서양인에게 비친 중국문자 -키르허의 인용을 중심으로-

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the original data in China Illustrata(1667) written by Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), who represented one of the two main discourses on the origin and nature of chinese character. According to Lundbaek(1983), the Chinese characters introduced by Kircher in his book(1667) are identified with them of Wanbaoquanshu 萬寶全書, which was a very popular encyclopedic dictionary made in China in Ming 明 dynasty. Going one step forward, this paper have compared the contents of Wanbaoquanshu with Weixu韋續's Mosou 墨藪 written in Tang 唐 dynasty about the origin and contents of the characters. In conclusion I have demonstrated that they have basically similar explanation of origins of Chinese characters. In the history of theoretic explanations of Chinese characters, these interpretations were originated from Xushen 許愼's Shuowenjiezi 說文解字 in Han dynasty and transformed day by day as like YuYuanwei 庾元威's Lunshu 論書 in Liang 梁 dynasty and Xuanheshupu 宣和書譜 in Song 宋 dynasty.