2020年经济学人 《欧洲中心的历史》书评--手工业和商业(1)

Books & arts

文艺版块

Book review

书评

Craft and commerce

手工业和商业

Shifting plates

不断变化的盘子

Porcelain¹: A History from the Heart of Europe.

瓷器：欧洲中心的历史

By Suzanne Marchand.

作者：苏珊娜·马钱德。

It sounds like a fairy-tale.A visionary alchemist, arrested by a tyrannical ruler, is put to work turning scraps² into riches. Yet for a few years in the early 18th century Johann Friedrich Bottger was a genuine Rumpelstiltskin. Seized by Augustus the Strong, elector of Saxony, after he crossed Prussia’s frontier, Bottger was imprisoned³ and ordered to conjure⁴ up treasure—and, in a sense, he did. He didn’t make gold, but Bottger was the first European to create something almost as precious: porcelain.

这听起来像个童话故事。暴君逮捕了一名有创见的炼金术士，并派他去变废为宝。在18世纪初，约翰·弗雷德里克·博特格还是个真正的少年。博特格在穿过普鲁士边界后，被萨克森选帝侯“强者”奥古斯图斯抓住囚禁了起来，并被命令创造出宝藏，而从某种意义上来说，他做到了。博特格没有制造黄金，但他是第一个创造了与黄金几乎同等珍贵的瓷器的欧洲人。

As Suzanne Marchand shows in her meticulous⁵ new book, porcelain has been integral to German life since its reinvention in Saxony in 1708 (the Chinese perfected the craft centuries earlier). It was initially⁶ a plaything for princes, as Bottger’s incarceration⁷ suggests; Augustus and his rivals sponsored state-run factories for what one called the “splendour and prestige” of their realms.From that beginning, Ms Marchand traces porcelain’s role in German history, examining its uses from Romantic busts⁸ of Goethe to Nazi⁹ egg cups.

就像是苏珊娜·马钱德在她精心完成的新书中展示的那样，自从1708年博特格在萨克森州重新发明了瓷器（几个世纪前中国人完善了这一工艺），瓷器就一直是德国人生活中不可或缺的一部分。瓷器最初是王子们的玩物，博特格受到囚禁也表明了这一点；奥古斯图斯和他的对手赞助了国营工厂，以获得所谓的王国“辉煌和威望”。从那一刻起，马尔汉德女士追溯了瓷器在德国历史上的作用，从歌德的浪漫半身像到纳粹蛋杯，她考察了瓷器的用途。

“Porcelain” is about more than culture. Because the commodity was prized and produced over centuries, the author uses it to explore wider economic changes. Ultimately it became thoroughly¹⁰ industrialised— porcelain’s use in false teeth and telegraph insulator¹¹ tubes leads Ms Marchand to call it the plastic of its day—but the path to modernity meandered¹². Several early factories, including the famous one at Meissen, were just converted palaces or monasteries¹³, run by courtiers in powdered wigs¹⁴. Some idiosyncrasies survived into the 20th century: though they hated all things aristocratic, East German officials brought back classic rococo¹⁵ figurines after Marxist alternatives proved unsellable.

“瓷器”不仅仅是文化。由于几个世纪以来这种商品一直受到高度重视和生产，因此作者用它来探索更广泛的经济变化。最终，它彻底工业化了——将瓷器应用于假牙和电线绝缘管中，使马钱德女士将其称之为当时的塑料——但通往现代化的道路是曲折的。早期的几家工厂，包括著名的梅森工厂，都是由宫殿或修道院改建的，由头戴扑粉假发的朝臣经营着。一些特质延续到了20世纪：尽管他们痛恨一切贵族化的东西，但在马克思主义的替代品被证明无法出售后，东德官员恢复生产经典的洛可可雕像。

1 porcelain   

n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的

参考例句：

• These porcelain plates have rather original designs on them.这些瓷盘的花纹很别致。
• The porcelain vase is enveloped in cotton.瓷花瓶用棉花裹着。

2 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

3 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

4 conjure   

v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法

参考例句：

• I conjure you not to betray me.我恳求你不要背弃我。
• I can't simply conjure up the money out of thin air.我是不能像变魔术似的把钱变来。

5 meticulous   

adj.极其仔细的，一丝不苟的

参考例句：

• We'll have to handle the matter with meticulous care.这事一点不能含糊。
• She is meticulous in her presentation of facts.她介绍事实十分详细。

6 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

7 incarceration   

n.监禁，禁闭；钳闭

参考例句：

• He hadn't changed much in his nearly three years of incarceration. 在将近三年的监狱生活中，他变化不大。 来自辞典例句
• Please, please set it free before it bursts from its long incarceration! 请你，请你将这颗心释放出来吧！否则它会因长期的禁闭而爆裂。 来自辞典例句

8 busts   

半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 )； 妇女的胸部； 胸围； 突击搜捕

参考例句：

• Dey bags swells up and busts. 那奶袋快胀破了。
• Marble busts all looked like a cemetery. 大理石的半身象，简直就象是坟山。

9 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

10 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

11 insulator   

n.隔离者；绝缘体

参考例句：

• Few substances can equal fur as an insulator.作为绝缘体很少有其他材料能与动物皮毛相媲美。
• A loose mulch acts on the surface as an insulator.疏松的覆盖物在土壤表面起了隔热的作用。

12 meandered   

（指溪流、河流等）蜿蜒而流( meander的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A stream meandered towards the sea. 一条小河蜿蜒地流向大海。
• The small river meandered in lazy curves down the centre. 小河缓缓地绕着中心地区迤逦流过。

13 monasteries   

修道院( monastery的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• In ancient China, there were lots of monasteries. 在古时候，中国有许多寺院。
• The Negev became a religious center with many monasteries and churches. 内格夫成为许多庙宇和教堂的宗教中心。

14 wigs   

n.假发，法官帽( wig的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They say that wigs will be coming in again this year. 据说今年又要流行戴假发了。 来自辞典例句
• Frank, we needed more wigs than we thought, and we have to do some advertising. 弗兰克，因为我们需要更多的假发，而且我们还要做点广告。 来自电影对白

15 rococo   

n.洛可可；adj.过分修饰的

参考例句：

• She had a passion for Italian rococo.他热衷与意大利的洛可可艺术风格。
• Rococo art portrayed a world of artificiality,make-believe,and game-playing.洛可可艺术描绘出一个人工的、假装的和玩乐性的世界。