BBC纪录片中国故事
第一集祖先笔记整理
与……保持平衡 keep sth in balance with 天坛 the Altar of Heaven
进行祭天仪式 perform rituals 黄帝 the Yellow Emperor
1900年，中国陷入了大灾难，国内叛乱，洪水还有饥荒
In 1900, China was plunged into catastrophe with rebellion, flood and famine.
踏上回乡的旅程 set off on the journey home 冬至 the winter solstice
清明节 the Qingming Festival
自古以来，中国人在这天祭祖先。When, since ancient times, the Chinese have honored the ancestors.
勇往直前地走入未来 be on a headlong rush into the future 由于自由的召唤 for as new freedoms beckon
人们自发地要去追溯那些在他们的历史中至关重要的一些东西 the people themselves are reaching back to the things that have mattered most to them in their history
对于中国人来说，身份起源于家庭 for the Chinese people, identity begins with the family. Enticing 有吸引力的
祭祖日 the day of the ancestors 扫墓日 Tomb-Sweeping Day 他们来自于全国各地，每个人向祖先祷告告诉他们家族目前是什么情况，告诉祖先们他们的价值观仍然存在我们之中。They have come from all over China and further afield to make their own report to the ancestors to tell them how the family is doing and how the ancestors and their values still live on in us.
As the ancients used to say, repaying our roots 正如古人们说，落叶归根 家风 family values
经历种种变化 experience dizzying changes Mirror 反映
现在那段历史的意义已经潮水般涌回 and now the meaning of that history is flooding back This whole great festival is to two ancient gods in Chinese mythology，Fuxi, the male god, and Nvwa, the female god.整场节日是用来纪念中国神话中远古的两位神，男的是伏羲，女的是女娲。And she’s famous because she created humanity out of yellow mud of the Yellow River. And the mud that was left over she made dogs and chickens, according to the myth. 女娲闻名于她用黄河的泥创造了人类。根据神话传说，她用剩下的泥创造了狗和鸡。 流传下来 hand down 汉人 Han Chinese
All four of the great old world civilizations began on rivers-the Nile, the Euphrates, the Indus and the Yellow River. 世界上的四大发明均起源于河流，尼罗河、幼发拉底河和恒河，当然还有黄河。
只有中国一直延续到了今天。China alone has come down until today.
Harness the waters of the river for irrigation that enable ancient people to feed bigger and bigger populations治理河流用于灌溉，让古代人能够养活越来越多的人口
So the beginnings of Chinese history, the control of the river and its environment, lay at the very heart of political power自中国历史起源开始，对河流和环境的治理是每个政权的核心问题。 And the tale of the king who tamed the mighty Yellow River and claimed the right to rule the hundreds of tribes 大禹治水然后统治了黄河沿岸几百个部族的故事。 大禹 King Yu
追溯到青铜器时代 go back to the Bronze Age 传说大禹在4000年前建立了中国第一个朝代。 the legend says that King Yu was the founder of China’s first dynasty 4000 years ago
直到今天仍有一些传统存在 traditions survived until modern times 古巴比伦 ancient Iraq 石器时代 Stone Age
皇帝中国的第一个帝王 Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, the original Emperor of China 青铜铸件 bronze casting 绿松石 turquoise
中国最早的文字 the first Chinese writing 世界考古界 world archaeology
中药对中药的信仰和实践可以追溯到史前时代 a traditional pharmacy where beliefs and practices going back into prehistory 翰林院 the Imperial Academy
开药方 deliver a series of ingredients 龙骨 dragon bones
You ground up and boiled and drank to alleviate the fever 你需要碾碎它，熬煮后喝下去缓解发烧
追溯到 trace back to... 甲骨 oracle bones
Epoch-making 划时代的意义 占卜 divination
占卜者是在向祖先寻求支持 the diviners are asking for the favor of the ancestral spirits 象形文字 hieroglyphs 楔形文字 the cuneiform
The Bronze Age layers here are 30 feet deep in Yellow River silt 青铜器时代的遗迹在黄河淤泥下30英尺深的地方
敬拜祖先的地方 the place where the ancestors were worshiped 礼制 ritual
铸造青铜器来盛放食物和酒水供奉他们的祖先 cast beautiful bronzes to hold food and water offerings to the ancestral spirits
进行活人祭祀 practice human sacrifice 吉兆 omens of auspiciousness 凶兆 omens of disaster
北京天文馆 the Beijing Planetarium 周文王 King Wen of the Zhou
五星连珠每516发生一次 this five-planet conjunction happens once every 516 years 百家争鸣 100 schools bloomed
君子之德风，小人之德草，草上之风必偃 so it’s said that when the wind blows the grass
naturally bends
有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？ To have guests come from far away is a pleasure, is it not？ 孝顺 filial piety
在税收和商业方面，统一了度量衡。统一货币。For tax and commerce, the weights and measures were standardized. There was to be a uniform coinage.
兵马俑 the Terracotta Army
The beginnings of China as a unitary state, as the world’s first bureaucratic, centralized empire, begin with Qin Shi Huangdi. 中国作为一个统一的国家，世界上第一个官僚政治体系下的中央集权，都开始于秦始皇。
But the First Emperor’s rule over China was brief, just 11 years, his son’s even briefer. 但是秦始皇在中国的统治非常短暂，只有11年，他的儿子甚至更短。