21　概说中国

在乔达摩正在印度开创佛教的时候，中国有一个人，一个叫作孔子的伟大智者，也正在教导中国人该做什么、不该做什么。他的教导记录在好几本书里，并且后来变成了中国人和亚洲其他许多人的一种生存之道。

孔子教导人们应当忠诚，应当服从君主，还教导说统治者有义务照顾好手下的人民。他认为，这样就能给中国带来和平与和谐。他教导人们应当孝顺父母、师长，并且敬奉祖先。这一点，听上去与《十诫》中“应当孝敬父母”这一条倒是有点儿相似呢。

孔子还教给了人们一条“黄金法则”；它就是你们如今在《圣经》中学到的那条“黄金律”，只是表达方式不一样罢了。孔子说的并不是“你们愿意人怎样待你们，你们也要怎样待人”，而是“己所不欲，勿施于人。”

中国是世界上最早的文明古国之一。可能你们还记得那条孕育了中华文明的河流的名字吧。这条河流，就是河底全是黄色泥沙的“黄河”，或者说“黄色之河”。这种泥沙使土壤变得很肥沃，从而让人们可以种植庄稼。人们起初沿着黄河而居，后来又沿着扬子江而居；扬子江亦称“长江”。

中国距我们前面已经讲到过的那些地方都非常遥远。它与古代世界的其他国

grew their crops. People settled first along the Huang and then also along the Yangtze River,also called the Long River.

China is very far away from all the other places we have been talking about. It was isolated from the rest of the ancient world.The Himalaya Mountains lie to the west and the Gobi Desert to the north.On the south are more mountains and seas.On the east lies the great Pacific Ocean that stretches all the way to the west coast of the United States.In the days before large sailing ships and way before airplanes,the Chinese had very little contact with any other people.So Chinese culture developed all by itself.

We know the Chinese had a written language as early as 1500 B. C.at a time when the Shang dynasty ruled northern China.You can see that Chinese writing is still very different from the writing in any other country.The Chinese never switched to an alphabet but continue to use characters—a different character for each word.It must be very hard to learn to read and write Chinese.

We have to learn only twenty-six letters. Boys and girls in China have to memorize about six hundred characters before they can do even basic reading and writing.

Many inventions were made and used in China before the rest of the world ever heard of them. Around the time of Christ,the Chinese were making silk,porcelain,and paper.By this time,the Chinese did trade with some of the other people we have read about.Chinese silk was in great demand by Romans and their neighbors around the Mediterranean.

By 600 A.D.the Chinese had invented printing and used printing presses.A few

家都不相连。中国的西部矗立着喜马拉雅山脉，北部则是戈壁沙漠。该国的南边，还有更多的山脉和河域。而其东边，则是一望无际、一直延伸到美国西海岸的太平洋。在还没有大型帆船和航空线路的那个时代，中国人很少与其他民族进行接触。因此，中华文化是独立发展起来的。

我们知道，早在公元前1500年，中国就已经有了文字，当时正是商朝统治着中国的北方地区。你们可以看出，如今的汉字仍然与其他国家的文字大相径庭呢。中国人一直都没有转而采用字母文字，而是继续使用汉字；每个汉字的字形，都是不相同的。

我们只需学26个字母。可中国的小朋友却需要记住600个左右的汉字，才能进行基本的读写。

有许多的发明创造，在世界上其他国家都还没有听说过的时候，就已经在中国出现并加以应用了。几乎还是在基督降生的时候，中国人就已经生产出丝绸、瓷器和纸张了。到了此时，中国人开始与我们前面说过的其他一些民族有了贸易往来。古罗马人及地中海地区的一些国家，对中国丝绸的需求量都非常

centuries later,they were making the magnetic compass,which was such a great help to the sailors. Do you know what a compass is?It's a little gadget with a needle that always points to the north.Knowing which way was north made it possible for sailors to know which way they were sailing—even when they were way out in the ocean,too far from land to be able to see the shore.Maybe someone in your class or neighborhood has a compass and can share it for everybody to see.

The Chinese also figured out how to immunize against the dread disease smallpox. They also were first to discover how to make explosive powder,the kind that we use both for gunpowder and for fireworks.

From all this,you can see that the Chinese may have been relatively isolated,but they were very busy making things that the rest of the world found really exciting when people learned about them.

巨大。

大约到公元600年的时候，中国人已经发明了印刷术，开始使用印刷机了。几百年后，他们又发明了磁性罗盘；这种罗盘，可是水手们的一大帮手呢。你们知道罗盘是什么吗？这是一种很小巧的装置，其中有一根指针，总是指向北方。只要知道哪边是北，即便是在驾船驶入茫茫的海洋深处，离陆地很远，根本看不到海岸的时候，水手们也知道自己正在朝着哪个方向航行。或许你们班上或者你们的邻居中，有的人家里就有罗盘，那么不妨拿出来让大家都瞧一瞧。

中国人还发明了预防天花这种可怕疾病的办法。他们也是第一个发现如何制造火药的民族；火药就是我们用来制造弹药和烟花的那种东西。

从这些情况，你们可以看出，虽说中国人可能相对与世隔绝，可他们却一直在不停地进行发明创造；而这些发明创造一旦传到世界各地，便让世人全都激动不已。