英文聽力：秦始皇帝 First Emperor of China (Part 1)

 
 

Part One

"This kind of opportunity only comes once in 10,000 years."
"There’s only one way for Chin to survive, and that is through conquer."

He founded a mighty country—China. He was its first emperor, and his empire became his fortress protected by a Great Wall. The legend says he was a tyrant, driven mad by power.

"Find out who’s responsible and have him killed."

He cheated death, ‘Assassin, assassin.’ and built the tomb the like of which mankind has never seen. But it wasn’t enough, he wanted to live forever.

"Immortality, and if I do not have it, who does?"

A man with one extraordinary vision. "How big is this supposed to be? How big is this going to be?" and he left a legacy that has lasted over 2,000 years.

"Your divine son speaks." "Here I am!"

"The First Emperor of China."

When the first emperor was laid to rest, the legend says he was the most powerful man on earth, that for 30 years, he’d subjected China to the most violent and bloody phase in its history. He had achieved the impossible: He unified the people, ten times as many subjects as the Pharaohs of Egypt, across an empire that would outlast Rome by 1,000 years. China was his. When the doors of his tomb were closed for the final time, the most fantastic part of that legend was born.

The great ruler, it's said, was sealed in a bronze model of his world, at the heart of the largest mausoleum on earth, surrounded by rivers and seas of flowing mercury. And so the legend remained for over 2000 years.

Jeffrey Riegel from the University of California wants to separate fact from fiction. He has come to China to examine the latest research on the first emperor, unlocking the truth behind one of the world's greatest legends.

What we knew from these early stories, from these legends was the tale of a person who seemed from those sources to be larger than life, almost, almost impossibly large, as a, as a real figure, as a historical figure. Even though we knew, that of course he had indeed accomplished the unification of the empire, how did he do it? How did it, how did it come about? How, how could such an enormous historical personage exist?

"Here I am! Oh Heaven!"

The reality of the emperor’s life has long been shrouded in mystery. For 2 millennia the only detailed information came from a single written history compiled 100 years after his death. The Shiji, the records of a grand historian, Sima Qian, the foundation of the legend.

It’s an entire world that Sima Qian has recreated for us, but for 2000 years all we had was this text.

Then in 1974, archeologists found the Terracotta Army. It stunned the world. And the greatest archeological find of the 20th century became the first real physical substance to the legend.

Its scale is unprecedented. Terracotta figures were known about from other burial sites, but never on this scale, never life-size or in such incredible detail. But the huge army is just the beginning. The researchers have so far uncovered over 180 separate pits, and they are still digging. And the more they unearth here, the greater the riches promised by the ultimate prize, the emperor's tomb itself.

For 2,000 years, all that could be seen was a vast mound of earth as big as the largest Egyptian Pyramids. Now professor Jeffery Riegel is hoping that new experimental archeology will unlock the secrets of the tomb, and finally reveal the truth behind the legend of the emperor. For the first time, archaeologists are probing the mound, and Riegel hopes to be able to answer centuries-old questions. Is the emperor's tomb actually there? Has it been plundered? And could it, as the legend says, really contain rivers and seas of flowing mercury? And if this turns out to be true, what does that say about the rest of the incredible legend?

If someone could be responsible for a burial complex of that size, of that enormity, then yes all of these now suddenly rings true.

The first emperor shows little sign of greatness the day he becomes king of the western Chinese state of Chin. It's 247 BC, and the omens aren't good. The previous king of Chin has lasted just three years.

Majesty, the King is dead. Long live the King.

King Yingzheng is barely 13 years old, already the sharks begin to circle hungry for power, and caught up at their heart is his own mother.

"My dear boy, I'm so sorry, but..."

The queen has a longtime lover, the last King's advisor, Lü Buwei.

"We are here for you."
 
 
"Majesty, it would be my honor to serve you as Prime Minister."

"Let’s not talk about these things tonight, but you should confirm Uncle Lv Buwei as your Prime Minister as soon as you can. We all think it’s for the best. Sleep now. Good night"

"I should serve you and guide you as a father. "

Nations like Qin have always been run as a feudal family business by man like Lv Buwei.
 
 
 

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