对于域外文明的研究者来说,一个基本的素养是通晓研究对象的语言和文字,乃是因为,语言是深刻理解它所传载的特定文明的精神、价值、思想与文化的途径。法国最著名的古典学家让一皮埃尔·韦尔南(Jean-Pierre Vernant)引证昂利·德拉克瓦(Henri Delacroix)的话说:“语言即思想”(“la langue est pensee”),即是说,语言本身包含着特定的思维方式,特定的难以用其他语言准确翻译和表述的观念,因而仅仅依赖翻译 For a researcher of extraterritorial civilization, a basic literacy is the proficiency of the language and script of the subject, because language is a way of profoundly understanding the spirit, value, thought and culture of the particular civilization it carries. Jean-Pierre Vernant, the most famous French classical expert, quotes Henri Delacroix as saying: “The language is thought” (“la langue est pensee” "), That is to say, the language itself contains a specific way of thinking, specific ideas difficult to accurately translate and express in other languages, and thus relies solely on translation