中国古代的十大发明(3)
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3.风筝Twoancient Chinese men share the credit for coming up with one of China's biggest claims to fame. During the fourth century B.C., Gongshu Ban and Mo Di, a patron of the arts and a philosopher, respectively, constructed bird-shaped kites that dipped and dove in the wind. The pair's novelty caught on quickly.
风筝这一中国最重大的发明要归功于两个古人。公元前4世纪，能工巧匠公输班（Gongshu Ban，即鲁班）和哲学家墨翟（Mo Di，即墨子），各自制作出了能随风自由翱翔的鸟形风筝，这对新奇的事物马上流行了起来。
Over time, the Chinese adapted and added to the initial kite's design and found new uses for it beyond amusement. Kites became an easy way to fish without a boat, simply by using a line and hook draped from the kite and dangling it into an inaccessible body of water. Kites also became instrumental in military applications, serving as unmanned drones that delivered payloads of gunpowder to enemy fortifications. In 1232, the Chinese employed kites to drop propaganda leaflets over a Mongol prisoner-of-war encampment, urging the captured Chinese there to rebel and eventually overtake their captors .
随着时间的推移，中国人对风筝的初始设计进行了改进和加工，并发现除娱乐外，风筝还有其他新用途。风筝钓鱼成为一种简便易行的捕鱼方式，且无需使用渔船，渔民们仅需在风筝上绑好鱼线和吊钩，然后再把风筝放飞到自己无法接近的水域即可。风筝也能变身为军用器械，充当装载火药到敌军军事区的无人机。1232年，中国人用风筝向蒙古战俘营地投放宣传单，鼓动被俘虏的人抗争，结果战俘们成功地战胜了他们的捕掳者。
Soon, the urge to fly would be married with the technology of the kite to produce another Chinese invention, the hang glider.
不久，古人将想要高飞的夙愿寓于风筝制作工艺中，从而推动了风筝制造技术的发展，创造出了另一个中国发明——悬挂式滑翔机（Hang Gliders）。Gliders
2.悬挂式滑翔机
As we discussed earlier, kites were invented by the fourth century B.C. By the end of the sixth century A.D., the Chinese had managed to build kites large and aerodynamic enough to sustain the weight of an average-sized man. It was only a matter of time before someone decided to simply remove the kite strings and see what happened.
如前所述，风筝是公元前4世纪被发明出来的。而在公元6世纪末的时候，中国人便已经可以成功设计出体积庞大的风筝，它能够凭借足够的空气动力承载起一个中等体型人的重量。那么有人剪断风筝线进行新的尝试不过是早晚的事。The Chinese were using untethered kites that we know today as hang gliders. However, these "kites" weren't used for thrill rides: Emperors found joy in forcing convicted criminals and captured enemies to jump off cliffs while strapped into the gliders. One poor man flew two miles before he landed safely. With these early flights, the Chinese had beaten European ingenuity by 1335 years.
中国古人们所用的“断线风筝”就是我们现在的悬挂式滑翔机（Hang Gliders）。然而，这些“风筝”并不是用来寻求刺激的：君王们下令将罪犯和战俘绑在风筝上，迫使他们跳下悬崖，并以此为乐。而这些可怜人需飞行两英里才能平安落地。也正是因为这些早期的“飞机”，中国人在创造力上领先了欧洲列国1335年。1.丝绸
The Mongols, the Byzantines, the Greeks and Romans all found themselves unhappily facing Chinese military innovations like gunpowder. It was silk, however, that helped broker peace between ancient China and other cultures. The demand for silk was so high that the fine fabric helped link China to the outside world through trade. The fabric gave rise to the fabled Silk Road trade routes that eventually stretched from China to the Mediterranean, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
蒙古人（Mongols）、拜占庭人（Byzantines）、希腊人（Greeks）和罗马人（Romans）都极其厌恶中国古代的军事发明，比如说火药。然而，正是丝绸帮助古代中国与其他文化体之间和平共处。当时各国对丝绸的需求量非常大，也正是这一精美织物使得中国通过贸易的方式与外面的世界联系起来。“丝绸之路”也因此形成，并从中国延伸到了地中海（Mediterranean）、非洲、中东和欧洲等地。The method for manipulating this silkworm-produced material existed 4,700 years ago. A scroll containing an article on silk production was found in the tomb of created during the Liangzhu period, which lasted from 3330 to 2200 B.C.. The Chinese closely guarded the origin of silk; they only lost control of their secret when monks from Europe got their hands on silkworm eggs and took them back West.
丝绸的制作工艺大约出现在4700年前，人们在一处建于良渚时期（公元前3300-公元前2200）的古墓里发现了一些卷轴，其中记载了丝绸的制作工艺。中国的古人们曾一度严密守护着丝绸织造技术和养蚕技术，防止其外传，直至欧洲的僧侣得到蚕种并将其带回西方，中国人才逐渐丧失在丝绸织造业中的垄断地位。审校:落月 编辑:listen
