中國瓷器

如果某天你碰到一位老外，他問你：“中國為什么叫China？”你會怎么回答他呢？你知道這個問題背后的故事嗎？好，讓我們打破沙鍋問到底，看看你能否從下文找到答案。

Why do people call their ceramic wares[陶瓷制品]“China?” And how has our ancient country come to be known in English by the same word as porcelain[瓷器]， instead of something based on a literal translation of the Chinese characters?

Several centuries ago， when European people marveled[驚異] at the fine pottery shipped from a mysterious[神秘的] nation in the Far East， they decided to give the works a name. The trader explained that the exquisite[精致的] products were made in a town called“Changnan” which people began to pronounce as“China” Possibly out of the conventional[傳統的] practice of referring to a country by that for which it is best known，“China”came into use to refer to the actual country.

Chinese ceramics were created more than 2，000 years ago when Changnan was more like a village. The township was not established until the early 9th century AD， when the Song Emperor Jingde named Changnan with his own royal name as a reward for the local people’s creativity[創造力] and inspiration[靈感].

From then on， Changnan gradually fell into oblivion[遺忘] but Jingdezhen， or Jingde Town-being in the very same place， is still the capital of ceramics.

In the following dynasties[朝代]， Jindezhen porcelain production as both an art and an industry continued to thrive and reached its zenith[最高點] in the early Qing Dynasty. The most famous type of Jingdezhen porcelain is the“blue and white” porcelain. A poetic depiction of it goes， “White like jade， sounds like a chime[鐘] and thin like paper.” It’s really no exaggeration[夸張]. Chinese families take pride in possessing Jingdezhen made porcelain pieces.

為什么人們把陶瓷制品叫做“china”呢？古代中國又是怎樣從被指稱為“瓷器”的同一個英語單詞而為人所知，而不是根據“中國”這兩個漢字來直譯其名呢？

數世紀以前，當從遠東的神秘國度運載來的精美陶器讓歐洲人傾迷驚詫的時候，他們決定給這些藝術品起一個名字。商人解釋說這些精致的制品產于一個叫“昌南”的小鎮，從此人們開始把陶瓷制品叫做“China”。可能出于傳統習慣，人們以一個國家最出名的東西來給該國命名，因而“China”成為了中國的代名詞。

中國制陶業始于兩千多年前，當時的昌南只還不過是個小村莊。到了公元9世紀初，宋真宗以其年號“景德”為昌南改名，以此作為對當地人民的創造力和靈感的贊賞，景德鎮就這樣建立起來。從那時起，昌南的名字被漸漸遺忘，取而代之的是景德鎮，它仍然是在同一個地方，依然是陶瓷之都。

在其后的朝代里，景德鎮的瓷器制造——既是一門藝術又是一個產業——繼續發揚光大。

到了清朝初年，其造詣已達到頂峰。景德鎮最聞名遐邇的瓷器品種是青花瓷。有詩歌對其這樣描述道：“白如玉、聲如磬、薄如紙”。這個描述可一點兒也不夸張。中國人以收藏景德鎮制造的瓷器品而自豪。

俚語流行線

horse around 嬉鬧

I hope you don’t mind if my friends horse around after dinner.

小編閑語：想一下我們小時候經常玩的旋轉木馬，就是坐著“horse”在那兒“turn around”，很快樂地玩耍，所以用“horse around”表達“嬉鬧”的意思很貼切。

over the moon 欣喜若狂

She’s over the moon about her promotion because she really wasn’t expecting it.

小編閑語：飛到了月亮上，人當然特別激動、特別高興，所以“over the moon”生動地表現了一個人樂不可支的樣子。