BBC：古代圣贤（2015）（3）

从人类文明开始，自然的力量
Since the dawn of civilization, the forces of nature,
和众神的虚妄,一起支配着人类
and the whims of gods, held sway over humanity.
但是，2500年前，人类经历了
But, two and a half thousand years ago, humankind experienced
深刻的变革
a profound transformation.
突然出现了新的可能性
Suddenly there were new possibilities.
这是一个理性战胜迷信信仰的时代
This is a time when rationality overrode superstition and belief.
这是一种不依赖神的伦理标准
This is an ethic which does not rely on the gods.
人们用自然的力量来解释世界
The world is now explained in terms of natural forces.
我们现在要为自己的命运负责
We’re now responsible for our own destiny.
全球的动荡，
Upheavals across the globe,
激发了一个关于人类可以实现什么的抱负的愿景，
sparked an ambitious vision of what humans could achieve,
由三个开拓者带头
spearheaded by three trailblazers.
苏格拉底、孔子和佛陀
Socrates, Confucius, and the Buddha.
古代伟大的思想家，他们的思想仍然影响着我们的生活
Great thinkers from the ancient world,
whose ideas still shape our own lives.
财富是好事吗？
Is wealth a good thing?
你如何创造一个公正的社会？
How do you create a just society?
我如何过上好生活？
How do I live a good life?
敢于思考不可想象的事情，
By daring to think the unthinkable,
他们奠定了我们现代世界的基础
they laid the foundations of our modern world。
我一直对这个事实感兴趣
I’ve always been intrigued by the fact
这些人相隔数千英里，
that these men, who lived many thousands of miles apart,
几乎是自然而然地，在彼此相隔一百年的时间里，
seemed almost spontaneously, within a hundred years of one another,
想出如此全新的思维方式
to come up with such radical ways of thinking.
发生了什么事？
So what was going on?
我想探究他们的变革思想
I want to investigate their revolutionary ideas.
去理解是什么让他们行动起来的
To understand what set them in motion.
在这个项目中，我正在寻迹
In this program, I’m on the trail of
东方圣人的典范，孔子
that quintessential Eastern sage, Confucius.
他有一个使命，但当时很多人不同意他的观点
He had a mission, but many people at that time did not agree with him.
他的愿景是以过去的政♥权♥和家庭为蓝本的
His vision was modeled on the power of the past, and the family.
他相信教育可以改变个人和社会
He believed that education could transform both individuals and society.
他在谈论你的心理状态、你的感受
He’s talking about your state of mind, your feelings.
但是，在二十世纪，
But in the twentieth century,
孔子被宣布为共♥产♥主义的敌人
Confucius was declared an enemy of Communism.
所以现在，他大概 不受欢迎了，但事实似乎并非如此
So now, he should be out of favor.
But that hardly seems to be the case.
这是世界上持续时间最长的文明，
This is the longest continuous civilization in the world,
孔子在其中扮演着重要角色
and Confucius has a huge role in that.
离他们这么近真是太神奇了，我的心砰砰跳
It’s so amazing to be so close to them,my heart is beating.
孔子
古代圣贤
己所不欲，勿施于人
公元前551年，
In 551 BC,
一位 古代鲁国的退役老兵，
an elderly ex-soldier from the ancient state of Lu,
面临着严重的困境
faced a grave predicament.
家庭传承有结束的危险
His family line was in danger of ending.
他需要一个儿子来延续他的名字
He needed a son to continue his name.
一个能够执行重要仪式的儿子，
Someone who’d be able to perform the vital rituals,
未来祭拜他和他的祖先
to honor him and his ancestors.
这位老人娶了一位年轻的妻子
The old man took a young wife.
听说，这位妻子去了一座圣山，祈求一个男孩
We’re told she went to a sacred mountain, and prayed hard for a boy.
她生的儿子后被称为孔大♥师♥
The son she bore would become known as Master Kong.
中文是孔夫子
In Chinese, Kong Fuzi.
在西方，我们称他为“Confucius”
In the West, we call him Confucius.
孔子出生于当时世界上最先进的文明国家之一
Confucius was born into one of the most advanced civilizations in the world.
古代中国人是创新者
The ancient Chinese were innovators
在艺术、金属加工、农业和武器方面
in art, metalwork, agriculture, and weaponry.
从公元前1000年左右开始，他们发展了一套复杂的政♥治♥制度，
And from around 1,000 BC,
they developed a sophisticated political system,
效忠于一个国王的诸侯贵族体系
a network of vassal lords who bore allegiance to one king.
但在孔子的成长过程中，稳定变成了混乱
But by the time Confucius was growing up, stability had turned to chaos.
这是一个整个古代中国都陷入残酷战争循环的时代
This was an age when all of ancient China was trapped in a ruthless cycle of war.
来自西方的部落入侵，以及贵族之间的叛乱
Tribal invasions from the West,along with rebellion amongst the lords
把帝国分♥裂♥成很多独♥立♥的国家
splintered the empire into independent states…
…都在争夺权力
…all vying for power.
在某种军力竞赛的推动下，
Spurred on by a kind of arms race,
铸铁出现，意味着武器可以大规模生产，
now that cast iron meant that weapons could be mass produced,
家族攻击家族
families attacked families.
这是一场全面战争
This was total war.
这种在社会内的崩溃成为催化剂
This collapse in society would become the catalyst
是孔子开创性的哲学的催化剂
for Confucius’ groundbreaking philosophy.
[大提琴音乐演奏]
[cello music playing]
《论语》是孔子生平和思想的最古老记录，
The oldest record of Confucius’ life and ideas, the Analects,
是在他死后大约一个世纪编纂的
were compiled about a century after his death.
主要是他谈话的片段，以及其他后来的历史
These fragments of his conversations,along with other later histories
这给我们提供他生平的线索
give us clues to his life story.
我们听说，孔子的父亲去世时，他才只有三岁
We’re told that Confucius was just three when his father died.
一个老望族，在困难时期，
Old aristocracy, he’d fallen on hard times,
这个时代动荡的受害者之一，离开了孔子的母亲
one of the victims of the turmoil of the age, leaving Confucius’ mother
母亲在一种清高的贫困中，独自抚养儿子
to raise her son on her own, in a kind of genteel poverty.
有趣的是，教育似乎是孔子的生命线
Interestingly, it seems that education was Confucius’ lifeline.
不知怎的，可能是通过一些私人教师，
Somehow, probably through a mix of private teachers,
还有家庭教育，或许你怀疑，这纯粹是勇气和决心
and home-schooling, and you suspect, the sheer grit and determination
孔子的母亲向他传授历史、诗歌♥和礼仪
of his mother, Confucius was taught history, poetry, and ritual.
当其他孩子玩玩具时，
While other children played with toys,
孔子通过摆放杯子和碗来履行家族流传的仪式
he’s said to have acted out sacred rituals by laying out cups and bowls.
现在，这些不仅仅是空洞的姿势，还有一点精神上的戏剧
Now these weren’t just empty gestures, a bit of spiritual theater.
孔子学习的各种仪式
The kinds of rituals that Confucius learned
在中国古代的世界观中起着至关重要的作用
played a crucial role in the ancient Chinese world view.
一种秩序与和谐的世界观，
A world view in which order and harmony,
无论是在地球上还是在宇宙中，
both on earth and in the cosmos,
如果地球上的生命要继续下去，它们被认为是必不可少的目标
were considered essential goals if life on earth was to continue.
[迷人的器乐演奏]
[captivating instrumental music playing]
年轻的孔子所知道的古代礼仪
The ancient rites that young Confucius knew
曾在北♥京♥天坛表演过，
were performed here at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing,
直到二十世纪
right up until the twentieth century.
中国人有一种特殊的宗教观
The Chinese had a particular religious outlook
这意味着这些仪式不是针对神的
which meant that these rituals weren’t directed towards a deity.
没有造物主上帝，没有什么能比得上至高无上的权力
[Palmer] There is no creator God.
There’s nothing like the idea of a supreme power
梦想一切成为现实
that dreams everything into being.
相反，它假定存在这两种宇宙力，
What it posits instead is this notion that there’s these two cosmic forces,
它们甚至不是真正的神，它们只是自然的力量，
they’re not even really divine, they’re just natural forces,
在某种意义上有点像地心引力
a bit like gravity in a sense.
在这里的寺庙里，你可能有最常见的，
And on the temple here, you have perhaps the most common,
这两种伟大力量最有力的象征
the most powerful symbols of these two great forces.
这就是龙，天国的力量
And that is the dragon, the heavenly force.
凤♥凰♥是女性，阴，地球的力量
And the phoenix is the female, the cold, the earthly force.
他们被困在永恒的斗争中
And they are locked in perpetual struggle.
试图战胜对方
They try to overcome each other.
这是一种不可思议的权力之舞，所有生命都从中涌出
And it’s this incredible dance of power, out of which all life pours.
那么人类在这一切中扮演着什么角色呢？
So what’s humanity’s role in all of this?
我们是这个的基础，你们有这两种巨大的宇宙力
We’re fundamental to this, you’ve got these two great cosmic forces
我们的角色是保持平衡，我们通过仪式来做到这一点
and our role is to keep the balance, and we do this through ritual.
这就是建造这种寺庙建筑群的目的
And that’s what this kind of temple complex was built for.
统治者会在这里献祭，以重新平衡这两种力量
This is where the ruler would come to makeofferings to re-balance these two forces.
这不仅仅是统治者的事，它发生在每一座寺庙里，
And it wasn’t just for the rulers, it took place in every single temple,
每一个地方神社，一直到家庭
every local shrine right down to the household.
听起来像是一种强大而普遍的世界观
Sounds like a potent and pervasive world view that
孔子是被这样带着长大的
Confucius is being brought up with.
当然，这是他唯一知道的世界观
Absolutely, it’s the only world view he knows.
当他成年后，孔子似乎开始欣赏
As he reached adulthood, it looks as though Confucius grew to appreciate
古老的秩序理想与现实生活之间的巨大差距
the gaping disparity between the ancient ideal of order,
而现实生活则受制于在他周围肆虐的混乱。
and the reality of life subject to the chaos that raged all around him.
他为这个中国社会核心的棘手问题寻找解决之道，后来被证明这是他一生的工作
His search for a solution to that intractable problem
at the very heart of Chinese society would prove to be his life’s work.
幸运的是，整个古代世界的情况
Fortunately, conditions across the ancient world
培养新的思维方式
were nourishing new ways of thinking.
改善农业，增加贸易，
Improvements in agriculture, increased trade,
不断增长的城市化意味着社会中的一些人
and growing urbanization, meant that some in society
与维持生计的生活联♥系♥较少，
were less tied to a life of subsistence,
为像佛陀苏格拉底这样的人创造机会，
creating the opportunity for men like Socrates, the Buddha,
和孔子发展他们的思想
and Confucius to develop their ideas.