世界小史 第109期:鞠躬行禮
It may seem to you that what Confucius1 taught was obvious.
孔子和他的弟子們這樣教導(dǎo)說。
But that was exactly his intention2.
因?yàn)橹T侯的首要職責(zé)是當(dāng)他的全國(guó)居民的榜樣。但這恰恰是他希望的。
He wanted to teach something that everyone would find easy to grasp, because it was so just and fair.
他想教一些大家都覺得容易掌握的事情，因?yàn)樗浅９凸健?/p>
Then living together would become much easier.
那樣的話，共同生活就會(huì)容易得多。
I have already told you that he succeeded.
我已經(jīng)說過他成功了。
And, thanks to his teaching3, that enormous4 empire, with all its provinces, was saved from falling apart.
由于有了他的學(xué)說，這個(gè)有著眾多省份的大國(guó)最終也沒有瓦解。
But you mustn't think that in China there weren't other people more like the Buddha,但是你卻不可以認(rèn)為，中國(guó)不曾有過其他更像釋迦牟尼那樣的人，for whom what mattered was not living together and bowing to one another, but the great mysteries of the world.
這些人不注重共同生活，不注重向其他人鞠躬行禮，而是注重世界的各重大秘密。
A wise man of this sort lived in China at about the same time as Confucius.
差不同和孔子同一時(shí)期，中國(guó)也出了這樣一位智者。
His name was Lao-tzu. He is said to have been an official who became tired of the way people lived at court.
他叫老子。據(jù)說他曾當(dāng)過官，但是他厭倦了官場(chǎng)上人們的生活方式。
So he gave up his job and wandered off into the lonely mountains at the frontier5 of China to be a hermit6.
于是他就辭去了官職，走進(jìn)中國(guó)邊境地區(qū)的孤寂的群山過著隱居的生活。
A simple border guard at a frontier pass asked him to set down his thoughts in writing, before leaving the world of men. And this Lao-tzu did.
據(jù)說一個(gè)普通的邊境上的關(guān)卡官吏曾請(qǐng)求他在離群索居之前把他的思想給他記錄下來。老子這樣做了。
But whether the border guard could make head or tail of them I do not know, for they are very mysterious and hard to grasp.
但是那個(gè)關(guān)卡官吏是否理解了他的思想，我不知道，因?yàn)樗鼈兎浅Ｉ衩睾蜕願(yuàn)W。
