（これは中国史の本で一部分を読んで書いたまとめです。うまく表現できなかったかもしれないので、日本語で伝えたい意味をだいたい英語で一文ずつ表現しました。）

中国の新石器時代文化の特徴は農業・粘土細工・織物・村を中心とした氏族制度のある社会だ。

The Chinese Neolithic Period is characterized by agriculture, clay pottery, textiles, and societies centered on the village with a clan system.

学者によると紀元前五千年記からこの新石器時代の文化は分類方法が二つあるそうだ。

According to scholars, from around the 5th millennium BC onwards the cultures of the Neolithic Period can be divided in two ways.

ひとつめは地理的で南方と北方を区別するのです。

The first consists of distinguishing the Northern and the Southern areas geographically.

長江流域にある南方の文化には米が主要な作物で、乾きすぎ寒すぎる北方の文化には雑穀が主要な作物だったそうだ。

The Southern cultures around the Yangtze River Basin had rice as their main crop, while the Northern cultures, being too dry and cold, had millet as their main crop.

第二目は埋葬の伝統や遺物の飾り方などで東方と西方を区別するのです。

The second is to distinguish the Western and Eastern areas according to burial traditions and artifact decoration practices.

西方にある文化は単純な埋葬の伝統があり、幾何学的なデザインのある粘土細工が日々の生活で使われていたそうだ。

The cultures in the West had simple burial traditions and used pottery with geometric designs in their everyday life.

東方の文化はもっと複雑な埋葬の伝統があり、しばしば翡翠の工芸品を墓に入れていて、あまり装飾的ではないが品が良い粘土細工があったそうだ。

The cultures in the East had more complicated burial traditions, would often place jade objects in graves, and had pottery of good quality but little decoration.

新石器時代末期は一般的に階層化していて、養蚕業が発展した。

By the end of the Neolithic Period, there was general social stratification, and sericulture (i.e. silk cultivation) had developed.

この時代の人々は自分たちの運命をあの世から見守ることなどを祖先に託したそうだ。

People in this age entrusted their ancestors with the task of watching over their destiny from the afterlife.

その後、おそらく夏王朝、遅くとも商王朝の時代には支配者が祖先から知恵と権威を得た。

Later, perhaps during the Xia Dynasty, but certainly by the Shang Dynasty, sovereigns drew their wisdom and authority from their ancestors

至高祖先のアイディアはもともとは人間の形をしていたものの、周王朝の時代には抽象的になってきた。

The idea of the Supreme Ancestor was initially anthropomorphic (i.e. had a human shape), but during the Zhou Dynasty it became more abstract.

祖先を祭る儀式の習慣は文字の発展と強く結びついている。

Ritual practices honoring the ancestors are strongly linked to the development of writing.

商王朝の時代には初めて文字が現れ、いわゆる甲骨文字と呼ばれている。

During the Shang Dynasty period, the first writings appeared, which are known as "bone oracle script."

牛の肩甲骨や亀の甲羅などを火に近づけて熱が作ったシワやヒビなどの形が祖先に聞いた質問の答えを伝えると思われていた。

Things such as bovine scapula and tortoise carapace were exposed to fire, and the shape of the cracks and lines caused by the heat were believed to reveal the answers of questions posed to the ancestors.

それでその質問と答えをその使った骨に記していた。

These questions and answers were then recorded on the bone itself.

［最後の修正：2024年2月15日］