[size=1em]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19897371
【译 者】简妮
Early in the 3rd Century, China's mighty Han empire collapsed. From the wreckage emerged three kingdoms and competing warlords with an eye on the throne. Centuries later their struggle was turned into China's favourite warfare epic - a story that underlines the historical fragility of the empire, and still provides an object lesson in good management.
三世纪初期，中国强盛的汉王朝瓦解了。废墟中浮现出三个新王朝及其对立军阀，窥伺着王位。数世纪后，他们的斗争变成了中国著名的战争史诗——一个强调帝国历史性脆弱的故事，且依然提供了优秀的管理范例。
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is for China roughly what Homer is for Europeans, a swashbuckling adventure story, with lots of blood, excitement and craftiness on the battlefield.
《三国演义》之于中国，大抵如同荷马之于欧洲，一个气势庞大的冒险故事，带着战场上太多的鲜血，热情与权诈。
Chinese boys live and breathe the story, with its hundreds of characters in cloaks and long robes and multiple sub-plots, spanning a century of convulsion before the empire was reunited.
中国男儿们在这个故事中生活、呼吸，伴随着故事中数百个身披斗篷，身穿长衫的人物，及多样的子情节，在新帝国成立前持续了一世纪的动乱。
"It is a general truism of this world that anything long divided will surely unite, and anything long united will surely divide."
“话说天下大势，分久必合，合久必分。”
These are the opening words of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The action begins just as the Han empire is about to break up.
这是《三国演义》的开场文字。此情节伊始就如同汉朝即将终结。
The government is struggling to suppress a rebellion by peasants called the Yellow Turbans. It is forced to do what it hates to do: outsource troop recruitment - and that gives an opportunist called Liu Bei his big break.
汉朝政府在奋力镇压一个叫做“黄巾起义”的农民叛乱。迫使其为己所恶：征募外包军队——而这给了一个叫刘备的投机者一个良机。
"He had fallen on hard times and he was making a living just selling straw sandals and mats," recounts Chinese rock musician Kaiser Kuo, who loved the stories of Liu Bei as a child.
“他生于乱世，仅靠卖草鞋草垫为生”，中国摇滚音乐家郭怡广描述道，他从儿时起就喜欢刘备的故事。
"In the story he stands looking at the poster that's been put up calling for the brave men of the kingdom to rise up. And he sighs. And behind him there is a big burly guy by the name of Zhang Fei, a butcher, who chastises him for merely sighing and not actually doing something about it."
“故事中，他立阅张贴出召集为国崛起的勇士的皇榜。叹息。他身后一壮汉，名叫张飞，乃一屠夫，责骂他只叹气而无作为。”
The two of them go off to have a drink in the tavern and come across a man with a red face, a very long beard and a green battle gown, Guan Yu. The three of them then swear an oath of eternal brotherhood in a peach orchard and set about trying to save the Han dynasty.
二人离开去客栈饮酒，巧遇一红脸长须绿袍男子，关羽。于是，此三人桃园结义，发誓兄弟情义永存，并着手拯救汉朝。
Our trio represent the south-west kingdom. They face, in the north kingdom, the cunning and ruthless Cao Cao, and in the south-east the vacillating and deceitful Sun Quan. A mindboggling amount of fighting and double-crossing follows.
我们的三重奏代表西南王朝。他们面对北方王国狡诈残忍的曹操，和西南优柔寡断、道貌岸然的孙权。数量令人难以置信的战争和背叛随之而来。
"This is the first time that an imperial collapse has happened with a power vacuum ensuing," explains Frances Wood, curator of the East Asia collection at the British Library.
“这是第一次一个帝国的瓦解伴随着权力的产生。”大英图书馆东亚收藏品管理员弗朗西斯·伍德解释说。
"The Han had overthrown the Qin [dynasty]. That was a straightforward regime change, if you like. But at the end of the Han you get fragmentation.
“如果你觉得，汉推翻秦是一种简单的政权改变。但是汉朝末期则是分裂。”
"The major nightmare of all the Chinese at all times is that if there's no central power, then the country is going to split up and that's very much what was happening at this time. You get different generals in different parts of China setting up different regimes, and then fighting each other."
“一直以来，所有中国人最主要的噩梦是无中央集权，以至于国家分裂，此次大概便是这样发生的。不同的将领在中国不同地区崛起而后相互斗争。”
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a good corrective to the hypnotising story of harmony that Chinese rulers like to tell when they are in control and trying to stay there.
《三国演义》是对中国统治者们执政时喜爱讲的和谐故事的好地纠正，且竭力维持。
China is not a readily stable and harmonious country. In fact, governments need a powerful narrative of unity precisely because China has such a tendency to fall apart.
中国并非一个容易稳定和谐的国家。事实上，精确的说中国需要一个强有力的统一故事，因为中国非常有分裂的趋势。
"Chinese history is not as clean-cut as written in textbooks," says archaeologist Wang Tao.
“中国历史并非教科书上描写般轮廓鲜明。”考古学家王涛说。
"It's full of fighting. And I remember looking at some archaeological sites and you see so many remains - weapons, headless bodies. There is actually a lot of blood in history, which of course now we don't normally see in textbooks."
“它充满了战争。我记得研究有些考古遗址时看到许多遗迹——武器，无头尸。历史中的确充斥着血腥，当然我们通常不会在教科书中看到。”
The Confucian code insists that the superior man achieves his goals without resort to force. Liu Bei and his enemies were certainly ready to use intelligence, diplomacy and downright lying if it got them what they wanted. After all, they had no shortage of military classics like Sun Tzu's Art of War.
儒家伦理坚持贤者不以暴力达到其目的。刘备与其敌人们当然准备好用智慧，外交还有彻底的谎言，若能达成所愿。毕竟他们不乏《孙子兵法》这样的军事杰作。
"A leader leads by example not by force," he wrote, several centuries earlier. "To know your enemy, you must become your enemy. Opportunities multiply as they are seized. Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win. Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across. All warfare is based on deception."
“先之以身，后之以人，则士无不勇矣，”他几世纪前写道。“知己知彼。机不可失。是故胜兵先胜而后求战, 败兵先战而后求胜。穷寇莫追。兵不厌诈。”
There is no shortage of deceptions in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
《三国演义》中不乏欺诈。
The film Red Cliff by director John Woo, the most expensive ever made in China, retells the story of a battle on the Yangtze river, as Cao Cao's navy is moored on one bank while Liu Bei and his accomplices are plotting on the other.
吴宇森导演的电影《赤壁》，它是中国拍摄的最昂贵的电影，再次讲述了扬子江上的战争故事，当曹操的军队驻扎在江岸，而刘备与及随从在对岸密谋。
"It's very much just about warfare but also cunning strategy. There are wily generals who do very clever things," says Frances Wood.
“故事多讲战争，但也有诡略。诡计多端的将领们行事机谨。”弗朗西斯·伍德说。
"If they run out of arrows, they send a boat down the river past the enemy camp, and the enemy thinks, 'Goodness me what is this?' and they fire a million arrows into the side of the boat. And they capture them in straw, and so that's how you get spare arrows.
“他们箭不足，派船顺江而下经过敌军营帐，敌军想‘天哪，这是什么？’然后他们射百万箭至船一侧。箭留在船上的稻草中，他们由此获取所需的箭。”
"So it's full of stories that are not just about slaying or taking territory, but also about being clever, and outwitting your enemy."
“如此，书中充满了这样的故事，不仅仅是关于杀戮或争夺领地，也关于聪慧和以智取胜。”
It is deception not force of numbers that wins the battle of Red Cliff. But there is more scheming to come from Liu Bei and friends.
这就是不以军队数量取胜之计的《赤壁》之战。然而刘备及其友人们有更多的谋略。
"Knowing that the enemy has a spy in their camp, they publicly beat and humiliate one of the most important generals so that this is reported back and his defection then looks completely authentic," explains Kaiser Kuo.
“知道他们营地有敌军奸细，他们公开杖责且羞辱最重要的将领之一，使消息反馈回敌方，从而使他（奸细）的叛变看起来全然真实，”郭怡广解释说。
Consequently, when Cao Cao's army sees the defector's ship heading toward them, they do not do anything about it. They are expecting him.
因此，当曹操的军队看到叛徒的船驶向他们，他们无所作为，正盼其到来。
"In fact his ship is laden with flammable materials and he sets it on fire and manages to set a good part of the enemy fleet afire. They say that the Red Cliffs, the cliffs that give their name to both the famous battle and the John Woo movie are still charred black to this day because of smoke from the burning fleet."
“事实上，他的船上装满了易燃物且点燃，并设法使敌军舰队多处着火。人们说《赤壁》中因此著名战役与电影而闻名的崖壁，因战舰燃烧的浓烟而至今仍是炭黑色。”
Two thousand years on, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is not just a scorch mark and an escapist adventure story.
两千年过去了，《三国演义》不仅仅是一块焦痕，更是一个旷世传奇故事。
Kaiser Kuo says he was once introduced to the Chinese-American founder of a Silicon Valley computing firm, who was born and raised with these stories and saw them as directly relevant to the company's business.
郭怡广说他曾被推荐为硅谷电脑公司的美籍华人创办人，他出生、成长伴随着这些故事，并视它们与公司业务直接相关。
"He had his senior management team meet every Monday morning to discuss a chapter of Three Kingdoms," says Kuo.
“每周一早上，他和他的高管团队开会讨论一章《三国》。”郭说。
"The real story is about how to deploy people of talent. It's really all about management and when I read these stories today, I still find just tremendous relevance."
“真实的故事是关于分配人们的才干。它的确完全与管理相关，我今天读这些故事时，仍旧发现极大的关联。”
So if you are trying to understand how China works, do not just rely on pieties from the party leadership. Read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and start looking out for the Liu Beis and the Cao Caos in real life.
因此，如果你试图理解中国是如何运作的，莫要仅仅依赖团队领导的虔诚。读读《三国演义》，开始从现实生活中寻找刘备和曹操吧。
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发表于 2012-10-18 11:17
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