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Fostering that sense of an imagined community was a key Imperial strategy-and it didn't come cheap. Typically, the emperor paid out a large chunk of state revenue every year to provide allies and vassal states with luxury gifts, including thousands of rolls of silk and hundreds of lacquer cups. So, our cup is very much part of a system-it was given either as an Imperial gift or in lieu of a salary, to a senior official at the Han military garrisons near present day Pyongyang in North Korea. We can be pretty sure that, apart from its sheer monetary value, it was intended to bestow prestige and to suggest a personal link between the commander and the emperor.
給人民一種“想象的共同體”的歸屬感是鞏固帝國的重要策略，但這種歸屬感代價高昂?；实勖磕甓家ㄙM大量稅收贈送珍貴的禮物給盟國和屬國，包括成千匹絲綢及數百件漆器。因此，我們這只漆杯是帝國體系的一部分，被當作禮物（或某種形式的俸祿）送給了駐扎在今朝鮮平壤附近的一位高級官員。除了貨幣價值之外，它還代表著榮耀，體現出皇帝與官員之間的親密關系。
At this point in the Han's history, however, the affairs of state were not in the hands of the emperor but of the dowager empress, the formidable Grand Empress Dowager Wang, who effectively ran the state for 30 years, as none of the emperors had much time for business. She had one emperor son-who spent most of his time with his concubine, Flying Swallow, who, it was said, was so light that she could dance on the palm of his hand-one grandson emperor-who was besotted with his male lover-and another grandson the one on the throne at the time of our cup, who had acceded at the age of nine, and was to be poisoned with pepper wine at the age of fifteen, two years after our cup was made. So this cup lived in interesting times, and its making was almost certainly organised by the Grand Dowager Empress.
但在當時的漢朝，國家事務并非由皇帝掌管，太皇太后獨攬了朝政大權。這位太后實際掌管了朝政三十余年，因為當時的幾個皇帝要么平庸無能，要么沉迷聲色。她的兒子成帝與妃子趙飛燕（相傳體態輕盈，能在皇帝的掌上舞蹈）終日廝混，一位皇孫沉迷男色，另一位皇孫九歲即位，十五歲便被人用酒鴆殺，就在本文中的酒杯制成兩年之后。因此，這個酒杯一定是在太皇太后的授意下制作的。
The machinery of the state, and the production of luxury goods, was so well structured that it could work perfectly well despite any foibles at the top. This cup is remarkable for the supreme craftsmanship of its making, and even more so because it was subjected to a level of quality control that far exceeds any designer handbag today.
盡管宮闈中丑聞不斷，但當時的國家機器運行良好，包括奢侈品制作在內的一切仍在有條不紊地進行。我們的耳杯除了有登峰造極的制作工藝之外，對其生產品質的監管甚至超過了今天的許多奢侈品。
