口語式短文：皇帝不上朝

The emperor did not go to court :

•  My dad likes to read the history of Ming Dynasty. Recently he told me a story about an emperor who did not go to court.

• 爸爸喜歡讀明史，他最近講了一個皇帝不上朝的故事給我聽。

•  The Jiajing Emperor was the 11th emperor of the Ming Dynasty. While he reigned China for 45 years, he did not go to court for over half of his reign.

• 嘉靖皇帝是明朝第十一任皇帝，他在位 45 年，卻有超過一半時間不上朝。

•  Going to court to rule the country was his duty as an emperor. So I think this emperor must have been very lazy.

• 皇帝上朝治理國家是他的本分，所以我覺得這個不上朝的皇帝一定很懶惰。

•  Dad says that the Jiajing Emperor at first ruled the country very seriously. Unfortunately later on he went off the right track while pursuing immortality.

• 爸爸說，嘉靖帝一開始其實很認真治國，可惜後來為追求長生不老，走了偏鋒。

•  He used the blood of palace maids to make pills of immortality and thus killed many of them. After consulting with each other, some maids determined to strangle him to death.

• 他用宮女的血煉丹，害死許多宮女，一些宮女們商量後決定要勒死他。

•  On the night of one day in his 21th year of reign, one palace maid used hemp rope to make a loop around his neck while he was sleeping.

• 在他在位第 21 年的某一天晚上，一位宮女趁著他睡著時，用麻繩套在他脖子上。

•  She should have made a slipknot in order to strangle the emperor to death. But she was so nervous that she made a fast knot instead.

• 她應該打活結才能勒死皇帝，可是她太慌亂了，反而打了個死結。

•  The emperor was strangled unconscious, but not dead. All the palace maids who had participated in this plot were put to death in the end.

• 皇帝被勒昏了，但沒勒死。參與此事的宮女們最後都被處死。

•  The Jiajing Emperor was frightened by the plot. From then on he spent most of his time making pills of immortality in his inner palace. He did not go to court anymore.

• 嘉靖皇帝被這件事嚇到了，從此以後更努力在內宮中煉丹追求長生不老，他再也不上朝了。

發表時間：2009/08/12 著作人：周國華老師

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