The Mongol Empire蒙古帝国

In 1206 a Mongol chieftain named Temüjin united the fractious nomadic tribes of the Mongolian steppe and took the title Genghis Khan — 'universal ruler.' Commanding a highly mobile army of mounted archers, organized by a disciplined decimal system and bound by strict law, he launched campaigns that would carry the Mongols across Asia with astonishing speed.1206年，一位名叫铁木真的蒙古首领统一了蒙古草原上纷争不断的游牧部落，并获得「成吉思汗」的称号——意为「普天下的君主」。他统率一支机动性极高的骑射大军，以严密的十进制编制组织、以严格的法令约束，发动了一系列战役，使蒙古人以惊人的速度横扫亚洲。

The conquests were staggering in scale and often in brutality. The Mongols overran the Central Asian empire of Khwarazm, struck into China, Persia, and the Russian principalities, and sacked great cities — Baghdad, the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate, fell in 1258. Cities that resisted could face massacre; cities that submitted were spared and taxed. This calculated use of terror often persuaded others to surrender without a fight.这些征服在规模上令人震撼，手段也常常极其残酷。蒙古人踏平中亚的花剌子模帝国，挥师中国、波斯与俄罗斯诸公国，攻陷一座座名城——阿拔斯哈里发国的都城巴格达于1258年沦陷。抵抗的城市可能遭到屠戮，归降的城市则得以保全、纳贡。这种精心算计的恐怖手段，往往迫使他人不战而降。

After Genghis Khan's death in 1227, his descendants continued to expand the empire until it stretched from Korea and China to the gates of Central Europe and the Middle East — the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever known. It grew too vast to rule as one and divided into four khanates, including the Yuan dynasty in China and the Golden Horde in the Russian lands.1227年成吉思汗去世后，他的子孙继续扩张帝国，直至疆域从朝鲜、中国一直延伸到中欧门户与中东——这是世界有史以来最大的陆上连片帝国。它幅员太广，难以作为一个整体统治，遂分裂为四大汗国，其中包括中国的元朝与俄罗斯地区的金帐汗国。

In China, Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan completed the conquest of the Song and founded the Yuan dynasty in 1271, ruling a unified China as emperor. The Mongols were unusually tolerant of the many religions within their realm — including Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and Daoism — and promoted talented administrators regardless of ethnicity, while relying heavily on foreign officials to govern conquered lands.在中国，成吉思汗之孙忽必烈完成了对南宋的征服，于1271年建立元朝，以皇帝之尊统治统一的中国。蒙古人对其治下的众多宗教异常包容——包括佛教、伊斯兰教、基督教与道教——并不问族属地擢用有才干的官员，同时大量倚重外族官吏来治理被征服之地。

By securing the trade routes across Eurasia — the Pax Mongolica — the Mongols enabled an unprecedented flow of goods, people, and ideas between East and West, from paper money and gunpowder to the travels of Marco Polo. That same connectivity, however, may have helped carry the Black Death westward in the 14th century. The empire fragmented over the following century, but its impact on Eurasia's borders, populations, and exchanges was permanent.通过保障横贯欧亚的贸易路线——「蒙古和平」——蒙古人促成了东西方之间空前的物资、人员与思想流动，从纸币、火药到马可·波罗的旅行。然而，正是这种互联互通，也可能在14世纪助推了黑死病向西传播。此后一个世纪，帝国走向分裂，但它对欧亚大陆的疆界、人口与交流所留下的影响，是永久性的。