This year, the Forbidden City turns 600 years old. This is not only a big event for Chinese people, but also a cultural milestone for the entire world.
今年是紫禁城建成600年。這不僅是中國(guó)人民的大事，也是全世界的文化里程碑。

Over the last six centuries, many cultural exchanges have taken place inside the high walls of the world’s largest palace complex.
過(guò)去的600年間，在這個(gè)全球最大的宮殿群的高墻之內(nèi)，發(fā)生了許多文化交流的故事。

In the 13th century, when the West got its first glimpse of ancient China through Italian merchant Marco Polo’s writing, the country had little contact with the outside world. But Italian priest Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), the first Westerner to make his way to the imperial court, changed this during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
13世紀(jì)時(shí)，西方通過(guò)意大利商人馬可·波羅之筆，得以首次一窺古代中國(guó)的面貌，當(dāng)時(shí)的中國(guó)與外界鮮有交流。但明朝(1368-1644)時(shí)，作為首位叩開宮廷大門的西方人，意大利傳教士利瑪竇(1552-1610)改變了這一局面。

Ricci made contributions to the fields of science and astronomy in China. He worked together with Chinese scientist Xu Guangqi to translate the first six books of Euclid’s Elements into Chinese and taught it to Chinese scholars.
利瑪竇在中國(guó)為科學(xué)及天文學(xué)領(lǐng)域做出了貢獻(xiàn)。他與中國(guó)科學(xué)家徐光啟合作，將《幾何原本》的前六本譯成中文，傳授給中國(guó)學(xué)者。

He also brought new knowledge about map-making and taught people that the world was round with the first European-style world map in Chinese.
他還帶來(lái)了地圖繪制的新知識(shí)，并通過(guò)首張中文的歐式世界地圖告訴人們地球是圓的。

Numerous foreigners followed in Ricci’s footsteps. Giuseppe Castiglione, also known as Lang Shining (1688-1766), was one of them.
無(wú)數(shù)外國(guó)人追隨利瑪竇的腳步來(lái)到中國(guó)。郎世寧(1688-1766)便是其中之一。

Castiglione, a talented painter, was sent to China to work for a church in 1715 and was later invited to the imperial court to produce paintings for Qing Dynasty’s Emperor Kangxi.
1715年，才華橫溢的畫家郎世寧來(lái)到中國(guó)的一個(gè)教堂工作，后來(lái)他受邀入宮為清朝康熙帝作畫。

When Castiglione served in the imperial court, he designed many murals in the Forbidden City using techniques that were popular in European cathedrals and theaters.
入宮任職期間，郎世寧在紫禁城中設(shè)計(jì)了不少壁畫，這些壁畫都使用了當(dāng)時(shí)歐洲大教堂與劇院的流行畫法。

Ever since, “a new ... style that combined Western realism with traditional Chinese conventions of composition and brushwork has emerged in China”, wrote the Metropolitan Museum of Art, US.
此后，“中國(guó)出現(xiàn)了一種結(jié)合了西方現(xiàn)實(shí)主義與中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)構(gòu)圖和畫法的全新風(fēng)格”，美國(guó)大都會(huì)藝術(shù)博物館如此寫道。

The first Westerners to the imperial court also provided firsthand reports to Europe through their letters, notes and books about China. “It makes the West recognize a country with an advanced civilization evolving outside of the Biblical history of God’s interaction with man,” Zhu Yong, director of the Palace Museum Cultural Communication Institute, told China Daily.
這些首批入宮的西方人還通過(guò)他們的信件、筆記以及關(guān)于中國(guó)的著作向歐洲提供了第一手資料。“這讓西方意識(shí)到，在《圣經(jīng)》人神互動(dòng)的歷史之外，還有一個(gè)擁有先進(jìn)文明的國(guó)家在不斷發(fā)展，”故宮文化傳播研究所所長(zhǎng)祝勇在接受《中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)》采訪時(shí)如此表示。

Their stories are just a small piece of the puzzle of cross cultural communication between China and the outside world. But it demonstrates “the Forbidden City had provided a bridge for communication between China and the rest of world”, noted China Daily.
他們的故事不過(guò)是中國(guó)與外界跨文化交流中的冰山一角。但這體現(xiàn)了“故宮為中國(guó)提供了與外界溝通的橋梁，”《中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)》報(bào)道指出。

以上文章內(nèi)容選自《21世紀(jì)學(xué)生英文報(bào)高中版》，詳情請(qǐng)見《21世紀(jì)學(xué)生英文報(bào)高中版》高二806期