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Throughout history, as any anthropologist will tell you, the simplest way to bind people to you has been to give them a special gift-a present that only you can give, and only they are worthy to receive; a present like the object in this programme.
縱觀歷史，每個人類學家都會告訴你，最簡單的籠絡人心的方式便 是贈送特別的禮物。一件只有你能送出，也只有對方才配擁有的禮物， 如本文中的這一件。
In the last few programmes I've been considering how the leaders of vast kingdoms and empires built and retained their supremacy, whether by borrowing the image of Alexander the Great, preaching the ideals of the Buddha in India, or buying off the priesthood in Egypt.
我一直在思考那些偉大帝國的統治者如何鞏固自己的權威，無論是借用亞歷山大大帝的頭像、宣揚佛教理念還是收買埃及祭司。
In this programme, we are in Han Dynasty China, two thousand years ago, exploring the giving of Imperial gifts-an activity which straddles the murky boundary between diplomacy and bribery.
而在兩千年前的中國漢代，饋贈禮物是帝王建立影響力的一個主要方式，這是一種介于外交與賄賂之間的模糊地帶的行為。
Our cup comes from a turbulent period in the Han Dynasty, when at the centre the emperor was under severe threat and, at the edges of the Empire, he was struggling to keep control.
漆杯制作之時，漢朝正處于內憂外患之中。在帝國的中心，君王正面臨嚴重威脅，同時又要竭力穩固邊疆。
The Han had extended Chinese power as far south as Vietnam, west to the steppes of Central Asia and north to Korea, and in each of these places they had set up military colonies.
漢代的統治疆土南至越南，西至中亞草原，北達朝鮮。每一個邊塞都有駐軍。
As Han commerce and settlements grew in these outposts, so their governors gained in power, and there was always a risk that they might turn into independent fiefdoms-what the Chinese now call 'splittism' was a worry even then.
隨著邊塞貿易逐漸繁榮，人口增加，當地將領的勢力膨脹，有擁兵自重謀取獨立的風險。后世中國所謂的分裂主義，當時就已令統治者煩心。
The governors' loyalty to the Emperor needed to be secured. And one of the ways the emperor kept them on-side was to give them gifts that carried huge Imperial prestige.
皇帝需要將領的絕對忠心，達到這一目的方法之一便是贈送他們能體現皇帝烕儀的物品。
In the British Museum we have an exquisite lacquer wine cup, which was probably given by the Han emperor to one of his military commanders in North Korea around the year 4 AD.
大英博物館中保存的這只精美的漆酒杯，很可能就是公元四年左右漢朝皇帝贈送給他在朝鮮的一位將軍的禮品。
