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1、视频字幕The Story of China（2）Silk Roads and China ShipsI. ScriptChina,a global superpower,eyes set on the future its arrival on the world stage,greeted like the appearance of new planet.But it is not the first time,in the seventh century,when Europe was in its Dark Adge.Tang Dynasty China became the gre
2、atest and most cosmopolitan city on earth.And what made it great was not only its economic and culture power,its sense of its own identity,but its openness to other cultures.Standing over the square,the statue of one of the heroes of that time,one of the great figures in the history of civilization,
3、the Buddhist monk XuanZang,who brought the wisdom of India back here to China.This is the tale of a time,which even now the Chinese see as a golden age.In the story of China,we have reached to the Tang Dynasty.It is often said that in history.China has been a closed civilization,introverted,cutting
4、itself off from the world.And there have been times when it has looked that way,but since prehistory China has never been isolated,and has thrived on contact.And the Tang Dynasty was a great age of international connection.That time,vast numbers of foreign peoples poured into China with exotic goods
5、,foods,and even new religions.And the great pathway of exchange was the Silk Road.We call it the Silk Road today,but it wasnt really one road,but a series of land routes,connecting China with the Mediteranean and India.And the Silk Road turned China for the first time,into a global civilization.Alon
6、g it,just as today,were many cultures and peoples,different religions,different ways of seeing the world.The magic of the Silk Road. The magic of Central Asia, The magic of Silk Road.There is Han Chinese,there is Uyghurs everywhere,there is a guy from Kyrgyzstan,you could tell by his hat.Just like i
7、t would have been in ancient times,you would have seen Arabs and Persions,probably Indians along with the Han Chinese,on this very edge of Tang Dynsdty China.Greek historian,Polybius has a very interesting remark about this.He is writing in the 100s BC.He says that in ancient times the histories of
8、Europes and Aisa,were completely separate,they ran their own way,but from our age onwards the history of Europe began to interact and engage with the history of Aisa,and the history of Asia with that of Europe.You could say it is the beginning of universal history,and it is happening in the Tang Dyn
9、asty.But in history,when two civilizations first come into contect,its not always peaceful and not always enriching.To really open up to another culture needs patience and preconceptions.And in the seventh century,the Chinese were confident enough to do that,to be changed by the experience of the ot
10、her.The story begins at the Chinese end of the Silk Road,in the old city od Luoyang.Luoyang was the ancient capital of the Zhou Dynasty of 500 years,and scholars had praised it as a place of great culture.It was the real heart of China,they said,in the middle of the middle plain of the Middle Kingdo
11、m.And this is not just a story about empives and economies,but also what it is to be civilized.It is about a new spirit in Chinese culture,a spirit that will give birth to the greastest age of Chinese poey a time when poetry came out of the count into the streets，a witness to the times,Expressing th
12、e human condition as never before,knowing the insecurity of human life as the Chinese always have.So it is a place rich in culture,rich in trade and merchants，and interested in foreigners.And if you want to see just how interested,go a few miles outside Luoyang,where the most famous Indian of all ti
13、me is commemorated，the Buddha.The foreigners who most fascinated the Chibese through the whole of their history.The adoption of this Indian religion would leave its mark on the very DNA of Chinese civilisation.What better symbol is there of the impact of Buddhism on Tang Dynasty China,indeed a symbo
14、l of the impact of the exchange of ideas and civilisations than this great cliff pockmarked with devotion,and in the middle that huge image of the Buddha himself whose message had been carried along what the Chinese called the Road Carrying the Jewel of True.How that happed?How China embrassed Buddh
15、ism is one of the great stories in history.An adventure that generations of storytellers have turned into Chinas favourite fairy tale.The emperor had a dream and in the dream a strange man appeared to him with his skin the colour of gold,framed by the sun and moon and stars.And the court astrologers
16、and diviners interpreted the dream.But this man had come from the West and it must be the Buddha himself.The Emperor was fascinated,and organised an expeditier.18 countiers and scholars with all their attendants jurneyed out to the Wesy to find out more.They got as far as Afghanistian and there is i
17、n a Buddhist monastery they met two Indian monks who agreed to come back with them to China.They came back here and were established in this monastery,the White Horse Pagoda,after the white horses that they rode,and they transtated the first Buddhist scriptures evrr to be rendered into Chinese.And t
18、hey died here and were buried here.This is the tomb of one of them,Kasyapa Matanga.Its not the first exchange between India and China.But from that moment onwards,the dialogue of civilisations will be continues.Now the story moves on the time to the year 600.In the wider world the Roman Empire has f
19、allen.Byzantium is flowering,and in China the Mandate of Heaven has passed to a new dynasty,Tang Dynasty.In a village outside Luoyang,a boy was born who would be come one of the most famous people in Chinese history,and his name was Xuanzang.Xuanzang must have known this place very well from childho
20、od,all known all the stories especially about the two strangers,who had come from India.I was inflamed by a passionate curiousty,he says,about the Buddha and about the orgins of the faith,and I appealed for a foreign travel permit several times to no avail.Perhaps because I was a nobody.And in the e
21、nd I took matters into my own hands,and I left in secret for India.He was 26 years old and his journey would change the course of Chinese civilisation.It is a story that fascinated me over the years,traveling in his footsteps,between China and Central Asia,across Afgharristan in to India.At that tim
22、e Xuanzang said,The Tang were new on the throne Chinas frontiers didnt extend far.There was a ban on foreign travel.At first I had to move by night to dodge the border guards.The real life adventures of Xuanzang gave birth to some of Chinas best-loved legends and characters.The Tang monk and his cra
23、zy companions,the lustful Piggy,the dim mitted Sandy,and above all the faithful Monky.All of them changed by their magical encounters along the Silk Road.In later novels and films it turned into the kind of fantasty the Chinese have always loved,both comic adventure and spiritual allegory.On the rea
24、l journey.Xuanzang tells of oceans of sand,and the exotic peoples whose lands be passed through.My fellow Buddhists tried to persudade me not to risk my life futher,he said,but I must reach the West.If I dont theres no point in coming back.Through time the story just grew and grew.The traveling shad
25、ow puppet players still play it out in the villages.And the citys storytellers say that to tell the tale in full would take 110 days.So today it is one of the great myths of Chinese culture.A strange Xuanzang is one of those rare people who return up in history.Visionary,great scholar and yet posses
26、sed of incredible physical toughness and bravery and stamina.After three years and nearly 5000 miles ,he said.We cross the great snowy mountains and came down into India.He crossed the River Indus and entered the plains of India with their teaming kingdom and cities.He travelled with Buddhist pilgri
27、ms down the Grand Trunk Road to the River Ganges.And finally he reached Bodh Gaya and the sacred Bodhi Tree where 1000 Years before the Buddha had sat in meditation and gained enlightenment. “And when I saw it,” Xuanzang says, “I lay on the ground and shed many tears.” He stayed in India for ten yea
28、rs studying the Buddhist teachings, his noble truths about the human condition. Then he set off home to take them back to the Chinese people to fire their imaginations as his story has ever since. Four-year-old Xiao Yunhao is hoping to be one of the next generation of Monkey storytellers. One day th
29、e monkeys went to bath. Above the stream was a vast waterfall. Like an entire galaxy cascading to earth. Straight away Monkey leapt through. And on the other side he found a paradise. A happy land of mountains, fruit and flowers. One by one the other monkeys bravely leapt through. And knelt down and
30、 declared Monkey their King. The China he came back to in 643 was the largest and strongest country on earth. Its capital Changan ,todays Xian, was one of the worlds great centres of civilization. And as for the Emperor himself, Taizong was at the height of his powers and a stickler for protocol. Th
31、e emperors first words to Xuanzang were: Welcome back, but you never asked permission to go. “Well,” said Xuanzang, “I applied for a permit for foreign travel on several occasions but it never worked. Perhaps because I was a nobody.” He wasnt a nobody now. Crowds came just to look at him. “He was su
32、pposed to be very good looking which stood him stead. He was a very good-looking man. I think it is difficult to underestimate how much Xuanzang really aroused peoples interest in him. So many people came to welcome him, so many people came to have a squint at him. In fact he had to shut his doors a
33、nd say, ”No more visitors, please, so that he could get on with some work.” “It was my lifes task,” Xuanzang said, “to bring the Buddhas teachings to the people of China for the benefit of generations to come.” The Wild Goose Pagoda was built to house the manuscripts he brought back. Most were lost
34、long ago in wars and revolutions but for a few precious fragments.So these are in Pali?yeah. This is the language of South India and Sri Lanka. He brought back many manuscripts, but all that survives are these palm leaf manuscripts. They are one of the crown jewels of Buddhist texts. 657 books in 52
35、0 packages on 20 pack horses. He spent 17 years translating them including 11 years here. It must make you feel very proud to be monks here. The Emperor now commissioned Xuanzang to translate the Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. In the history of civilization its a project comparable to the Arabic
36、translations out of Greek or the Bible from Greek into Latin. With the permission of the Emperor, he got quite a team together. He had 12 people in his team of Buddhists who knew about the literature and he had eight people also in the team who were phrase connectors, is what theyre called. People w
37、ho tried to put things into Chinese of the time. It was all part of Taizongs insatiable appetite for learning. He was one of Chinas great rulers, a model of the Confusion virtuous man. He was a philosopher prince, poet and rationalist and he thought that ruling was inseparable from the patronage of
38、culture. And now Taizong wouldnt leave Xuanzang alone. Xuanzang was supposed to be doing all this translation work but he didnt have time. He had to spend all his time at court trying to fulfill the emperors need for conversation. He was a man who was consumed by curiosity. The Emperor himself said
39、the scriptures of Buddhism, are as unfathomable as the depths of the sea or the height of the sky. In comparison, the teachings of Confucius and Laozi and The Ninth Schools are just a single island in a great ocean. The Emperor was so impressed by his bearing and intelligence that he asked him to ha
40、ng up his Buddhist robe and to become prime minister. “Help me run the country.” And Xuanzang refused him. He said, “It would be like taking a boat out of the water. Not only would it cease to be useful but in time it would rat away.” Xuanzang died in 664. His ashes are buried in the little monaster
41、y of Xingjiao Si near Xian. Spared in the cultural revolution of the 1960s at the command of Prime Minster Zhou Enlai himself, too precious to the collective memory of the Chinese people. Over the centuries, Buddhism would profoundly touch the Chinese soul, as it still does. And back then, perhaps t
42、his Indian religion brought something they felt their culture lacked. A spiritual path based on personal conscience and compassion. For me it is almost a homage to a fellow traveller. I travelled most of his route through Xinjiang and the northwest frontier of Pakistan and all the way across India t
43、o Patna. And to think, he did most of that on foot. Here is Xuanzang, the great traveller. I cant believe that he had sandals on the Hindu Kush! Huge framed backpack here made out of bamboo. Can you see the bamboo strips? With all the scrolls of the manuscripts stored there. Of course, actually, he
44、had all that stuff in cases. It is a symbolic picture. And finally the lovely touch herea lantern to illuminate his journey at night. After he had returned from China, India friends by letter, Xuanzang kept in touch with his old. And those letters, though unknown in the West, are among the most movi
45、ng documents in the history of civilization. In fact, in my opinion, they tell you what civilization really is, written by a member of one culture who had lovingly and totally immersed himself in another. He writes the news: “The great Emperor of the Tang,” he says, “is joyfully supporting Buddhism
46、and ruling with justice and mercy like a compassionate Chakravartin.” the old Sanskrit Indian word for a great ruler. But it is his letter to the abbot of Bodh Gaya which is the most touching. Indeed all the more so because they belonged to opposed schools of Buddhism. “A great while has elapsed sin
47、ce we are parted,” he writes, “which has only increased my admiration for you. I am sending my very best wishes. Of the works that we brought back from India I have already translated 30 and two more will be finished by the end of the year.” “And theres one more thing. On my way back from India I la
48、st a horse load of manuscripts fording the River Indus. I am sending you a list of the books in the hope that perhaps you can get them translated and sent to me. This is all for now. Best wishes, the monk Xuanzang. ” In the seventh century Xian was the greatest city in the world half a million peopl
49、e, where the biggest city European city had only a few thousand. It was a dynamic place of new styles, new fashions and new music. The city, it was said, was laid out like a vast chessboard. About five miles square and we are just here at this corner. Tang Xian was strictly regulated. That was the way Chinese cities had always been, vast gated royal enclosures where public access was controlled. Xian had 108 wards, all of them under curfew. So this was Anxing ward, in Tang Dynasty t