“春蚕吐丝，流水行地，以形写神，皆出自然”，中国古代绘画史上当此巨赞者，唯有东晋顾恺之的绢画《女史箴图》。此画是顾恺之根据西晋张华《女史箴》一诗所作，“女史”指宫廷妇女，“箴”则为规劝之意；此画唐摹本原收藏在圆明园，1860年“火烧圆明园”后被掠夺并流失海外，现收藏于大英博物馆。
一卷旷世名作，带出多少朝代兴衰史……
英式发音 适合精读
This programme is about a masterpiece of painting from China. It's a scroll, painted around the years 400 or 500. It's known as the 1)Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies—or the Admonitions Scroll for short—and it's a kind of ancient guide to manners, and above all to morals, for ladies of the Chinese court—it tells powerful women how to behave.
本期节目讲的是一幅来自于中国的绘画名作。它是一幅绘制于公元400或500年左右的卷轴画。它被称为《女史箴图》，简称《箴图》，这算是古代的一种行为规箴，尤其是对于中国宫廷女子道德品行的规诫——它告诉位高权重的女性应该如何为人处事。
It's about 20 feet (6m) long. The story of its creation is a process that brings together artists of different periods. The starting point was a long poem written by the courtier Zhang Hua in 292 AD. About half of the scroll is made up of painted scenes, each one divided from the next by lines from the poem.
它长约20英尺（6米）。其创作故事则是一个将不同历史时期的艺术家们联系在一起的过程。其创作开始于公元292年由朝臣张华所作的一首长诗。卷轴约有一半是由数段情景绘画构成的，而每一段绘画都由《女史箴》诗中的相关诗句与下一段隔开。
At the time that the poem was written, China was in a state of 2)fragmentation—following the collapse of the Han Empire—and competing forces 3)jostled for supremacy, constantly threatening to 4)dethrone the Emperor. The Emperor himself was mentally 5)deficient, and so his wife, Empress Jia, had a great deal of power, which she spectacularly misused. The poem was written by her courtier, Zhang Hua, who was a minister at court and, according to a written history of the time, Zhang Hua was increasingly horrified by the way the Empress and her 6)clan were 7)usurping the authority of her husband; she was 8)jeopardizing the stability of the dynasty and of the state by murder, 9)intrigue and 10)riotous sexual affairs. Zhang Hua wrote the poem 11)ostensibly to educate all the women of the court, but his real target was of course the Empress herself. He hoped, through the inspiring and beautiful form of poetry, that he'd be able to lead his12)wayward ruler to a life of moral correctness, restraint and 13)decorum:
诗作创作背景：随着汉朝的崩塌，中国正处于四分五裂的状态，各种势力争相谋夺霸权，当朝皇帝还时常面临被废黜的威胁。当时的皇帝心智不全，于是他的妻子贾后手握重权，却滥用无度。这首诗便是由她的朝臣张华所作。张华是朝中的大臣，根据当时的史书所载，由于皇后及其宗族从她丈夫手中篡权乱政，使得张华越发深感惊骇；她正在以谋杀、阴谋和荒淫危及朝局和国家的安定。因此张华作了这首诗，表面上是为了教育所有的宫廷女子，但他真正的目标当然是皇后本人。他希望，通过诗歌具启发性且优美的形式，他能够引导刚愎自用的统治者步入守道修心、自律得体的生活中。
“Keep an eager guard over your behaviour;
For thence happiness will come.
Fulfill your duties calmly and respectfully;
Thus shall you win glory and honour.”
“翼翼矜矜，
福所以兴。
靖恭自思，
荣显所期。”