注意，由于本书是以家族和人的视角来讲述世界史，且章节之间有较多的不同文化和文明的交叉，本文仅涉及China部分，自其他文明章节中摘出，或摘自讲述China的章节。翻译做了一些简化。该书作者在国内出版过畅销书《耶路撒冷三千年》、《罗曼诺夫王朝》等。
第三幕：世界人口1.2亿
“Trajans and First Step Sharks: Romans and the Maya”
“MOTHERS, BROTHERS AND SISTERS: NERO, AGRIPPINA AND THE BANS”
“母亲、兄弟和姐妹：尼禄、阿格里皮娜，和班氏”
“Poppaea dressed gorgeously in the material that was suddenly fashionable: women started wearing Chinese silk with nothing underneath. ‘I see clothes of silk,’ grumbled Seneca, ‘if materials that don’t hide the body nor even one’s decency can be called clothes. Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress – and her husband has not more acquaintance with his wife’s body than any stranger …’ The fashion required the shaving of pubic hair, which appalled the well-connected naturalist Pliny the Elder. The Senate several times banned the immoral wearing of silk – but fashion was stronger. As was money.*”
...女性开始穿着Chinese丝绸，但下面不着一物...“我看到丝做的衣服”，塞内卡抱怨到，“如果这种既挡不住身体也遮不住尊严的材料能被称作衣服的话... 丈夫对妻子身体的熟悉度还比不上陌生人。” 这种时尚要求剔光耻毛，这点吓到了人脉宽广的自然学者普林尼。塞内卡多次禁止穿着丝绸的不道德行为 - 但时尚更重要。和金钱一样。”
“In the Central Country, the source of this silk, a brilliant family of Chinese writers and soldiers was experiencing the opportunities and perils of serving the other great dynasty of world power, the Han.”
在丝绸来源的中央之国，一个拥有作家和军人的杰出家庭正因为侍奉另一个世界大国，汉朝，经历着机遇和磨难。
“In AD 54, Ban Biao, who had started to write a private history of the imperial family, perished, leaving his masterwork Hanshu – the Book of Han – unfinished. The brutality and avarice of court feuding had almost destroyed the Han, but after a bloody civil war a masterly Han cousin, Emperor Guangwu, had restored the dynasty and appointed Ban to write its history. When Ban died, he left three children: two sons, a dreamy poet, Ban Gu, then aged twenty-two, a tough soldier, Ban Chao, twenty-one, and a daughter, Ban Zhao, nine, who would be the most remarkable of a talented family. All three would change history in different ways that extended from the imperial court all the way across the Silk Road towards the west. Each became famous, one as a historian, one as a conqueror and one as a writer, courtier and female advocate – one of the first women to achieve such prominence.
公元54年，开始撰写帝国私史的班彪去世，留下他未竟的著作汉书。残酷和贪婪的宫廷斗争几乎摧毁了汉朝。但在一场血腥的内战后，一位家族表亲光武帝恢复了王朝统治，并指定班彪来撰写历史。当班彪去世，他留下三个子女：两个儿子，一个是时年22岁、做白日梦的诗人班固，一个是21岁的彪悍军人班超；一个女儿，9岁的班昭，她会成为家庭中才华最耀人的那个。他们三人都讲从不同的方面书写历史，从帝国宫廷，沿着丝绸之路向西。每人都将成名，一个历史学家，一个征服者，还有一个作家，侍臣和为女性权益的倡议者 - 最早成就该类影响的女性之一。
Ban Gu started to work in private on his father’s book. His ruffian brother Ban Chao had no interest in such delicate activity: he had joined the court, serving the emperor as a clerk of the Orchid Terrace, but its slow pace bored him. He craved adventure.
继承父亲的著作，班固私下开始工作起来。他彪悍的兄弟班超对这种慢工细活毫无兴致：班超加入军队，但慢节奏让他百无聊赖。他渴望冒险。
When the old emperor died, he was succeeded by his son, the thirty-year-old Ming, who heard that Ban Gu was ‘privately revising the national history’ – a euphemism for failing to extol the virtues of the dynasty. Ban was arrested, his library impounded. Fortunately his brother, Ban Chao, appealed to Ming on his behalf. Mingdi released him, summoned him to court and appointed him official Han historian while his brother Chao preferred rougher pursuits: ‘Throw away your writing-brush,’ he advised the delicate historian, ‘and join the army!’ Chao joined General Dou Gu on a campaign against the barbarians, in which his bloody exploits, cultural curiosity and political gifts made him the greatest Chinese conquistador, expanding the Western Region (Central Asia). The Bans were flourishing, but the Han court was as dangerous as that of the Caesars.”
老皇帝去世后，30岁的汉明帝继位，听说班固在“私修国史” - 并非是颂扬汉德。班固被抓捕，其藏书也被扣押。幸运的是他的弟弟班超代他向明帝求情。明帝将其释放，召他入朝并委任他为官方的史学家，而他的兄弟班超有其他追求，他曾建议哥哥投笔从戎。一场战役中，班超在将军窦固的军队中抗击蛮族，在这场战争中，他血腥的战绩、对文化的好奇以及政治天赋让他成为一位China的“征服者（Conquistador原为称呼西班牙美洲殖民者的专用词）”，扩张了西域领土。班氏兴旺，但汉家朝廷和罗马凯撒的宫廷一样凶险。
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