評論
打印
The sheer skill, the effort and expense involved in making bronze vessels like these make them immediately objects of the highest value and status, fit therefore for the most solemn ceremonies.
在這一過程中所花費的技術(shù)、時間與費用，使得它們價值昂貴，地位崇高,可用于最莊嚴(yán)肅穆的場合。
Here's Dame Jessica Rawson, renowned expert on Chinese bronze:
中國古青銅器的知名專家杰西卡羅森爵士。
"The first dynasties of China, the Shang and the Zhou, made large numbers of fine bronze containers for food, for alcohol, for water, and used these in a big ceremony, sometimes once a week, maybe once every ten days.
中國最早的兩個王朝—商朝與周朝，都制作了大量盛放食物和酒水的青銅容器，用于七天一次或十天一次的大型祭祀活動。
The belief is that if food, wine or alcohol is properly prepared, it will be received by the dead and nourish them, and those dead, the ancestors, will look after their descendants in return for this nourishment.
他們相信，如果這些食物酒水準(zhǔn)備得當(dāng)，逝去的祖先便能享用，并會因此保佑子孫后代衣食豐足。
The bronze vessels which we see today were prized possessions for use in life.
當(dāng)然，我們所看到的這些青銅器，是極奢華的日常生活用品，
They were not made primarily for burial, but when a major figure of the elite died, it was believed that he would carry on offering ceremonies of food and wine to his ancestors in the afterlife, indeed, entertain them at banquets."
并非主要為葬禮準(zhǔn)備，但如果某個重要人物去世，人們相信他在死后還是會繼續(xù)用食物供奉祖先，更確切地說，是以盛宴來取悅他們。
Our bowl would have been one of a set of vessels of different sizes, rather like a set of saucepans in a smart modern kitchen.
它可能是一套不同尺寸的青銅器中的一件，如同現(xiàn)代智能廚房中的一套大小不一的深平底鍋。
although we don't know how many companions it might once have had.
雖然我們并不了解一套中所包含的確切數(shù)量，
Each vessel had a clearly defined role in the preparing and serving of food at the regular banquets that were organised for the dead.
但在為逝者準(zhǔn)備食物的過程中，每一件青銅器必定都有不同的用途， 用來存放不同的物品。
