中国制造

海豆芽译自《国家地理》2009年第6期“唐代沉船”
源文档 <http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/tang-shipwreck/law-photography>

一艘1200年前的沉船揭开了远古全球贸易的面纱。

Tang Shipwreck

Made in China
A 1,200-year-old shipwreck opens a window on ancient global trade.

1


杰出的技艺
这件唐朝的瓷罐发现于印度尼西亚勿里洞岛沿海，瓷罐上粘满了海洋生物。
Rare Artistry
Crusted with sealife, this Tang dynasty stoneware jar was found off Indonesia's Belitung Island.

2


杰出的技艺
勿里洞岛沉船的货物是繁荣唐代中国的创造力和工艺的例证，比如这个纯金打造的酒杯和手镯。
Rare Artistry
Goods from the Belitung ship exemplify the creativity and craft that flourished in Tang dynasty China, such as this wine cup and bracelet shaped from pure gold.

3


杰出的技艺
这个来自中国的完整无缺的白底钴蓝色花纹的陶瓷制品（青花瓷）是曾经发现的这类瓷器中最古老的。
Rare Artistry
This intact cobalt-blue-and-white ceramic from China is the oldest ever discovered.

4

杰出的技艺
这个精致雕刻的镀金银瓶也是发现于勿里洞岛财宝之中。
Rare Artistry
Also found among the Belitung treasures was this intricately engraved gilt silver flask.

5


杰出的技艺
这块华丽的青铜镜在这艘船启航时就已经是古董。
Rare Artistry
This ornate bronze mirror was already antique when the ship sailed.

6


贸易货物
这条船携带了约55000个碗，是在湖南省窑场为出口制造的。大多数碗是6到8英寸的直径，多数被塞在大缸里。
Trade Goods
The ship carried some 55,000 bowls made for export in Hunan Province kilns. Most bowls are six to eight inches across, and many were packed in large jars.

7


贸易货物
鱼、花、宗教符号，甚至诗句书画在铜铁基的釉面下，以装饰这些瓷器。
Trade Goods
Fish, flowers, religious symbols, even poems, applied in copper- and iron-based glazes, decorate the stoneware.

8


巧妙的设计
一只很小的鸭子作在一只3.5英寸高的杯子内，把守着一个吸管的内部开口，也许是为了过滤酒糟。
Artful Design
A tiny duck guards the inside opening of a drinking straw built into a 3.5-inch-tall cup, perhaps to keep out wine dregs.

9


巧妙的设计
一个极好的龙头塞子可能曾是这只35英寸（0.89米）高特殊设计和大小的装饰性水壶的盖子。
Artful Design
A splendid dragon-head stopper may have been the original cap for this 35-inch-tall ornamental ewer of unique size and design.

10


巧妙的设计
随同长沙窑场的实用陶器，勿里洞岛沉船也携带了狗的这种三英寸高的装饰小塑像。除底部之外，原先覆盖整个塑像的带蓝色的绿色釉料大部分已经退色，但是仍然保存着生动的警惕姿态。
Artful Design
Along with practical pottery from the Changsha kilns, the Belitung wreck also carried this three-inch-tall decorative figurine of a dog. The bluish green glaze that originally covered all but the base is largely gone, but the lifelike energy of the alert pose remains.

11


生活的标志
一粒骨质骰子和英寸高的象牙“橡子”（也许是游戏棋子）暗示了这艘满载货船上乘客和船员打发空闲时光的娱乐活动。当完全失败时航程结束，但是它残存的遗迹充实了我们关于中国的长期贸易历史的观点。
Signs of Life
A bone die and inch-high ivory "acorns"—game pieces, perhaps—hint at amusements that helped pass idle hours for passengers and crew on the heavily laden vessel. The voyage ended as a total loss, but its remains enrich our vision of China's long trading history.

1998年德国海底寻宝者在印尼勿里洞岛海域曾发现过一艘满载货物的阿拉伯古沉船“黑石号”，发现唐代瓷器多达67000多件，并以大量长沙窑瓷器、金银器、3件完好无损的唐代青花瓷盘而引起轰动。

　　这艘被打捞公司命名为“黑石号”的沉船文物在打捞后长期处于保密状态，在未确定打捞文物最终归属时不允许全面发表资料，在文物整理研究阶段，我省考古研究所禚振西研究员等中国知名学者曾获邀前往新加坡观摩沉船文物并拍摄了大量图片，使国内学术界对这批宝藏有了更全面的了解。

　　对黑石号的打捞始于1998年9月，至1999年6月基本完成，从2000年开始对打捞文物进行整理。出土长沙窑瓷碗中带有唐代宝历二年年号，结合其他器物考证，沉船的年代被确认为9世纪上半叶。

　　2002年在上海举行的一次学术会议国内文物界获悉了黑石号的简况，立即引起高度关注，南京博物院的张浦生先生在接受媒体采访时曾感叹：“黑石号宝藏内涵之丰富，数量之庞大，保存之完整，十分罕见。”从2002年开始，国内的扬州、上海博物馆、湖南博物馆等文博单位提出了购买意向，新加坡、卡塔尔、日本也有此意。但黑石号打捞文物开价4000万美金，折合人民币3亿元，并提出“宝藏必须整体购买”，另外根据合约，探海公司拍卖宝藏所得必须与印尼政府分摊，分配方案未处理好使宝藏未被推出拍卖。

　　新加坡“圣淘沙”机构先购买了打捞文物的数年展览权，随后筹资3000余万美金购得这批贵重文物，文物于2005年分批完整落户狮城。虽然这批文物未能被中国国内购藏，但落户于华人文化圈的新加坡仍属幸事。

　　黑石号船体保存基本完整，是目前发现最早的阿拉伯沉船，船上载满中国陶瓷，沉没于印尼水域，证明了在唐朝时中国和印度洋西边的中东诸国，特别是波斯、阿拉伯，已存在直接的海运贸易，黑石号以自己的不幸沉没，为“海上丝绸之路”保留了珍贵的实物，堪称唐代海上丝路最直接的证据。

　　“黑石号”宝藏之丰富举世罕见

　　黑石号打捞陶瓷制品多达67000多件，98％是中国陶瓷。较奇特的文物包括10件金器，金器之精美可与1970年西安何家村唐代窖藏出土金银器媲美，其中的八棱胡人金杯高10厘米，比何家村出土的两件八棱胡人金杯（5.3厘米、6.1厘米）尺寸还略大些，24件银器、18枚银铤和30件铜镜，银铤单件可重达2公斤，铜镜中有罕见的专贡皇室的江心镜，带有四神八卦纹饰和铭文。其他零星文物可能为船上乘员的个人物品，其中包括2件玻璃瓶、一件漆盘（残）、象牙制游戏器具（似为游艺用的双陆）和砚、墨等。

　　长沙窑瓷约占56500件，器形以碗为主，其次为执壶，其他器形包括杯、盘、盂、盒、罐、熏炉、油灯和少量生肖瓷塑，有件瓷碗带有“宝历二年七月十六日”铭文，碗心图案接近阿拉伯“安拉”，宝历二年为唐敬宗年号（826年）；有的碗中写有“茶盏子”，明确标清了瓷碗的茶具用途，有的瓷碗写有“湖南道草市石渚盂子有名樊家记”，说明产品来自长沙窑，带有广告语言性质，大量的花叶、莲蓬、飞鸟、摩羯鱼纹，这些新发现的长沙窑产品大大丰富了长沙窑的内涵和艺术装饰，也为确立长沙窑的外销瓷器窑场地位提供了证据，带有阿拉伯风格的图案和阿拉伯文字装饰，说明了唐代长沙窑为了适宜西亚市场相应调整了自己的产品艺术特色。打捞瓷器还包括200件浙江出产的越窑青瓷（包括镂空香薰等罕见造型），350件北方白瓷（其中三分之一被考证为河北邢窑白瓷产品，其余多为河南巩县窑白瓷）、200件北方白釉绿彩陶瓷和700余件广东地方窑口烧造的粗糙青瓷。

　　黑石号上的谜团很多，打捞出水的白釉绿彩瓷器与河南巩县及河北烧造的同类产品风格近似，但黑石号打捞出高达1米的西亚风格长柄高足壶，造型奇特，在国内同样造型的产品从未发现过，同船打捞一件白釉绿彩的龙头型器与之尺寸匹配，似为壶盖。另外这批白釉绿彩瓷中有两件碗盘在底足中央分别刻有“盈”字和“进奉”字样，可能来自唐代皇家的大盈库，显示商船很可能搭载外交使节或兼有外交使命。

　　“黑石号”成功出水意义深远

　　河南省文物考古研究所与中国文物研究所在河南巩义市（原名巩县）黄冶窑址进行了新的发掘工作，出土产品中有白釉绿彩瓷和唐青花执壶残片，通过考古发掘解决了唐青花的产地问题，今后将黑石号产品与河南黄冶窑及河北邢窑产品作比较研究，有助于解决黑石号部分陶瓷产地不明的疑问。据悉湖南方面已有意在2008年引入黑石号沉船文物至国内展览，这批沉船遗宝的面纱有望早日向国内公众揭开。

唐代沉船
Tang Shipwreck

源文档 <http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/tang-shipwreck/worrall-text>

中国制造

一艘1200年前的沉船揭开了远古全球贸易的面纱。

Made in China

A 1,200-year-old shipwreck opens a window on ancient global trade.

作者：西蒙·沃勒尔
摄影：托尼·劳
By Simon Worrall
Photograph by Tony Law

在9世纪时期世界经济有两个强大的中枢。一个是唐代中国，帝国的触角从南中国海一直伸到了波斯，其港口向来自遥远而广阔地区外国商人开放。唐朝欢迎形形色色的人们来到它的首都长安，也就是今天的西安，不同种族的人们群体并肩生活在一百万人口的城市，这是一个西方的城市无法匹敌的人口数量，直到19世纪早期伦敦才达到这个规模。然而，中国那时就象今天一样是经济发展的驱动力，那种动力大多建立在贸易上。

The world economy in the ninth century had two powerful engines. One was Tang dynasty China, an empire stretching from the South China Sea to the borders of Persia, with ports open to foreign traders from far and wide. The Tang welcomed diverse people to its capital, Changan, the site of modern-day Xian, and multiethnic groups lived side by side in a city of a million—a population unmatched by a Western city until London in the early 19th century. Then, as today, China was an economic powerhouse—and much of that power was built on trade.

另一个经济中枢是巴格达，从762年开始是阿巴思王朝的首都。该王朝继承了中东地区的穆斯林世界，到750年它向东伸展已经远达印度河，向西达到西班牙，带着它的贸易、商队，以及伊斯兰宗教（先知穆罕默德本人就曾经是一个商人）

The other economic engine was Baghdad, capital of the Abbasid dynasty from 762 onward. That dynasty inherited the Muslim world in the Middle East; by 750 it had spread as far as the Indus River to the east and Spain to the west, bringing with it trade, commerce, and the religion of Islam (the Prophet Muhammad himself had been a merchant).

连接这两大经济中枢的是“丝绸之路”和它的水上翻版，即“海上丝绸之路”。陆上通道受到了所有人的关注，但是自从公元初期，商船可能已经来往于中国与波斯湾之间的海域。跟随季风周期的步调，这种航路和海港的网络以持续不断的货物与观念的交流而连接了东方与西方。

Linking the two economic powerhouses were the Silk Road and its watery counterpart, the Maritime Silk Route. The overland road gets all the attention, but ships had likely been plying the seas between China and the Persian Gulf since the time of Christ. In tune with the cycle of the monsoon winds, this network of sea-lanes and harbors bound East and West in a continuous exchange of goods and ideas.

唐代中国渴望来自波斯、东非和印度的精美纺织品、珍珠、珊瑚和香木。作为回报，中国以纸品、墨，还有最重要的丝绸。丝绸质轻而且容易卷起，能够在陆路运输。但是到9世纪时，来自中国的陶瓷制品已经开始越来越流行，而骆驼不是很适于运输陶器（想想那些驼峰就知道）。因此，越来越多的波斯湾富商用来进餐的碟子和盘子是通过阿拉伯、波斯和印度的船只经由海路运抵。

Tang China was hungry for fine textiles, pearls, coral, and aromatic woods from Persia, East Africa, and India. In return, China traded paper, ink, and above all, silk. Silk, light and easily rolled up, could travel overland. But by the ninth century, ceramics from China had grown popular as well, and camels were not well suited for transporting crockery (think of those humps). So increasing quantities of the dishes and plates that held the meals of wealthy Persian Gulf merchants arrived by sea in Arab, Persian, and Indian ships.

那是一次漫长而危险的旅行。并且有时一条船就象和一架飞机从雷达屏幕上消失一样地突然不见了。

It was a long and perilous journey. And some times a ship just vanished, like a plane off a radar screen.

远古以来，船只在格勒沙海峡经常遭遇不测，那是印尼小岛邦加岛和勿里洞岛之间的一条漏斗状航道，在那里青绿色的水隐藏着淹没的岩石和暗礁组成的迷宫。尽管危险，十年前，潜水者们正在这片水域採集海黄瓜，当时，在51英尺（约15.5米）深处，他们偶然碰到了一块里面包裹着陶瓷制品的珊瑚。他们从一个大缸里取出了几个完整无缺的碗带到了岸上并出售了。

Since time imm emorial, ships have come to grief in the Gelasa Strait, a funnel-shaped passage between the small Indonesian islands of Bangka and Belitung, where turquoise waters conceal a maze of submerged rocks and reefs. Despite the dangers, sea cucumber divers were working the area a decade ago when, 51 feet down, they came across a coral block with ceramics embedded in it. They pulled several intact bowls from inside a large jar, took them ashore, and sold them.

这些潜水者无意间碰到了东南亚历史以来最重要的海洋考古发现：一艘9世纪的阿拉伯独桅帆船，装满了超过6万件的唐代手工金、银和陶瓷制品。这艘船和它所载的货物现在统称为勿里洞沉船，就象一个时间仓，证明了唐代中国就象今天的中国一样大量生产贸易商品并通过海洋出口。一个潜水员团队轮班工作以取回这批远古的制品，直到季风来临才停止。

The divers had stumbled upon the most impor tant marine archaeological discovery ever made in Southeast Asia: a ninth-century Arab dhow filled with more than 60,000 handmade pieces of Tang dynasty gold, silver, and ceramics. The ship and its cargo, now referred to as the Belitung wreck, were like a time capsule of proof that Tang China, like China today, mass-produced trade goods and exported them by sea. Working in shifts until the monsoon stopped them, a team of divers retrieved the ancient artifacts.

这批财宝（无论如何也是它的大部份）是制造出来充作唐代节日器皿：如所谓的长沙碗，就是按照其产地湖南的长沙窑来命名的。高大的瓷缸用作9世纪海运的容器；每个缸可以容下超过100个嵌套的碗，原先可能用稻草衬垫，那是一种简单的泡沫包装。学者们已经知道，这种简朴实用的茶碗自8到10世纪就已经出口到了世界各地：在印度尼西亚和波斯那遥远的异乡已经发现了它们的碎片。但是，这种碗还没有发现过完整无缺的。

The treasure—much of it, anyway—turned out to be the Tang equivalent of Fiestaware: so-called Changsha bowls, named after the Changsha kilns in Hunan where they were produced. Tall stoneware jars served as ninth-century shipping containers; each could hold more than a hundred nested bowls that might originally have been padded with rice straw, a sort of organic bubble wrap. Scholars already knew that such simple, functional tea bowls had been exported worldwide from the eighth to the tenth centuries: Shards of them had been found at sites as far afield as Indonesia and Persia. But few of the bowls had ever been found intact.
源文档 <http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/tang-shipwreck/worrall-text/2>


现在，爪哇海已经出海了一船的货物，许多保存完美，这是由于受到瓷缸的保护而免受海底砂粒的冲刷作用。揩拭干净后，其釉面光泽就如刚烧制出来时一样光亮。

Now the Java Sea had yielded up a shipload, many perfectly preserved—protected in the stoneware jars from the scouring action of sand on the seafloor. Sponged clean, their glazes shone as brightly as the day they were fired.

新加坡国立大学的美籍教授约翰·密克西克说，这些手工制作的碗给出了“工厂一样的产品”的证据，他是东南亚考古专家。这些碗是同类物品已知最早的出口实例。密克西克说：“这批货物也暗示了一位具有管理技巧的组织者，以及巨大数量的进口原材料。”例如，用于青花瓷的钴来自伊朗，一直到很久以后，钴在中国才从矿石中重新获得。

The handmade bowls give evidence of "factory-like production," says John Miksic, an American professor at Singapore's National University who is an expert on Southeast Asian archaeology. They are the earliest known exported examples of their kind. "The cargo also implies an organizer with managerial skill," Miksic says, "and huge quantities of imported raw materials." Cobalt for blue-and-white ceramics, for example, came from Iran; it was not recovered from ore in China until much later.

尽管无疑阿拉伯水手明显定期往返于海上丝绸之路，跨越非常远的距离进行大规模的贸易，纽约大都会博物馆南亚和东南亚艺术馆高级馆长约翰·盖伊说：“这是在东南亚水域发现的第一艘阿拉伯独桅帆船，并且这是有史以来在一个单一场所发现的，9世纪早期南部中国最丰富、最大的货物发运。”

Although Arab mariners clearly plied the Maritime Silk Route, trading on a large scale over great distances, "this is the first Arab dhow discovered in Southeast Asian waters," says John Guy, senior curator of South and Southeast Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, "and the richest and largest consignment of early ninth-century southern Chinese gold and ceramics ever discovered in a single hoard."

一艘复原的独桅帆船让人想起其工艺与称作baitl qarib的帆船相似，这种船在阿曼仍然可以找到。它有约60英尺长，具有船头和船尾翘起，采用非洲和印度的木材建造并安装了一个方形的帆。它最与众不同的特色是，其船板和桁条不是用木楔和木梢连结，而完全可能是是用椰壳纤维（一种椰子皮纤维）缝合在一起。

A reconstruction suggests the craft was similar to a kind of sailing vessel still found in Oman and known as a baitl qarib. Almost 60 feet long, with a raked prow and stern, it was built of Afri can and Indian wood and fitted with a square sail. Its most distinctive feature was that instead of being held together with dowels or nails, its planks and beams were literally sewn together, probably with coir, a coconut-husk fiber.

这艘独桅帆船的启程港和目的地仍然是个谜。没有航海日志幸存，没有装船单，没有地图。但是大多数学者认为它是开往中东去的，可能是为伊拉克的港口城市阿尔巴士拉（现在的巴士拉）。它可能从广州启航，那是海上丝绸之路上最大的港口。在9世纪，估计有1万外国买办和商人住在广州，多数是阿拉伯人和波斯人。

The dhow's port of departure and destination are still uncertain. No logbooks survived, no bills of lading, no maps. But most scholars believe that it was bound for the Middle East, possibly the Iraqi port city of Al Basrah (now Basra). It probably set sail from Guangzhou, the largest of the ports linked by the Maritime Silk Route. In the ninth century an estimated 10,000 foreign traders and merchants, many of them Arabs and Persians, lived in Guangzhou.

在失事帆船残骸里发现的成千上万个长沙碗中，有一个标记有这样信息：“宝历二年七月十六日”，或者说照西方历法是公元826年。这只碗的烧制时间几乎是确定的。那么，和现在一样，货物不会在码头停留很久，因此不久以后可能装船了。

Among the tens of thousands of Changsha bowls found in the wreck, one was inscribed with this message: "the 16th day of the seventh month of the second year of the Baoli reign," or A.D. 826 on the Western calendar. This is almost certainly when the bowl was fired. Then, as now, goods did not sit around on the wharf for long, so the ship probably embarked not long afterward.

源文档 <http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/tang-shipwreck/worrall-text/3>

这船多种类成批量的货物中除碗以外，包括763个同样的墨砚，915个大小不同的香炉，1635个大口水壶，并且其产地各不相同，来自至少五个散布中国大江南北的窑厂，表明这批货是为定购而制作的出口项目。装饰品表明全球市场的折衷和兼容。有些东西是人人要的：比如佛教的莲花座，中亚和波斯的图案。具有几何形状装饰和可兰经铭文的物品明显是面向伊斯兰市场。白色陶瓷制品以及绿花的碗与大口水壶已经在伊朗流行是众所周知的事。一个碗上画有五条大致垂直的线条，它被一些学者认为是一个符号：阿拉，这种解释在当今世界引起强烈反响。

The serial nature of the cargo (along with the bowls, it included 763 identical inkpots, 915 spice jars of various sizes, 1,635 ewers) and the geographic diversity of its production (from at least five kilns widely dispersed over China) suggest that these were export items made to order. Decorations show the eclecticism of the global market. There is something for everyone: Buddhist lotus symbols and motifs from Central Asia and Persia. Objects bearing geometric decorations and Koranic inscriptions were clearly aimed at the Islamic market. White ceramicware as well as green-splashed bowls and ewers are known to have been popular in Iran. One bowl was inscribed with five loose vertical lines, inter preted by some scholars as a symbol whose meaning resonates powerfully in today's world: Allah.

如同今天一船一船的印有“中国制造”的运动鞋、电子产品一样，从这艘独桅帆船上打捞上来的大多数物品是贸易货物。但是在船尾部，潜水人员发现了一批金、银财宝和高级陶瓷，其意义更加神秘。
Like the shiploads of sneakers or electronics stamped "Made in China" today, most of the items recovered from the dhow were trade goods. But at the stern of the ship, divers found a trove of gold and silver and high-grade ceramics whose significance is more mysterious.

阿尔文•赤亚戴着手套举起一个杯子，剥下一块白色耐酸纸。他说：“这是迄今为止发现的最大的唐代金杯。” 赤亚是新加坡圣淘沙休闲集团的一个主管，2005年圣淘沙休闲集团与新加坡政府合作击败了几个博物馆，并以3000多万美元买下了全部货物。这只金杯也许在某一天成为海上丝绸之路博物馆的镇馆之宝。

Peeling back a cloud of white, acid-free paper, Alvin Chia holds up a cup in gloved hands. "This is the largest Tang dynasty gold cup ever found," he says. Chia is an executive with Singapore's Sentosa Leisure Group, which joined with the Singapore government to beat out several museums and bought the entire cargo in 2005 for more than $30 million. It may one day be the core of a Maritime Silk Route museum.

赤亚指出，在金杯的杯把上描绘的两个人具有长而卷曲的头发和浓密的胡须，看起来象中亚人而不是中国人。杯子的侧面是动态的人体形状：一个在头顶拍掌的波斯舞女，演奏着各种各样的乐器乐师。赤亚解释道，在唐代中国，来自波斯东部的音乐和舞蹈非常风行。
Chia points out that two men depicted on the cup's thumb plate look Central Asian rather than Chinese, with long, curly hair and thick beards. On the cup's side panels are figures in motion: a Persian dancer clapping her hands above her head, musicians playing various instruments. In Tang China, Chia explains, music and dance from eastern Persia were all the rage.

一只很大的装饰精巧的银瓶可能提供了作为收藏目的的线索。赤亚问道：“看见这对鸳鸯了吗？它们是婚姻美满的象征。在这些装饰盒上，每样东西也都是成双成对的：一对鸟，一对鹿，一对野山羊。”也许这是送给波斯湾一个王室婚礼的礼物——这是一种在中国以外非常罕见的新娘的嫁妆。
A large, exquisitely decorated silver flask might offer a clue to the purpose of the hoard. "See the pair of mandarin ducks?" Chia asks. "They are a symbol of matrimonial harmony. On ornamental boxes everything is also in pairs: a pair of birds, a pair of deer, a pair of ibexes." Perhaps these were gifts for a royal wedding in the Persian Gulf—a bride's treasure of the sort rarely seen outside of China.

源文档 <http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/tang-shipwreck/worrall-text/4>


自从2000多年以前第一次与世界进行贸易以来，中国像蛤壳一样时而敞开和关闭她的大门。在唐代，这只哈壳大大地打开，而且延续了许多世纪。黑色火药、造纸术、印刷术、以及铸铁术等一连串的发明使中国走上成为世界第一经济大国的进程。随着中国的航海家们逐渐取得优势地位，与西方的贸易不断地扩大。
Since China first began trading with the world more than 2,000 years ago, it has opened and closed like a clamshell. During the Tang dynasty the clamshell was wide open and remained so for many centuries. A string of inventions—gun powder, paper, printing, and cast iron—had set China on course to become the world's leading economic power. Trade with the West had steadily expanded, with Chinese seafarers taking an increasingly dominant role.

1405年，当伟大将领郑和率领一只由317条船组成的舰队扬帆启航时，中国控制了海洋。约翰·密克西克说：“如果你坐在宇宙飞船中从太空俯瞰地球，并且见证了9世纪到15世纪的发展，你可能会认为中国将会进行下一步——探索大西洋、成为统治世界的文明。”然而纵观中国历史，有另一支同样强大的力量在活动：不相信商人和他们所引进的外来势力，这可以追溯到认为商业和贸易不应该控制中国文化和价值的孔子。
When the great admiral Zheng He set sail in 1405 with a fleet of 317 ships, China ruled the waves. "If you had been sitting in a spaceship looking down on Earth, and you had observed developments from the ninth to the 15th century," says John Miksic, "you would have thought that the Chinese would take the next step—explore the Atlantic and become the dominant world culture." But throughout Chinese history, there has been another, equally powerful force at work: a distrust of merchants and the foreign influences they import, dating back to Confucius, who believed trade and commerce should not dictate Chinese culture and values.

公元878年，即在勿里洞沉船半个多一点世纪后，一个名叫黄巢的反叛领导人掠夺并火烧了广州，杀死了成千上万的穆斯林、犹太人、基督徒、以及印度帕西人。而在郑和下西洋不久，当哥伦比亚发现新大陆，儒教的世界观大行其道时，中国烧掉了舰队并开始了闭关自守。曾经连接中国和世界的丝绸之路和海上丝绸之路逐渐被废弃。葡萄牙人进入了印度洋，而到17世纪末和18世纪初，欧洲开始主宰世界贸易。密克西克说：“如果中国没有闭关锁国达500年，整个世界的历史可能会大不相同。”
In A.D. 878, little more than half a century after the Belitung ship sank, a rebel leader named Huang Chao burned and pillaged Guangzhou, killing tens of thousands of Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Parsis. And not long after Zheng He's voyages, when Columbus reached the New World, the Confucian worldview won the day; China burned its fleet and turned inward. The Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Route, which had linked China to the world, lapsed into disuse. The Portuguese entered the Indian Ocean, and by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Europe had begun to dominate world trade. "The whole of world history would have been different if the Chinese had not gone into their shell for 500 years," Miksic says.

今天，中国和印度竞相成为世界工厂。中国史无前例地对外开放，再一次与中东的远古伙伴进行贸易。比如，伊朗提供了中国的石油用量的12%。相应的，北京回供了机械和火车头、修建地铁和铁路，以及帮助德黑兰开发其丰富的矿产资源，从9世纪以来划了一个圈，那时把钴从波斯运到中国以交换勿里洞沉船上发现的那种青花瓷。
Now China competes with India to be the world's workshop. China is open as never before and once again trading with its ancient partners in the Middle East. Iran, for instance, supplies 12 percent of China's oil. In return, Beijing provides machinery and locomotives, builds subways and railroads, and helps Tehran exploit its vast mineral resources, closing the loop from the ninth century, when cobalt was shipped from Persia to China for the blue-and-white ceramics found on the Belitung ship.

新加坡国立大学的历史学家王赓武说：“古代的贸易网络通过工业和工厂在今天这个全球化的世界重新建立了起来。”
"The ancient networks are restored through industries and factories in a world that is now globalized," says Wang Gungwu, a historian at the National University of Singapore.

这次会有多久就随你猜了。
 For how long this time is anybody's guess.

Simon Worrall has contributed to both National Geographic and National Geographic Traveler. This is Tony Law's first assignment for this magazine.

源文档 <http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/tang-shipwreck/worrall-text/5>

這是幾個帖子？。。

嘿嘿，长见识了

再精美也没用，不是国人打捞的就不属于中国，没准政府还要花高价买回来，郁闷

曾经的“中国制造”是如此的精美，奢侈，高级，辉煌，

如今的“中国制造”如过街老鼠，是劣质，假冒，危险，侵权的代名词了……

哀痛哉，奋发哉啊！

有时候我在纳闷，政府为什么要花这么高的价钱买回自己的东西，造成世界范围内操作中国的古董，我认为在任何情况下，我们都要坚持不去拍买属于自己的东西。多数情况下，这些东西也只是为少数人服务的物品。

奇妙海底世界，前天看了《世界地理》频道的搜索德国U215潜艇，海底世界值得去探索。