Leibniz and the Book of Changes

       莱布尼茨（Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1646-1716）是17世纪和18世纪之交的伟大思想家、科学家，是一位百科全书式的伟大人物，“是一个千古绝伦的大智者”。 在欧洲“中国热”的年代里，莱布尼茨也对中国文化特别关注。白晋是与莱布尼茨有着密切联系的另一个耶稣会士。他寄给莱布尼茨一本他新出版的《中国当朝皇帝传》(即《康熙传》)和一封信。莱布尼茨对此十分感兴趣，将它从法文译为拉丁文后收入《中国近事》的第二版中，这是在欧洲著作中第一次介绍中国的皇帝。白晋回中国以后，两人继续保持通信联系，正是白晋所提供的有关《易经》的象数方面的情况，才进一步促使莱氏将《易经》与他曾设想的二进制进行比较，从而最终确定了关于二进制论文的发表。

       莱布尼茨对中国和欧洲的文化交流给予很大的希望。他认为中国和欧洲文化的交流是一项伟大的事业。他在《中国近事》的序言中一开始就指出：“人类最伟大的文明与最高雅的文化今天终于汇集在了我们大陆的两端，即欧洲和位于地球另一端的---如同”东方欧洲“的中国。我认为这是命运之神独一无二的决定。也许天意注定如此安排，其目的就是当这两个文明程度最高和相距最远的民族携起手来的时候，也会把它们之间的所有民族都带入一种更合乎理性的生活。” 莱布尼茨对当时欧洲与中国的文化交流抱有极大的希望，他把这种交流称为“文明之光的交换”。莱布尼茨关于中国文化及中国和欧洲文化关系的论述在今天仍有着重要的启迪意义。

   Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a great ideologist and scientist at the transition of the 17th and 18th centuries. He was an encyclopedic scholar and "a great man with unprecedented wisdom ". In the European "China fever" era, Leibniz paid special attention to Chinese culture.  

Joachim Bouvet (1656-1730) is another Jesuit who had a close relationship with Leibniz. With an accompanying letter, he sent Leibniz a copy of his newly published "The Emperor of the Chinese Dynasties" ("Commerce of Kangxi"). Leibniz was very interested in this work and, after translating it from French to Latin, it was included in the second edition of "China's Recent Events". It was the first European writing to introduce the Chinese emperor. After Joachim Bouvet returned to China, the two of them continued to communicate with each other through letters. According to the knowledge of image-numberolog provided by Joachim Bouvet, it enabled Leibniz to further explore his envisioned theory of binary by comparing the Book of Changes. Thus, he finally published the article on the binary theory.

   Leibniz had great expectations about cultural exchanges between China and Europe. He believed that the exchange between Chinese and European culture was a great career. In the preface of "China's Recent Events," he pointed out: "The greatest civilization and the most elegant culture of mankind have finally gathered at the two ends of our continent, one is Europe and the other situated at the other end of the earth-such as China known as "Eastern Europe". I think this is a unique decision made by the god of destiny. God is destined to do so, the purpose is that when the two most civilized but farthest nations join hands together, they will also brought a more rational life for all the involved nations." Due to Leibniz's enthusiasm on cultural exchange between Europe and China at that time, he called this exchange “the exchange of light of civilization”.

Leibniz’s expositions on Chinese culture and the relationship between Chinese and European cultures still lay an important enlightenment for today.

“文化互译，沟通世界”