Clavis Sinica: a short history of the long battle for the chinese writing system in the west between the XVI and XIX centuries

Abstract

This article aims to present a brief history of ideas in Europe between 1550 and 1900 on the spoken and written languages of China. Following the theoretical stance of Sylvain Auroux’s moderate historicism (2004), we suggest as a guiding principle the discourses regarding the dispute on the nature of Chinese writing: ideographic or phonographic. Refusing to fully embrace either alternative, we show that this debate has developed around recurrent issues over the centuries and that the studies published by Europeans are deeply rooted in their cultural, social and ideological contexts of production. The precarious status of writing in the history of linguistic ideas is thus highlighted and points to the leading role of the Chinese script on how the conceptions of writing have been developed in the West, in particular on its representative possibilities. We propose, finally, that the ongoing debates on the subject still address many of the issues explored throughout this history, whose resolution is still far from reaching a consensus.