中进一步求证，得到对比数据如下：

表 2.“罕见字”和“生僻字”在 CCL 语料库中的出现频率（2020 年 7 月 18 日）

领域
现代汉语 古代汉语
次数

罕见字 1 0

生僻字 13 1

CCL 语料库的数据量没有 BCC 语料库大，因此检索出来的词条数量也较少。

即便如此，我们也可看出，“罕见字”的使用较之“生僻字”频率非常小。
这样的案例在项目中出现了不止一次。看似单单一个词或词组的区别，但在
读者读来却是文本通不通顺，符不符合汉语习惯的问题。因此，回译时，译者要
使用贴近汉语习惯表达的词语，才能让译文的每个角落读起来都通顺自然。

【例 5】
【原文】The layout of a courtyard represents traditional Chinese morality and
Confucian ethics; there was a strict rule for people to live in the rooms of the quadrangle.
Entering a quadrangle one will sense the arrangement between the elder and younger
generations and the distinction between the insiders and outsiders. (Unit Two
Architecture)
【译文】庭院的结构布局体现了中国传统道德和儒家伦理；四合院有严格的
居住规定。进入四合院，你能感受到长幼有序、内外有别。

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 分析：
本例第二句的初译如下：进入四合院，你能体会到长辈和晚辈之间的次序观，
以及家庭内外的差别。两个译文相较，高下立现。审校后的译文使用了两个四字
格成语就把原文和初译的长句含义完整地表达了出来。
四字格词语是汉语表达的特色，它结构凝练，含义深刻，富有表现力。汉语
中的一些四字格词语是固定的“熟语”，即已经高度俗语化、不能随意更改的固
定搭配；还有一些四字格是自由搭配而成的，可以起到浓缩原文语义的作用（周
红民、程敏，2016：28）。
使用得体的四字格能够帮助提升译文的质量。尤其是在本英译中的文化回译
项目中，若能在中文译文中发挥四字格的优势，便能使译文通俗易懂，更容易符
合中文读者对译文的期待。自然，四字格发挥优势的前提是使用恰当，即要忠实
于原文的内容和风格，不可滥用。如本项目中笔者的另外几处处理：

表 3. 四字格在中文译文中的使用
原文 译文

In another, the same Yao Niang was ordered to bind 然而，即使是那些骨骼还比较柔软的年轻

her feet to make half-moons so that she might dance 女孩，绑起脚来也非常痛苦，因此后一种
on her toes; considering the terrible pain of foot 说法的真实性还有待商榷。
binding even for young girls whose bones are still
somewhat flexible, this is a doubtful story.
(Unit Eight Beauty)
That is why Beijing has been witnessing the steadily 这也解释了为什么北京老四合院的价格在
rising prices of old siheyuan and new construction of 稳步上涨，四合院风格的新别墅也层出不
villas of this style. 穷。
(Unit Two Architecture)
The prospective groom’s mother would check the 准新郎的母亲会在订亲前检查未来新娘的
feet of any possible brides to ensure they were bound 脚，确保它们是“三寸金莲”，而不是未裹
and tiny, not “clown feet”. 过的“小丑脚”。
(Unit Eight Beauty)

由这些例证可见，合理使用四字格，能凝练语句，减轻译文的“翻译腔”，帮
助形成汉语的语体风格，使译文读起来更自然流畅。

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 【例 6】
【原文】The rooftop is ridged to provide shade in summer while retaining warmth
in winter. The short-cut corridors serve as shelters from the sunshine during the day,
and provide a cool place to appreciate the view of the courtyard at night. (Unit Two
Architecture)
【译文】屋顶呈脊状，夏可遮阴，冬可固暖。回廊昼蔽日、夜歇凉，适宜欣
赏庭院景色。

分析：
此句英文原文有着典型的英文句式结构，各实义词之间通过连词、介词等语
法标记连接成一个逻辑严谨、意义明确的长句。笔者的初译稿如下：屋顶是脊状
的，可使房屋冬暖夏凉。回廊在白天可以遮阳，晚上则非常凉爽，适宜欣赏庭院
景色。初译稿有意识地将英文长句进行流水分割，根据汉语句群“意和”的组合
方法，将每个意群进行分句，使之符合汉语的表达和阅读习惯。
终稿在初译意群分割的基础上更进一步，不仅使用了颇有韵律感的四字格和
三字格来浓缩语句，还将初译稿前半句中的逻辑承接词“可使”巧妙地省去了。
如此处理，译文主题“以‘意’接应，不漏痕迹”（周红民、程敏，2016：30）。
如此灵巧轻便的汉语句子读起来不仅符合汉语的表达认知，还富有美感与节奏感，
译文质量得到了大幅提升。
由以上所分析的案例可知，译者要使回译文与汉语语言完美融合，必须要识
别目标语汉语的习惯用法，通过贴近汉语的习惯表达、使用四字格、化长句为短
句等遵循汉语语言习惯的语言处理策略，让回译文回归汉语的本真状态。

三、识别原文所指，根据真实存在进行翻译

在每个民族的文化中，有一类含有指称意义的词和词组是专用名称，它们专
属于本民族的文化，即只有放置在本族文化的语境中才有其独特的含义。而在异
语写作的过程中，写作使用的语言符号和它指代的文化之间不可避免地发生了错
位，放在本项目中，便是英语语言和中文文化之间的错位。结果，本族语中原本
一致的语言能指和文化所指便不一致了（王宏印，2015：7），这种文化缺损也会
造成回译的困难。正如有学者所说，文化回译的困难不是原文多么艰深，而是“复
原的难度”（周红民、程敏，2016：25）。
在阅读英文文本时，译者要在真实的文化语境下了解相关话题，识别此类专
用名称在目的语文化中的具体指代，然后再下笔翻译。为使翻译精准，译者通常
要充分利用丰富的网络资源，用多种手段查证，以确保呈现的译文符合目的语文

15
化中的真实存在。

【例 7】
【原文】Normally, there is a screen wall inside the gate for privacy. Superstition
holds that it protects the house from evil spirits and brings auspicious omen to the
dwellers of the house. (Unit Two Architecture)
【译文】通常情况下，为了保护隐私，大门后会有一面影壁墙。根据风水的
说法，这面墙能够保护房子免受邪灵侵害，为住户带来祥兆。

分析：
要求专业背景的文本比较考验译者的知识结构和文献功夫。此例上文讲述四
合院东南角的大门，由大门引到了“screen wall”。笔者译到该词时，认知中存有
相关的印象，由于生活在家家独立的村庄，是时常见到这样一面墙的，但从来不
知其名。
笔者首先尝试将“screen wall”输入到有道词典中，得到的释义有：分隔墙、
遮板墙、围墙、屏帷墙。将这些作为关键词输入到百度网页之后，得到的图片大
部分是工业建筑的墙壁和普通墙壁，这些相关图片和笔者的实际认知不相符。于
是笔者就将“screen wall”的英文输入到谷歌浏览器中，得到的图片如下图：

图 1.关键词“screen wall”在谷歌浏览器的搜索结果（2020 年 7 月 19 日）

由图片可知，搜索结果不符合文本所描述的四合院的语境。此处搜索结果表
明，在用异语（英文）描述本族（中国）文化概念时，语言能指和文化所指的确
发生了偏差。这是因为在用英文描述中文文化时，英文作者存在有翻译行为，会
采取一些翻译策略将中文文化的特有概念译介到英文中。为了便于英文读者理解，
会借用英文中概念相似的词语来表达中文概念。Merriam-Webster 对“screen wall”

16
的定义如下：A wall that is erected to conceal or break a view and that supports no
vertical weight other than its own weight。这一英文定义与中文的“影壁墙”概念
大意不谋而合。但到此为止，这些结果对翻译本文本并没有多大帮助。
笔者接着求助汉语浏览器，搜索四合院的结构图，得到如下一张图片：

图 2.四合院结构图（2020 年 7 月 19 日）
（来源：http://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1598522323604593644&wfr=spider&for=pc）

至此，根据英文文本的相关描述，
“screen wall”位于四合院的大门后，才得
知该词的汉语概念为“影壁”。笔者得到启发，想再验证一下“screen wall”和“影
壁”的对应关系，就在谷歌浏览器中再次输入“Chinese screen wall”作为关键词
以验证，得到下图页面：

图 3.关键词“Chinese screen wall”在谷歌浏览器的搜索结果（2020 年 7 月 19 日）

至此可知，
“影壁”在英文中确实常用“screen wall”来表示。同时在搜索的
过程中，译者可同时获得英文文本中出现的其他指称词，如图 2 中的“东西厢房”

17
对应“east and west side houses”，
“倒座房”对应“the opposite house”，
“后罩房”
对应“backside building”等等。因此，在回译时，译者可以在目的语（中文）语
境下搜索相关话题，了解背景知识，初步得出译文后还要加以验证，才能准确识
别出英文文本所指，精确翻译。

【例 8】
【原文】This earliest Chinese script shows that in its earliest history, Chinese
writing was based on pictures. The word for “cow” was clearly the picture of a cow’s
head; “to go” was written with the picture of a foot. (Unit Four Language and Writing
Systems)
【译文】这些文字表明，汉字在发展的初期都属象形文字。
“牛”字是牛头的
图像（ ）；“走”字包含脚的图案（ ）。

分析：
笔者在初译此例时，感到本句话的表达形式与习惯上有些许不同。平日的中
到英翻译实践中，虽然角色是译者，但若文本讲到与汉字象形含义相关内容时，
可以选择在英译文中保留汉字形象以便英文读者有更好的阅读体验。但本项目英
文文本在阐释汉字含义时，可能是因为英文基本上能够清晰表达自身含义，便没
有保留“cow”和“to go”所对应的中文汉字。
此句中“to go”一词在初译时笔者留了两个备选方案：
“去”和“走”。接下
来要分别对二字进行字体演变的查证，才能确定英文中这一表达真正对应的汉字。
国学大师网列出了“去”字从甲骨文到隶书的流变，如下图所示：

图 4.“去”字的书写流变
（来源：国学大师网 http://www.guoxuedashi.com/xiangxingzi/868cs/）

由图可知，
“去”字的象形书写主要为上下结构，包括两部分。上半部分的
为人的正面状，诸家解说无异议。但下半部 的含义却各说纷纭。其中说法较
多，笔者认为也较为可信的是苏州大学上古汉语研究教授徐山的解说。徐山教授

18
（2005：9）通过查证“去”字在多部文献中的用法，并根据下半部“口”在甲
骨文的组字结构中的含义，推断出“去”字的象形含义是上半部的“大”（即为
“人”）正在离去，而下半部的“口”是另一人正在对离去之人道别。
“去”字的
甲骨文形体为上下结构，代表着离去之人位于前方，送别之人站在其后。由此可
得，“去”并不是“to go”想要传达的含义。
在国学大师网查到的“走”字的字形演变：

图 5.“走”字的书写流变
（来源：国学大师网 http://www.guoxuedashi.com/xiangxingzi/1497wy/）

由图 5 可知，
“走”字字形也分上下两部分。
《说文解字注》
（1988：63）一书
对“走”字有详细的解释：
“趨也。釋名曰：徐行曰步，疾行曰趨，疾趨曰走。此析言之。許渾言
不别也。今俗謂走徐，趨疾者，非。从夭止。夭者，屈也。依韵會訂。夭
部曰：夭，屈也。止部曰：止爲足。从夭止者，安步則足胻較直，趨則
屈多。”
由上述可知，对于“走”字来说，上半部“夭”表示弯腰屈背，下半部“止”
表示足、脚。
“走”字表示快速跑。因此，
“走”字的含义更符合英文原文中的描
述，因其下半部的“止”便代表了脚。
进行翻译实践，查证能力对于译者来说的确必不可少。尤其是当语言的能指
和文化的所指发生错位时，译者更不能想当然地对所译内容一知半解就下笔。当
遇到较为专业的内容，或者原文指代含糊的内容，译者都要使用各种资源精确查
证，使译文最大程度地靠近目标语文化的真实存在，这样得到的回译文本才算实
现了回归。
在本文化回译项目中，笔者深感具有文化敏感性的重要性。虽为译者，同
时也是英文文本的读者。在阅读异语写作的英文文本时，译者要将个人思维放
置在目的语文化氛围下，这能帮助译者深度理解原文和准确传递译文。对文化

19
的敏感性体现在从英文文本中识别出中国文化语境和中文习惯用法，才能抓住
文化核心，再现中文的文化特色。做好识别工作之后，译者要利用多种资源积
极查证，切不可望文生义，要用权威文献来支撑自己的译文。
文化回译工作看似只是查证复原工作，其实不然，译者的角色应是主动、积
极的。异语写作的文本在回译到源文化时无本可依，因此译者要在目的语文化的
基础上，加强对异语文本的分析。在本项目中，深刻理解英文承载的中国文化元
素，再现中文的文化信息，不拘泥于英文文本的字面意思，才能弥补英语能指和
中文所指之间的错位。

20
 结语

随着中国建设“文化强国”战略的实施，中国文化在世界文化之林的重要性
也大大增强了。在中国文化“走出去”的过程中，有许多文化元素都被译为外语
在世界范围广泛传播。由此，着眼于描述中国文化的外语文本的文化回译研究也
越来越被翻译学界重视。文化回译对于深入了解文化差异、培养外语学习者的文
化交际能力、乃至更好地传播中国文化都有重要意义。
本文首先总结了本项目文本的语言特点：由异语写作而成，因此无原本可依；
事实性强，但涉及较为专业的背景知识；内容均为固有信息，为文本的回译提供
了事实依托。之后，本文总结了文化回译中较为容易、较为常用的三类文化识别
方法，包括注意首字母大写和字体为斜体的词组、利用汉语拼音定位文化元素、
根据范畴词或定义句式等特定词语识别文化指称词。这三种方法在识别较为表面
的文化元素时非常实用，但在翻译实践中还会出现许多表面特征不明显的文化元
素，这时译者要采取其他的策略来加以识别和翻译。
本文在笔者翻译《中西文化融合教程》一书的经验基础上，提出了三种使用
到的文化识别方法来解决上述问题：1.译者要识别语境，将英文文本的语言语境
放置在中国的文化大语境下，根据语境进行翻译。这个“语境”，既可以通过英
文文本的直接描述获得，也可以通过所描写的中文文化背景获得。2.译者要识别
汉语的习惯用法，根据汉语的使用习惯进行翻译，如贴近习惯表达、使用四字格、
化长句为短句等，尽最大可能在译文中创造出真实的中文文化氛围。3.译者要识
别原文指称词的实际所指，务必充分利用各种资源查证，保证产出的译文符合中
文文化中的真实存在。笔者认为，译者要将文化回译行为建立在两个原则之上：
培养自身的文化敏感性，积极查证，才能让译文尽量向真实的文化语境靠拢；同
时发挥译者的主观能动性，加强分析能力，才能不拘泥于字面含义，跳出英文语
言对所述文化的局限。
本文总结出的文化识别和翻译策略、及所分析的案例都来源于笔者真实的翻
译实践，因此具有较强的可实施性。笔者希望本研究能够对此后同类文本的翻译
实践具有借鉴意义。由于本项目案例属于个案研究，所以总结的文化识别和翻译
方法不够全面，笔者会在未来的翻译实践中加以积累，完善本文的研究。

21
 参考文献

[1] ALSTYNE D. Classical vs. Popular Music[EB/OL].[2020-07-17].

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究，2013（8）：51-77.
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：105-109.
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：1-9.
2015（3）
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体关系[J].中国翻译，2017（5）：19-27.
[14] 王正良.回译研究[D/OL].上海：上海外国语大学，2006[2020-07-10].
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06.
[15] 徐山.释“去”[J].浙江海洋学院学报（人文科学版），2005（3）
：8-9.
[16] 许慎（汉）.说文解字注[M].第二版.上海：上海古籍出版社，1988.
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报道[J].中国翻译，2007（3）.
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译，2016（5）：25-32.

22
附录一：《中西文化融合教程》节选

Unit Two Architecture

Architecture is a mirror that faithfully reflects the politics, economy, thoughts and culture of a
society.
─ Liang Sicheng, Chinese architect
建筑是一面镜子,它忠实地反映着一定社会的政治、经济、思想、文化。
——梁思成，中国建筑师
Text A
Beijing Siheyuan
北京四合院

1 Siheyuan (Chinese quadrangle) is a historical type of residence that is commonly found

throughout China, mostly famous in Beijing. The name literally means a courtyard surrounded
by buildings on all four sides. Siheyuan has been home to Beijing people for hundreds of years,
and it is thus one of the carriers of the massive history and bright regional culture of Beijing.
1 四合院（中式合院式房屋）是一种中国各地常见的传统住宅类型，北京的四合院尤为
著名。顾名思义，四合院即四面环绕着建筑物的庭院。北京人在四合院居住了数百年，
四合院也因此成为了北京厚重历史和灿烂地域文化的载体之一。

2 Siheyuan exhibits outstanding and fundamental characteristics of Chinese architecture; it is

the template for most Chinese architectural styles. Throughout Chinese history, its composition
was the basic pattern used for residences, palaces, government offices, family businesses,
temples and monasteries. A spacious siheyuan would be occupied by a single, usually large and
extended family, signifying wealth and prosperity.
2 四合院体现了中式建筑的突出和基本特征，是大多数中式建筑的模板。纵观中国历史，
四合院的基本格局被用于住宅、宫殿、政府机关、家族企业和寺庙等建筑。一座宽敞的
四合院通常居住一户大家庭，意味着富裕和繁荣。

History
历史

3 Siheyuan is renowned both at home and abroad for its long and glorious history. Early in the
ancient capital city of the Shang Dynasty (1599–1046 BC) 3,000 years ago, there were several

23
housing construction projects surrounding the courtyard on the old site of the royal court and
palace. The quadrangle in neat formation appeared in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771
BC). Beijing was formally founded as the capital in the Yuan Dynasty (1271– 1368), therefore,
siheyuan was constructed on a large scale during that time, and the city (then the Great Capital)
was constructed cosmically. But most siheyuan in existence today were constructed from the
Qing Dynasty (1636– 1912) to the 1930s. The Forbidden City is the most famous siheyuan
complex in China.
3 四合院历史悠久辉煌，名闻中外。早在 3000 年前的商朝（公元前 1599-1046 年），在
古都皇宫宫殿旧址上就出现了数个合院式住房建筑。西周（公元前 1046-771 年）出现了
严谨规整的四合院。元朝（1271-1368 年）正式建都北京，因此四合院在那段时间大规
模出现，北京城（当时的元大都）也进行了大规模建设。但是现存的大多数四合院都是
在清朝（1636-1912 年）到 20 世纪 30 年代之间建造的。紫禁城是中国最著名的四合院
建筑群。

4 Since 1949, a large-scale construction program has been carried out in Beijing city, causing
the demolition of some residential compounds. During the initial post-liberation period,
government offices occupied some siheyuan. Later they were demolished to build office
buildings. During the “Cultural Revolution”, air-raid shelters were dug everywhere in Beijing,
resulting in the destruction of some siheyuan.
4 自 1949 年以来，北京市进行了大规模的建设项目，一些居民区被拆除。解放后初期，
一些四合院被政府部门征用，后来还被拆除以建造办公楼。
“文化大革命”期间，北京到
处挖防空洞，一些四合院被毁。

5 Modern Beijing’s population boom has made housing one of the city’s biggest issues. In the
1990s, systematic demolition of old urban buildings took place in Beijing and many siheyuan
were torn down to address the problem of overcrowding. Some residential buildings were built
on the sites of the demolished siheyuan. A large number of people at home and abroad today
are still enchanted with siheyuan’s flavor of life. That is why Beijing has been witnessing the
steadily rising prices of old siheyuan and new construction of villas of this style.
5 由于现代北京人口激增，住房成为该市最大的问题之一。20 世纪 90 年代，北京的老
旧建筑被有计划地拆除；同时，为解决人口拥挤的问题，许多四合院也在拆除之列。一
些住宅楼就建在被拆毁的四合院旧址上。今天，仍有许多海内外人士为四合院的生活气
息着迷。这也是为什么北京老四合院的价格在稳步上涨，四合院风格的新别墅也层出不
穷。

24
Layout
布局

6 Siheyuan in size ranges from one courtyard to two, three, or more. A standard siheyuan is
usually a three-courtyard residence. Some large siheyuan compounds would have two or more
layers of courtyards and even private gardens attached to them. Such was a sign of wealth and
status in ancient times.
6 若以大小分，四合院的规模从一个庭院到两个、三个或更多庭院不等。一个标准的四
合院通常有三个内院。一些大型的四合院复合体会有两层或两层以上的庭院，甚至还有
私家园林。在古代，这是财富和地位的象征。

7 The entrance gate, usually painted vermilion, is usually at the southeastern corner. A pair of
stone lions are often placed outside the gate. Normally, there is a screen wall inside the gate for
privacy. Superstition holds that it protects the house from evil spirits and brings auspicious
omen to the dwellers of the house.
7 四合院的大门通常漆成朱红色，设于东南角。门外常放一对石狮子。通常情况下，为
了保护隐私，大门后会有一面影壁墙。根据风水说法，这面墙能够保护房子免受邪灵侵
害，为住户带来祥兆。

8 The buildings on the four sides are normally positioned along the north-south and east-west
axis. The building positioned to the north and facing the south is regarded as the main house.
The buildings adjacent to the main house and facing west and east are called east and west side
houses. The building facing north is known as the opposite house. Behind the northern building,
there would often be a separate, two-storey backside building. The northern, eastern and
western buildings are connected by beautifully decorated shortcut corridors, which also serve
as shelters from the sunshine or rainfalls and offer a cool location to enjoy the view of the
courtyard. Certain appropriately sized courtyards of siheyuan help absorb sunshine in the
wintertime. Since the setting sun in summer is quite strong, the courtyards have become narrow
and long on the north-south side to reduce the amount of sunshine.
8 四合院的四面建筑通常沿着南北和东西轴线设计。坐北朝南的称为正房。与正房相邻，
面向西面和东面两个方向的房屋称为东厢房和西厢房。面朝北的叫做倒座房。在正房后
面，通常会有一个独立的两层建筑，称为后罩房。正房、东厢房和西厢房由装饰精美的
回廊连接，回廊可以遮光挡雨，也是一个欣赏庭院景色的绝佳位置。四合院的庭院若大

25
小合适，还可增强冬季采光效果。由于夏季斜阳比较强烈，为了减少日照，庭院的南北
走向又窄又长。

Culture
文化

9 Siheyuan was built according to the traditional concepts of the Five Elements believed to
compose the universe, and the Eight Diagrams of Divination. The building materials were
mostly wood, one of the five elements. The gate at the southeast corner was the “wind” corner,
and the main house built on the north side was believed to belong to “water”, an element that
prevents fire, so the main house was believed to be the most important building of all.
9 四合院建筑体现了传统的五行（被认为是构成世界的本源）和八卦理念。建筑材料以
木材为主，
“木”是五行之一。东南角的大门是“巽”位，北侧的正房属“水”，
“水”克
“火”，所以一般认为正房是最重要的。

10 The layout of a courtyard represents traditional Chinese morality and Confucian ethics; there
was a strict rule for people to live in the rooms of the quadrangle. Entering a quadrangle one
will sense the arrangement between the elder and younger generations and the distinction
between the insiders and outsiders.
10 庭院的结构布局体现了中国传统道德和儒家伦理；四合院有严格的居住规定。进入
四合院，你能感受到长幼有序、内外有别。

11 The four buildings on the four sides receive different amounts of sunlight. The northern main
house receives the most, thus serving as the living room and bedroom of the head of the family.
The eastern and western side houses receive less and they serve as the rooms for children or
less important family members. The southern house receives the least sunlight, and usually
functions as a reception room and servants’ dwelling, or where the family would gather to relax,
eat or study.
11 四合院四面的建筑受到不同程度的光照。北面的正房光照最多，因此这是一家之主
的客厅和卧室。东西厢房光照较少，是子孙或其他家庭成员的房间。南侧的房屋光照最
少，通常用作接待室和仆人的住所，或是家人聚在一起放松、吃饭、学习的地方。

12 A more detailed and further stratified Confucian order was followed in ancient China. The
main room is big, well lit and ventilated for the elders, i.e. the head of the family, usually

26
grandparents. If the main house had enough rooms, a central room would serve as a shrine for
ancestral worship. When the head of the household had concubines, the wife would reside in
the room to the eastern end of the main house, while the concubines would reside in the room
to the western end of the main house. The eldest son and his wife would reside in the eastern
side house, while the younger son and his wife would reside in the western side house. If a
grandson was fully grown, he would reside in the opposite house in the south. The backside
building, the most secluded building in the siheyuan, is for unmarried daughters and maids,
because unmarried girls were not allowed direct exposure to the public.
12 中国古代尊崇等级分明的儒家秩序。正房宽敞明亮，通风良好，适合老人居住，也就
是一家之主，通常是祖父母辈。如果正房房屋数量多，居中的堂屋就会成为祭拜祖先的
祠堂。当一家之主有小妾时，正妻就住在正房最东端，而小妾则住在正房最西端。长子
及长媳住在东厢房，次子及次媳住在西厢房。孙辈长大后住在南面的倒座房。四合院最
隐蔽的建筑是后罩房，这是为未出阁的女儿和家中女佣准备的，因为未婚女孩不允许直
接抛头露面。

Life
生活

13 Beijing residents like to live in siheyuan. Northwestern walls are usually higher than the
other walls to protect the inside buildings from the harsh northwest winds in winter. Eaves curve
downward, so that rainwater will flow along the curve rather than dropping straight down. The
rooftop is ridged to provide shade in summer while retaining warmth in winter. The short-cut
corridors serve as shelters from the sunshine during the day, and provide a cool place to
appreciate the view of the courtyard at night.
13 北京居民喜欢住四合院。四合院的西北墙常高过其他墙，以阻隔冬日凛冽的西北风。
屋檐向下弯曲，使雨水沿着屋檐流动，而非直接滴落。屋顶呈脊状，夏可遮阴，冬可固
暖。回廊昼蔽日、夜歇凉，适宜欣赏庭院景色。

14 A siheyuan offers space, comfort, quiet and privacy. The courtyard is square, vast and of a
suitable size. It contains plants, rocks, and flowers, providing an ideal space for outdoor life.
Such elements make the courtyard seem like an open-air, large living room, drawing heaven
and earth closer to people’s hearts. The veranda divides the courtyard into several big and small
spaces that are not very distant from each other. These spaces penetrate one another, setting off
the void and the solid, and the contrast of shadows. The divisions also make the courtyard more

27
suited to the standards of daily life. Family members talk with each other and exchange their
views here, which creates a cordial temperament and an interesting atmosphere.
14 四合院宽敞舒适，安静隐秘。庭院是方形的，大且适中，有植物、景观石和鲜花，是
户外生活的理想空间。这些元素使庭院看起来像一个露天的大起居室，拉近了天地和人
心。走廊将庭院分成大小不等、相距不远的空间。这些空间相互渗透，虚实相称，明暗
对照，而这也使庭院更适合日常生活。家庭成员在这里交谈讨论，气氛亲切、有趣。

15 Hidden amidst the numerous neighboring high buildings, the ancient looking siheyuan is
graceful and elegant. The design is stylish and the courtyard arrangement is simple and refined.
Trees and flowers, fish swimming in a pond, and green beds of grass are usual scenes in the
quadrangle. One can keep the urban noises behind his mind and get away from the pounding of
modern civilization, and here he may taste the flavor of ancient Beijing and enjoy the luxuries
of the antique kind.
15 四合院掩映在周围众多的高楼大厦中，古色古香，雍容华贵。设计时尚，而庭院布局
简约雅致。花草树木，池塘游鱼，绿草如茵，这是四合院的常见景色。在此，你可以把
城市的喧嚣抛在脑后，远离现代文明的冲击；可以品尝老北京的味道，享受古董般的奢
华。

16 The centripetal and cohesive atmosphere of Beijing siheyuan is a typical expression of the
characteristic of most Chinese residences. The courtyard’s pattern of being closed to the outside
and open to the inside can be regarded as a wise integration of two kinds of contradictory
psychologies: on one hand, the self-sufficient feudal families needed to maintain a certain
separation from the outside world; on the other, the psychology, deeply rooted in the mode of
agricultural production, makes the Chinese people particularly keen on getting closer to nature;
they often want to see the heaven, the earth, flowers, grass and trees in their own homes.
16 北京四合院的向心力和凝聚力是大多数中国人的典型特征。庭院格局对外封闭、向
内开放，可以看作是两种矛盾心理的巧妙融合：一方面，自给自足的封建家庭需要与外
界有一定的隔离；另一方面，根植于农业生产方式的心理，使中国人特别渴望亲近大自
然，他们常想在自己的家里看到天、地、花、草和树木。

Text B
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris
巴黎圣母院大教堂

28
Each face, each stone of this venerable monument is not only a page of the history of the country,
but also of the history of knowledge and art.
– Victor Hugo, French writer
这个纪念碑的每一张脸，每一块石头，不仅是这个国家历史的一页，也是科学和艺术史
的一页。
——维克多·雨果，法国作家

1 Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval
period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance
architecture. It originated in 12th-century France and lasted into the 16th century. Most familiar
as the architecture of many of the great cathedrals, abbeys and churches of Europe, it is also the
architecture of many castles, palaces, towns, halls, and universities. Gothic architecture is
characterized with pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses. Other common features
include large stained glass windows, towers, spires and pinnacles, and ornate façades.
1 哥特式建筑是在中世纪鼎盛时期和晚期盛行的一种建筑风格。它由罗马式建筑演变而
来，并被文艺复兴时期的建筑所继承。它起源于 12 世纪的法国，一直延续到 16 世纪，
除了是人们熟知的欧洲许多大教堂、修道院和教堂的建筑风格，它也是许多城堡、宫殿、
城镇、礼堂和大学的建筑风格。哥特式建筑的特点是尖拱、肋拱和飞拱。其他常见的特
征包括大型彩色玻璃窗、塔楼、尖塔和华丽的立面。

2 Notre Dame de Paris is an important and beautiful example of French Gothic architecture, the
most popular monument in Paris. The famous cathedral is also an active Catholic church, a
place of pilgrimage, and the focal point for Catholicism in France—religious events of national
significance still take place here.
2 巴黎圣母院是法国哥特式建筑中重要且出色的典范，是巴黎最受欢迎的纪念碑。这座
著名的大教堂也是一座仍在使用的天主教堂，一个朝圣之地，是天主教在法国的中心—
—具有全国意义的宗教活动仍在这里举行。

History
历史

3 The Gothic loftiness of Notre Dame dominates the Seine and the île-de-la-Cité as well as the
history of Paris. On the spot where this majestic cathedral now stands, the Romans had built a
temple to Jupiter, which was followed by a Christian basilica and then a Romanesque church.

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3 哥特式高耸的巴黎圣母院，俯视着塞纳河和西岱岛，在巴黎历史上占有重要地位。这
座宏伟教堂的旧址上曾是罗马人为朱庇特建造的神庙，此后相继出现过一座基督教大教
堂和一座罗马式教堂。

4 Maurice de Sully, bishop of Paris, decided to build a new cathedral for the expanding
population of Paris, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Construction started in 1163 and was
completed in about 1345. Built in an age of illiteracy, the cathedral retells the stories of the
Bible in its portals, paintings, and stained glass.
4 巴黎主教莫里斯·德·萨利（Maurice de Sully）决定为巴黎不断增长的人口建造一座
新的大教堂，献给圣母玛利亚。工程始于 1163 年，大概结束于 1345 年。建于文盲时代
的大教堂，通过大门、绘画和彩色玻璃来讲述圣经故事。

5 Notre Dame has had an eventful history over centuries. Crusaders prayed here before leaving
on their holy wars; polyphonic music developed in the cathedral. In 1793, Notre Dame fell
victim to the French Revolution: many sculptures and treasures were destroyed or plundered—
only the great bells avoided being melted down. The church interior was used as a warehouse
for the storage of food.
5 几个世纪以来，圣母院发生过许多故事。十字军在圣战之前祈祷于此；复调音乐产生
于此。1793 年，巴黎圣母院成为法国大革命的牺牲品：许多雕塑和珍宝被毁或被掠夺—
—只有大钟幸免于难没有被熔化。当时教堂被用作储藏食物的仓库。

6 During the 19th century, writer Victor Hugo and artists called attention to its dangerous state
of disrepair, thus raising a new awareness of its artistic value. Restoration of the cathedral began
in 1844 and lasted 23 years. For instance, the sculpture on the west facade, badly damaged
during the French Revolution, was restored during this period. New life was brought to the rose
windows and the statues.
6 在 19 世纪，作家维克多·雨果和艺术家们使人们意识到了大教堂年久失修的危险状
态，从而使人们重新认识到了它的艺术价值。大教堂的修复始于 1844 年，持续了 23 年。
例如，西侧立面的雕塑在法国大革命期间被严重损坏，在此期间被修复。玫瑰窗和雕像
也被赋予了新的生命。

7 During the Commune of 1871, it was nearly burned by the Communards; some accounts
suggest that indeed a huge mound of chairs was set on fire in its interior.
7 在 1871 年巴黎公社革命期间，它几乎被巴黎公社社员烧毁；一些记载表明，大教堂

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内确实有一大堆椅子被人放火烧尽。

8 A ten-year program of general maintenance and restoration was initiated in 1991. While work
continues, sections of the structure are likely to be shrouded by scaffolds.
8 1991 年开始了为期十年的维修工程。在施工过程中，部分结构可能被脚手架覆盖。

West Front
西立面

9 The west front is one of its most notable features, with its two 69-meter tall towers. The South
Tower houses the cathedral’s famous bell, “Emmanuel.” The bell weighs 13 metric tons. The
bell is Notre Dame’s oldest, having been recast in 1631.
9 大教堂的西立面有两座 69 米高的塔楼，这是其最显著的特征之一。南塔是大教堂著
名的“艾曼纽”钟的所在地。此钟重 13 吨，是圣母院最古老的钟，在 1631 年曾被重新
铸造。

10 The Grand Gallery connects the two west towers, and is where the cathedral’s legendary
gargoyles can be found. The gargoyles are full of Gothic characteristics but are not medieval—
they were added during the 19th-century restoration.
10 两座西塔由大画廊所连接，在这里可以找到传说中大教堂的滴水嘴兽。滴水嘴兽具
有哥特式的特点，但却不是中世纪的——它们是在 19 世纪修复期间加上去的。

11 The King’s Gallery is a line of statues of the 28 kings of Judah and Israel which was
redesigned to replace the statues destroyed during the French Revolution. The revolutionaries
mistakenly believed the statues to be French kings instead of biblical kings, so they decapitated
them. Some of the heads were found during a 1977 excavation nearby.
11 “众王廊”是一排雕像，刻画了犹太和以色列的 28 位国王，它们都经过重新设计，
以取代在法国大革命期间被毁的雕像。当时革命者误认为这些雕像是法国国王，而不是
圣经中的国王，所以将它们斩首。其中一些头颅于 1977 年在挖掘附近地区时被发现。

12 The three west portals are magnificent examples of early Gothic art. Sculpted between 1200
and 1240, they depict scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, the Last Judgment, and the life
of St. Anne. Many of the statues, especially the larger ones, were destroyed in the Revolution
and remade in the 19th century.

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12 西面的三扇门洞是早期哥特式艺术的宏伟典范。它们雕刻于 1200 至 1240 年间，描
绘了圣母玛利亚、最后的审判和圣·安妮的生活场景。其中许多雕像，尤其是较大一些
的，在法国大革命中被毁，在 19 世纪被重新修复。

West Portals
西侧门洞

13 Portal of St. Anne (Right Portal) was the first of the three west portals to be installed. Anne,
the Virgin Mary’s mother, is mentioned in early Christian stories but not in the Bible. The
tympanum shows the Virgin and Child on a throne, accompanied by two censing angels, a
bishop and his assistant, and a king. The upper lintel depicts scenes from the advent of Christ
and the lower lintel tells the stories of Anne and Joachim and Mary and Joseph. Statues of Peter,
Paul, and biblical monarchs are on the door jambs.
13 圣.安妮之门（右门）是西侧三个门洞中首个建造的。安妮是圣母玛利亚的母亲，在
早期的基督教故事中有所提及，但圣经中没有提到。半月楣上圣母和圣婴端坐宝座，两
个焚香天使、一位主教及其助手和一位国王陪伴左右。上面的门楣描绘了基督降临的场
景，下面的门楣讲述了安妮、约阿希姆、玛丽和约瑟夫的故事。门框上有彼得、保罗和
圣经君主的雕像。

14 Portal of the Virgin (Left Portal), dedicated to the patroness of the cathedral, was sculpted
second of the three portals in the 1210s-1220s. The tympanum features the Coronation of the
Virgin, with an angel crowning Mary while Christ blesses her and gives her a scepter. The top
lintel depicts the Death of the Virgin; Mary lies on her death bed surrounded by Jesus and the
Twelve Apostles. Two angels at her head and feet lift her up to Heaven. The bottom lintel has
three Old Testament prophets (left) and three Old Testament kings (right), all holding scrolls
representing prophecies of Christ.
14 圣母之门（左门）是献给大教堂的女守护神的，雕刻于 13 世纪 10 至 20 年代，是三
个门洞中第二个完成的。半月楣上雕刻的是圣母的加冕礼，一个天使正在为玛丽加冕，
而基督正在为她祝福，并赠与她权杖。顶部的门楣描绘了圣母之死：玛丽躺在床榻上，
身边围绕着耶稣和十二门徒。两个天使站在她的头和脚边，把她抬到天堂。底部的门楣
有三位旧约先知（左）和三位旧约国王（右），拿着刻有基督预言的卷轴。

15 The archivolts are populated by the Heavenly Court (angels, patriarchs, kings, prophets).
The door-jamb statues represent, from left to right: Emperor Constantine, an angel, Saint Denis

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holding his head, another angel, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Stephen, Saint Genevieve and
Pope Saint Sylvester. On the trumeau is a standing statue of the Virgin and Child, with the
pedestal below carved with scenes of the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve.
15 拱门上饰有天国的宫廷（天使、宗主教、国王、先知）。门柱上的雕像从左至右依次
是：君士坦丁大帝、天使、抱着自己头颅的圣丹尼斯、另一位天使、施洗圣约翰、圣斯
蒂芬、圣热纳维芙和教皇圣西尔维斯特。门柱上矗立着一尊圣母和圣婴的雕像，底座上
雕刻着受诱惑而堕落的亚当和夏娃。

16 The abutments of the doors have panels representing the natural universe, or life on earth.
The panels on either side of the portal are weathered but elegant Zodiacs and Labors of the
Months. The positions of the months echo the yearly cycle of the sun: rising in the sky from
January to June (left jamb), then descending from July to December (right jamb). Completing
the symbolic medieval universe on the inside jambs are the seasons (left) and the ages of man
(right).
16 大门的基台有代表自然宇宙或生命的浮雕。门洞两侧的浮雕是饱经风霜但优雅依旧
的黄道十二宫和月令劳作图。月份的位置呼应于太阳一年的运转：从 1 月到 6 月升上天
空（左侧柱），从 7 月到 12 月落下（右侧柱）。在内墙柱上，四季时令（左）和人生阶
段（右）完成了具有象征意义的中世纪宇宙。

17 Portal of Last Judgment (Central Portal) was sculpted last of the three, in the 1220s and
1230s; its theme is the Last Judgment, with Christ emphasized less as judge and more as the
suffering savior of humanity.
17 最后的审判之门（中间的门洞）雕刻于 13 世纪 20 至 30 年代，是三个门洞中最后一
个完成的。它的主题是“最后的审判”，强调基督是人类苦难的救主，而不是审判官。

Stained Glass Windows

彩色玻璃窗

18 Notre Dame’s stained glass windows are very beautiful and a significant number of them
date from the 13th century when the cathedral was constructed. They remain an important and
beautiful collection of 13th-century Gothic art. The highlight—and the greatest survival of
original glass—is the set of three beautiful rose windows, which shine like jewels over the west
door and in the north and south transept.
18 巴黎圣母院的彩色玻璃窗非常漂亮，其中相当一部分可以追溯到 13 世纪大教堂建造

33
之时。它们仍然是 13 世纪哥特式艺术不可或缺的美丽宝藏。这些玻璃的亮点和最伟大
的遗产，是三扇像宝石一样闪耀在西门和南北耳堂上美丽的玫瑰窗。

19 The West Rose Window is 10 meters in diameter and exceptionally beautiful. Dating from
about 1220, it retains most of its original glass and tracery. The main theme is human life,
featuring symbolic scenes such as the Zodiacs and Labors of the Months. On the exterior, it is
fronted by a statue of the Virgin and Child accompanied by angels.
19 西侧玫瑰窗直径 10 米，美丽异常。它的历史可以追溯到 1220 年左右，保留了大部
分原有的玻璃和窗饰。它的主题是人类生命，以象征意义的场景为特色，如十二星座和
月令劳作图。它的外面正对着一个由天使陪伴着的圣母和圣婴雕像。

20 The South Rose Window, donated by King St. Louis, was installed in about 1260. Its general
themes are the New Testament, the Triumph of Christ, and the symbolic number four. It is 12.9
meters in diameter and contains 84 panes of glass. The corner pieces depict: the Descent into
Hell (left) with Moses and Aaron (top) and temptation of Adam and Eve (bottom); and the
Resurrection of Christ (right) with Peter and Paul (top), and Mary Magdalene and John (top).
20 南侧玫瑰窗是由圣路易斯国王捐赠的，安装于 1260 年左右，主题为《新约全书》、
基督的胜利和具有象征意义的数字四。它的直径为 12.9 米，包含 84 块玻璃。角片描绘
了：
《下地狱》
（左）
（画有摩西和亚伦（上），亚当和夏娃的诱惑（下））；
《复活》
（画有
基督（右）
、彼得和保罗（上）
，玛丽亚玛格德莱尼和约翰（上）。

21 Below the rose are 16 lancets, which are entirely 19th-century replacements, depicting 16
prophets. In the center, the four great prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel carry the
four evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John on their shoulders.
21 玫瑰下面有 16 个细长尖拱窗，都是 19 世纪的替代品，描绘的是 16 位先知。在中间，
四大先知以赛亚、耶利米、以西结和但以理肩扛着四福音使徒——马太、马可、路加和
约翰。

22 The North Rose Window dates from 1250 and is also 12.9 meters in diameter. Its main theme
is the Old Testament, but the central medallion depicts the Virgin and Child.
22 北侧玫瑰窗可以追溯到 1250 年，直径也有 12.9 米。它的主题是《旧约全书》，但中
间的圆形玻璃上描绘的是圣母和圣婴。

23 In 1768, geographers decided that all distances in France would be measured from Notre

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Dame. In many ways, Notre Dame was, and is still the center of France. Yet it is the art of Notre
Dame, rather than its history, that still awes.
23 1768 年，地理学家们决定测量从巴黎圣母院到法国境内所有地区的距离。在许多意
义上，圣母院过去是、现在仍然是法国的中心。然而，让人敬畏的不是巴黎圣母院的历
史，而是它的艺术。

Unit Four
Language and Writing Systems
语言与书写系统

The limits of my language means the limits of my world.

─ Ludwig Wittgenstein
我语言的界限即我世界的界限。
——路德维希·维特根斯坦

Text A Tradition and Transformation in the Chinese Writing System

课文 A 汉字书写系统的传统和变革

1 Most of the world’s languages are written alphabetically; in an alphabetic writing system the
basic components represent sounds only without any reference to meaning. For example, the
letter “b” in English represents a voiced bilabial stop, but no particular meaning can be attached
to it in its function as a letter of the alphabet. Chinese writing is logographic, that is, every
symbol either represents a word or a minimal unit of meaning. When I write the character 牛,
it not only has a sound, niu, it has a meaning, “cow.” Only a small number of symbols are
necessary in an alphabetic system (generally under 50), but a logographic system, such as
Chinese writing, requires thousands of symbols.
1 世界上大多数语言都是字母文字，这类文字系统的基本组成部分只代表声音，而不涉
及任何意义。例如，英语中的字母“b”代表一个双唇爆破辅音，但它作为一个字母，没
有任何特殊意义。中文是表意文字，也就是说，每一个符号要么代表一个词，要么代表
一个最小的意义单位。书写的汉字“牛”，不仅包含其发音“niu”，其自身也有含义，表
示牛这种动物。一个字母文字系统只需要少量的符号（通常在 50 个以下），但像汉字这
样的表意文字系统则需要成千上万的符号。

2 From the aspects of sound, every Chinese character represents one syllable. Many of these

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syllables are also words, but we should not think that every word in modern Chinese is
monosyllabic. The word for “television,” for example, is 电视, dianshi; since this word has
two syllables, it is necessary to write it with two characters. Each of these characters has an
independent meaning: dian means “electric”, and shi means “vision”; in this particular case
neither of the characters can be used alone in modern Chinese as a word; however, two and a
half millennia ago, both characters were independent words. So, when we say that Chinese has
a logographic writing system, one in which each basic symbol represents an independent
syllable, we are speaking of the Chinese of a much earlier period.
2 从发音上看，每个汉字代表一个音节。这些音节中有许多也属于词，但并不是每一个
词都是单音节的。例如，
“电视”读作“dianshi”
，由于这个词有两个音节，所以要用两
个字符来表示。这个词中的每个汉字都有独立的意义：
“电”是一种物理现象，
“视”表
示视觉。这个情况比较特殊，这两个汉字都不能单独作为一个词在现代汉语中使用；然
而，两千五百多年前，这两个字都可独立使用。因此，当我们说汉语是一个表意文字系
统，其中每个基本符号代表一个独立的音节的时候，我们说的是古汉语。

3 How many characters does the average literate Chinese person know? Studies carried out in
China have shown that full literacy requires a knowledge of between three and four thousand
characters. Learning so many characters is very time-consuming and places a heavy burden on
students. This has led many Chinese in the past to advocate the programs of characters in favor
of an alphabetic system, but met with little success. We will return to the question of script
reform below.
3 中国识字的人平均有多少汉字储备量？在中国进行的研究表明，具备良好的读写能力
需要掌握 3000 至 4000 个汉字。学习如此多的汉字要花费很长时间，也给学生带来了沉
重的负担。因此，过去有许多中国人提倡字母文字体系，但收效甚微。下面我们将回归
文字改革的话题。

4 Although literacy requires the knowledge of a few thousand characters, the total number of
characters is much greater. A dictionary produced in the eleventh century contained more than
fifty-three thousand characters. Even when one takes into account that many of these characters
represented rare words and many others were merely different ways of writing the same word,
the number still seems staggering. Fortunately, the average person is required to know only a
small percentage of this enormous number. It is interesting that both printing and movable type
were invented in China. The latter, however, was little used until modern times. Most printing
used wooden blocks on which characters were carved individually in meticulous detail.

36
Undoubtedly the reason for this was the large number of characters used in ordinary printing;
it was easier to carve individual block than it was to create a stock of several thousand type and
set it by hand. On the other hand, movable type is eminently suited to alphabetic writing systems.
Nowadays characters can easily be written on a computer, and older methods of printing are
rapidly disappearing.
4 虽然培养读写能力要认识几千个汉字，但汉字的总数与之相比要多得多。一本于 11 世
纪出版的词典包含五万三千多汉字。即使考虑到这其中有许多都是生僻字，许多字仅仅
是同一词的异体字，这个数量仍是惊人的。幸运的是，对普通人来说，只需要认识其中
的一小部分即可。有趣的是，印刷术和活字印刷都是中国发明的。然而，活字印刷直到
现代才被广泛使用。大多数印刷都使用木块，木块上的文字被细致地单独雕刻。毫无疑
问，这是因为一般印刷会使用到大量汉字，雕刻单个的木块比手工在大木块上雕刻几千
个汉字要容易得多。另一方面，活字印刷非常适合字母文字。如今，在电脑上书写汉字
非常容易，而古老的印刷方法正在迅速消失。

5 Chinese writing has a history of some three thousand five hundred years. It is not as old as
Sumerian or Egyptian writing; there is no certain evidence, however, that the invention of
writing in China was in any way stimulated by the earlier existence of writing in the Near East.
The earliest examples of Chinese writing are divinatory texts written on bones and shells. These
usually consist of a question put to a diviner along with his answer. This earliest Chinese script
shows that in its earliest history, Chinese writing was based on pictures. The word for “cow”
was clearly the picture of a cow’s head; “to go” was written with the picture of a foot. However,
a little reflection shows that it is impossible to have a fully pictorial system of writing. How
would one depict, for example, some abstract grammatical notions such as “completion of an
action”? It would seem that from the very beginning of writing certain symbols that originated
as pictograms were used for their sound alone, and it was only when this phonetic use of
characters was introduced that a complete graphic record of language was possible./ In the
history of Chinese writing the number of characters that contained a phonetic element grew
progressively, but Chinese never abandoned the principle of one character per word (or at least
one character for each meaningful element).
5 中国文字有三千五百多年的历史，它没有苏美尔或埃及文字那么古老。然而，并没有
确切的证据表明，中国文字的发明是受到早期近东地区的文字启发而产生的。中国最早
的文字是写在骨头和贝壳上的占卜文字，通常包括向占卜者提出的问题以及占卜者的回
“牛”字是牛头的图像（
答。这些文字表明，汉字在发展的初期都属象形文字。 ）；
“走”
字包含脚的图案（ ）。然而，稍微思考一下就会发现，不可能存在一个完全形象化的

37
书写系统。例如，如何描述一些抽象的语法概念，如“一个动作的完成”？似乎从文字
形成的最初时期，象形文字中的某些符号只有语音意义，只有当这些文字的语音用法被
采用时，完整的语言文字记录才成为可能。在汉字发展史上，包含语音意义的汉字数量
逐渐增加，但汉语始终坚持一个词一个字的原则，或每个有意义的成分至少一个字。

6 In the earliest Chinese writing its pictographic origins are still quite obvious. Over the course
of time, however, the script underwent many changes, so that by the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–
220 CE), the script had lost most of its pictorial quality. The present-day standard script (called
kaishu in Chinese) took shape during the third and fourth centuries CE. After that the form of
the script remained surprisingly unchanged until modern times. In addition to standard forms,
there are also several cursive forms of the script; the two most common are caoshu and xingshu.
Caoshu, which means something like “drafting script”, is highly cursive and difficult for people
without special training to read. Xingshu is a sort of compromise between the highly cursive
caoshu and the standard script. It is widely used by ordinary Chinese when writing letters or
engaging in other informal sorts of writing.
6 汉字最早的（书写形式）书体带有明显的象形特征。然而，随着时间的推移，汉字书
体演变出了许多变化，在汉代（公元前 206 年至公元 220 年)时期的书体中已经很难发
现象形文字的特质了。到公元三四世纪，流传至今的正体（也称楷书）形成了。从那以
后直到现代，汉字字体就几乎没有发生变化，这令人吃惊。除了标准字体，汉字还有几
种草写字体，最常见的有草书和行书两种。草书颇像“打草稿”，非常潦草，没有经过特
殊训练的人很难阅读。行书介于草书和标准楷书之间，中国人在写信或其他非正式的写
作时广泛使用。

7 The art of calligraphy is highly developed in China. For this purpose a traditional writing
brush is employed, and the calligrapher may specialize in one of several different styles.
Calligraphy is one of China’s major visual arts, many painters and scholars were also
accomplished calligraphers. The cultivation of artistic writing is only one of many practices
that show how deeply the writing system is rooted in Chinese culture. Despite recurrent
suggestions to replace the traditional script with alphabetic writing, with all its obvious
conveniences, the Chinese writing system remains integral to Chinese self-definition. In a
country with hundreds of different dialects a common script that is independent of this dialectal
diversity is a powerful symbol of national unity. In the 1920s and 1930s, many Chinese
intellectuals viewed the script as a serious problem in China’s attempt to become a part of the
modern world. It was portrayed as cumbersome, difficult to learn and out of date. As a result,

38
many advocated the outright abandonment of the traditional script in favor of an alphabetic
system. Contrary to what many have claimed, there is a reason that Chinese cannot be written
alphabetically, and a number of practical orthographies have been proposed. One problem that
the proponents of alphabetic writing were not able to overcome was that for such a writing
system to be practical, it would have to be adapted to various regional dialects; such a move
was viewed as potentially divisive and harmful to the idea of a single Chinese nation. Ultimately
all such ideas were abandoned, and attention turned to simplification of the traditional script,
the idea being that the writing system would be easier to learn. It was not until the 1950s that
effective steps were taken to carry out such a plan. In 1956 and again in 1964, lists of simplified
characters were officially adopted in the Chinese Mainland. Hong Kong and Taiwan continued
to use the traditional characters, a situation that still prevails. In 1957 an alphabetic system
called Pinyin was introduced in the People’s Republic of China as an auxiliary system to be
used in teaching correct pronunciation in schools and for use in various sorts of reference works,
chiefly dictionaries. Note, however, that there have been no practical steps taken to use Pinyin
as an official orthography in Chinese. For the foreseeable future, there seems to be no prospect
of abandoning the traditional logographic script.
7 书法艺术在中国发展高度成熟。写书法要用传统的毛笔，在多样的书法风格中，书法
家可能会擅长其中的一种。书法是中国重要的视觉艺术之一，许多画家和学者同时也是
颇有造诣的书法家。表意文字体系深深植根于中国文化之中，培养书法艺术只是这一现
象的印证之一。尽管经常有人建议用字母文字代替传统汉字，但由于汉字带来的种种便
利之处，这一书写系统仍然是中国人身份意义中不可分割的一部分。对于一个存在着数
百种不同方言的国家来说，一个独立于各种方言之外的共同语言是展现民族凝聚力的有
力象征。20 世纪 20、30 年代，中国许多知识分子认为，在中国试图融入现代世界的过
程中，汉字带来了严重的问题。汉字复杂，很难学习，并且已经过时。因此，许多人主
张彻底抛弃传统的文字，采用字母书写系统。然而，汉语不能用字母代替是有原因的，
而且已经有人提出了一些实用的书写系统。字母文字的支持者无法克服的问题是，一个
书写系统要想实用，就必须适应各种地方方言，然而这有潜在的分裂倾向，不利于中华
民族的统一。最终，所有这些想法都被舍弃了，人们的注意力转向了简化传统汉字，想
把书写系统变得更容易学习。直到 20 世纪 50 年代，这一计划才得以有效实施。1956 年
和 1964 年，中国大陆正式采用了简体字表。中国香港和中国台湾继续使用繁体字，这
种情况持续至今。1957 年，被称为“拼音”的字母体系作为辅助系统被引入中国，用于
学校教授正确的发音，并用于各种参考书（主要是字典）。然而，目前还没有任何使用拼
音作为正式汉语的操作。在可预见的未来，放弃传统的表意文字似乎是不可能的。

39
8 At different points in history the Chinese script was adapted by several neighboring
countries—Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. For centuries classical Chinese was the official written
language in these countries. Vietnam has now adopted the Latin alphabet, and, while Korea has
its own script, Hangul, since the fifteenth century, it has only come into widespread use in the
last one hundred years. Chinese characters still enjoy official status in Japan, and, as in China,
there seems to be little chance that they will be abandoned anytime soon.
在历史上的不同时期，汉字被邻国越南、韩国和日本采用。文言作为这些国家的官方书
面语言曾长达几个世纪。越南现在已经采用了拉丁字母；韩国自 15 世纪以来有了自己
的文字——韩语，但它只是在最近 100 年才被广泛使用。在日本，汉字仍享有官方地位，
而且就像在中国一样，短期内汉字被日本废弃的可能性似乎非常小。

Text B Language Visible

看得见的语言
1 The alphabet was invented in the Near East around 2000 BC as a writing method to show
sounds of words. Without doubt, its earliest readers read aloud, their lips forming the words
displayed. (Reading aloud continued to be standard practice throughout ancient and medieval
times.) The alphabet was not the earliest writing: Mesopotamia, Egypt, and probably China
already had nonalphabetic systems. But the alphabet was the most efficient writing system ever
found, before or since. Like the wheel, it changed the ancient world and, like the wheel, it is
still with us and has never been superseded.
1 公元前 2000 年左右，字母文字发明于近东地区，是一种用来表示单词发音的书写方
法。毫无疑问，那时人们会大声朗读，用嘴唇读出想要表达的单词。
（自古代到中世纪，
大声朗读仍然是标准练习方法。）字母并不是最早的文字，那时美索不达米亚、埃及和
中国很可能已经有了非字母书写系统，但其却是迄今为止最有效的书写系统。就像车轮
一样，它改变了古时的世界，现在依然与我们同在，且从未被取代。

2 Today about 4.8 billion people, over three-quarters of humanity, live in countries that use an
alphabet or a writing system modified from an alphabet. About 26 major alphabetic scripts are
in place worldwide. The International Three are the Roman, Arabic, and Cyrillic alphabets, each
serving multiple nations and languages.
2 今天大约有 48 亿人（超过四分之三的世界人口）生活在书写系统为字母文字或发源
于字母文字的国家。全世界大约有 26 个主要的字母书写系统。国际通用的三种字母分
别是罗马、阿拉伯和西里尔字母，每一种都有多个国家在使用。

40
3 Our own familiar alphabet is the Roman, bequeathed to Western Europe by the Roman Empire
and today the most popular script on Earth — weighing in at about 100 principal languages,
120 countries, and nearly 2 billion users worldwide. The Roman alphabet owes its statistical
dominance partly to its use by Spanish (330 million native speakers worldwide), by Portuguese
(160 million native speakers), and by the languages of Central and Southern Africa (270 million
speakers), as well as by English (350 million native speakers). There are variations of Roman
alphabet: For example, English employs 26 letters; Finnish, 21; Croatian, 30. But at the core
are the 23 letters of ancient Rome.
3 我们所熟悉的字母系统是罗马帝国留给西欧的罗马字母，这也是今天世界上最受欢迎
的文字——影响了大约 100 种语言，120 个国家，全球近 20 亿人口。罗马字母的这一统
计学上的优势来源于它被多个语言使用，包括西班牙语（全世界 3.3 亿人口）
、葡萄牙语
（1.6 亿人口）
、中非和南非的语言（2.7 亿人口）以及英语（3.5 亿人口）
。罗马字母有
多种变体，例如，英语有 26 个字母，芬兰语 21 个，克罗地亚语 30 个。但它们的核心
都是古罗马的 23 个字母。

4 The remaining one-quarter of Earth’s population, 1.4 billion people, use nonalphabetic writing.
Basically this means China, including Japan. The Japanese system comes from an adaption of
the Chinese that dates back to the 600s AD.
4 世界上其余四分之一的人口（14 亿人）使用非字母书写系统，基本上是指中国和日本。
日本的文字来源于公元 600 年的中文。

5 If we English speakers normally wrote the word “dog” by using an agreed-on symbol like,
that would be a logogram. If we wrote “dog” by using a sketch of a dog, that would be a
pictograph. But we do neither of those things. We write “dog” with three symbols, not one,
which together recreate the sound of the word. Each of the symbols (letters) denotes a tiny bit
of speech, part of the word’s sound. We know the symbol-to-sound code because we had to
memorize it in kindergarten, or thereabouts, as the doorway to literacy: “A is for ‘apple,’ B is
for ‘ball’…”
5 如果英语使用者统一用一个约定的符号来写“狗”这个字，那就是一个词符。如果我
们用一张狗的草图来表示“狗”
，那就是象形文字。但我们不这样做。英语用三个符号—
—dog 来表示“狗”
，这三个符号共同构成了这个词的发音。其中每个符号（字母）都表
示一小段语音，是整个单词发音的一部分。我们之所以知道这种从符号到声音的编码，
是因为我们在幼儿园时就必须记住它，这是读写能力入门的一部分：
“A 代表‘apple’，
B 代表‘ball’……”

41
6 The letter’s sound is the smallest amount possible to isolate, what linguists call a phoneme. A
phoneme is an “atom” of language, almost always smaller than a syllable. (At most, a phoneme
is a syllable, as in the long I of “icy” or the English word “a” or certain other vowel-uses.) Our
word “pencil” has two syllables but six phonemes, each neatly displayed by a different letter.
6 字母的发音就是语言学家所称的音素，是能分离出的最小的单位。音素是语言的“原
子”，几乎总是小于音节。
（音素最多是一个音节，如“icy”的长音 I，单词“a”或某些
其他的元音用法。
）“pencil”这个单词有两个音节，但有六个音素，每个音素都由完全不
同的字母表示。

7 An alphabet is a writing system based on letters, which by definition symbolize phonemes

only. The letters combine to show words of a particular language, shared between writer and
reader. The alphabet must adequately represent the language by having enough letters with the
right sounds— that is, most of the sounds essential to the language as spoken. Yet the number
of letters you need is surprisingly small: fewer than 30 for most languages.
7 字母体系是一种基于字母的书写系统。从定义上来说，字母只代表音素。这些字母组
合在一起就构成了特定语言的单词，作者和读者可共同使用。字母书写系统必须有足够
的字母数量和适当的发音才能形成一种语言——也就是说，大多数发音对口语来说必不
可少。然而，我们需要的字母数量少得惊人，大多数语言的字母数量少于 30 个。

8 Alphabets exploit the fact that human languages tend to use not many phonemes—only
around 20 to 40 per language, typically. No matter how many tens of thousands of words in a
given tongue, the words, once analyzed, yield only a few dozen basic sounds. These are not, of
course, the selfsame 40 from language to language: Arabic and English share many sounds, yet
Arabic requires certain throat-clicks that English speakers cannot make, never having learned
them in the cradle. (By the same token, for a cruel diversion sometime, you should ask a
Parisian to say the English word “law.” He’ll struggle to come out with something like “loe.”)
English has a rather high number of phonemes, between about 44 and 48, depending on regional
accent. We don’t need 44 letters for 44 phonemes, because letters can do double duty. English
spelling assigns several sounds to all vowel letters (go, got, ton, etc.) and finds extra sounds in
letter pairings like oi, ch, and th.
8 字母书写基于这样一个事实：人类语言往往不会使用太多的音素——通常每种语言只
有 20 到 40 个音素。不管一种语言有多少万单词，经过分析，它们都只有几十个基本的
发音。当然，在不同的语言间，这几十个发音并不是完全相同的：阿拉伯语和英语有许

42
多相同的发音，但阿拉伯语有一些喉音是英语母语者发不出来、也不需要学习的。（同
样，如果你想消遣一下，你可以尝试让巴黎人念英语单词“law”
，他一定会挣扎一番过
后挤出来一个“loe”
。）英语的音素个数较多，根据不同的地方方言，大约有 44 到 48 个。
44 个音素并不需要有 44 个字母，因为一个字母可以有多个发音。英语中所有的元音字
母都有多个发音（如 go、got、ton 等），字母组合也会有多种发音，如 oi、ch 和 th。

9 An alphabet enjoys one huge advantage over any other writing system: It needs fewer symbols.
No other system can get away with so few. This makes an alphabet easier to learn. The student
need only memorize two dozen or so letters to begin building toward literacy, which takes about
another five years of instruction.
9 与其他书写系统相比，字母书写有一个巨大的优势，那就是它需要的符号个数更少。
但如此少的符号满足不了任何其他的书写系统，这就使得字母书写更容易学习。学生只
需要记住 24 个左右字母就可以开始培养读写能力，读写则又需要大约五年的时间来培
养。
10 Because the memorization step is simple enough for five- and six-year-olds, the whole
process, with an alphabet, can be completed before the working age. The learning need not
interfere with earning a living. This crucial fact has made the alphabet historically the vehicle
of mass literacy. With an alphabet, the farmer, the shopkeeper, the laborer have been able to
read and write—unlike the situation in prealphabetic societies. The very first alphabet was
invented, scholars today believe, for humble people who were being excluded from the
mysteries of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.
10 字母记忆对于五六岁的孩子来说足够简单，所以有了字母表，读写能力培养的整个
过程都可以在工作之前完成。学习并不妨碍谋生，这使得字母系统在历史上成为了大众
识字的工具。这样一来，农民、小商人、劳动者就能读能写了，这与字母系统产生之前
的社会情况大为不同。如今，多数学者认为，最早字母书写就是为下层社会发明的，他
们长期被排除在神秘的埃及象形文字之外。

11 Compared with our 26 letters, the Chinese system, involving at least 2,000 symbols for
educated daily reading and writing, out of an inventory of about 60,000 possible. Mass literacy
became possible in China only with the communist state of 1949. Today, Chinese
schoolchildren normally take three years longer than Western children to learn to read and write,
most of that extra time devoted to mastering the symbols.
11 与英文 26 个字母相比，中文书写系统大约有 6 万个符号，其中日常读写至少会使用
2000 个。直到 1949 年中华人民共和国成立，大众识字才成为可能。如今，中国学生学

43
习读写的时间通常比西方孩子长 3 年，其中大部分时间被用来掌握汉字符号。

12 The need to accumulate symbols has hampered most nonalphabetic systems down through
history. In the ancient Near East, two major writing forms preceded the alphabet. Both were
elaborate, expressive, and confined to specialists. Egyptian hieroglyphics consisted of
pictographs, logograms, and phonetic signs: about 700 picture symbols, written usually in
combinations. Mesopotamian cuneiform, as typified by the Babylonian version, was mainly a
phonetic script of about 600 symbols, half of them used regularly.
12 在历史上，积累符号的需要阻碍了大多数非字母书写系统的发展。在古近东地区，
在字母文字产生之前有两种主要的书写形式，都非常复杂、富于表现力，只有专家才能
掌握。古埃及象形文字包括表形符号、表意符号和表音符号，大约有 700 个图像符号，
而且通常组合起来书写。美索不达米亚楔形文字典型的巴比伦版本主要是一个语音文字
系统，包含约 600 个符号，其中一半经常使用。

13 Because letters work at the phoneme level and are unencumbered by extra baggage of sound,
they achieve maximum efficiency. Our six letters of “pencil” can easily be broken-out and
rearranged within countless other words—“lien,” “Nile,” “stipend,” “clip” — which sound
nothing like “pencil.” Letters are the original snap-on tools: They build on each other as
necessary, so you actually need fewer items in your toolkit. With 26, we capture reasonably
well the approximately one million words of English. In fact, we could theoretically drop one
or two letters—Q, for instance, and spell “queen” as “cween” or “kween.”
13 因为字母在音素级别上发挥作用，并且不受额外的发音限制，所以可以实现效率最
大化。英语单词“pencil”的六个字母可以很容易被分解，并重新排列成无数其他单词，
如“lien”
“Nile”
“end”
“clip”，这些单词听起来一点也不像“pencil”的发音。字母是原
始的嵌入式工具：它们根据需要互相架构，因此实际上你的工具箱中不需要更多的东西。
有了 26 个字母，我们就很好地掌握了大约 100 万个英语单词。从理论上讲，我们也可
以删掉一两个字母，比如删掉字母 Q，然后把“queen”拼成“cween”或“kween”。

14 The genius of the letters is the way they combine simplicity with precision. Although few in
number, they are wonderfully flexible and versatile as a group. They can arrange themselves in
endless variations to capture details of sound. Letters fairly cling to the sounds of words,
showing the textures: “fill” versus “film,” “ascetic” versus “esthetic,” “serendipity,”
“pterodactyl,”“Mooselookmeguntic.” Organs of speech could hardly be more exact or delicate
in their sounds than letters in their showing. At least for most languages.

44
14 字母妙就妙在它们融简洁与精确于一体。尽管字母总体上数目不多，但作为一个整
体，它们灵活多变。它们有无穷无尽的组合形式来展现发音的细微差异。字母完全依附
于单词的读音，呈现出不同的表达方式：“fill”与“film”、“ascetic”与“esthetic”、
“serendipity”、“pterodactyl”、“Mooselookmeguntic”。字母通过发音器官发出的声音最
为准确、细腻，至少对于大多数语言来说是这样。

15 Letters have leapt from language to language throughout history. Originally, that was how
the alphabet spread across the ancient world, blossoming among people previously illiterate:
the Jews, Aramaeans, Greeks, Etruscans, Romans, and others. Each group spoke a different
language. Each acquired its alphabet by copying someone else’s and then adapting the letters
to the new tongue.
15 纵观历史，字母从一种语言到另一种语言被不断采用。最初，字母文字就是这样在
古代世界传播开来的，在不识字的人中间蓬勃发展，包括犹太人、亚拉姆人、希腊人、
伊特鲁利亚人、罗马人等等。每个群体讲不同的语言，但都会模仿别人的语言，再将其
改写为自己的语言。

16 Since the initial spread of literacy, alphabets of the world have kept jumping around,
propelled by conquest, missionary religion, or cultural politics. In around 1860, Romania
switched from Cyrillic to Roman, turning westward from Czarist Russia’s sphere. Vietnam had
Roman letters imposed by French colonialism in 1910; the change displaced a traditional
Chinese-derived script. Today in Ho Chi Min City, shop signs and newspapers are in Roman
letters and Vietnamese language. Meanwhile, in neighboring Cambodia, a kindred language is
written in an entirely different way, based on an ancient script of India.
16 从最初人们开始大范围识字以来，世界上的字母文字就不断通过征服者和传教士的
宗教及文化政治活动进行传播。1860 年左右，罗马尼亚文字从西里尔字母变成了罗马字
母，从沙皇俄国的势力范围向西转移。1910 年，法国殖民主义强迫越南使用罗马字母，
取代了中国传统的汉字。如今，在胡志明市，商店招牌和报纸都用罗马字母和越南语书
写。与此同时，邻国柬埔寨使用了一种书写方式完全不同的亲缘语言，其基础是一种古
老的印度文字。

17 The “spreadability” of an alphabet means that the future of our Roman letters looks very
bright indeed. Yet that seems inevitable in the 21st century we are shaping. And it is sobering
to reflect that our 26 letters wield such power.
17 字母的“可传播性”意味着罗马字母的未来着实光明，字母文字注定会在 21 世纪广

45
泛传播。我们必须清醒地认识到，26 个字母的确拥有如此强大的力量。

Unit Six
Music
音乐
Without music, life would be a mistake. ─ Friedrich Nietzsche: Twilight of the Idols
如果没有音乐，生活就是一个错误。——弗里德里希·尼采《偶像的黄昏》

Text A A Masterpiece of Traditional Chinese Music: The Moon over a Fountain

中国传统音乐的瑰宝：《二泉映月》

1 China has a long history of music. Different types of music have been recorded in historical
Chinese documents from the early periods of Chinese civilization which provided evidence of
a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC–256 BC) when a
formal system of court and ceremonial music later termed yayue was established. These further
developed into various forms of music through succeeding dynasties, producing the rich
heritage of music that is part of the Chinese cultural landscape today.
1 中国的音乐史颇为悠久。中国历史文献记录了从中华文明早期开始出现的多种音乐类
型，其中有证据表明，早在周朝（公元前 1046 年—公元前 256 年）时就有了良好的音
乐文化，形成了后来被称之为“雅乐”的正式的宫廷和大典音乐体系。朝代更迭，这些
音乐也进一步发展成为各种形式的音乐，这些丰富的音乐遗产构成了今天中国文化版图
的一部分。

2 Chinese philosophers took varying approaches to music. To Confucius, a correct form of

music is important for the cultivation and refinement of the individual, and the Confucian
system considers the formal music yayue to be morally uplifting and the symbol of a good ruler
and stable government. Mozi however condemned music and argued in Against Music that
music is an extravagance and indulgence that serves no useful purpose and may be harmful.
According to Mencius, a powerful ruler once asked him whether it was moral if he preferred
popular music to the classics. The answer was that it only mattered that the ruler loved his
subjects.
2 中国先哲对音乐有不同的看法。对孔子而言，正确的音乐形式对于个人的培养和完善
非常重要，儒家认为正规的音乐雅乐能够提升道德，象征着统治者的圣贤和政府的稳定。
然而，墨子对音乐却加以谴责，并在《非乐》一书中指出，音乐是一种奢侈和放纵，百

46
害而无一利。据《孟子》一书记载，一个强大的统治者曾经问孟子，喜欢世俗之乐胜过
先王之乐是否符合道德。孟子答曰，统治者爱他的臣民，能够与民同乐才是唯一重要的。

3 In ancient China the social status of musicians was much lower than that of painters, though
music was seen as central to the harmony and longevity of the state. Almost every emperor took
folk songs seriously, sending officers to collect songs to inspect the popular will. One of the
Confucianist Classics, Shi Jing (The Classic of Poetry), contained many folk songs dating from
800 BC to about 400 BC.
3 在中国古代，音乐家的社会地位远低于画家，尽管音乐被视为国家和谐和长治的核心。
几乎每位皇帝都重视民歌，派官员“采风”，收集民歌，采集民意。儒家经典之一——
《诗经》收录了公元前 800 年至公元前 400 年左右的许多民歌。

4 Through succeeding dynasties over thousands of years, Chinese musicians developed a large
assortment of different instruments and playing styles. However, all traditional Chinese music
is melodic rather than harmonic. Traditional Chinese music in the classical sense often has
thematic, poetic or philosophical associations and is typically played on solo instruments. It is
intimately linked to poetry and to various forms of lyric drama, and is more or less poetry
without words. In the same manner as poetry, music sets out to express human feelings, soothe
suffering and bring spiritual elevation.
4 在几千年的历史长河中，中国音乐家发展出了各式各样的乐器和演奏风格。然而，所
有的中国传统音乐都是旋律而不是和声。古典意义上的中国传统音乐通常有主题、诗歌
或哲学联想，在独奏乐器上演奏。它与诗歌和各种形式的抒情歌剧密切相关，或多或少
是没有文字的诗歌。音乐和诗歌一样，能够用以表达情感，缓解痛苦，带来精神上的升
华。

5 Traditional music in China is played on solo instruments or in small ensembles of plucked

and bowed stringed instruments, and various cymbals, gongs, and drums. Bamboo pipes and
qin are among the oldest known musical instruments from China. Based on their material of
composition, they are characterized as Ba Yin, that is, the eight categories of musical
instruments in ancient orchestra, namely, metal, stone, string, bamboo, gourd, clay, leather and
wood. In terms of playing skills, Chinese orchestras consist of bowed strings (e.g., erhu),
woodwinds (e.g., flutes), plucked strings (e.g., guzheng and pipa) and percussion (e.g., bells
and drums). A wide variety of traditional Chinese instruments, such as guzheng and dizi are
indigenous, whereas many popular ones were introduced from Central Asia, such as erhu and

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pipa. Yet instrumental pieces played on an erhu or dizi are often available outside of China, but
the pipa and zheng music, which are more traditional, stay more popular in China itself.
5 中国的传统音乐是在独奏乐器上演奏的，或是由拨弦和弓弦乐器以及各种钹、锣和鼓
组成的小型合奏。竹笛和琴是中国最古老的乐器。根据其构成材料的不同，音乐分为八
音，即古代八种制造乐器的材料——金、石、丝、竹、匏、土、革、木。就演奏技巧而
言，中式管弦乐队包括弓弦乐（如二胡）、木管乐（如笛子）、拨弦乐（如古筝和琵琶）
和打击乐（如钟和鼓）
。中国多种传统乐器，如古筝、笛子等都是本土的，而许多流行乐
器则是从中亚传入的，如二胡和琵琶。然而，二胡和笛子作品通常在中国以外的地方也
有传播，但琵琶和筝这两种更传统的乐器在中国本土却更受欢迎。

6 Erhu is a traditional Chinese bowed instrument which originated in the Tang Dynasty. It was
known as Chinese violin or Chinese two-stringed fiddle. Er means two. Hu indicates that it is a
member of the huqin family. The name huqin literally means “instrument of the Hu people”,
showing that the instrument may have originated from regions to the north or west of China
generally inhabited by nomadic people on the extremities of past Chinese kingdoms.
6 二胡起源于唐代，是中国传统的弓弦乐器，被称为中国的小提琴或中式二弦提琴。
“二”
即两根弦，
“胡”表示其为胡琴家族的一员。
“胡琴”的字面意思为“胡民族乐器”
，表明
这种乐器可能起源于中国北部或西部地区，这些地区通常居住着古代中国王朝外缘的游
牧民族。

7 Erhu consists of a long vertical stick-like neck, at the top of which are two large tuning pegs,
and at the bottom is a small resonator body (sound box) which is covered with python skin. It
has only two strings, a thick one and a thin one. The tones of erhu in middle and high range are
close to people’s voice and can express almost every human emotion, which makes it popular
with the masses.
7 二胡的琴杆长而垂直，颈的顶端是两个大的调弦栓，颈的底部是一个小的共鸣体（琴
桶），琴桶上覆盖着蟒蛇皮。它只有两根弦，一根较粗，一根较细。二胡的中高音域贴近
人的声音，几乎能表达人类的一切情感，深受群众喜爱。

8 Erhu had long been played only as an accompanied instrument in folk performances and
operas until the 1920s when erhu became a solo instrument on stages by the player Liu Tianhua.
During the same period, there was a famous blind erhu player, a folk musician named Hua
Yanjun (also called A Bing). He is the image of erhu even today and his masterpiece The Moon
over a Fountain is so enduring that every erhu player still practices it today.

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8 长期以来，二胡一直都只是民间表演和歌剧演出的伴奏乐器，直到 20 世纪 20 年代之
前，演奏家刘天华将二胡作为独奏乐器带上舞台。在同一时期，还有一位著名的盲人二
胡演奏家、民间音乐家华彦钧（阿炳）。即使在今天，他的形象仍然和二胡不可分割，他
的作品《二泉映月》经久不衰，至今每个学习二胡的演奏者都会练习这首名作。

9 A Bing was born on August 17, 1893 in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi to father Hua Qinghe,
who was a Taoist priest and proficient in a number of musical instruments and Taoist religious
music. A Bing learned musical instruments from his father and underwent a rigorous set of
training, such as playing the flute with weights attached to the end of it to increase the power
of his wrist. By the age of twelve he was able to play a variety of musical instruments. He first
performed in religious ceremonies at seventeen, and won acclaim for his musical talent.
9 1893 年 8 月 17 日，阿炳在中国东部的无锡市出生。阿炳的父亲华清和是一位道士，
精通多种乐器和道教音乐。阿炳师从父亲学习使用乐器，经历了一系列严格的训练，比
如吹笛时在笛子末端加重，以增加手腕力量。到十二岁时，阿炳已经能演奏多种乐器。
他十七岁时在宗教仪式上首演，因其音乐才华而赢得赞誉。

10 Unfortunately, he suffered from eye disease in his early twenties and progressively lost sight
in both his eyes. He became homeless and earned a living as an itinerant street performer. After
his marriage in 1939, A Bing performed every afternoon in a public square in Wuxi. He became
well-known for incorporating topical issues into his music and songs, especially the war with
Japan. After the performance, he would walk through the city’s streets, playing erhu. This was
a period of prolificacy for A Bing, and his most famous signature piece The Moon over a
Fountain was composed in this period.
10 不幸的是，阿炳在二十多岁时就患上了眼疾，两只眼睛逐渐失明。他成了无家可归
的流浪汉，靠当街头艺人谋生。1939 年结婚后，阿炳每天下午都会在无锡的一个广场上
表演。他因将时事问题融入音乐和歌曲而闻名，尤其是抗日战争。表演结束后，他会在
城市的街道上边走边演奏二胡。这是阿炳作品多产的时期，他的传世之作《二泉映月》
就是在这一时期创作的。

11 In the summer of 1950, two professors of the Central Conservatory of Music, Yang Yinliu
and Cao Anhe, both Wuxi natives, travelled to Wuxi and recorded The Moon over a Fountain
by A Bing. The recording brought A Bing wider acclaim, and in September he was offered a
teaching position by the Central Conservatory of Music. However, he was by that time too ill
to accept it, and died on December 4, 1950.

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11 1950 年夏天，中央音乐学院的两位教授——杨荫浏、曹安和（皆为无锡人）回到无
锡，录下了阿炳的《二泉映月》。这张唱片为阿炳赢得了更多人的赞誉，9 月他被中央音
乐学院聘为教师。然而，他当时病重，无法接受这一职位，并于 1950 年 12 月 4 日去世。

12 The Moon over a Fountain is the most notable representative erhu soloist piece. The melody
is graceful and profound, pathetic and touching, meaningful and impressive. Its name seems to
tell the world that the music mainly describes a piece of beautiful scenery; however, most
musicians disagree on this. According to Mr. Zhu Shiguang’s memory, after the recording, Yang
Yinliu (a Chinese music historian and folk musician from the Central Conservatory of Music)
asked A Bing about the name of the melody. A Bing said that he hadn’t named it. He just played
it in streets and in Huishan Hill occasionally. Then Yang Yinliu advised A Bing to name it as
The Moon over a Fountain after the Huishan Spring, a spring in Xihui Park at the foot of Mount
Hui in Wuxi. A Bing agreed. The HuishanSpring is also called the Second Spring in the World.
Therefore, the more literal translation would be “The Moon Reflected in the Second Spring.”
This is how the erhu solo got its name. Meanwhile, the music spreads the fame of the Second
Spring.
12 《二泉映月》是最著名的二胡独奏曲。旋律优美深邃，悲情动人，意味深长，令人印
象深刻。曲名似乎在描述美丽的风光，然而，大多数音乐家对此并不认同。据祝世匡先
生回忆，杨荫浏教授（中国音乐史学家和民间音乐家）在录音结束后向阿炳询问曲名，
阿炳说他还没起名字，他只是偶尔在街上和惠山演奏。后来，杨寅柳建议阿炳将其命名
为《二泉映月》
，照应无锡惠山脚下西惠公园里的惠山泉，同时惠山泉又称世界第二泉。
阿炳同意了。这首二胡独奏的曲名就由此而来。与此同时，该曲也使第二泉更为著名。

13 This musical piece introduces listeners to a peaceful and quiet night, enjoying the crystal
spring and cold moon. It radiates eternally with the light of life. People can sense A Bing in his
melody: a strong and tough blind artist displaying his rough life to the world. The sequence
starts from “a lament over personal life experience”, then proceeds to transcend “a public notice
to the miserable society” and “the establishment of a life homeland”, the center being a struggle
against fate.
13 这首曲目将听众带到了一个宁静的夜晚，欣赏着清澈的泉水和清冷的月亮。它永远
散发着生命之光。人们可以在此旋律中感受到阿炳：一个坚强坚韧的盲人艺术家正在向
世界诉说他坎坷的生活。歌曲从“对个人生活经历的哀叹”开始，进而超越“对悲惨社
会的控诉”和“生命家园的建立”
，主题是与命运的斗争。

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Text B
A Best-Known Violin Concerto by Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major
最著名小提琴协奏曲：贝多芬《D 大调小提琴协奏曲》
1 Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western music. Given the
wide range of styles in classical music, it is difficult to list characteristics that can be attributed
to all works of this type. However, there are characteristics that classical music contains but
few or no other genres of music do, such as the use of a printed score (notation).
1 古典音乐产生于，或者说植根于西方音乐传统。由于古典音乐的风格多种多样，因此
很难列出所有这类作品的特点。然而，古典音乐的确包含一些其他类型的音乐没有的特
点，如使用印刷体乐谱（记谱法）
。

2 A violin concerto, a concerto (traditionally a threemovement work) for solo violin

(occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble, customarily orchestra, is
classical music. Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto
form was first developed, up through the present day. Many major composers have contributed
to the violin concerto repertoire, with the best known works including those by Bach, Bartók,
Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Paganini, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Sibelius,
Tchaikovsky, and Vivaldi. Here Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 by Beethoven is introduced.
2 小提琴协奏曲是一种古典音乐，通常有三个乐章，是独奏小提琴（有时会有多个小提
琴）和其他器乐（通常是管弦乐队）的合奏。巴洛克时期首次出现独奏协奏曲的形式，
一直延续到今天。许多重要的作曲家为小提琴协奏曲这一音乐类型做出了巨大贡献，最
著名的包括巴赫、巴托克、贝多芬、勃拉姆斯、布鲁赫、门德尔松、莫扎特、帕格尼尼、
普罗科菲耶夫、肖斯塔科维奇、西贝柳斯、柴可夫斯基和维瓦尔第。本文将要介绍的是
贝多芬的《D 大调小提琴协奏曲，作品 61》。
3 Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December, 1770 – 26 March, 1827) was a German
composer. As a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in
Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. His
best-known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, 1 violin concerto, 32 piano
sonatas, 16 string quartets, his great mass the MissaSolemnis and an opera, Fidelio.
3 路德维希·凡·贝多芬（1770 年 12 月 17 日（受洗）—1827 年 3 月 26 日）是德国作
曲家。他作为西方艺术音乐史上古典与浪漫过渡时期的重要人物，一直是最著名、最具
影响力的作曲家之一。他最著名的作品包括 9 首交响曲，5 首钢琴协奏曲，1 首小提琴
协奏曲，32 首钢琴奏鸣曲，16 首弦乐四重奏曲，大型弥撒曲《庄严弥撒曲》和歌剧《费
德里奥》。

51
Picture：The Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos is playing violin concertos by Beethoven
图：希腊小提琴家列奥尼达斯·卡瓦科斯演奏贝多芬的小提琴协奏曲

4 Born in Bonn, Beethoven displayed his musical talents at an early age. Beethoven’s first
music teacher was his father. He later had some local teachers. In March 1787 Beethoven
traveled to Vienna for the first time, apparently in the hope of studying with Mozart. The details
of their relationship are uncertain, including whether they actually met. Five years after that
visit, Beethoven moved to Vienna, where he began studying composition with Joseph Haydn
and gained a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. He lived in Vienna until his death. By his late 20s
his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost totally deaf. In
1811 he gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose. Many of his
most admired works come from these last 15 years of his life.
4 贝多芬出生于波恩，从小就表现出自己的音乐才华。他的第一位音乐老师是他的父亲，
后来又拜了一些当地的音乐老师。1787 年 3 月，贝多芬第一次来到维也纳，希望拜莫扎
特为师学习。他们之间是什么关系目前尚无定论，包括他们是否真的见过面也是个谜。
五年后，贝多芬移居维也纳，开始与约瑟夫·海顿学习作曲，并作为一位钢琴大师而声
名远扬。之后他就一直居住在维也纳。在他快 30 岁的时候，他的听力开始退化。到他
生命的最后十年，几乎已经完全失聪。1811 年，他放弃了指挥和公开表演，但仍继续作
曲。他的许多传世佳作都创作于他生命的最后 15 年。

5 Beethoven’s compositional career is usually divided into early, middle, and late periods. In
this scheme, his early period is taken to last until about 1802, the middle period from about
1803 to about 1814, and the late period from about 1815. In his early period, Beethoven’s work
was strongly influenced by his predecessors Haydn and Mozart. He also explored new
directions and gradually expanded the scope and ambition of his work.
5 贝多芬的作曲生涯通常分为早期、中期和晚期：早期约持续到 1802 年，中期大约是
从 1803 年到 1814 年，而晚期大约从 1815 年开始。贝多芬早期的作品深受前辈海顿和
莫扎特的影响。同时他还探索新的方向，逐渐扩大了他的涉猎范围和创作构思。

6 His middle (heroic) period began shortly after Beethoven’s personal crisis brought on by his
recognition of encroaching deafness. It includes large-scale works that express heroism and
struggle. During May 1809, when the attacking forces of Napoleon bombarded Vienna,
Beethoven, very worried that the noise would destroy what remained of his hearing, hid in the

52
basement of his brother’s house, covering his ears with pillows. Despite his hearing problem,
the work of the middle period established Beethoven as a master. Middle-period works include
the famous Fifth Symphony and the Violin Concerto in D major.
6 贝多芬的生涯中期（英雄时期）始于确诊失聪后不久，此时他多创作大型作品表达英
雄主义和命运的斗争。1809 年 5 月，当拿破仑的部队轰炸维也纳时，贝多芬非常担心爆
炸声会毁掉他仅存的听力，因此他躲在弟弟家的地下室里，用枕头捂住耳朵。尽管贝多
芬听力受损，但他这个时期的作品为他赢得了“音乐大师”的美誉，包括著名的《第五
交响曲》和《D 大调小提琴协奏曲》
。

7 Beethoven’s late period began around 1815. Works from this period are characterized by their
intellectual depth, their formal innovations, and their intense, highly personal expression,
including the Ninth Symphony. Beethoven was finally bedridden for most of his remaining
months and died on 26 March 1827 at the age of 56 during a thunderstorm. He is acknowledged
as one of the giants of classical music.
7 1815 年左右开始了贝多芬创作生涯的晚期。这一时期的作品以其思想深度、形式创新
和强烈的高度个人化表达为特点，如《第九交响曲》。贝多芬最后几个月卧床不起，在
1827 年 3 月 26 日的一场暴风雨中逝世，享年 56 岁。他被公认为古典音乐巨匠之一。

8 Beethoven composed the Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, in 1806. He wrote the concerto
for his colleague Franz Clement, a leading violinist of the day, who had earlier given him
helpful advice on his opera Fidelio. The work was premiered on 23 December 1806 in the
Theater an der Wien in Vienna, the occasion being a benefit concert for Clement. It is believed
that Beethoven finished the solo part so late that Clement had to sight-read part of his
performance. Perhaps to express his annoyance, or to show what he could do when he had time
to prepare, Clement is said to have interrupted the concerto between the first and second
movements with a solo composition of his own, played on one string of the violin held upside
down; however, other sources claim that he did play such a piece but only at the end of the
performance.
8 1806 年，贝多芬创作了《D 大调小提琴协奏曲，作品 61》
。该曲是贝多芬为同事弗朗
茨·克莱门特所作，克莱门特是当时最著名的小提琴家，早年曾就歌剧《费德里奥》给
过贝多芬非常有用的建议。这部作品于 1806 年 12 月 23 日在维也纳的维也纳剧院首演，
是为克莱门特开的慈善音乐会。据说当时贝多芬很晚才完成了独奏部分，因此克莱门特
的表演中的一部分是他自己即兴演奏的。相传克莱门特在第一和第二乐章之间用自己的
独奏曲打断了协奏曲，演奏时还把小提琴上下颠倒，只拉了一根琴弦。他这么做也许是

53
为了表达他很恼怒，或者是为了显示如果有时间准备他能够做得更好。还有别的说法是
他确实演奏了这首独奏曲，但是在演出结束后演奏的。

9 The premiere was not a success, and the concerto was little performed in the following
decades. The work was revived in 1844, well after Beethoven’s death, with a performance by
the then 12year-old violinist Joseph Joachim with the orchestra of the London Philharmonic
Society conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. Ever since, it has been one of the most important
works of the violin concerto repertoire, and is frequently performed and recorded today.
9 首演并不成功，
协奏曲在随后几十年里也很少演奏。1844 年，
在贝多芬去世很久之后，
这部作品才被重新搬上舞台，当时 12 岁的小提琴家约瑟夫·约阿希姆与伦敦爱乐乐团
合作演出，由费利克斯·门德尔松指挥。从那以后，它就一直是小提琴协奏曲中最重要
的曲目之一，至今仍被频繁地演奏和录制。

10 The work is in three movements: 1) Allegro ma non troppo (D major), 2) Larghetto (G major),
and 3) Rondo Allegro (D major). It shows a strong influence from the French school of violin
playing, exemplified by violinists such as Giovanni Battista Viotti, Pierre Rode and Rodolphe
Kreutzer: the “martial” opening with the beat of the timpani follows the style of French music
at the time, while the prevalence of figures in broken sixths and broken octaves closely
resembles elements of compositions by Kreutzer and Viotti.
10 《D 大调小提琴协奏曲，作品 61》分为三个乐章：快板（D 大调）
、小广版（G 大调）
和快板回旋曲（D 大调）
。该曲受法国小提琴演奏派影响极大，如小提琴家维奥蒂、皮埃
尔·罗德和鲁道尔夫·克莱采尔：定音鼓节奏的“战争”开场遵循了当时法国音乐的风
格，然而间断的六度和八度音阶与鲁道夫和维奥蒂的作曲元素非常相似。

Unit Eight Beauty

Yes, the past can hurt. But I think you can either run from it or learn from it.
─ The Lion King
是的，过去很痛苦。你可以选择逃避，也可以选择从中学习。
——《狮子王》

Text A Chinese Foot Binding

缠足
1 At some point, during the Song Dynasty, wealthy Chinese women started doing something

54
peculiar to their daughters’ feet. Instead of allowing them to grow naturally, they bound them
tightly, toes folded under to the heels. For years, young girls would walk on what were almost
stumps, developing a swaying walk unique to the Orient that became unavoidable when the feet
were bound. Their toes might fall off, they might suffer from falls and terrible infections, but
beauty must be served.
宋朝某时开始，中国的大户人家妇女开始对女儿的脚做一些奇怪的事情——不让它们自
然生长，而是将脚趾向脚后跟的方向折叠，紧紧绑在一起。接下来的岁月里，年轻的女
孩们就靠着残肢行走，形成了一种东方女性特有的摇摆步态。她们的脚趾可能会断掉，
她们可能会摔倒，可能会严重感染，但必须迎合人们的审美。

2 This was the tradition of foot binding, a unique mutilation that lasted from about the first
millennium AD through the early 20th century.
这便是缠足，一个从公元 1000 年持续到 20 世纪早期的畸形审美。

History of Foot Binding

缠足的起源和发展

3 The origin of foot binding is lost in antiquity, and there are several legends associated with it.
In one, the emperor Li Yu of the Southern Tang Dynasty was so enamored of the way his
favorite concubine Yao Niang walked on her tiny feet that the rest of the female court found
ways to match her (perhaps an Oriental version of Cinderella). In another, the same Yao Niang
was ordered to bind her feet to make half-moons so that she might dance on her toes;
considering the terrible pain of foot binding even for young girls whose bones are still
somewhat flexible, this is a doubtful story.
缠足是如何出现的已经无法考证，但却有几个传说流传了下来。一种说法是，南唐皇帝
李煜的宠妃窅娘拥有一双小脚，李煜非常迷恋窅娘走路的方式，以至于宫中女性都试图
模仿（或许像是东方的灰姑娘童话）。另一种说法是，皇帝命窅娘将脚裹成半月形用脚
趾跳舞。然而，即使是那些骨骼还比较柔软的年轻女孩，绑起脚来也非常痛苦，因此后
一种说法的真实性还有待商榷。

4 In another legend that is perhaps more plausible, the last empress of the Shang Dynasty had
a clubbed foot, a deformity that looked somewhat similar to the bound foot; she ordered that
the female court bind their feet so that her foot did not stand out.
另一个传说或许更可信，据说商朝末代皇后的一只脚是畸形，状似杵，就像缠裹过一样。

55
她命令宫中女眷都将脚缠起来，这样她的脚就不会如此突出。

5 Regardless of its beginning, we do know it started during the Song Dynasty, and though foot
binding at first was fairly mild, it soon grew extreme and became a sign of wealth. Women with
bound feet could not easily work in the fields, and were more ornamental than helpmeets.
Ultimately, however, even poor women bound their daughters’ feet in hopes of improving their
social standing.
不管缠足是如何起源的，可以肯定的是它始于宋朝。虽然起初缠足风气还算温和，但它
很快就走向了极端，成为财富的象征。裹着小脚的妇女不能下地干活，她们更像是一件
装饰，而不是帮手。然而，到后来即使贫穷人家也要把女儿的脚绑起来，希望以此提高
社会地位。

The Foot Binding Process

缠足的过程

6 The process of binding a girl’s feet began in the winter of her fourth or fifth year, when her
feet were still tiny—winter because the cold prevented the worst of the pain in the early part of
the process, and probably also because the cold inhibited infection. Her mother lovingly bathed
her feet in warm water or animal blood infused with a potion that sloughed off any dead skin,
then cut her toenails as short as possible and massaged her feet.
女孩一般在四五岁时的冬天开始裹脚，那时她的脚还很小。选择在冬天是因为寒冷可以
避免缠脚初期疼痛的加剧，也可能是因为寒冷能够防止感染。母亲用掺了药水的温水或
动物的血液浸泡她的脚，将脚上的死皮洗掉，然后将她的脚趾甲剪得尽可能短，再进行
按摩。

7 Once the massage was done, each of the four smaller toes was broken below the second joint
and folded under. Silk or cotton bandages about ten feet long were soaked in the foot bath, and
the foot was wrapped tightly in a higharched lotus position, starting with the smallest toe and
pulling it tightly toward the heel. Every two days, the feet were rewrapped, with each
consecutive wrapping pulling the toes even closer to the heel. This continued for at least two
years, until the girl’s feet were stunted to a length of perhaps three or four inches; the feet were
left wrapped for an additional ten years to prevent them from straightening.
按摩完成后，除大脚趾之外的四个小脚趾都在第二个关节处被折断并朝下折叠起来。约
10 英尺长的丝绸或棉布绷带在泡脚水中浸泡过后，从最小的脚趾开始，紧紧地向脚后跟

56
方向拉，将脚紧紧地包裹成高拱的莲花形。每隔一天就要将脚重新包裹一次，每一次都
要将脚趾拉得更接近脚后跟。这一步骤至少要持续两年，直到女孩的脚发育不良，到三
四英寸停止生长。接着要将脚再包裹 10 年，以防变直。

Health Results of Foot Binding

缠足对健康的影响

8 As you might expect, the health results of foot binding were terrible. It was not uncommon
for the toenails to grow into the heel of the foot, causing lacerations that became infected.
Sometimes the entire foot would die; this could kill the girl. If she didn’t die, her rotting foot
caused her to be surrounded by a terrible odor. It was not unusual for even surviving feet to lose
toes.
显而易见，缠足的后果非常可怕。脚趾甲长入脚后跟的情况并不少见，导致脚后跟撕裂，
引发感染。有时整只脚都会烂掉，而这也可能会导致女孩死亡。即便没有死亡，腐烂的
脚也会在女孩周围散发出一种难闻的气味。即使脚没有腐烂，失去脚趾也是常常发生的。

9 But she also had to walk on these stumps. Girls with bound feet were anything but athletic;
they also tended to be slender, simply because extra weight could cause agonizing pain. The
sedentary lifestyle and meager diet led to poor bone density, already a problem with many
Oriental women; a fall after the age of fifty easily led to a broken hip and a slow death.
但她也不得不用残废了的脚行走。缠足的女孩根本无法运动，她们通常会非常瘦，只是
因为体重过大会带来难以忍受的疼痛。久坐不动的生活方式和简陋的饮食已经使许多东
方女性患上了骨质疏松，年老之后一旦摔倒就会很容易导致胯部骨折，引发慢性死亡。
10 Despite its dangers, foot binding was seen as absolutely essential. A woman whose feet were
not bound could not find a decent husband—a necessity when men carried all the wealth. The
prospective groom’s mother would check the feet of any possible brides to ensure they were
bound and tiny, not “clown feet.”
尽管百害而无一利，人们仍然非常重视缠足。一个不裹脚的女性是找不到体面的丈夫的
——对那些希望通过婚姻改变出身的家庭来说影响更甚。准新郎的母亲会在订亲前检查
未来新娘的脚，确保它们是“三寸金莲”，而不是未裹过的“小丑脚”。

Painful Memories for China’s Foot-binding Survivors

裹脚幸存者的痛苦回忆

57
11 Footbinding was first banned in 1912, but some continued binding their feet in secret. Some
of the last survivors of this barbaric practice are still living in Liuyicun, a village in Southern
China’s Yunnan Province.
1912 年，缠足被首次禁止，但有些人仍偷偷缠足。中国云南省的六一村仍住有这一野蛮
习俗的最后一些幸存者。

12 Wang Lifen was just 7 years old when her mother started binding her feet: breaking her toes
and binding them underneath the sole of the foot with bandages. After her mother died, Wang
carried on, breaking the arch of her own foot to force her toes and heel ever closer. Now 79,
Wang no longer remembers the pain.
王丽芬 7 岁时，她的母亲便开始为她缠脚：打断脚趾，用绷带把它们绑在脚底下。母亲
去世后，王继续缠脚，她将自己的足弓折断，将脚趾和脚后跟绑得更近。现年 79 岁的
王不再记得当时的痛苦。

13 “Because I bound my own feet, I could manipulate them more gently until the bones were
broken. Young bones are soft, and break more easily,” she says.
“因为我自己绑脚，我就可以更轻地揉捏，直到骨头断掉。小的时候骨头很软，更容易
折断，”她说。

14 At that time, bound feet were a status symbol, the only way for a woman to marry into money.
In Wang’s case, her in-laws had demanded the matchmaker find their son a wife with tiny feet.
It was only after the wedding, when she finally met her husband for the first time, that she
discovered he was an opium addict. With a life encompassing bound feet and an opium-addict
husband, she’s a remnant from another age. That’s how author Yang Yang, who’s written a book
about them, sees these women.
在那个时候，小脚是地位的象征，是女性嫁给有钱人的唯一途径。在王结婚之前，她的
公婆就要求媒人给他们的儿子找一个小脚的妻子。直到婚礼过后，她才第一次见到她的
丈夫，发现他是一个烟鬼。裹小脚、丈夫吸毒成瘾，王可谓是另一个时代的遗留物。这
也是作家杨杨在其书中对这些女性的看法。

15 “These women were shunned by two eras,” Yang says. “When they were young, foot-binding
was already forbidden, so they bound their feet in secret. When the Communist era came,
production methods changed. They had to do farming work, and again they were shunned.”
杨说：
“这些女性为两个时代所回避。当她们年轻的时候，缠足已经被禁止了，所以她们

58
只能偷偷缠足。共产党时代到来后，生产方式又发生了变化。她们不得不做农活，又一
次遭到排斥。
”

16 Seven years ago, there were still 300 women with bound feet in this village. But many have
since died. The village’s former prosperity, from its thriving textile business, was the reason
every family bound their daughters’ feet. And they carried on long after foot-binding was
outlawed in 1912.
七年前，这个村子里还有 300 个裹小脚的女人。但许多已经离世。以前，这个村庄的纺
织业非常繁荣，这也是为什么每个家庭都会给女儿裹脚。1912 年，缠足被禁之后他们仍
坚持裹小脚。

17 Zhou Guizhen remembers tricking the government inspectors. “When people came to
inspect our feet, my mother bandaged my feet, then put big shoes on them,” Zhou says. “When
the inspectors came, we fooled them into thinking I had big feet.”
周桂珍还记得自己曾欺骗过政府的检查人员。“有人来检查我们的脚，我妈妈就给我裹
上绷带，穿上大鞋，”周说。
“检查员来的时候，我们骗他们让他们以为我是大脚。”

18 Zhou is now a fragile 86-year-old with a rueful chuckle. Tottering along in her blue silk
shoes embroidered with phoenixes, she marvels at how the world has changed.
周现在已经 86 岁了，身体虚弱，总是淡淡地笑一笑。她穿着绣有凤凰图案的蓝色丝绸
鞋，蹒跚而行，讶异于世界的巨大变化。

19 Now she opens the door to her dark, decrepit one-room hut with earthen floors and paper-
lattice windows through which the cold wind whistles. Values have been turned upside down
since her childhood. Then, she says, bound feet were seen as a mark of class. Now, they stand
for female subjugation.
她打开门，走进那间阴暗、破旧的单间小屋，地面就是土地，窗棂由纸糊成，寒风呼啸
而过。自她童年时代起，社会的价值观就完全颠倒了。她说，那时，裹小脚是一种阶级
标志，现在却变成了女性受压迫的象征。

20 “I regret binding my feet,” Zhou says. “I can’t dance, I can’t move properly. I regret it a lot.
But at the time, if you didn’t bind your feet, no one would marry you.”
“我后悔裹脚，”周说。
“裹脚之后不能跳舞，不能随意活动。我很后悔。但是，那个时
候，如果你不裹脚，你就嫁不出去。
”

59
21 These “golden lotuses” were proof of a foot fetish on a national scale, with hobbled feet
acting as another erogenous zone, the most forbidden of them all. But for author Yang Yang,
whose mother had bound feet, the reality was far more prosaic.
这些“金莲”是全国范围内恋足癖的印证，婀娜的步伐成为了另一个性感地带，也是最
为隐秘的地带。作者杨杨的母亲也裹了小脚，但对她来说，实际上非常无聊。

22 “The bandages that women used for foot-binding were about 10 feet long, so it was difficult
for them to wash their feet,” Yang says. “They only washed once every two weeks, so it was
very, very stinky. But when I was young I was very free, because when I was naughty my
mother couldn’t run fast enough with her bound feet to catch me and beat me.”
“用来裹脚的绷带大约有 10 英尺长，所以她们洗一次脚非常困难，”杨说。“她们每两
周才洗一次，所以非常非常臭。但是我小的时候，我很自由，因为当我淘气的时候，我
妈妈的小脚跑得不够快，追不上我，打不到我。”

23 Despite their self-inflicted disabilities, these women are survivors. Wang often baby-sits her
neighbors’ toddler, carrying the plump 20-pound child on her back as she goes about her daily
chores. As Wang surveys her tiny shoes, cocking her head from side to side, it’s clear she’s
proud of her little feet.
虽然她们残疾了，但她们也是幸存者。王经常给邻居的小孩当保姆，每天做家务的时候，
她都会背着这个 20 磅重的胖娃娃。当王端详她的小鞋时，她的头会认真地左右摆动，
很明显，她为自己的小脚感到骄傲。

24 “There’s not a single other woman in Liuyicun who could fit their feet into my shoes,” she
says. “When my generation dies, people won’t be able to see bound feet, even if they want to.”
“在六一村，没有一个女人能把她们的脚塞进我的鞋里，”她说。
“我这一代人走后，人
们就看不到裹着小脚的人了，就算他们想看也看不到了。”

25 These women even gained fame of a sort, forming a bound-feet disco dancing troupe which
toured the region. Zhou was once the star of the troupe, but now she’s too old to dance.
这些妇女甚至有点名气，组成了一个小脚舞团，在该地区巡回演出。周曾经是剧团的明
星，但现在她年纪大了，不能跳舞了。

26 Such public display is a far cry from their youth, when their bound feet restricted their

60
freedom, keeping them close to their homes. But the local press criticized the dance troupe,
talking of exploitation and freak shows. These women yet again are victims of history in a
society that finds their plight an embarrassing reminder of its own recent brutality towards
women.
此类公开演出来源于她们年轻时的渴望，那时她们的双脚被束缚，自由也被限制，只能
在家附近活动。但当地媒体对这个舞蹈团大加批判，说这是剥削和畸形秀，这些妇女再
次成为历史的受害者。她们的困境尴尬地提醒着社会近年来对女性所施加的暴行。

Text B History of Corsets

紧身胸衣发展史

1 The corset, derived from the French word “corps for body”, is a tight, cinching garment that
covers the middle torso that pushes up and/or flatten the breasts, or to hug the waist into shape.
It has been in use in one form or another for hundreds of years, but its origins can be traced
back to drawings discovered at the Neolithic archaeological site at Brandon in Norfolk, England.
The drawings show women wearing corset like garments made from animal hides that are laced
down the front.
紧身胸衣（corset）源于法语单词“corps for body”
（身体的骨架），是一种紧身的束腰衣，
能托起胸部或将胸部裹平，或将腰部塑形。紧身胸衣的使用方式多种多样，已经存在了
数百年，其起源可以追溯到在英格兰诺福克郡布兰登的新石器时代考古遗址发现的一幅
画上。画上的女人身穿紧身胸衣，就像用兽皮做的衣服一样，前面系着带子。

2 Sometime around 1700 BC, the Minoans used corsets that were fitted and laced, or a smaller
corselette that left the breasts exposed. In the same period, men are also shown in artwork as
having tiny waists; it is also believed that they used belts to hold their waists tight; traditionally
it began on young boys in order to train their waists.
大约在公元前 1700 年左右，米诺斯人就穿非常贴身的系带紧身衣，或者一种更小的胸
衣让乳房暴露在外面。在同一时期的艺术作品中，男性也有纤细的腰部，据说他们用腰
带把腰束得很紧。按照传统，为了训练腰部，男性在很小的时候就会开始束腰。

3 In other ancient civilizations, women wearing corsets were painted on pottery in Crete, Egypt,
Rome, Greece, and Assyria. Women in these cultures normally partook in strenuous physical
activities such as gymnastics and bullfighting, which required the use of constricting attire for
support. Grecian women wore supports called zona while Cretan women wore rings around

61
their waists and bolero jackets to give their breasts support. Egyptian women wore a band under
their bust as part of their outward costume. Whereas the Romans used corseted tight lacing, to
show superiority over slaves and convey their low status and subjugation to their loosely
clothed masters and mistresses.
在其他古文明中，如克里特岛、埃及、罗马、希腊和亚述，陶器上彩绘了妇女身穿紧身
胸衣的图景。在这些地区，妇女通常参加激烈的体育运动，如体操和斗牛，这就需要穿
紧身衣来支撑身体。希腊妇女穿一种叫做“zona”的紧身衣，而克里特妇女则在腰上戴
上环状物，穿上被称为“bolero”的短上衣来支撑乳房。埃及妇女在胸部下方衣服外束
一条带子作为装束的一部分。罗马人则穿系带紧身胸衣，一方面显示他们相对于奴隶来
说地位的尊贵，另一方面表达对穿着宽松的主人和主妇的顺从。

4 References to corseting can also be found in the Bible. According to the third chapter of Isaiah,
it tells us that “instead of a girdle, there should be a rent and instead a stomacher of sackcloth,
and burning instead of beauty”. It was a lesson that fell on deaf ears, as early Christians used
rope to bind their waists which bit into the skin. Fashions were influenced during this era by
the East and typically imported through Constantinople. In deviation to the Christians, the
women of Constantinople and Alexandria embraced the use of a constricting, bejewelled belt.
《圣经》中也曾提及紧身衣。
《以赛亚书》第三章写道，
“必有绳子代替腰带，麻衣系腰
代替华服，烙伤代替美容”。但这一训诫却成了耳旁风，因为早期的基督徒用绳子来束
腰，甚至划破皮肤扎进肉里。这一时期的风尚受到东方的影响，通常是通过君士坦丁堡
传入的。君士坦丁堡和亚历山德里亚的妇女背离了上帝的教义，喜欢佩戴镶有珠宝的束
身腰带。

5 In the 13th and 14th centuries, loose, baggy dresses were replaced by dresses that used lacing
to shape the clothes closer to the body. A trim figure was achieved by using stiffer fabrics while
a corset effect was incorporated into the garments as opposed to being a separate article of
clothing. These garments were known as kirtles. Although the meaning of a kirtle changed over
time, and in other regions, in England, kirtles were normally gowns with tight fitting bodices.
Chaucer made reference to corsets in his tales, saying that they were made in many different
colors and fitted closely to the female form. Also surcoats became popular during this time. It
was an item of clothing worn like an overcoat that hugged the body, and was considered so
lewd that Charles V of France threatened to excommunicate anyone who wore one.
在 13 和 14 世纪，宽松的服饰不再流行，取而代之的是更加修身的系带服装。为了更加
修身，人们使用更粗硬的面料使服装产生紧身衣的效果，而不是再单独穿一件紧身衣。

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这类服装被称为 kirtle。kirtle 的含义随着时间也在发生变化。在英格兰的其他地区，kirtle
通常指上身为束胸的礼服。乔叟在他的小说中也提到过紧身胸衣，说紧身胸衣有许多不
同的颜色，而且非常贴合女性的身材。在此期间，束腰外衣也变得流行起来。束腰外衣
就是非常塑身的大衣，人们认为穿此类服装有伤风俗，法国的查理五世甚至威胁说要把
穿这种衣服的人逐出教会。

6 During the 14th century, the silk industry saw significant growth. Fabrics such as silk, brocade,
velvet, and damask needed a stronger, supported construction in order to reveal the body’s shape.
The first artificial support was made in Italy, called a coche, and later became known as a busk
in England. It gave a smooth, straight, rigid line to the front of the body when laced and, in
theory, was designed to enable the wearer entrance and exit from the garment without disturbing
the laces. The earliest known busk was made in 1556 from iron.
在 14 世纪，丝绸业有了显著的发展。丝绸、天鹅绒和锦缎等织物需要更坚固的支撑结
构以衬托身形。第一个人造支撑出现于意大利，被称为 coche，后来在英国被称为 busk。
当系好胸带，它会在身体的前面形成平滑、笔直的线条。理论上，它的设计能够让穿者
无需解开胸带便可随意穿脱。已知最早的 busk 造于 1556 年，由铁制成。

7 In the 16th century, clothing symbolized the position of social class, power and wealth. The
corset played a large part in doing this. In the French court, under the influence of Italian-born
Catherine de Medici, ladies in waiting were told to cinch their waists to a size no bigger than
thirteen inches around. Even given the difference in average body size of a woman in modern
times, thirteen inches would have been extreme.
在 16 世纪，服装象征着社会阶层、权力和财富。紧身胸衣在其中也扮演着重要角色。
在法国宫廷，出生于意大利的凯瑟琳·德·美第奇要求侍女们都将腰部收紧，腰围不能
超过 13 英寸。即使放在现代，根据女性的平均体型，13 英寸也是一个极端的数字。

8 It was in this same court, that a corset of steel framework was introduced. Normally made up
of four plates with cut out ornamental designs, they were connected at the sides and front while
leaving the back open to get in and out of. It is undecided whether the metal corsets were a
normal item in a woman’s clothing collection, if they were used for a medical purpose, or if
they were a sign of rank/ social standing since a knight’s armour during this time was more for
show than function.
就是在这个宫廷里，出现了一种铁制的紧身胸衣，通常由四个铁片组成，上有镂空装饰
图案，前面和两侧的铁片相互连接，背部留有开口用来穿脱。目前尚不清楚这类金属紧

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身胸衣是否是女性衣橱中的常见服饰，还是只是用于医疗目的，抑或只是等级和社会地
位的象征。毕竟在那个时代，就连骑士的盔甲也更多只是为了炫耀，而不是实用。

9 Some other changes also took place in the 16th century. The separation of the bodice from
the skirt of an item of clothing aimed for a tighter fit on the upper body while the skirts generally
were heavier and fuller. An under-bodice had to be used to achieve the fashionable look and
resembled past garments worn by men during earlier times. These under-bodices were normally
made from linen that was stiffened with paste and supported by wooden busks and were referred
to as “bodies” or “corps”. In later years, iron was added to the under bodice for strength. They
were sometimes lengthened over the hips with an extra piece of fabric called a basque, which
could then be modified with padding or wadding to change the shape of a woman even further.
The under-bodices of this period became so popular that it became fashionable to wear clothing
that revealed them. A stomacher was worn to hide the laces which had been moved to the back
or the front.
在 16 世纪又发生了一些其他变化。紧身胸衣与长裙分离开来，变成了一件独立的服饰，
以使上身更紧，而裙子通常又重又圆。为追求时尚，紧身内衣也不可缺少。紧身内衣外
观上与早期男性服饰相似，通常由亚麻布做面料，用浆糊加固，并用木制衬垫支撑，被
称为 bodies 或者 corps（身体）
。后来，人们在紧身内衣上加了铁，以加固支撑。有些紧
身内衣会增加一块叫做 basque（巴斯克）的布料到胯部，布料中还可以填充衬料，来进
一步修饰女性的体型。在这个时期紧身内衣变得非常流行，甚至将它露出来也变成了潮
流。人们还会穿一件 V 型胸衣来遮住紧身内衣前面或后面的系带。

10 Around the 17th century, there was a period of time when politics across Europe demanded
a less extravagant use of fabric. Along with a “less is more” approach to fashion came the
introduction and fixation of the busk. The busk fits inside the front of a corset and was made
from wood, ivory, metal, or whale bone. A man might have carved or purchased an elegant busk
as a present for his heart’s fancy. The lacings that held a busk in place were separate from those
that supported the corset. It was common for a young woman to use her busk as a flirtatious
point of interest or bestow her busk lacings on a particularly admired gentleman. Busks could
also be made into daggers and could be used as weapons on the occasional unwanted admirer.
The basque disappeared as well as more expensive fabric and was replaced with “tabs” to help
support petticoats.
大约在 17 世纪，有一段时间，欧洲各地政府都要求减少织物的奢侈浪费。
“少即是多”
的时尚理念兴起，胸衣衬骨引进并风靡一时。胸衣衬骨由木条、象牙、金属或鲸骨做成，

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固定在束身衣内里的前面。男性也可以自己雕刻或买一个精美的胸衣衬骨，作为礼物送
给心上人。固定胸衣衬骨的系带和用以支撑紧身胸衣的系带是分开的，年轻女子通常会
拿自己的胸衣衬骨来调情，或者把胸衣衬骨的系带送给爱慕的绅士。胸衣衬骨可以做成
匕首，偶尔在面对不喜欢的追求者时也可当作武器使用。在这一时期消失的不仅是昂贵
的布料，还有巴斯克内衣，取而代之的是称为 tabs 的撑架来支撑衬裙。

11 Luxury returned for a short time during King Louis XIV of France’s reign during the 18th
century. The Corps Baleine became popular and skirts diminished. The new look had shoulder
straps, was long, and was worn over a blouse. Due to the rigidity of its supports, which consisted
primarily of whale bone, it alarmed medical professionals of the day.
在 18 世纪，法国国王路易十四统治期间，奢侈品有过短暂回归。表面极富装饰性的紧
身胸衣 Corps Baleine 开始流行，裙子逐渐谈出人们的视野。这个新的服装款式配有肩
带，衣身细长，穿在衬衫外面。它的支撑物主要是坚硬的鲸骨，当时的医学专家都对此
感到担忧。

12 Napoleonic Era introduced cotton as the most popular fabric. Softer, more natural lines were
fashionable, so most women relieved themselves of the constrictive stays. Binds were still used
strategically if a woman didn’t have flattering curves.
拿破仑时代棉花成为了最受欢迎的织物。由此更加柔和且线条自然的服饰登上了时尚的
舞台，大多数女性于是都摆脱了紧身胸衣的束缚。如果一个女人没有迷人的曲线，她仍
会巧妙地将自己束缚起来。

13 The 1800’s heralded changes in corsetry by leaps and bounds. During the Napoleonic Wars,
a doctor with the French army invented a metallic eyelet. Eyelets added to corsets allowed them
to be cinched even tighter without fear of damaging the fabric. When the quality of the eyelets
was questioned, the Minet Back made its debut. The closure was on the back, and consisted of
a series of loops on each side. A whalebone bar was then passed through the loops. Also, lacings
were threaded through the loops as well which meant that the pressure for supporting the
garment was on the bar instead of individual points.
19 世纪预示着紧身胸衣的跨越式发展。拿破仑战争期间，法国军队的一名医生发明了金
属小孔。有了这些小孔眼，胸衣就可以被绑得更紧而不用担心面料会被扯坏。当孔眼的
质量受到质疑时，一款名为 Minet Back 的胸衣问世。这款紧身衣的开口位于后背，两侧
都各有一列小孔，然后一根鲸骨从这些孔眼里穿过，同时系带也会系在孔眼中，也就是
说衣服是靠鲸骨的压力支撑着，而不是独立的支撑点。

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14 Some other 19th century adjustments included the first corset designed with a front busk
divided in two that hooked to close and laced in the back. The corset was created by Jean-Julien
Josselin, and occasionally, one would spring open on an unsuspecting young lady. The glove-
fitting corset ready made and produced by Thomson and Company was constructed using steel
while the first rubber corset was fashioned in the 1860’s. The late 1880’s reported suspenders
being added to the corset to hold up stockings.
19 世纪还发生了一些其他的变化，例如出现了第一个后背设计有扣钩和系带的胸衣，这
是让·朱利安·约塞林设计的，偶尔年轻女士胸衣的扣钩也会突然松开。19 世纪 60 年
代出现了第一件橡胶紧身胸衣。汤普森公司生产出了使用钢铁结构的非常贴身的内衣，
而在 19 世纪 80 年代末，胸衣上还添加了吊袜带来支撑长袜。

15 In the early 1900’s, athletics were fast on their way to becoming a widespread interest of
women. To accommodate the need for freer movement, a lightweight corset was developed,
made with less boning, and in some cases, support was only given by quilting or cording. It
also had large shoulder straps. In 1910, the first ventilated mesh corset and the “all-elastic-step
in” were introduced.
20 世纪初，田径运动迅速成为多数女性的兴趣。为了适应更加自由运动的需要，人们开
始研制更轻便的胸衣，它使用的骨头更少，在某些情况下，仅通过绗缝或绑带进行支撑，
还带有宽大的肩带。1910 年，第一款透气网格紧身衣和“全弹性一体式”紧身衣面世。

16 The 1920’s escorted in the Flapper and sexual freedom. Gone were the distorted, curvaceous
figures from previous years. The girl-woman silhouette catered to the naturally slender, but a
larger woman could achieve the fashionable appearance with a light corset and bandeau. In the
1930’s, the corset was finally pushed aside in favor of elastic undergarments.
20 世纪 20 年代是年轻女性和性自由的时代。早期流行的扭曲的曲线身材已不是大众审
美。少女的身材是自然的苗条，但较胖的女性可以通过穿轻质紧身衣和裹胸显得更美丽。
到了 20 世纪 30 年代，紧身胸衣终于被束之高阁，取而代之的是更有弹性的内衣。

17 During the late 20th century, corsets again found their way in fashion as outwear. Trendsetter
and singer, Madonna, made them popular in the 80’s. However, beginning in the mid-century,
corsets became associated with fetish wear since the bra replaced them for daily function. Today,
corset specialty shops can be found in most major cities, but are no longer considered a necessity.
20 世纪后期，紧身胸衣凭借着外穿再次在时尚潮流中夺得一席之地。潮流引领者歌手麦

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当娜在 80 年代将其引入时尚舞台。然而，从 20 世纪中期开始，紧身胸衣就被与恋物癖
联系在一起，因为内衣已经将其取代，变得更加日常。如今，紧身胸衣专卖店在多数大
城市都能找到，但已不再是必需品。

Unit Nine
Philosophers 哲学家

Text B The Death of Socrates

苏格拉底之死
By Hendrik Willem Van Loon
亨德里克·威廉·房龙
1 The career of Socrates, the brilliant but exasperating soap-box orator, is a direct tribute to the
spirit of intellectual liberty which prevailed throughout ancient Greece in the fifth century
before our era.
苏格拉底是一位街头演说者，他才华横溢，但颇令人恼火。他的职业生涯是公元前五世
纪盛行于整个古希腊的知识自由精神最直接的写照。

2 Socrates was the son of a stone-cutter who had many children and little money. The boy
therefore had never been able to pay for a regular college course, for most of the philosophers
were practical fellows and often charged as much as two thousand dollars for a single course
of instruction. Besides, the pursuit of pure knowledge and the study of useless scientific facts
seemed to young Socrates a mere waste of time and energy. Provided a person cultivated his
conscience, so he reasoned, he could well do without geometry and a knowledge of the true
nature of comets and planets was not necessary for the salvation of the soul.
苏格拉底的父亲是一个石匠，子女众多，但家庭贫穷。因此，苏格拉底付不起大学学费，
因为当时大多数哲学家都重实际，一门课的学费常常高达两千美元。此外，在年轻的苏
格拉底看来，追求纯粹的知识和研究无用的科学事实都只不过是在浪费时间和精力。他
认为，只要一个人能培养自己的良知，就完全可以不学几何学，而了解诸如彗星和行星
之类的知识对于灵魂救赎来说根本是不必要的。

3 All his life long (and he was past seventy when he was executed) Socrates tried to show his
neighbors that they were wasting their opportunities; that they were living hollow and shallow
lives; that they devoted entirely too much time to empty pleasures and vain triumphs and almost
invariably squandered the divine gifts with which a great and mysterious God had endowed

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them for the sake of a few hours of futile glory and self-satisfaction. And so thoroughly
convinced was he of man’s high destiny that he broke through the bounds of all old philosophies
and went even farther than Protagoras, for whereas the latter had taught “that man is the measure
of all things”. Socrates preached that “man’s invisible conscience is (or ought to be) the ultimate
measure of all things and that it is not the Gods but we ourselves who shape our destiny.”
苏格拉底被处死时已年过七十，终其一生他都在试图向人们证明，他们是在浪费生命；
他们正在过的生活空虚而浅薄；他们花费了太多的时间去寻找空虚的快乐和徒劳的胜利；
他们几乎无一例外地浪费了伟大而神秘的上帝赋予他们的神圣天赋，却只为了几个小时
毫无意义的荣耀和自我满足。苏格拉底深信人的崇高使命，他突破了一切旧哲学的束缚，
甚至比普罗塔哥拉走得更远，普罗塔哥拉曾教导人们：
“人是衡量万物的尺度”。而苏格
拉底宣扬“人所看不见的意识是衡量万物的最终准绳；决定人类命运的不是神，而是人
类自己。”

4 The speech which Socrates made before the judges who were to decide his fate (there were
five hundred of them to be precise and they had been so carefully chosen by his political
enemies that some of them could actually read and write) was one of the most delightful bits of
common sense ever addressed to any audience, sympathetic or otherwise.
苏格拉底在决定他命运的法官面前做的那场演讲是有史以来最有智慧和真知灼见的，无
论你赞同还是反对，事实都是如此。审判苏格拉底的陪审团一共有 500 人，都由他的政
敌精心挑选的，陪审团中的一部分人实际上都有读写能力。

5 “No person on earth,” so the philosopher argued, “has the right to tell another man what he
should believe or to deprive him of the right to think as he pleases,” and further, “Provided that
man remains on good terms with his own conscience, he can well do without the approbation
of his friends, without money, without a family or even a home. But as no one can possibly
reach the right conclusions without a thorough examination of all the pros and cons of every
problem, people must be given a chance to discuss all questions with complete freedom and
without interference on the part of the authorities.”
苏格拉底申辩道：“世界上没有任何人有权利决定他人应该相信什么，或剥夺他人思考
的权力。”“如果一个人能保持自己的良知，他就完全不需要朋友的认可，不需要金钱，
不需要家人，甚至不需要住所。但是，如果不彻底审查每一个问题的所有利弊，人们就
不能得出正确的结论，因此人们必须能够完全自由地讨论所有问题，而不受当局的干涉。”

6 Unfortunately for the accused, this was exactly the wrong statement at the wrong moment.

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Ever since the Peloponnesian war there had been a bitter struggle in Athens between the rich
and the poor, between capital and labor. Socrates was a “moderate”—a liberal who saw good
and evil in both systems of government and who tried to find a compromise which should
satisfy all reasonable people. This, of course, had made him thoroughly unpopular with both
sides but thus far they had been too evenly balanced to take action against him.
不幸的是，对于苏格拉底来说，这恰恰是在错误的时间做的错误的申辩。自伯罗奔尼撒
战争以来，雅典的富人和穷人、资本家和劳动者之间就一直存在着激烈的斗争。而苏格
拉底是一个“温和派”——他是自由主义者，他看到了两种政体的利弊，试图寻找一个
能够满足所有人的折衷方案。当然，这使得他在两党中都非常不受欢迎，但当时两党势
均力敌，都无暇顾及苏格拉底。

7 When at last in the year 403 B.C. the one-hundred-percent Democrats gained complete control
of the state and expelled the aristocrats, Socrates was a doomed man.
公元前 403 年，民主党终于完全控制了希腊，赶跑了贵族，苏格拉底也被捕入狱。

8 His friends knew this. They suggested that he leave the city before it was too late and this
would have been a very wise thing to do, for Socrates had quite as many enemies as friends.
朋友们得知此事之后，劝苏格拉底尽早离开希腊。这本是个明智之举，因为虽然苏格拉
底朋友众多，但他的敌人也数不胜数。

9 During the greater part of a century he had been a sort of vocal “columnist”, a terribly clever
busy-body who had made it his hobby to expose the shams and the intellectual swindles of
those who regarded themselves as the pillars of Athenian society. As a result, everyone had
come to know him. His name had become a household word throughout eastern Greece. When
he said something funny in the morning, by night the whole town had heard about it. Plays had
been written about him and when he was finally arrested and taken to prison there was not a
citizen in the whole of Attica who was not thoroughly familiar with all the details of his career.
在他生命的大部分时间里，他一直是一个直言不讳的“专栏作家”，是一个非常聪明的
爱“多管闲事”的人，他的爱好是揭露那些自认为是雅典社会支柱的人的虚伪和知识骗
局。结果，大家都认识他了。他的名字在整个东部希腊家喻户晓。早晨他说了一件怪事，
到了晚上，全城的人都知道了。曾经有人就他写过话剧剧本，当他最终被捕入狱时，整
个阿提卡没有一个人不熟悉他的生涯细节。

10 Those who took the leading part in the actual trial (like that honorable grain merchant who

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could neither read nor write but who knew all about the will of the Gods and therefore was
loudest in his accusations) were undoubtedly convinced that they were rendering a great service
to the community by ridding the city of a highly dangerous member of the so-called
“intelligentsia”, a man whose teaching could only led to laziness and crime and discontent
among the slaves.
那些参与最终审判的领头羊（如那受人尊敬的粮商，他们没有读写能力，但是却知道上
帝的意志是什么，因此在对苏格拉底的审判中是最积极的），他们毫不犹疑地相信，为
城邦除掉这个危险的所谓的“知识分子”是造福社会，因为他的教学只会带来懒惰、犯
罪和奴隶们的反叛。

11 It is rather amusing to remember that even under those circumstances, Socrates pleaded his
case with such tremendous virtuosity that a majority of the jury was all for letting him go free
and suggested that he might be pardoned if only he would give up this terrible habit of arguing,
of debating, of wrangling and moralizing, in short, if only he would leave his neighbors and
their pet prejudices in peace and not bother them with his eternal doubts.
有趣的是，即便在这种情况下，苏格拉底的申辩如此精湛，以至于陪审团的大多数都支
持释放他，前提是只要他能够停止与人争辩和说教。简而言之，他们要求苏格拉底不再
纠缠人们，就让人们保持自己的想法，而不是用他自己的质疑烦扰他们。

12 But Socrates would not hear of it.

但苏格拉底不同意。

13 “By no means,” he exclaimed, “As long as my conscience, as long as the still small voice
within me, bids me go forth and show men the true road to reason, I shall continue to buttonhole
whomsoever I happen to meet and I shall say what is on my mind, regardless of consequences.”
“绝不”
，他说，
“只要我的良心和内心的一点点小想法呼唤我，让我去为人们指明通往
真理的道路，我将不厌其烦地驻足与之辩论，用我的想法与之交流，不管结局怎样。”

14 After that, there was no other course but to condemn the prisoner to death.
至此，别无他法，只有判处苏格拉底死刑。

15 Socrates was given a respite of thirty days. The holy ship which made an annual pilgrimage
to Delos had not yet returned from its voyage and until then, the Athenian law did not allow
any executions. The whole of this month the old man spent quietly in his cell, trying to improve

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his system of logic. Although he was repeatedly given the opportunity to escape, he refused to
go. He had lived his life and had done his duty. He was tired and ready to depart. Until the hour
of his execution he continued to talk with his friends, trying to educate them in what he held to
be right and true, asking them to turn their minds upon the things of the spirit rather than those
of the material world.
苏格拉底得到了三十天的宽限期。因为去德洛斯朝圣的圣船还没有返航，在那之前，雅
典法律不允许处决任何人。在这三十天里，年迈的苏格拉底安静地呆在牢房里，试图优
化他的逻辑体系。虽然一再有逃跑的机会，他还是拒绝离去。他过完了自己的生活，尽
了自己的职责。他累了，做好了离开的准备。他在被处死之前，还在一直与朋友们交谈，
教导他们什么是正确的和真实的，要求他们把思想转向精神思维，而不是物质世界。

16 Then he drank the beaker of hemlock, laid himself upon his couch and settled all further
argument by sleep everlasting.
然后，他喝下了那杯毒芹酒，躺在睡椅上，用“永远的睡眠”平息了所有争论。

17 For a short time, his disciples, rather terrified by this terrible out-burst of popular wrath,
thought it wise to remove themselves from the scene of their former activities.
一时之间，他的门徒们为这突然爆发的民愤感到恐惧，认为最好离开这个地方。

18 But when nothing happened, they returned and resumed their former occupation as public
teachers, and within a dozen years after the death of the old philosopher, his ideas were more
popular than ever.
但之后什么事也没有发生，于是他们又回来了，继续从事教师的职业。在这位老哲学家
死后的十几年里，他的思想却比以往任何时候都更受欢迎。

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附录二：百度网页“罕见字”搜索结果（2020 年 7 月 18 日）

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附录三：百度网页“生僻字”搜索结果（2020 年 7 月 18 日）

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