世界小史 第149期:富貴還是貧窮
Now they were carefully collected and valued twice as highly1 as before.
現(xiàn)在人們將它們收集起來并加倍珍惜它們。
And to become a government official, you had to know them all.
想成為一名中國政府官員，你必須熟讀這些古書。
China is, in fact, the only country in the world to be ruled for hundreds of years, not by the nobility, nor by soldiers, nor even by the priesthood, but by scholars.
實(shí)際上中國是世界上唯一的一個(gè)在幾百年里不是貴族，不是士兵，也不是宗教界人士，而是有學(xué)問的人掌權(quán)的國家。
No matter where you came from, or whether you were rich or poor, as long as you gained high marks in your exams you could become an official.
你從哪里來，你是富貴還是貧窮并不重要，只要你考試成績好，你就可以當(dāng)官。
The highest post went to the person with the highest marks.
誰考得分?jǐn)?shù)最高，誰就得到最高的官位。
But the exams were far from easy.
但是這些考試并不簡單。
You had to be able to write thousands of characters, and you can imagine how hard that is.
你必須能寫好幾千字的文章，你可以想象它多么困難。
What is more, you had to know an enormous2 number of ancient books and all the rules and teachings3 of Confucius and the other ancient sages4 off by heart.
而且你必須熟讀大量的古書和規(guī)則，熟練背誦孔子的學(xué)說和其他古代圣人的學(xué)說。
So Shih Huang-ti's burning of the books was all in vain, and if you thought he was right, you were mistaken.
所以秦始皇的焚書不管用，如果你認(rèn)為他是正確的，你就錯(cuò)了。
It's a bad idea to try to prevent people from knowing their own history.
阻止人們了解他們自己的歷史是槽糕的想法。
If you want to do anything new you must first make sure you know what people have tried before.
如果你想有所創(chuàng)新，首先你必須確保你了解人們過去嘗試了什么。
