莱布尼茨与门策的汉字研究

莱布尼茨认为语言是人类文明的反映和原始记录,人类语言历史远超人类历史记载,因此研究语言可知民族起源和关系。所以,莱布尼茨研究汉字,其实要解决的是人类和哲学的问题。莱布尼茨如此热衷于东西方交流,就是因为他能够"站在他人的立场思想",理解西方与中国的思维形式有别。他说中国在形象思维方面领先西方(甚至认为中医长于西医),而西方在抽象思维方面强于中国。在莱布尼茨的思想中,中欧文化交流总是双向的,他的汉字研究亦是如此。在莱布尼茨的汉字研究中,他与门策的通信是不可或缺的重要一环。

Leibniz and Mentzel’s Study of Chinese Characters

Leibniz deemed that languages are the reflections and original records of human civilizations,and the history of human languages are far longer than their records,therefore,by studying languages we could apprehend national roots and connections.Actually,Leibniz wanted to deal with the problems of human and philosophy by studying Chinese characters.The reason Leibniz was so obsessed with the communication between the east and west,is that he could stand in the position of the others’ thoughts and understand the differences of their modes of thinking.He said that the east was far ahead of the west in terms of imaginal thinking(he even thought the traditional Chinese medicine was better than western medicine),while the west was superior to the east in abstract thinking.In the mind of Leibniz,the communication between Chinese and European cultures are always bilateral,and his study of Chinese characters is no exception.The communication with Mentzel is one of the indispensable chains in his research of the Chinese characters.