中英雙語話史記 第119期:明朝長城
Ming Dynasty
明朝修建長城After the Ming army defeat at Battle of Tumubao and later raids by the Mongols under a new leader, Altan Khan, the Ming adopted a new strategy for dealing with the northern horsemen： a giant impregnable wall.
土木堡之役戰敗以及蒙古的新領袖俺答汗威脅之後，明朝採取了對付北方馬背上的民族的新策略——一座巨大的堅不可摧的城牆。
Almost 100 years earlier (1368) the Ming had started building a new, technically advanced fortification which today is called the Great Wall of China.
早在100多年前，明朝開始修建了一個新的、技術先進的防禦工事，今天我們稱其爲“長城”。Created at great expense the wall followed the new borders of the Ming Empire.
這座城牆沿着大明帝國的新邊界，耗資巨大。Acknowledging the control which the Mongols established in the Ordos, south of the Huang He, the wall follows what is now the northern border of Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces.
意識到蒙古人在黃河南部的鄂爾多斯建立的統治，城牆圍住了現在的陝西省和山西省的北部邊界。Work on the wall largely superseded military expeditions against the Mongols for the last 80 years of the Ming dynasty and continued up until 1644, when the dynasty collapsed.
修建長城的工事遠遠超過了對於蒙古的軍事遠征，它一直持續到明朝的最後80年，直到明朝於1644年滅亡。The Great Wall seen today was built during the Ming Dynasty (明朝）， on a much larger scale and with longer lasting materials than any wall built before.
今天我們看到的長城就建於明朝，明長城規模更大，其使用的材料也比早先建的長城更加持久。The primary purpose of the wall was not to keep out people, who could climb the wall, but make it difficult for semi-nomadic people outside the wall to cross with their horses or return with stolen property.
修建長城最原始的目的並不是爲了阻止會爬牆的人們進入而是爲了使遊牧民族的人們騎馬翻過牆並偷走財物更加困難。The Ming Dynasty Great Wall starts on the eastern end at Shanhai Pass, near Qinhuangdao, in Hebei Province, next to Bohai Gulf.
明城牆東起河北省秦皇島渤海灣附近的山海關。Spanning nine provinces and 100 counties, the final 500 kilometers have all but turned to rubble, and today it ends on the western end at the historic site of Jiayu Pass (嘉峪關）， located in northwest Gansu Province at the limit of the Gobi Desert and the oases of the Silk Road (絲調之路）.
跨過9省100市，其最終的500公里今天已經全部化爲廢墟，現在它西至西南甘肅省的嘉峪關遺址，這幾乎到達了戈壁和絲綢之路。
Jiayu Pass was intended to greet travelers along the Silk Road.
嘉峪關本來是爲了絲綢之路上的遊人的地方。Even though The Great Wall ends at Jiayu Pass， there are many watchtowers (烽火臺）extending beyond Jiayu Pass along the Silk Road.
儘管長城止於嘉峪關，在嘉峪關之外的絲綢之路上仍有很多烽火臺。These towers communicated by smoke to signal invasion.
這些烽火臺通過狼煙來發出入侵的信號。The Kokes Manchus crossed the Wall by convincing an important general Wu Sangui（吳三桂）to open the gates of Shanhai Pass and allow the Manchus to cross.
滿洲人通過說服重要的守關將領吳三桂打開山海關的大門放他們入關通過了長城。Legend has it that they took three days for the Manchu armies to pass.
傳說滿洲軍隊花了三天時間入關。After they conquered China, the Wall was of no strategic value as the people whom the Wall was intended to keep out were ruling the country.
在他們征服中國之後，長城就沒有了戰略價值，因此它所要抵擋的人們已經統治了整個國家。
