莱布尼茨与白晋通信选：关于汉字和中华文化

萊布尼茨與白晉通信選：關於漢字和中華文化

白晉（Joachim Bouvet，1656 年－1730 年），漢名白晉，耶穌會法國傳教士。

Letter B: 2 December 1697, Leibniz to Bouvet

1697年12月2日，萊布尼茨寫給白晉的信

Since there will be work done in France to translate a good number of Chinese books, I beseech Your Reverence to inform me further by what means this will be done, whether there are enough Europeans capable of undertaking it, or whether some Chinese were brought for this task.

由於在法國將有翻譯大量中文書籍的工作，我懇請閣下進一步告知我將通過什麼方式進行這項工作，是否有足夠的歐洲人能夠勝任這項工作，或者是否帶來了一些中國人協助完成這個任務。

戈特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Letter E: 28 February 1698, Bouvet to Leibniz

1698年2月28日，白晉寫給萊布尼茨的信

The most important point to which we mean to apply ourselves is their chronology, which we will try to establish with all the thoroughness and precision possible. For this effect we intend to make a solid critique of the principal authors who wrote their histories and their chronicles, as according to your plan. After this we will work on their natural and civil history, on their physics, their ethics, their laws, their politics, their arts, their mathematics, and their medicine, which is one of the subjects on which I am convinced that China can furnish us with some of the best information. I speak of it this way because I am more attached to it than to any other. I even already have many notes on the above that I am taking back with me since I have not had the leisure to systematize them as I wished. I only left in the hands of Abbot Bignon the translation of a small treatise on the pulse which is in the front of the Chinese herbal which I put in the king's library.Father le Gobien has the rough copy of this translation along with the translation of the preface to this herbal, in which one can see all the design and economy of this work which is a complete corpus of the natural history of China.

我們打算應用的最重要的一點是他們的年表，我們將盡可能徹底和準確地建立這個年表。爲了達到這個目的，我們打算按照你的計畫，對撰寫他們的歷史和編年史的主要作者進行嚴格的批評。在這之後，我們將研究他們的自然史和民俗史，研究他們的物理學、倫理學、法律、政治、藝術、數學和醫學，這是我確信中國可以爲我們提供一些最佳信息的主題之一。我之所以這樣說，是因爲我對它的感情比對其他任何東西都要深。我甚至已經有了許多關於上述問題的筆記，我要把它們帶回去，因爲我沒有閒情逸致按自己的意願把它們系統化。我只把我放在國王圖書館的中草藥（指《本草綱目》？）前面的一篇關於脈搏的小論文的譯文留在了比農院長的手中。戈比恩神父有這篇譯文的粗略副本，還有這篇中草藥的序言的譯文，從這篇序言中可以看出這部作品的所有設計和經濟性，它是中國自然史的一個完整文料庫。

I have not at all found those papers where you tell me Kepler proposes researches to be done in China in astronomy, chronology, and geography. If you come across them you would give me much pleasure, Monsieur, by judging which are the most important points, in order to let us know.

我還沒有找到那些你告訴我的開普勒建議在中國進行天文學、年代學和地理學研究的論文。如果你找到了，你會給我帶來很大的樂趣，先生，請判斷哪些是最重要的內容，以便讓我們知道。

Letter F: 19 September 1699, Bouvet to Leibniz

1699 年9月19日，白晉寫給萊布尼茨的信

As to our intended designs in working for the conversion of the Chinese, of drawing from this nation all that can serve toward the perfection of our sciences and our arts in order to communicate it to our scholars, in as much as we had already formed for ourselves nearly the same plan that you have proposed.

至於我們爲中國人的皈依而努力的計畫，以及從這個國家汲取一切可以幫助我們完善我們的科學和藝術的東西，以便將它傳達給我們的學者的計畫，與您提出的計畫幾乎不謀而合。

As to Chinese chronology, I do not know anyone more capable of establishing it than Father Visdelou, about whom I spoke to you here above. He is completely incapable of betraying his conscience or of acting in bad faith in this matter, and should be able to work successfully on it [i.e.,the Chinese chronology] right away if he so wishes, and it will not be difficult to persuade him of it,and perhaps after that on the history of the dynasties and on the history of the inventions of the arts, the sciences, and laws, which I believe along with the Chinese themselves to have been more perfect at the beginning of their monarchy than at present, although I have reason to doubt whether they themselves were the inventors [of the laws], or rather the ancient Patriarchs of all nations, fromwhom it seems they [i.e., the Chinese] inherit all they have of value in this matter, without ever having improved on much excepting the laws which are for the most ordinary customs of life. If thissame Father, who alone could fully satisfy your curiosity on all that you wish with the knowledge he possesses of the learned books of China, begins this year—as he has planned—to work on translating the Chinese code, or the summary of the laws by which this whole empire has been governed with an admirable uniformity for so many centuries, you will have the pleasure of seeing the most beautiful body of jurisprudence that can be imagined, and in which our most able statesmen will find much to learn.

至於中國的年表，我不知道有誰比維斯德魯神父更有能力建立它，我曾對你說過他。他完全不可能在這個問題上背叛自己的良心或不守信用，而且如果他願意的話，他應該能夠成功地進行這項工作[即中國年表]。如果他願意的話，他應該能夠立即成功地研究它[即中國的年表]，而且不難說服他，也許之後還可以研究朝代的歷史和藝術、科學和法律的發明史，我相信中國人自己在君主制開始時比現在更完善，儘管我有理由懷疑他們自己是否是[法律]的發明者，或者說是所有國家的古代宗主，他們[即中國人]似乎從他們那裏繼承了所有的東西。他們[即中國人]似乎從他們那裏繼承了他們在這個問題上的所有價值，除了最普通的生活習俗的法律外，他們從未在其他方面有任何改進。如果這位神父--只有他能用他所掌握的中國學問書籍的知識充分滿足你對所有問題的好奇心--今年開始--正如他所計畫的那樣--致力於翻譯中國的法典，或整個帝國這麼多世紀以來以令人欽佩的統一性治理的法律摘要，你將有幸看到你可以想像得到的最美麗的法學體系，而且我們最能幹的政治家將在其中找到許多可以學習的東西。

Although their speculative mathematics are by far neither so profound nor so perfect, as you have well noticed, you are surely right to say that the long experience they have in putting things into practice has taught them many secrets and convenient practices on diverse matters whose collection,towards which we hope that each of us may work at his convenience, could greatly enrich our arts and experimental sciences.

雖然到目前爲止他們的思辨數學既不深刻也不完美，正如你所注意到的那樣，你肯定是對的，他們在將事情付諸實踐方面的長期經驗使他們學到了許多關於各種問題的秘密和方便的做法，我們希望我們每個人都能在自己方便的時候努力收集這些東西，這可以大大豐富我們的藝術和實驗科學。

We are going to assign someone from among us to bring together everything possible of the ancient astronomical observations, in order to supply learned persons like you with the means to extract from them the great benefits which you point out.

我們將指派一個人，把他們（中國的）古代天文觀測的一切可能的東西彙集起來，爲像你這樣有學識的人提供方法，你可以從他們那裏得到你所說的巨大的好處。

Father de Fontaney, as I mentioned above, is bringing back the means by which we can correct and supplement Monsieur Witsen’s map with regard to that section of Tartary which extends along the whole northern region with respect to China, and even further, as much to the west as to the east. If God hearkens to my longstanding prayers to obtain the liberty to make some excursions in the rest of eastern Tartary, as far as the sea which borders the continent to the east where as far as I know noone as yet has brought the faith, I will not fail to inform you of the observations and reports which I will make, God helping, in this region. And perhaps I will be fortunate enough to give you some more precise facts of the land of Yezo [i.e., Hokkaido] and of the so-called Strait of Anian [i.e., Bering Strait], which you might not be expecting from me.

正如我上面提到的，德方塔尼神父正在帶回我們可以糾正和補充維森先生關於韃靼人的地圖的方法，該 部分沿著整個北部地區相對於中國延伸，甚至更遠，向著東西兩個方向。如果上帝垂聽我長久以來的祈禱，希望能有機會在韃靼東部其他地區進行一些短途旅行，遠至與東部大陸接壤的大海，據我所知，目前還沒有人帶來信仰，我一定會告訴你我將在這個地區發表的觀察和報告，上帝保佑。也許如果幸運的話，我會給你一些關於 Yezo（坤輿萬國全圖上北海道北面的“野作”或者北海道？）和所謂的亞泥俺海峽（即白令海峽）的更準確的事實，不過你先不要對此抱有希望。

As soon as the new missionaries whom I brought with me have solidly studied the Chinese characters for two years, to which they are now applying themselves, one or two at least will be assigned to put into European language the principal books of medicine of the Chinese and especially their natural history, which is a repertory of an infinity of recipes and secrets that should be able to lead our natural philosophers and physicians to some other even more notable discoveries.

一旦我帶來的新傳教士扎實地學習了兩年的漢字，他們現在正在努力學習，至少會指派一兩個人將中國的主要醫學書籍翻譯成歐洲文字，尤其是他們的自然史，它包含了無窮無盡的配方和秘密，應該能夠引導我們的自然哲學家和醫生獲得其他一些更顯著的發現。

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