European scholars have been fascinated by the Chinese written language since the early Jesuit missionaries to China began writing about it in the late 16th century. A little later Andreas Muller claimed to have worked out a “key” for Chinese in the 1670s, which excited the young Leibniz, already keenly interested in all things sinological since at least 1668 (Leibniz WoC: 11 [1668]). At about the same time Jacob Gohl wrote a book arguing that the language had to have been invented all at once (Duyvendak 1936). John Webb argued instead that Chinese was the primitive language of the human race (1669). Leibniz retained his interest in the language as well as all else having to do with China, but fairly early gave up on the possibility of the written language being the basis of the “Universal Characteristic” he sought as the basis for reasoning throughout his life (Leibniz WoC: 38 [1679]).