was reading heavily.

但是他所读甚丰
But he understood that this was a different form.

他知道这是完全不同的社会发展形式
And the uniqueness of the Asiatic form,

亚细亚形式的社会特征
as he puts it, was these were hydraulic societies.

按他的说法是极度依附水利的社会
They were big empires,

庞大的帝国
all organized around irrigation and flood protection works.

围绕着灌溉防洪工程运作着
And in order to have these irrigation and flood protection works,

而为了维护灌溉防洪工程持续运作
you needed big empires.

人们需要庞大的帝国
And what the big emperors in China did,

而在中国各个朝代中
that they left the village communes alone,

如果人们不上缴赋税
as long as they did deliver those taxes

以供朝廷建设灌溉水利工程
from which the imperial power was able to

那么不上缴赋税的村庄