Chapter One： The Greek Culture

1： The Odyssey by Homer

2： Poetics by Aristotle

Chapter Two： The Roman Culture

1： Commentaries on the Gallic War by Gaius Julius Caesar

2： The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Chapter Three： The Hebrew Culture

1： Genesis from The Hebrew Bible

2： The Ten Commandments by Mose

Chapter Four： The Christian Culture

1： Matthew from The New Testament

2： The Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas

Chapter Five： Chinese Attractions

1：  An Interpretive Essay on The Ming Dynasty Comes to Power by

LungKee Sun

2： The Travels of Marco Polo by Rustichello da Pisa

Chapter Six： The European Ethics

1： To Marcus Tullius Cicero by Francis Petrarch

2： The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione

Chapter Seven： The European Expansion

1：  Treaty between Spain and Portugal concluded at Tordesillas by Spain and

Portugal

2： The True History of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz del Castillo

Chapter Eight： The Protestant Reformation

1：  Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by

Martin Luther

2： Decrees of the Council of Trent

Chapter Nine： The West Uprising after Renaissance

1： The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber

2： The Social Contract by JeanJacques Rousseau

Chapter Ten： The Scientific Revolution

1： On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus

2：The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin

Chapter Eleven： The Enlightenment

1：  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by

Adam Smith

2： Letters Concerning the English Nation by Voltaire

Chapter Twelve： American Revolution

1：  The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen by the

National Assembly of France

2： The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson

Chapter Thirteen： Socialism and Communism

1： The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

2： Capital： Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx

Chapter Fourteen： Multiculturalism and Globalism

1：  The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by

Samuel Huntington

2： The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn

References

Acknowledgements

Preface

为落实教育部高等教育发展战略，结合中央民族大学（下简称民大）长期坚持基础宽厚的人才培养理念，2012年教务处组织建设首批素质教育通识课程。这为丰富民大本科课程、提高教师教学科研水平、完善学生知识结构、提高人才综合素质等方面均起到重要促进作用。民大外语学院英语系王林教授组织多名相关专业领域拥有丰富教学经验和从事多年学术研究工作的专家、学者，共同参与建设首批素质教育通识课程。经过数年不懈努力，项目组多批次完成新型课程和教材研发以及专业研究论文发表等多项建设成果。其中，为民大各级学生开设的新型课程有：英语语言与西方文化、西方社会与文化、英美文化研究专题等。其中，既有素质教育通识核心课程，又有在相同教学理念和思想指导下纳入最新版本科培养方案必修课程和研究生课程。涉及范围包括全校非英语专业各级本科生、英语专业一年级本科生、英语教育专业和英语语言与文化专业研究生等。《西方文化经典英文教程》基于上述课程讲稿汇集而成。全书定稿已于上述课程试用多轮，深受教师和学生欢迎。

本教程旨在为学生描绘宏观西方文化图景，同时搭建微观认识西方思想发展基本框架，并甄选代表性原文或英语译文篇章，经一定编辑，去粗取精，形成相对清晰的脉络骨架。通过有限的篇幅，为学生提供相对丰富和较具代表性的文本。在训练和提高学生英语语言能力的同时，认识、分析和批判西方文化发展之源流，反观中国文化，力求更好认识自己，并为我所用，达到人文教化之目的。

为便于说明，我们在实际教学工作中将西方文化发展大体分为古典、中世纪和现代三个阶段，大体对应本教程1-3章、4-8章和9-14章。虽然三阶段文化并非割裂，但教师也应引导学生认识公元476年西罗马帝国灭亡和文艺复兴对西方社会文化和思想发展的转折意义以及深远影响。同时，还应引导学生认识世界文化间的相互作用，尤其是古代中国摒弃海权对西方崛起和世界重心欧洲转向的历史作用。唐皇李世民云：“以铜为镜，可以正衣冠；以古为镜，可以知兴替。”现阶段，我们认识和学习西方思想和文化的重要目的之一便是以史为鉴，谨慎思考中国的发展前途和处世之道。

本教程涉猎内容广泛，既可作为课堂教学和语言训练使用，又可作为提高西方文化人文素养的阅读材料和参考书使用。建议使用者在使用本书时充分利用导读问题和内容简介，也可根据实际情况和个人思考自行设问，并经常从地理方位、人口数量、气候特点、民族构成、语言交织和风俗习惯等客观因素比对中国文化或东方文化，认识自然因素对文化发展和社会模式产生的影响，以及文化间相互渗透和促进的一般规律，进而培养学习者的大历史思维和理性的全球文化观念。

西方文化经典英文教程自身属性决定本书取材多来自西方经典著作抑或文献，这对我们认识西方文化内核和形成过程十分有帮助。然而五章一节Lung-Kee Sun的分析性文章似乎稍显异类。之所如此，实为编者有意为之。此文行文顺畅达意，说理深刻。既为学生语言学习的绝好语料，其中贯穿的理性主义思想和文化批判精神对人们认识近代中国落后根源和现代治国胜利之法亦大有裨益。教师在使用本部分材料时应注意引导学生分析故步自封、夜郎自大对民族发展的巨大危害，进一步认识邓小平同志提出并倡导的“改革开放”和“解放思想”理论在新时期的重要价值和对民族文化发展的意义。

——编者

<<<Chapter One： The Greek Culture

Chapter One： The Greek Culture

1： The Odyssey by Homer

A brief introduction： The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second oldest extant work of Western literature, the Iliad being the oldest Scholars believe it was composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek coastal region of Anatolia The poem mainly centers on the Greek hero Odysseus (known as Ulysses in Roman myths) and his journey home after the fall of Troy It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the tenyear Trojan War In his absence, it is assumed he has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly suitors, the Mnesteres or Proci, who compete for Penelopes hand in marriage

Leadin questions： What were the cause and effect of Trojan War? Was the Trojan horse true? Why or why not?

The Odysse

by Homer (8th Century BC)

Book XXIII Eurycleia tells Penelope the news

The old woman clambered upstairs, chuckling aloud as she went, to tell her mistress her beloved husband was home Her knees were working away, though she tottered as she went She stood at the head of the bed and spoke to her lady, saying： ‘Penelope, dear child, wake and see with your own eyes what you’ve longed for all this time Odysseus is here, he is home after so many years He has killed all the proud Suitors who plagued the house, wasted his stores, and bullied his son’

Then wise Penelope woke and answered： ‘My dear nurse, the gods who can make fools of the wisest, and give insight to the simpleminded, have crazed you and led your wits astray, you who were always so sensible Why do you mock me, whose heart is full of tears, with this mad tale? You woke me from sleep, sweet sleep that closed my eyelids and wrapped me round Never have I slept so sound, since Odysseus sailed to Ilium the Evil that it would be better not to name Go downstairs again, back to the servant’s hall! If any other of my women had woken me to tell me this, I’d have sent her back there with a flea in her ear, but your old age spares you’

‘Dear child, I wouldn’t mock you,’ faithful Eurycleia replied, ‘it is true, Odysseus is here, he is home, just as I said He’s the stranger they all insulted in the hall Telemachus knew long ago he was here, but he managed to keep his father’s plans hidden, till he could revenge himself on those violent and arrogant men’

At this, Penelope leapt from her bed in joy, and threw her arms about the old woman, with tears springing from her eyes Then she spoke to her with winged words： ‘Dear Nurse, come now, tell me truly, if it really is him come home as you say： how could he tackle the shameless Suitors singlehandedly, with them always crowding in the house in a pack?’

‘I couldn’t see and didn’t ask, but I still heard the groans of dying men,’ loyal Eurycleia replied ‘We women sat there, terrorstricken, in the furthest depths of our thickwalled quarters, with the doors shut tight, until the moment when your son called to me from the hall, as his father had told him There I found Odysseus standing over the corpses, lying piled around him on the solid floor It would have gladdened your heart to see him： all spattered with blood and gore like a lion he was Now the dead are heaped together at the courtyard gate, and he has had a great fire made, and is purifying our fine house He sent me to call you, so come with me now, so your hearts may rejoice together, you who have known such suffering What you long desired has happened at last He has come home, alive, to his own hearth, to find you and his son here in the palace, and in his own house again he has taken revenge on the Suitors who did him harm’

But cautious Penelope replied： ‘Dear nurse, don’t exult over them so soon How welcome the sight of Odysseus here would be to everyone, above all to me and our son, you know But this tale must be false Surely one of the gods has killed the noble Suitors in anger, enraged by the depths of their insolence and their wickedness They showed respect to never a man on this earth whether those they met were good or evil So now they have suffered for their own foolish excess Odysseus though has lost his life far away, and with it the chance of his coming home’

‘My child,’ the loyal nurse replied, ‘what are you saying? That your husband will never return, when he’s here at his own hearth! You never believe a thing! Well, let me tell you of something else that proves it： the scar from the wound the wild boar’s white tusk gave him long ago I saw it when I washed his feet, and wanted to tell you then, but he clapped his hand over my mouth, and refused to let me speak Come with me now I’ll stake my life on it, and if I lie deal me a cruel death’

‘Dear nurse,’ cautious Penelope replied： ‘wise though you are you cannot fathom the minds of the immortal gods But, let us go to my son, so I can see the bodies of the Suitors, and the man who killed them’

Book XXIII Penelope’s uncertainty

So saying, she left her room, and went downstairs, considering whether to remain distant, and question the man who was said to be her dear husband, or whether to approach him, clasp his head and hands and kiss them But when she had crossed the stone sill, she sat down by the far wall in the firelight, opposite Odysseus, while he sat by a tall pillar, his eyes on the ground, waiting to see if his wife would speak as she looked at him She sat there silently for a long time, wondering, gazing intently at his face： often failing to recognize this man dressed in foul rags Then it was that Telemachus spoke his criticism of her behavior： ‘My mother, unmotherly and hardhearted, why do you distance yourself from my father like this, instead of sitting by his side, plying him with questions? No other woman would steel her heart like this, and sit apart from a husband who had just returned to her and his native land, after twenty years of bitter toil But your heart is always harder than flint’

‘My child,’ cautious Penelope answered, ‘my mind is lost in wonder, and I feel powerless to speak and question him, or even look long at his face But if it is really Odysseus come home, we two have a better way of recognizing one another, because there are secret tokens that only the two of us know’ And noble longsuffering Odysseus smiled at this, and spoke to Telemachus winged words： ‘Telemachus, leave your mother to put me to the proof, in this, her house： she will soon be enlightened For now, since I’m covered in dust, and dressed in rags, she thinks me unworthy and won’t concede I am Odysseus But let us consider what to do for the best Whatever the country, whoever kills even a single man, even one that dead leaves few behind to avenge him, must go into exile, abandoning his native land and kin, while we have killed the noblest youth of Ithaca, the core of its defense Take thought of that’

‘Do you take thought, dear father,’ wise Telemachus replied, ‘since they say you are the most resourceful of men, without a mortal equal We are eager to follow you, and I know we won’t fail to support you to the best of our powers’

Resourceful Odysseus answered him, saying： ‘Then I’ll tell you the plan that seems best to me Bathe first, and dress, and order the palace servants to choose fresh clothes Then let the divine minstrel play us a lively dance on his sweettoned lyre, so that anyone outside who hears, neighbor or passerby, will take it for a marriage feast That way there’ll be no rumor of the Suitors’ deaths put abroad in the town, before we can reach our denselywooded farm Once there we can plan to take advantage of whatever the Olympians send us’

……