关于日本皇室 你应该知道的5件事

Emperor Akihito of Japan indicated in a rare public address on Monday that he wants to abdicate the throne, which would make him the first Japanese monarch in 200 years to step down. Here are five essential facts about one of the world’s oldest and most cloistered royal families.

周一，日本明仁天皇在一次罕见的公开讲话中暗示自己有意退位，这将使他成为该国200年来首个在世退位的君主。日本皇室是世界上最古老也最低调的皇族之一，以下是关于它的五个基本事实。

A Lengthy Dynasty

古老的君主制度

The imperial house of Japan is the oldest continuous monarchy in the world.

日本天皇制是世界上传承未间断的最古老君主制度。

Akihito is the 125th emperor in a line that extends back to the country’s founding in 600 B.C. by the Emperor Jimmu, who legend holds was descended from the sun goddess. Though evidence of the first 25 emperors is shrouded in myth, there is ample historical proof of an unbroken hereditary line from A.D. 500 to today.

明仁是日本的第125任天皇，往前一直可以追溯到于公元前600年创建日本的神武天皇，传说他是太阳女神的后裔。尽管前25位天皇存在的证据笼罩着神话色彩，但有充分的历史证据能够证明，从公元后500年至今，日本的皇位世代相传，从未间断。

After modern Japanese emperors die, their names are changed to reflect the era in which they ruled. Akihito will be renamed Heisei (“peace everywhere”) for the name of his era, which began with his coronation in 1989. His father, the wartime emperor Hirohito, is posthumously known as Showa, or “radiant Japan.”

现代日本天皇去世后，人们会改用他们在位时的年号来称呼他们。明仁会被改称为“平成”，意为“内平外成”，他于1989年即位后便开始使用这个年号。他父亲，也就是战时的天皇裕仁，去世后被改称为昭和，意为“百姓昭明，协和万邦”。

Gods and Men

神与人的理念

The emperor is the head of state and the highest authority of the Shinto religion.

天皇是国家元首，也是神道教的最高领袖。

Japan is the only modern nation to still refer to the head of its royal family as emperor. In Japanese the emperor is called tenno, or “heavenly sovereign,” a nod to the idea that the imperial family is descended from gods. The monarchy historically maintained a divine right to rule, but it was only in recent centuries that cults around the emperor began to deify rulers as demigods.

日本是唯一一个仍对皇室首脑以“皇”相称的国家。日语“天皇”一词符合日本皇室是神的后裔这一理念。日本皇室在历史上一直坚称君权神授，但直到最近几个世纪，天皇的狂热信徒才把统治者奉为半人半神式的存在。

Soon after the end of World War II, as part of Japan’s surrender, Hirohito renounced what he called the “the false conception that the emperor is divine.” Under Japan’s 1947 postwar Constitution, the emperor became “the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people,” a figurehead with no political authority.

二战结束后不久，作为日本投降的一部分，裕仁宣称抛弃“天皇是现世神这一虚构观念”。根据日本于1947年实施的战后宪法，天皇成为了“日本国及日本国民团结之象征”，一个没有政治权力的名义上的领袖。

Amateur Scientists

业余科学家

At the beginning of each new year since 1869, just after Emperor Meiji restored the authority of the emperor and set Japan on a course of modernization and industrialization, the emperor has hosted a series of scientific lectures.

自从1869年以来——当时，明治天皇刚刚恢复皇的权威，带领日本走上现代化和工业化道路——每年年初，天皇都要主持一系列科学讲座。

Hirohito and his elder son, Akihito, shared an interest in marine biology. Hirohito wrote several scientific papers on hydrozoa, a class of aquatic animals related to jellyfish, and Akihito is considered an expert on goby fish. Akihito has written 38 scientific articles on the fish, and a newly discovered species of the fish was named for him.

裕仁及其长子明仁都对海洋生物学很感兴趣。裕仁写过几篇关于水母类水生动物水螅虫的论文；明仁则被视为虾虎鱼研究领域的权威。明仁以虾虎鱼为题写过38篇科学论文，新近被发现的一个虾虎鱼品种就是以他的名字命名的。

Women in Power

掌权的女性

Historically, women could ascend to the throne and rule in their own right, but only eight of Japan’s emperors have been women.

在历史上，女性也可以登临皇位，有资格统治天下，但日本只出过八位女天皇。

Until the 20th century, Japanese emperors usually had a chief wife and several concubines, all of whom were members of noble families. Akihito was the first emperor permitted to marry a commoner, and he did, marrying Michiko Shoda in 1956 after meeting her on a tennis court, launching a tennis boom in Japan.

直到20世纪，日本天皇通常有一位皇后和若干嫔妃，她们全都出身于贵族家庭。明仁是第一位获准与平民结婚的天皇，他也的确这样做了，在1956年迎娶正田美智子(Michiko Shoda)。两人此前是在网球场上相识的，因此还在日本掀起了网球热潮。

Akihito’s elder son, Crown Prince Naruhito, also married a commoner, Masako Owada, a former diplomat. Princess Masako was given a diagnosis of a clinical psychiatric condition in 2006, believed to have been triggered by the pressures of delivering a male heir.

明仁的长子，也就是皇太子德仁迎娶的小和田雅子(Masako Owada)同样是一位平民，曾经当过外交官。2006年，皇太子妃雅子被诊断出患有精神疾病，其病症据信是由生育男性继承人的压力引发的。

Under the 1947 Constitution, only a male heir can inherit the throne, though a change in the law was briefly considered in 2005 to allow a woman to become emperor. When Princess Masako gave birth to a daugther, plans to amend the Constitution were dropped.

根据1947年生效的战后宪法，只有男性继承人才能继承皇位，但在2005年曾一度考虑通过修宪让女性获得继承皇位的权利。皇太子妃雅子生下一个女儿后，修宪的计划被搁置了。

The Chrysanthemum Throne

菊花宝座

Akihito and his family live in the Tokyo Imperial Palace, a parklike compound in Japan’s capital that is considered one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in the world.

明仁及其家人生活在东京皇居里，那是一片位于日本首都的公园式建筑群，被认为是全球最昂贵的不动产之一。

The palace includes residences for the imperial family, the offices of the Imperial Household Agency and museums. The monarchy is often referred to metaphorically as the Chrysanthemum Throne, but there is an actual chrysanthemum throne, an ornate chair called takamikura on which the emperor sits during his enthronement ceremony.

皇居由皇室居所、宫内厅(Imperial Household Agency)办公室以及博物馆组成。日本的君主政体通常被喻为菊花王朝，但在皇居里真的有菊花宝座，那是一个名叫“高御座”的华丽宝座，天皇举行登基大典时就坐在上边。