2026年1月17日，由中国民族文化艺术基金会和韵文化基金会主办的“2026丝路文明互鉴峰会”在北京长安俱乐部举行。此次峰会的主旨演讲人之一由美国世界中国学研究会首席执行会长、阎伟红博士带来，主题为“人工智能与人类智能——以中国古汉字为例”（英文标题：In AI-HI Interplay: Ancient Chinese Characters and Cognitive Roots）。
阎博士开场鸣谢！山西大同孙记包子孙常富董事长慷慨赞助此次峰会为序曲。万分感激孙董事长，他是一位成功的企业家、慈善家、一位中美文化大师，在此，向他和他的企业致敬！
阎博士直击图料智能思维，图料智能思维是AI时代视觉表达的核心地位！简单来说，AI时代确实正从文本中心转向图像中心主义，视觉内容已成为信息传播和创作的主导形式。基于此理论。阎博士从图像角度深入探讨了中国汉字甲骨文、金文、篆书、隶书、楷书和行草书的图像形式的智能思维及其与当今人工智能的互动关系，受到与会者高度评价。他指出，理解华夏祖先发明汉字的智能思维与人工智能比较，需从甲骨文“道”字形式与主题入手 —— 这一汉字发明智能思维的起始点，揭示了东西方对以图像符号为主体的甲骨文“道”的认知差异，并通过科学思维中的几何智能思维，从文本“道”图像解构延异（生成）汉字智能思维的底层逻辑。阎博士强调：”没有时间与空间的思维，汉字不可能诞生，因此，汉字智能是时空智能而生成的最严谨的人类文字符号，这一智慧，对于李飞飞的“空间智能”（Spatial Intelligence）研究一定会有巨大的帮助。阎博士接着指出：“汉字智能性，显然是多元智能理论应该去探索和研究的对象，遗憾我们几乎把自己的古汉字忘记了。“空间智能”这个概念由心理学家霍华德 · 加德纳提出，指的是感知、理解、操作和转换视觉空间信息的能力，比如想象鸟在空中旋转和飞翔、解读古汉字空间思维并实施进行空间推理。汉字的空间智能在甲骨文时期祖先就具有这样的“意识力”（consciousness power）了！
阎博士进一步分析，甲骨文“道”与几何学存在密切关联。通过解构“道”字的甲骨文形态，可将其延异生成几何板块，再由板块重组为线条。无论线条还是板块的生成过程，均包含两个“无形”（intangible）的点作为基础，而线条本身又涵盖无数个“无形”的点。由此，可推导出汉字发明智能算法的核心：“道生一，一生二，二生三，三生万物”的智能生成逻辑。阎博士强调，“道”是连接中西方智能思维的关键开关，而“道”所生的汉字“一”则象征着宇宙万物智能思维的“算法”与“算力”。值得注意的是，母语为非汉语的族群与母语为汉语的族群通过几何认知达成了完美的融合算法，阎博士已将该理论体系的算力与算法应用于哲学、佛学、脑科学、心理学、自然科学以及当代具象与抽象符号的生成实践中。
随后，阎教授他指出了英文译文对“象形文字”使用的错误，详细从脑科学智能角度向大家解释，修正了“pictograph”英文翻译。阎教授又阐述了古汉字发明如何体现人类智能，尤其通过中国的象形文字、人与自然的关系，以及古代“远取诸物，近取诸身”的思维方式，构建了独特的认知结构。他同时指出，这些古汉字书写的符号美学理念，对当代人工智能的语料与图料研究具有重要价值，也为人类脑科学及人工智能科学研究提供了基础。
演讲结束后，阎教授向大会赠送了著名书法家赵宏教授创作的篆书墨宝《丝路凝辉》，象征中西文化融合与智慧传承。
活动还介绍了阎教授的学术研究，涵盖中美文化教育交流合作、中国汉字与传统书法同美国STEM/STEAM教育的结合等课题。阎教授强调，中国汉字生成智能的核心是“时间与空间”，其独特的智能思维方式对当代人工智能发展具有启发意义，尤其在空间智能和时间认知领域潜力显著。他特别提出：“人工智能与人类智能的区别在于，理解和掌握祖先的汉字思维可直接训练大脑，并在短期内学会一种人工智能无法教给人类的一种终身大脑的提升，在自然状态下，掌握了独立的批判性思维的“超能力和超智能；而人工智能缺乏此功能。就二者智能而言，我更沉迷于汉字发明中人与自然互动的思维享受。”
此次峰会吸引了各界学者与专家参与，与会者纷纷表示，一次别开生面的学术讲座，讲座为人工智能研究提供了新视角，并促进了中西文化理解与合作。
以下是与讲座课题的相关动态视频的链接，可点击理解详细的学术研究。
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ENGLISH VERSION OF THE NEWS:
Lecture “Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence:
Ancient Chinese Characters as a Case Study” Successfully Held
Venue: Chang’an Club, Beijing, CHINA.
Date: January 17, 2026
On January 17, 2026, the 2026 Silk Road Civilization Mutual Learning Summit, hosted by the China National Culture and Arts Foundation, was held at the Chang’an Club in Beijing. The keynote lecture was delivered by Dr. Yan, Chief Executive President of the World Chinese Studies Research Association (USA). His talk, titled “Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence: Ancient Chinese Characters as a Case Study” (English title: In AI–HI Interplay: Ancient Chinese Characters and Cognitive Roots), received widespread acclaim from attendees.
In his lecture, Dr. Yan explored the intellectual foundations of ancient Chinese writing systems—including oracle bone script, bronze inscriptions, seal script, clerical script, regular script, and cursive script—and examined their relationship with contemporary artificial intelligence. He proposed that a meaningful comparison between the cognitive intelligence embedded in ancient Chinese characters and modern AI must begin with the oracle bone form of the character “Dao” (道), which he identified as a foundational point in the invention of Chinese written intelligence.
Dr. Yan highlighted fundamental cognitive differences between Eastern and Western approaches to symbolic systems, using oracle bone script as a primary example. Through the lens of geometric intelligence, he demonstrated how the underlying logic of Chinese character cognition emerges from the deconstruction and generative transformation of text into images and spatial forms. He emphasized:
“Without concepts of time and space, Chinese characters could not have come into existence. Chinese character intelligence is therefore a rigorously structured form of human writing generated through spatiotemporal intelligence. This is a vast intellectual system that research on spatial intelligence—such as that pioneered by Fei-Fei Li—needs to engage with.”
Dr. Yan further analyzed the close relationship between the oracle bone form of “Dao” and geometry. By deconstructing its ancient form, he illustrated how the character can be generatively transformed into geometric planes, which are then reorganized into lines. Both planes and lines originate from two intangible points, while each line itself contains countless intangible points. From this structure, he derived the core logic of what he described as a Chinese indigenous intelligence algorithm:
“Dao gives birth to One; One gives birth to Two; Two gives birth to Three; Three gives birth to all things.”
He argued that “Dao” functions as a critical cognitive switch connecting Eastern and Western modes of intelligence, while the character “One” (一) symbolizes the foundational “algorithm” and “computational power” of universal intelligence. Notably, Dr. Yan emphasized that speakers of non-Chinese languages and native Chinese speakers can achieve a shared cognitive framework through geometric perception, forming a unified computational capacity. He has applied this theoretical system of algorithm and computational power across multiple disciplines, including philosophy, Buddhism, neuroscience, psychology, natural sciences, as well as contemporary practices of figurative and abstract symbolic generation.
Dr. Yan also discussed how the invention of ancient Chinese characters reflects human intelligence through pictographic representation, the relationship between humanity and nature, and the classical cognitive principle of “drawing insight from distant objects and from one’s own body.” This approach, he explained, shaped a unique cognitive structure. He further noted that the aesthetic principles of ancient Chinese writing offer significant value for contemporary AI research in both linguistic and visual datasets, while also providing foundational insights for neuroscience and artificial intelligence studies.
Time–space thinking embedded in the invention of ancient Chinese characters offers a clear and exemplary demonstration of the scientific core of spatiotemporal cognition. The emergence of early writing was not arbitrary; it was grounded in an integrated understanding of time and space, which served as both the foundation and the organizing principle of character creation. Without such spatiotemporal awareness, the invention of Chinese characters would not have been possible.
The creation of a character was therefore inseparable from a comprehensive observation of the world in motion. Take the example of birds. To conceptualize a bird within the logic of Chinese character invention, one must consider not merely its physical form, but the entirety of its spatiotemporal context: its point of departure and landing, direction of movement, duration of flight, the relationship between sky and earth, and the structural elements of the bird itself—beak, head, body, wings (including left and right), and claws. Each element exists not in isolation, but within a dynamic field of time, space, and motion.
Through the systematic deconstruction of these observations—spatial positions, temporal sequences, bodily structures, and environmental relationships—ancient Chinese intelligence transformed lived reality into symbolic form. From this process emerged characters that were not static representations, but generative systems capable of continuous meaning-making.
This method of invention raises a fundamental question: when spatiotemporal information and visual cognition are fully deconstructed and recomposed, what kinds of characters become possible? The answer reveals the profound generative potential of Chinese character intelligence—an early form of algorithmic thinking rooted in the logic of time, space, and transformation.
At the conclusion of the lecture, Dr. Yan presented the summit with a seal-script calligraphy work titled “Radiant Convergence of the Silk Road”, created by renowned calligrapher Professor Zhao Hong, symbolizing cultural integration and the transmission of wisdom between civilizations.
The event also introduced Dr. Yan’s broader academic work, which includes Sino–U.S. cultural and educational exchange, as well as the integration of Chinese characters and traditional calligraphy into STEM and STEAM education in the United States. He reiterated that time and space constitute the core generative intelligence of Chinese characters, and that this distinctive cognitive system holds significant implications for contemporary AI development—particularly in the domains of spatial intelligence and temporal cognition.
Dr. Yan concluded by emphasizing:
Later, Professor Yan pointed out the error in the use of “pictograph” in the English translation, explained it in detail from the perspective of brain science intelligence, and corrected the English translation of “pictograph” into “predictive pictographic Chinese characters.”
“The fundamental difference between artificial intelligence and human intelligence lies in the fact that engaging with the cognitive structures embedded in ancestral Chinese characters can directly train the human brain, enhancing independent critical thinking and self-intelligence in a natural state—capabilities that artificial intelligence lacks. Between the two, I am far more captivated by the human–nature interaction embodied in the invention of Chinese characters.”
The summit attracted scholars and experts from various fields. Attendees widely praised the lecture as a refreshing and intellectually stimulating contribution, noting that it offered new perspectives for artificial intelligence research while fostering deeper cross-cultural understanding and collaboration.
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