James LeggeFrom Wikipedia , the free encyclopediaJump to : navigation , search James LeggeMissionary to ChinaBornDecember 20 , 1815 ( 1815 - 12 - 20 ) Huntly , ScotlandDiedNovember 29 , 1897 ( 1897 - 11 - 30 ) Oxford , E n g l a n d R e l i g ionCongregationalistJames Legge ( 理 雅 各 ; December 20 , 1815 – November 29 , 1897 ) was a noted Scottish sinologist , a Scottish Congregationalist , representative of the London Missionary Society in Malacca and Hong Kong ( 1840 – 1873 ) , and first professor of Chinese at Oxford University ( 1876 – 1897 ) . In association with Max Müller he prepared the monumental Sacred Books of the East series , published in 50 volumes between 1879 and 1891 . Contents 1 Life 2 Selected works 3 See also 4 References 5 External links [ edit ] LifeJames Legge was born at Huntly , Aberdeenshire , and educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and then Kings College , Aberdeen . After studying at the Highbury Theological College , London , he went in 1839 as a missionary to China , but remained at Malacca three years , in charge of the Anglo - Chinese College there . The College was subsequently moved to Hong Kong , where Legge lived for nearly thirty years . A Chinese Christian , Keuh Agong accompanied Legge when he moved in 1844 . He returned home to Huntly , Aberdeenshire , in 1846 - 7 , taking with him three Chinese students . Legge and the students were received by Queen Victoria before his return to Hong Kong . Legge married twice , first to Mary Isabella Morison ( 1816 – 1852 ) and after she died to a widow , Hannah Mary Willetts ( d 1881 , née Johnstone ) . Convinced of the need for missionaries to be able to comprehend the ideas and culture of the Chinese , he began in 1841 a translation in many volumes of the Chinese classics , a monumental task that he completed a few years before his death . During his residence in Hong Kong , he translated Chinese classic literature into English with the help of Wang Tao and Hong Rengan , among others . He was the headmaster at Ying Wa College in Hong Kong from 1839 to 1867 , and Pastor of the Union Church there from 1844 to 1867 . He was third and final editor of the Chinese Serial , the first Chinese newspaper in Hong Kong . The paper closed in May 1856 . In 1867 , Legge returned to Dollar in Clackmannanshire , Scotland , where he invited Wang Tao to join him , and received his LLD from the University of Aberdeen in 1870 . While in Scotland , he also revisited his native burgh , Huntly , accompanied by Dr Wang Tao . He then returned to Hong Kong as pastor at Union Church from 1870 to 1873 . He took a long trip to North China , beginning 2 April 1873 in Shanghai , arriving at Tianjin by boat , then travelling by mule cart and arriving in Peking on 16 April 1873 , where he stayed at the London Missionary Society headquarters . He visited the Great Wall , Ming Tombs and the Temple of Heaven , where he felt compelled to take off his shoes with holy awe . He left Peking , accompanied by Joseph Edkins , and headed for Shandong Qufu by mule cart to visit Jinan , Taishan , where they ascended the sacred Mount Tai , carried by four men on chairs . Leaving Mount Tai on May 15 , they visited Confucius Temple and the Forest of Confucius at Qufu , where he climbed to the top of the Confucius burial mound . Legge returned to Shanghai by way of the Grand Canal , and thence to England via Japan and the USA in 1873 . [ 1 ] In 1875 he was named Fellow of Corpus Christi College , Oxford and in 1876 assumed the new Chair of Chinese Language and Literature at Oxford , where he attracted few students to his lectures but worked hard for some 20 years in his study at 3 Keble Terrace , on his translations of the Chinese classics . According to an anonymous contemporary obituary in the Pall Mall Gazette , Legge was in his study every morning at three o ' clock , winter and summer , having retired to bed at ten . When he got up in the morning the first thing he did was to make himself a cup of tea over a spirit - lamp . Then he worked away at his translations while all the household slept . In his book " The religions of China : Confucianism and Tâoism described and compared with Christianity " published in 1880 , he wrote that he encountered a mosque in Canton which had a placard denouncing footbinding , saying Islam did not allow it since it constituted violating the creation of God . [ 2 ] In addition to his other work Legge wrote The Life and Teaching of Confucius ( 1867 ) ; The Life and Teaching of Mencius ( 1875 ) ; The Religions of China ( 1880 ) ; and other books on Chinese literature and religion . Legge was given an honorary MA , University of Oxford , and LLD , University of Edinburgh , 1884 . Legge died at Oxford in 1897 and is buried in Wolvercote Cemetery . Many of his manuscripts and letters are archived at the School of Oriental and African Studies . [ edit ] Selected worksMissionary James Legge and his three Chinese studentsLegge , James , The Texts of Taoism , 2 Vols , The Sacred Books of the East Vols . 39 & 40 , ( Oxford : Oxford University Press , 1891 ; reissued New York : Dover , 1962 ) , pb . Contains , in a rather archaic English and with a distinct transcription scheme : the Tao Te Ching ; the writings of Zhuangzi ; and shorter works : the T ' ai Shang [ Tractate of Actions and Their Retributions ] ; the Ch ' ing Chang Ching [ Classic of Purity ] ; the Yin Fu Ching [ or Classic of the Harmony of the Seen and Unseen ] ; the Yu Shu Ching [ Classic of the Pivot of Jade ] ; and the Hsia Yung Ching [ Classic of the Directory for the Day ] . Legge , James , The Chinese Classics : With A Translation , Critical And Exegetical Notes , prolegomena , and copious indexes , in five volumes , ( Hong Kong : Legge ; London : Trubner , 1861 – 1872 ) . Legge , James , " The religions of China : Confucianism and Tâoism described and compared with Christianity " ( London : Hodder and Stoughton , 1880 ; rpr . Norwood , Pa . : Norwood Editions , 1977 ) Legge , James , Confucian Analects , The Great Learning , and The Doctrine of the Mean ( New York : Dover Books , 1971 ; o . p . 1893 ) , 503 pp . Translation of the Analects along with two other important Confucian texts . A little dated , but still worth consulting . Includes Chinese text and , as Legge himself observes , " Critical and Exegetical Notes , Prolegomena , Copious Indexes , and Dictionary of All Characters . " Legge , James , The Works of Mencius , ( New York : Dover Publications , 1970 ) . [ edit ] See alsoWang Tao ( 19 th century ) Legge romanization [ edit ] References ^ Norman J . Girardot , The Victorian Translation of China : James Legge ' s Oriental Pilgrimage , pp . 83 – 97 . ISBN 0 - 520 - 21552 - 4 . ^ James Legge ( 1880 ) . The religions of China : Confucianism and Tâoism described and compared with Christianity . LONDON : Hodder and Stoughton . p . 111 . http : / / books . google . com / books ? id = fpcuAAAAYAAJ & q = mohammedan # v = snippet & q = mohammedan & f = false . Retrieved June 28 , 2010 . ( Original from Harvard University ) This article incorporates text from The religions of China : Confucianism and Tâoism described and compared with Christianity , by James Legge , a publication from 1880 now in the public domain in the United States . This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm , Hugh , ed ( 1911 ) . Encyclopædia Britannica ( 11 th ed . ). Cambridge University Press . Norman J . Girardot , The Victorian Translation of China : James Legge ' s Oriental Pilgrimage ( Berkeley : University of California Press , 2002 ) is a major reassessment of Legge and his role in creating British Sinology and European study of world religion . Lauren F . Pfister , Striving for ' The Whole Duty of Man ': James Legge and the Scottish Protestant Encounter with China , 2 vols . , published by The Scottish Studies Centre of the Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz in Germersheim , 2004 . Legge , Helen Edith ( 1905 ) . James Legge : Missionary & Scholar London : Religious Tract Society . - University of Hong Kong Libraries , Digital Initiatives , China Through Western Eyes [ edit ] External linksWikisource has original works written by or about : James Legge Chisholm , Hugh , ed ( 1911 ) . " Legge , James ". Encyclopædia Britannica ( 11 th ed . ). Cambridge University Press . Works by James Legge at Project GutenbergChinese Classics of the " Sacred Books of the East " most of which translated by J . Legge Smith , Carl , " A sense of history ( Part I ) . Ying Wa has longest link with the past ", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch , pp . 144 - 264 , Vol . 26 ( 1986 ) [ hide ] v · d · eProtestant missions to C h inaBackgroundChristianity · Protestantism · Chinese history · Missions timeline · Christianity in China · Nestorians · Catholics · Jesuits · ProtestantsPeopleRobert Morrison · Hunter Corbett · Gladys Aylward · Pearl Buck · Thomas Cochrane , 1866 - 1953 · Jonathan Goforth · Karl Gützlaff · Eric Liddell · Robert S . Maclay · Lottie Moon · Gideon Nye · Timothy Richard · Cambridge Seven · Hudson Taylor · ( more missionaries ) Missionary agenciesCIM · LMS · ABCFM · CMS · M . E . 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