19世纪30年代集中出现过多个世上最早的《千字文》欧译刊本。这些译本的西方译者对中朝日《千字文》的翻译与阐释虽各有千秋,但都渗透着这样一个观点:汉字被传播到东亚的中国近邻,它所承载的中国文化尤其是儒家文化也为这些国家和民族所吸纳,并成为其民族精神的部分乃至主体。基于这些译者的认知,我们可以从一个侧面求解为何人们将“汉字文化”视为“儒教文化”的近义语,从而找到语言学家和哲学家所指的“汉字文化圈”和“儒教文化圈”概念相似的缘由。
Linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt once said that the national language is the same as the national spirit, while the national spirit is the same as the national language. In the 1830s, Samuel Kidd, Walter Henry Medhurst, E.C. Bridgman, and J. Hoffman translated with introductory notes Thousand Character Classic into English, Latin and German for their missionary work and Oriental studies. Each of their translated versions with interpretation, having their respective merits, conveys the message: Along with Chinese characters introduced into China's neighboring countries in East Asia, Chinese culture, especially Confucian culture conveyed by Chinese characters were also absorbed by these countries and nationalities, becoming part or even the principal part of their national spirits. Based on the these European and American translators' understanding of Thousand Character Classic and Chinese characters, we may believe that the Chinese characters are not only a kind of signs for recording the Chinese language but also a kind of language with its own property and its own signified and significant. Saussure argued that the natural language is combined by the concept and the acoustic image. Then, this author thinks that the language of Chinese characters is combined by the concept and the written image. As Chinese characters are entirely different from alphabetic handwriting, which is characteristic of the acoustic image, they can be borrowed by other nations to record their national languages. When Chinese characters are on loan by a foreign nation, the signified of the Chinese characters would inevitably be implanted into the native language of the nation, thus extending their influence over its culture and ideology. Furthermore, since it is Confucian culture, regarded as Chin's mainstream ideology, that is used to interpret the Chinese characters and Sino-graphic culture, the dominant culture and ideology of the nations which borrow the Chinese characters would inevitably be dominated by Confucian culture. Ther