本文旨在為近代西方漢學的興起與發展追本溯源。十六世紀以來的西方漢學發展史，在一定程度上反映了地理大發現之後的中西文化交流史。在「西學東漸」與「東學西漸」的過程中，最初的文化傳播者是一批批來華的天主教傳教士。透過熟習漢民族的語言文字及經典，耶穌會不僅在十七世紀挺進中國，並且對中西文化交流造成關鍵性的影響。一方面將西方科技與文明思想注入古老中國，另一方面，透過著作與翻譯將中國的學術文化傳播到西方，促成十七世紀之後，真正學術意義上的西方漢學的興起。本文從中西文化交流的視角切入，以質化敘述的研究方法解讀史料文獻，試圖釐清西方漢學之肇興與傳教士漢語學習及研究之間的關係脈絡。內文分為五章，第一章為引言，第二章介紹傳教士東來的時代背景，認為促成天主教大規模向東方拓展的主要原因有二，一為東印度航路的開通，二為歐陸本土的宗教改革運動。第三章歸納十六世紀西方人對漢語漢字的知識，並探討早期耶穌會士的漢語學習歷程以及學習成果，主要以羅明堅和利馬竇的漢語學習為實例，這兩人是為了進入中國內地傳教而最早學習漢語漢字的耶穌會士。第四章論述羅明堅與利馬竇的漢語研究及其對近代西方漢學的影響。第五章為結語。

This article is aimed to trace the origin and development of modern Western Sinology. History of Western Sinology since the sixteenth century to a certain extent, reflects the history of Chinese and Western cultures exchange after the great geographical discovery. During the period of ”Western Learning” and ”west learn from east,” the first batch of cultural communicators are Catholic missionaries. Familiar with the language and classical Chinese works, the Jesuits not only in the seventeenth century entered into China, but also caused a critical impact on the cultural exchange. On the one hand the Western technology and civilization were brought into the ancient China, on the other hand, through the writings and translations, the Chinese academia was spread to the West. This led to the rise of Western Sinology in the seventeenth century. From the perspective of cultural exchange and with qualitative research methods, this study is going to analyze and interpret related historical documents in order to clarify the relationship between the dawn of Western Sinology and the missionaries' Chinese learning and research. The article is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction. The second chapter describes the historical background when the Catholic missionaries came to the East. There were two main reasons for the East expansion, one for the opening of the East India route, and two for Continental religious reform movement. Chapter Three summarizes Westerners knowledge of Chinese characters in the sixteenth century and tries to explore Chinese language learning process and the learning outcomes of early Jesuits, mainly Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci's Chinese learning as an example. The two men are earliest missionary Jesuits who learned Chinese in order to enter the mainland China. The fourth chapter discusses the research and its impact that Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci's made to Western Sinology. The fifth chapter is the conclusion.