leibniz

Leibniz and China

Over a period of about half a century Leibniz professed in letters and writings his strong and continued interest in China. If this concentrated at first on questions of language, in particular the special written language of China - how did such a system, as though created for deaf mutes, function? was it based as regards memory support on a long forgotten calculus? did it follow at all logical-mathematical laws of the kind envisioned by Leibniz himself for his ars characteristica universalis? - it became persistently extended and more profound as a result of the conversations carried on in Rome in 1689 with the Jesuit Father Grimaldi. From these discussions emerged Leibniz's vision of a hitherto unknown cultural and scientific exchange with China: not trade in spices and silk in exchange for precious metals should characterize the relationship with Europe but rather a mutual exchange of knowledge in all areas, in both theory and practice. China alone could, as the oldest uninterruptedly-flourishing civilized nation of the world, fulfill this vision and satisfy Leibniz's whim for the sciences and, in conjunction with European theory, advance by centuries progress in the sciences. China fascinated the century; indeed it appeared "like a different world" and at the same time, in relation to his special genius, as complementary to the soul of Europe. This vision of China revealed in the foreword to the Novissima Sinica is for Leibniz and Europe attributable to the Jesuit missionaries in China who at the time provided the most reliable accounts of China in letters, reports and books. In openly espousing the accommodation method of the fathers in China, Leibniz understood his own role as a Protestant intermediary in the Chinese rites conflict that, about the turn of the century within the Catholic Church, was approaching its zenith and effective end, viz. the condemnation of Chinese rites in Paris (1700) and Rome (1704) and accordingly of the Jesuit mission in China.

In this very period stands Leibniz's direct correspondence with the fathers of the French Jesuit mission who, as Royal mathematicians and members of the Académie française, had also been sent in 1685 by Louis XIV on a scientific mission to China. The realization of a "religious organization of the earth" with the help of the sciences appeared in letters within close reach, in the same way as did, at first sight, the discovery of the old in the new, of Chinese hexagrams in binary numbers by the China missionary Joachim Bouvet. Yet, at the same time and in this very correspondence, the borders between Utopia or wishful thinking and reality become especially apparent: the numerous questions of Leibniz and his friends far exceed the capabilities and the research facilities of the Fathers - queries concerning the "true antiquity" of China, concerning literary and scientific history to the secrets of mining and manufacture of china porcelain, concerning the Jews in China to the elixir of life; on the other hand it had already become evident at that time that most especially the figurative interpretation of Chinese antiquity, viz. the association of persons and things of ancient Chinese history with those of the Old Testament, was detrimental to the religious meeting of China and Europe through the sciences and the exchange of knowledge desired by Leibniz. The fact that Leibniz's interest in China remained uninterruptedly vivacious, even in the time when letters from China were no longer forthcoming (from the end of 1703), is evident from numerous correspondences, among which the last unfinished letter to Nicholas Remond represents a kind of legacy for Europe and China.

For philosophy in a period of dialogue between cultures, contemporary reality and importance of this first attempt at an intellectual exchange between China and Europe lie in the interdisciplinary and comparative research approach, namely in tracking down both the foreign and domestic, viz. Chinese "universism" (De Groot) and European universalism; for theology in the light of the dialogue between religions following the second Vatican Council the topicality and importance of the old mission to China lie without doubt in Biblical exegesis and the semantics of the concept of God in non-Christian cultures.

Further reading:   R. Widmaier (ed.), Leibniz korrespondiert mit China. Der Briefwechsel mit den Jesuitenmissionaren (1689-1714), Frankfurt am Main, 1990;
Wenchao Li, Die christliche China-Mission im 17. Jahrhundert (Studia Leibnitiana. Supplementa, 32), Stuttgart, 2000.

back to: Leibniz´ life and work

top

waterloostraße 8
30169 hannover
tel. +49 511 1267-0
fax +49 511 1267-202
information@gwlb.de


öffnungszeiten der bibliothek:
mo–fr 9:00–19:00
sa 10:00–15:00

öffnungszeiten der leihstelle:
mo, di, do, fr 9:00–19:00
mi 10:00–19:00
sa 10:00–15:00

a–z der gwlb

wegbeschreibung

impressum