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Fostering that sense of an imagined community was a key Imperial strategy-and it didn't come cheap. Typically, the emperor paid out a large chunk of state revenue every year to provide allies and vassal states with luxury gifts, including thousands of rolls of silk and hundreds of lacquer cups. So, our cup is very much part of a system-it was given either as an Imperial gift or in lieu of a salary, to a senior official at the Han military garrisons near present day Pyongyang in North Korea. We can be pretty sure that, apart from its sheer monetary value, it was intended to bestow prestige and to suggest a personal link between the commander and the emperor.
给人民一种“想象的共同体”的归属感是巩固帝国的重要策略，但这种归属感代价高昂。皇帝每年都要花费大量税收赠送珍贵的礼物给盟国和属国，包括成千匹丝绸及数百件漆器。因此，我们这只漆杯是帝国体系的一部分，被当作礼物（或某种形式的俸禄）送给了驻扎在今朝鲜平壤附近的一位高级官员。除了货币价值之外，它还代表着荣耀，体现出皇帝与官员之间的亲密关系。
At this point in the Han's history, however, the affairs of state were not in the hands of the emperor but of the dowager empress, the formidable Grand Empress Dowager Wang, who effectively ran the state for 30 years, as none of the emperors had much time for business. She had one emperor son-who spent most of his time with his concubine, Flying Swallow, who, it was said, was so light that she could dance on the palm of his hand-one grandson emperor-who was besotted with his male lover-and another grandson the one on the throne at the time of our cup, who had acceded at the age of nine, and was to be poisoned with pepper wine at the age of fifteen, two years after our cup was made. So this cup lived in interesting times, and its making was almost certainly organised by the Grand Dowager Empress.
但在当时的汉朝，国家事务并非由皇帝掌管，太皇太后独揽了朝政大权。这位太后实际掌管了朝政三十余年，因为当时的几个皇帝要么平庸无能，要么沉迷声色。她的儿子成帝与妃子赵飞燕（相传体态轻盈，能在皇帝的掌上舞蹈）终日厮混，一位皇孙沉迷男色，另一位皇孙九岁即位，十五岁便被人用酒鴆杀，就在本文中的酒杯制成两年之后。因此，这个酒杯一定是在太皇太后的授意下制作的。
The machinery of the state, and the production of luxury goods, was so well structured that it could work perfectly well despite any foibles at the top. This cup is remarkable for the supreme craftsmanship of its making, and even more so because it was subjected to a level of quality control that far exceeds any designer handbag today.
尽管宫闱中丑闻不断，但当时的国家机器运行良好，包括奢侈品制作在内的一切仍在有条不紊地进行。我们的耳杯除了有登峰造极的制作工艺之外，对其生产品质的监管甚至超过了今天的许多奢侈品。
