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But, at ground level, there were other threats. There were always potential rebels within the state, the aristocrats who had been forced to live in Kyongju for example, and on the coast there were Japanese pirates.
但在地面上還有別的威脅：反叛勢力一直蠢蠢欲動，那些被迫住在慶州的王公貴族就是其中之一，而沿海還有來自日本海盜的威脅。龍也許能保佑家宅平安。
Here again, as on our tile, a dragon would provide security, but every Silla king had to negotiate one great and ongoing political predicament-how to maintain freedom of action in the lowering shadow of his mighty neighbour, Tang China.
但每一任新羅王都不得不應對這些瓦當龍也無法解決的困境：如何在強大的鄰國中國唐朝的陰影下保持獨立自主。
The Chinese had supported the Silla in their campaign to unify Korea, but only as a preliminary to China taking over the new kingdom itself, so the Silla had to be both nimble and resolute in holding the Chinese emperor at bay while maintaining his political alliance. In cultural terms, the same subtle balancing act between dependence and autonomy has been going on for centuries, and continues to this day, and we can see it in our tile.
中國曾在新羅統一朝鮮半島的戰爭中支持過他們，但這只是中國吞并朝鮮的前奏罷了。因此新羅國王一方面要擺出謙卑的姿態以鞏固同盟關系，一方面又要嚴陣以防中國皇帝出兵。這種依賴與自主間的微妙平衡在朝鮮半島持續了千余年，至今仍是影響韓朝兩國外交政策的主要因素。
The tile is very similar to ones made in Tang China at the same time, but this is emphatically not a Chinese object. Unlike the broad grin of a Chinese dragon, the mouth here is small and aggressive, and the modelling of the tile has a rough vigour that's very un-Chinese.
在朝鮮半島歷史上，位于絲綢之路末端的統一繁榮的新羅王國開辟
了一個重要的創新與學習的時代，這也是建筑、文學、天文和數學發展
的“黃金時代”。
And it's this robust energetic engagement with the clay that made Korean ceramics so appealing to twentieth-century Europeans, and especially to potters. Here's Jane Portal again:
威猛的龍瓦當一直留在慶州的屋桅上，流傳至今今天 在韓國仍能看到新羅國留下的遺產。韓國國家博物館館長崔光植告訴我們：
"All throughout Korean history, Korean ceramics tend to be lumpier, less perfect, more sort of spontaneous, whereas Chinese ceramics are perfect-and dead, in a way. And this is what attracted people in the twentieth century-folk potters, such as Bernard Leach-and they copied them, made studio pots which were very influenced by Korean ceramics."
瓦當所表現的文化因素至今仍留在韓國文化里。現在慶州市區的街道上仍能看到它們的身影。因此，從這方面看，這些物品雖然巳經算是古物，卻仍然存活在文化中。
