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If you have always found history boring, you are going to enjoy this chapter.
如果歷史一直讓你感到無聊的話，那么你將感到這章很有意思。
At about the same time as Hannibal was in Italy, that is, shortly after 220 BC, an emperor was ruling over China who hated history so much that, in 213 BC,
大約漢尼拔在意大利的時候，也就是說，公元前220年以后，中國有一位皇帝，他非常不喜歡歷史，所以在公元前213年,
he ordered all history books and all old reports and records to be burnt,
他下令焚燒全部歷史書籍和全部古代文獻與資料，
along with all collections of songs and poems and the writings of Confucius and Lao-tzu – in fact everything he considered to be useless rubbish.
也焚燒了全部詩歌集以及全部孔子和老子的著作——事實上一切他認為不實用的東西都被焚燒了。
The only books he permitted were ones on agriculture and other useful subjects.
只有關于農耕和其他有用的書他才允許存在。
Anybody found in possession of any other sort of book was to be put to death.
誰擁有一本別的書，誰就會被處死。
This emperor was Shih Huang-ti, the first emperor of all China and one of the greatest warriors there has ever been.
這位皇帝叫秦始皇，他是中國的第一位皇帝，是前所未有的偉大的勇士之一。
He was not born into an imperial family but was the son of one of the princes I told you about, who ruled the many Chinese provinces.
他不是出生在皇室家庭，而是一個諸侯的兒子，關于那些統治中國許多省份的諸侯的情況我已講述過。
