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  3. Between Rome and China The second and first centuries BC mark a new phas

Between Rome and China The second and first centuries BC mark a new phas

游客2024-01-02  11
问题     Between Rome and China
    The second and first centuries BC mark a new phase in the history of mankind. Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean are no longer the center of interest, and no longer the dominant regions of the world. Power had drifted to the west and to the east. Two great empires now dominated the world, this new Roman Empire and the renascent Empire of China. Rome extended its power to the Euphrates, but it was never able to get beyond that boundary. It was too remote. Beyond the Euphrates the former Persian and Indian dominions of the Seleucids fell under a number of new masters. China, now under the Han dynasty, which had replaced the Tsin dynasty at the death of Shi-Huang-ti, had extended its power across Tibet and over the high mountain passes of the Pamirs into western Turkestan.
    China at this time was the greatest, best organized and most civilized political system in the world. It was superior in area and population to the Roman Empire at its zenith. It was possible then for these two vast systems to flourish in the same world at the same time in almost complete ignorance of each other. The means of communication both by sea and land were not yet sufficiently developed and organized for them to come to a direct clash.
    Yet they reacted upon each other in a very remarkable way, and their influence upon the fate of the regions that lay between them, upon central Asia and India, was profound. A certain amount of trade tricked through, by camel caravans across Persia, for example, and by coasting ships by way of India and the Red Sea. In 66 BC Roman troops under Pompey followed in the footsteps of Alexander the Great, and marched up the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea. But many centuries were still to pass before definite knowledge and direct intercourse were to link the great parallel worlds of Europe and eastern Asia.
    To the north of both these great empires were barbaric wildernesses. What is now Germany was largely forest lands; the forests extended far into Russia and made a home for the gigantic aurochs. Then to the north of the great mountain masses of Asia stretched a band of deserts, steppes, and then forests and frozen lands. In the eastward lap of the elevated part of Asia was the great triangle of Manchuria. Large parts of these regions, stretching between South Russia and Turkestan into Manchuria, were and are regions of exceptional climatic insecurity. They are lands treacherous to man.
    The western part of this barbaric north was the region of origin of the Nordic peoples and of the Aryan speech. The eastern steppes and deserts of Mongolia was the region of origin of the Hunnish or Mongolian or Tartar or Turkish peoples — for all these several peoples were akin in language, race, and way of life. And as the Nordic peoples seem to have been continually overflowing their own borders and pressing south upon the developing civilizations of Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean coast, the Hunnish tribes sent their surplus into the settled regions of China.
    For a time there were simultaneously two fairly effective empires in the world capable of holding back the barbarians and even forcing forward the frontiers of the imperial peace. The thrust of the Han Empire from north China into Mongolia was strong and continuous. The Chinese population welled up over the barrier of the Great Wall. Behind the imperial frontier guards came the Chinese farmer with horse and plough, ploughing up the grasslands and enclosing the winter pasture. The Hunnish peoples raided and murdered the sellers, but the Chinese punitive expeditions were too much for them. The nomads were faced with the choice of settling down to the plough and becoming Chinese taxpayers or shifting in search of fresh summer pastures. Some took the former course and were absorbed. Some drifted north-eastward and eastward over the mountain passes down into western Turestan.
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答案     罗马与中国
    公元前二至一世纪开启了人类历史的新篇章。美索不达米亚地区和地中海东部不再是人们关注的焦点，也不再是世界的统治中心。权力向东、西分化。两个强大的帝国统治了整个世界，一个是新罗马帝国，另一个是复兴的中华帝国。罗马的势力延伸到了幼发拉底河一带，但从没越过这个界线。那里实在太偏远了。在幼发拉底河对岸，曾经属于波斯人和印度人的塞琉西王朝又落入了一连串新的统治者手中。而在中国，当秦始皇死后，替代了秦朝的汉朝已经控制了整个西藏地区，并越过帕米尔高原，扩展到土耳其斯坦的西部地区。
    那时的中国是世界上最伟大、最有序和最文明的国家。在领土范围和人口总数上，中国都超越了罗马帝国的巅峰时期。在当时，两大强国仍有可能同时在这个世界大放异彩，却对彼此一无所知。因为当时无论海、陆的交通方式都还未充分发展，两国因而没有正面交锋。
    但两大帝国对彼此的影响是显著的，且对中亚和印度这些处于两国之间地区的命运也有深远影响。两国之间已达成一定的贸易量，例如，由骆驼商队经波斯地区交易，或由船只取道印度和红海往来。公元前66年，庞培率领的罗马军队追随着亚历山大大帝的步伐来到里海的东岸。不过还要经过很多个世纪之后，欧洲与东亚才确切知晓彼此的存在并建立直接的来往。
    这两个帝国的北部都是大片的荒野。如今的德国在当时是大片林地，森林一直延伸到今天的俄罗斯境内，当时那里是一种体型庞大的野牛的家园。亚洲众多高山的北面则依次延伸出沙漠、草原、森林和冻土地带。亚洲高地的东边有满洲大三角。这一地区中的大部分，相当于今天的俄国南部与土耳其斯坦之间，从过去到现在气候条件都极其异乎寻常和不稳定。这些地区对人类而言都很危险。
    原始北国的西部是北欧民族和印欧语系的发源地。东部的蒙古草原和沙漠则是匈奴人、蒙古人、鞑靼人或土耳其人的故乡——因为这些地区的人们无论从语言、人种和生活方式上都很相似。北欧地区似乎一直人满为患，人口不断涌向南部，进入美索不达米亚和地中海沿岸地区正在发展的文明之中，匈奴各部落过剩的人口也流入了中国太平的地区。
    曾有一段时间，世界上同时存在着两个伟大的帝国，只有他们有能力抵抗野蛮民族的入侵，甚至大力推进世界的和平。大汉帝国从北方进军蒙古，他们的进攻激烈而持久。中华民族不断跨越长城的界限。边境推到哪里，带着马匹和犁头的中国农民就来到哪里。他们开垦草地，在冬季圈起牧场。匈奴抢劫甚至杀害商人，但面对中华民族的讨伐，他们无力抵抗。这些游牧民族面临着两种选择：定居下来从事耕作并向中华帝国纳税，或者转移阵地去寻找新的夏季牧场。一部分人选择前者，融入中国。另一部分人向东北和东部迁徙，越过山峰进入西土耳其斯坦。
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