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Working languages:
Chinese to English
lai an
麦莱安:莱斯莉.安.麦克拉克伦

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About me

Expertise:
- training in agricultural science, language and literature, business and teaching
- working experience in government, education and industry

Specialist qualifications:
- BAgrSc, BA
- diplomas in business and teaching

Language Qualifications:
- 2 years study of Chinese in China 1982-3
- BA(Hons) in Chinese 1998
- Qualified as a translator (by NAATI examination) 2001
- Chinese Proficiency HSK Intermediate Level 7 2003

- translated modern Chinese literature into English as part of university coursework 1998
- started translating professionally from 2001
- commercial translation work undertaken: educational certificates, academic transcripts, legal and immigration documents
- I translate from simplified Chinese as used in the PRC
- typed scripts only; sorry, no handwritten scripts
- I have also translated Chinese literary, geographic, cultural, educational, tourism and technical texts (see portfolio)

Qin Shi Huang unifies China

At Li Shan in Lintong County in Shaanxi, there is a mound more than one hundred metres high, just like an enormous pyramid. This is Qin Shi Huang's tomb. The reason that the Qin Shi Huang buried here has become one of the most famous emperors in Chinese history is because, during his rule, China officially became a vast-domained, multi-national, unified, centralised feudal empire. More than two thousand years ago it was the unified state with the largest territory and the highest level of culture in the world.

In 1974, Chinese workers in cultural artifacts unearthed three large pits of horse and soldier tomb figurines at a place three Chinese li east of the Qin Emperor's tomb. After trial excavations, it was estimated that the pits contained more than six thousand life-sized pottery figures. The warrior figures grasp swords and spears in their hands, and their posture is strong and powerful. The pottery horses have their heads raised, neighing, and some pull war chariots. They make up a great and mighty battle formation. Their excavation allows us to see again the "The King of Qin swept across the world, with the majestic glare of a tiger. " impressive appearance and bearing of the soldiers of the time, and also to see the new level of development of social production after the Qin unification of the Central Plains.

Most of the historians of the feudal period attributed success in unifying China to Qin Shi Huang's rare gifts and bold strategy. From our perspective, the iron picks and hoes excavated from the Qin Emperor's tomb must be judged far superior to anything of the feudal kings. This is because, in the final analysis, the formation of a unified empire was the result of the development of productivity in the Warring States. Due to the assiduous labour of the working people, and the invention and widespread use of iron production tools which replaced wooden and bronze tools, social productivity made enormous progress. Following the extensive use of iron tools, more water conservancy engineering projects were built, agriculture and the handicrafts industry developed, and commerce flourished. The continual economic development, of necessity, required the quelling of political division and rivalry; it required unification. This is because, only with political unity could there be a reasonably stable environment, and unified government administration of water conservancy, and the elimination of man-made obstacles which limited economic exchange. It was the development of China's social economy which allowed unification to become an irresistible historical force.

Qin Shi Huang's contribution to history all rests with his going with the tide of historical development. In 246 BC, the young Qin king, Zheng, succeeded to the throne. He was the future Qin Shi Huang. After he came to power, relying on the day by day strengthening of economic and military power arising from the Qin state's Shang Yang political reforms, he seized the favourable situation. By befriending distant states while attacking those nearby, by dividing and sowing discord, and by using every kind of tactic to breach the enemy defences, within the space of about ten years, through wars of annexation, the six states of Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan and Qi were extinguished. In 221 BC, the great task of unification was completed.

To consolidate the unification of the state, King Zheng adopted a series of significant measures. First of all he changed his title to huangdi (emperor), called himself Qin Shi Huang (the First Emperor of Qin), and put in place a system of supreme imperial authority. From then on, "emperor" became the title of the supreme ruler for dynasty after dynasty of feudal states.

Qin Shi Huang founded a feudal state structure with centralised state power. In the centralised government, he set up the official positions of prime minister, imperial historian and physician, and court military official. The emperor was responsible for these appointments. The emperor passed affairs of state down to his officials "for court debate and discussion". The final ruling was made by the emperor. This set of institutions guaranteed the arbitrary and autocratic rule of the emperor.

Qin Shi Huang abolished the system of enfeoffment put in place by the Western Zhou, and implemented the prefectures and counties system, which had begun to be put in place in the late Warring States, across the whole state. He divided the entire country into thirty-six prefectures, and set up counties under them. The main prefectural and county officials were appointed directly by the emperor. This system weakened the independence of the regions in relation to the centre, and consolidated the unification of the state.

The Qin court also laid down a fairly comprehensive feudal statute book "The Qin Laws", and affirmed the feudal system of land ownership for the whole state. Furthermore, all the different written characters, currencies, and weights and measures from the different states of the Warring States Period were standardised. This made it easy for the ruler to collect taxes and make decrees. At the same time, it was also of great significance and far-reaching influence in consolidating the unity of the state and in accelerating the development of economic and cultural exchange between each national region.

By means of many military campaigns, Qin Shi Huang also made the empire's domains extend beyond those of previous reigns. Later, China's territory would develop from this base.

In Chinese history, Qin Shi Huang was an outstanding politician from the landlord class, who made a significant contribution to the historical development of China. This is because, only in an environment of unification, could the social economy and culture of the Chinese people achieve greater development and the independence of the state be assured. After Qin, in China's more than two thousand years of feudal society, although in some periods divisions and separatist rule occurred, unification has been the main trend throughout. That Chinese feudal economic culture could develop rapidly over a long period of time and, furthermore, could occupy the front rank of world civilisation, has an unseverable historical connection with Qin unification. At the time, the various types of systems initiated by the Qin Dynasty, the extensive domains, and the high levels of spiritual and material civilisation had a huge influence on the ancient world. In the same way as the later "Han person" and "Tang person" would, "Qin person" became a general designation given in history by other countries to Zhongguo (China).

Qin Shi Huang's rule was built on the foundation of the ruthless exploitation of the peasant class by the landlord class. There existed a brutal and benighted side to the feudal autocracy from the beginning; Qin Shi Huang's campaign to "Burn the books and resist Confucianism" reflects this side. In Qin Shi Huang's lifetime, the large-scale construction and continual warfare imposed heavy requisitions, land tax, corvée, and military service on the peasants, cutting off their means of livelihood. Therefore, "tormented by his tyranny they rebelled against his regime", the Qin Dynasty finally collapsed, and the Qin Emperor's tomb was burnt out in the war between Chu and Han. Today, the horse and warrior figurine pits have been excavated and have become an underground treasury of sculptural art, famous throughout the world. They have left a glorious page in the cultural history of humankind.

Translated from Wang Yong Kuan et al., Native land, China Youth Press, Beijing, 1983

Lou Shou draws the "Ploughing and Weaving Plates"

In ancient China there was a myth. It was said that the Weaving Maid Star on the east side of the Silver River in the Heavens was the granddaughter of the God of Heaven. She was clever and deft, and month after month, year after year, she was busy spinning and weaving, weaving beautiful cloud brocades and heavenly robes. She grew up, getting older day by day, until the time came when she should be married. The God of Heaven married her to the Cowherd Star on the west side of the Silver River. After the Weaving Maid Star had married the Cowherd Star and they became husband and wife, she put her spinning and weaving away to one side. This made the God of Heaven very angry, and to punish her, he made her go back to the east side, to go to the workroom to spin and weave; she was not allowed to go out. Only once each year, on the night of the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, was she allowed to cross a bridge put up by the magpies, and go to the west side to meet with the Cowherd Star. And that is the story behind the Cowherd and Weaving Maid's "Magpie Bridge Assignation".

This myth was not invented out of nothing. It is the depiction of the 'men plough women weave' self-sufficient natural economy of the human world in literary art.

Once it entered feudal society, China's foundation form of production was a 'men plough women weave' small-scale peasant economy, with families and households as the basic unit. The men cultivated the fields and produced grain, and the women picked mulberry leaves and raised silkworms, reeled silk and wove silk fabrics, or spun hemp and wove linen cloth . This type of 'men plough women weave' small-scale peasant economy was the basis for the development of China's feudal economy, and after capitalist production relations appeared, it was a major form of China's social production, and so the literary and artistic works, the murals, carvings, and poetry of history, all depict it to some extent. The "Illustrations of Ploughing and Weaving", drawn by Lou Shou in Southern Song times, focus on depicting the state of affairs of 'men plough women weave' production.

Lou Shou, style name Shou Yu, native of Yinxian (Ningbo City in present-day Zhejiang Province), was once county magistrate of Yuqian County. Yuqian County is to the west of Lin'an , at the foot of Tianmushan mountain, the place where the Tianmuxi river arises. It has the mountain behind it and faces onto the water; the scenery is beautiful and the land is fertile. On the mountain, the mulberry trees form groves, and on the flat land below, paddy rice is grown. When Lou Shou was county magistrate, he was very concerned about the weal and woe of the people, and once, making nothing of the hardships, he travelled everywhere privately, observing and interviewing, to understand the production and living circumstances of the people. Sometimes he would go down into the fields to interview the farming men at their cultivation work, to enquire whether the year's harvest had been good or poor; and sometimes he would go up onto the mountain to interview the silkworm women picking their mulberry leaves. By means of these on-the-spot surveys, Lou Shou wanted to help the toiling peasants overcome some of their production and living difficulties.

Because he had lived among the common people for a long time, Lou Shou was very familiar with the 'men plough women weave' state of affairs in the countryside. According to his own first-hand data comprehended over a long time, he drew page after page of cultivation illustrations and spinning and weaving illustrations. All put together, they were a systematic set, the "Ploughing and Weaving Plates". On each illustration he also inscribed a poem conveying his own thoughts. There are twenty illustrations of cultivation in the "Ploughing and Weaving Plates" showing the circumstances of South China's paddy rice production. The whole process, from the raising of rice seedlings, soil preparation, and transplanting the seedlings, to weeding the fields, lifting water by waterwheel, applying fertiliser, and harvesting, are all drawn very clearly, and there are also the circumstances of hemp growing, cotton growing and vegetable growing. Next, there are twenty-four spinning and weaving illustrations. The drawings of the processes, from picking mulberry leaves and silkworm rearing, to reeling silk, spinning hemp, spinning cotton, weaving cloth, weaving silk, and bleaching and dyeing, are extremely detailed. Lou Shou's aim in drawing this set of "Ploughing and Weaving Plates" was to show the laboriousness of peasant production, and to teach people to cherish the fruits of peasant labour and that they should economise on food and clothing and not be extravagant and wasteful.

In the Southern Song, China's level of agriculture and handicrafts production rose significantly. At that time, a large number of the working people of North China migrated south to escape the oppression of the rulers of the Jin State. Together with South China's working people they opened up the fertile land of South China, developing the agricultural and handicrafts production of the South in a big way.

At that time, there was a type of low-lying paddy field surrounded by dykes, in other words reclaimed lake bottom land. This sort of land utilised lake bottom sludge as fertiliser, the crops grew strongly and luxuriantly, and the production was higher than for other types of cropland. In South China there also appeared wooden-framed mound-fields floating on the water, in other words wooden rafts were placed on the water, earth was spread on them and crops were grown there. They were called 'turnip' fields. In Fujian, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Sichuan, where there were many hills, the peasants also opened up terraced fields at the foot of the hill, brought in river water to irrigate them, and grew paddy rice. According to records in the ancient books, by the time of the Southern Song, China's peasants had already developed around two hundred varieties of paddy rice. Amongst them were long-grained and short-grained rice suited to eating as boiled rice, and also glutinous rice suited to making New Year cake and wine. The good varieties of rice were glittering and translucent like jade, the grains were well-proportioned, and after boiling, the cooked rice was fragrant and sweet and good to eat. Because large numbers of North Chinese people had moved south, wheat growing was also popularised in the South, and many places took two crops of rice or wheat in a year. Apart from this, cotton growing also spread to the Yangtse and Huai river valleys, and in addition to weaving silk and linen, the women of the farming families also spun and wove cotton into cloth. In 1966, in Lanxi County in Zhejiang Province, archaeologists found a cotton blanket woven in Southern Song times. It was seven chi five cun long, and three chi five cun wide , and the woven work was really quite elegant, showing that the technology of the cotton textiles industry of the time was already at quite a high level.

Apart from this, the growing of tea was also quite widespread. The hill belts in many places had big expanses of tea plantations. Tea taxes became an important form of tax revenue for the Southern Song government. At that time, there was also development in vegetable cultivation. The types of vegetables were gradually increased. In addition to China's own local vegetables, some foreign introduced vegetables, such as spinach, lettuce, and the loofah gourd, arrived in China at this time. They were well-received by the Chinese people, and their cultivation was very quickly popularised in many places.

It was due to this type of development in agricultural production that it was actually possible for Lou Shou to draw the "Ploughing and Weaving Plates" as a set systematically.

The shipbuilding industry in Southern Song times was also very advanced. Apart from "pedal-wheel boats", ocean-going vessels used for marine trading could also be made. An ocean-going vessel of those times could accommodate several hundred people and a large quantity of cargo, along with one years grain provisions for those several hundred people. You could also make wine and keep pigs on board, to ensure that those who went to foreign places by sea had wine to drink and meat to eat on the vessel. Using a compass to indicate direction, this type of vessel would go to more than twenty countries in succession.

At the time, Jingdezhen in Jiangxi had already developed into a centre of production of the porcelain handicrafts industry, large-scale with a lot of firing kilns. The division of labour was quite fine; some specialised in making blanks, some specialised in applying glazes, some specialised in painting designs and some specialised in kiln-firing. Jingdezhen-made porcelain was pure white and jade-like in quality, the painting work was meticulous, the colours were bright and gay, and it was well-received by the people. In recent years, the countries of Africa, Japan and Korea have discovered under the ground or on the seabed many ancient Chinese ceramic items left over from ancient times, and of those the majority are Song porcelain. From this it can be seen that the porcelain produced in Song times was already being sold to the various parts of the world. Apart from this, Zhejiang's Longquan and Sichuan's Guangyuan areas both produced famous and precious porcelain.

The papermaking and printing industries of Southern Song times were also very advanced. Sichuan used paper-mulberry bark or bamboo to make paper, called paper-mulberry bark paper and bamboo paper. Anhui and Jiangxi on the other hand used hemp or bamboo to make paper. These papers were all good materials for printing pictures and books.

In Sui and Tang times, block printing had been invented, and in the Northern Song, moveable type printing was invented. However, in the Southern Song, moveable type printing was not yet widespread, and the majority of works were still printed using block printing. At the time, Lin'an's Imperial College (Guozijian) was the highest seat of learning in the whole country, and had set up a block printing department. The books printed there had the ink well-distributed and the handwriting was clear. They were known as "Imperial Office" . The two towns of Masha and Chongren at Jianyang in Fujian were centres of book printing as well, and the books they printed were also very elegant. It is said that Lou Shou's "Ploughing and Weaving Plates" was printed at that time; it is a pity it has not been handed down. Not many books printed in the Song Dynasty have come down to us today, though some are kept in the Beijing Library and some of the other large libraries. These works are a precious cultural legacy of the Chinese people.

In the Northern Song, due to the continual development of production and in order to meet the requirements of trade, the world's earliest paper money started to appear. At the time it was called jiaozi or qianyin (which is just today's circulated banknotes). In Southern Song times, in order to expropriate the people's property, the ruling class had the Ministry of Revenue at the court print a large quantity of paper money called kuaizi. Because too much was issued, this led to inflation.

From the "Ploughing and Weaving Plates" that Lou Shou drew, we can see that the agriculture and handicrafts industry production of the time as well as the situation of development in science and culture and in domestic and external trade, all of these, were built on the foundation of the 'men plough women weave' natural economy.

Translated from Zhu Zhongyu, Chinese History Stories - Southern Song and Jin, China Children's and Young People's Press, Beijing, 1982

Editors’ Foreword

A clear and boundless sky, the swan-geese flying high, a vast and endless waste, a prospect without end. In the wilderness echoes the rhythmical sound of camel bells. Camel trains laden with silk, moving with the sound of the bells, walk slowly west. Suddenly, a great herd of fine black steeds, with raised heads, prancing, in a vast and mighty throng, gallops eastward … This is the way the literary writers wrote of the ancient Silk Route.

China is the home of the Silk Route. As early as four thousand years ago, the Yellow River Valley region produced silk. In probably around the 5th Century BC, Chinese silk fabric began to move to the West, being sold successively as far as Greece, Rome and India. The outstanding ambassador and explorer of the Western Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian, set out from Chang'an twice as envoy to the Western Regions, and, after the subsequent opening up of the vital east-west communication link across Central Asia, large quantities of Chinese silk began to move westward. Over the long succeeding years, who can say how many Chinese people from every ethnic group, and how many Central and West Asian people from every country came and went, leading their camels or riding their horses, travelling day and night, scaling mountains and fording streams, on that roughly seven thousand kilometre-long road. Following that route, pearls from the Mediterranean Sea and fine horses from the West were transported to Chang'an in a steady stream, and China’s beautiful silks floated west adding a gorgeous lustre to the markets of ancient Rome. For year upon year, this route, binding together the friendship between China and the peoples of all the countries to the West and carrying commerce and culture between the two, was renowned as the wonderful “Silk Road”. After the discovery of the new sea route from Europe to the East in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Silk Route finally became an historic relic, symbolising the period of friendly interchange between the peoples of China and the West. Today many foreign historians, archaeologists and tourists, making light of the long journey, come to China, to wander along the route, seeking out the historic and scenic places, recalling the friendly history of contact between the Chinese and other peoples and building up pleasant impressions.

Gansu is in the eastern section of the Silk Route. The Silk Route passes through Gansu for more than one thousand six hundred kilometres, which is one fifth of its entire length. Here remain the traces of many famous historical figures, and a rich variety of cultural and historical artifacts.

This book will follow the line of the Silk Route, introducing you to the famed Dunhuang Mogao Caves, Tianshui’s Maijishan Caves, and the Three Great Caves at Yongjing’s Bingling Monastery. It will also introduce you to the famous “Two Pass” ruins – Yangguan and Yumenguan; to the western end of the Great Wall, the “Impregnable Pass”, Jiayuguan; and to the cities and towns along the way, the special local products and dishes, and the customs of the ethnic minorities. If you come to Gansu as a tourist, this book also has points to note when touring, and the best itineraries for your visit.

Translated from Duan, Qi and Li eds., Gansu Tourist Guide (1982), China Tourism Publishing House, Beijing
Keywords: agriculture, government, industry, commerce, manufacturing, literature, language, education, Chinese geography, Chinese tourism, Chinese culture, Chinese history, Chinese literature, Chinese education

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Oct 16



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