Background
James Legge was born on December 20, 1815 at Huntly, Aberdeenshire.
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The Four Books: The Classic Texts of Confucianism in Chinese and English
(The Four Books is the authoritative canon of texts of Con...)
The Four Books is the authoritative canon of texts of Confucianism. The Four Books was compiled by the Neo-Confucian scholar Zhu Xi during the Song Dynasty. This edition of the Four Books features Legges timeless translations of these works coupled with the original Chinese. Whether one is a practitioner of Confucianism, or merely wants an introduction to the thought of the great Confucian philosophers, this edition of the Four Books will be invaluable to the reader.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1544799527/?tag=2022091-20
The I Ching: The Book of Changes (Sacred Books of China: The Book of Changes)
( One of the most important books in the history of Orien...)
One of the most important books in the history of Oriental culture is the I Ching, or as it is usually called in English, the Book of Changes. Its basic text seems to have been prepared before 1,000 B.C., in the last days of the Shang Dynasty and the first part of the Chou Dynasty. It was one of the Five Classics edited by Confucius, who is reported to have wished he had fifty more years of life to study it. Since the time of Confucius it has never lost its enormous significance; it has been used by Confucianists and Taoists alike, by learned literary scholars and street shamans, by the official state cult and by private individuals. Basically, the I Ching is a manual of divination, founded upon what modern scholars like Wolfgang Pauli, the Nobel Laureate physicist and C. G. Jung, the psychoanalyst, have called the synchronistic concept of the universe. This means that all things happening at a certain time have certain characteristic features which can be isolated, so that in addition to vertical causality, one may also have horizontal linkages. According to tradition, King Wan and his son the Duke of Chou spent their lives analyzing the results of divination in terms of interacting polar forces and six-variable hexagrams, correlating an observed body of events with predictions. Whether this account is true or not, the I Ching still retains its primacy in Chinese thought. Apart from its enormous value in Oriental studies, the I Ching is very important in the history of religions, history of philosophy, and even in certain aspects of modern Western thought. It is one of the very few divination manuals that have survived into modern times, and it is typologically interesting as perhaps the most developed, most elaborate system that is known in detail. In philosophy, it marks a stage in the development of human thought, while the I Ching has recently become very important in the understanding of certain cultural developments in the Western world. This present work is the standard English translation by the great Sinologist James Legge, prepared for the Sacred Books of the East series. It contains the basic text attributed to King Wan and the Duke of Chou, the ten appendices usually attributed to Confucius, a profound introduction by Legge, and exhaustive footnotes explaining the text for a Western reader.
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THE ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS (annotated)
(The Analects of Confucius, is a collection of sayings and...)
The Analects of Confucius, is a collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Chinese philosopher Confucius and his contemporaries, traditionally believed to have been compiled and written by Confucius' followers. It is believed to have been written during the Warring States period (475221 BC), and it achieved its final form during the mid-Han dynasty (206 BC220 AD). By the early Han dynasty the Analects was considered merely a "commentary" on the Five Classics, but the status of the Analects grew to be one of the central texts of Confucianism by the end of that dynasty. During the late Song dynasty (9601279) the importance of the Analects as a philosophy work was raised above that of the older Five Classics, and it was recognized as one of the "Four Books". The Analects has been one of the most widely read and studied books in China for the last 2,000 years, and continues to have a substantial influence on Chinese and East Asian thought and values today. Confucius believed that the welfare of a country depended on the moral cultivation of its people, beginning from the nation's leadership. He believed that individuals could begin to cultivate an all-encompassing sense of virtue through ren, and that the most basic step to cultivating ren was devotion to one's parents and older siblings. He taught that one's individual desires do not need to be suppressed, but that people should be educated to reconcile their desires via rituals and forms of propriety, through which people could demonstrate their respect for others and their responsible roles in society. He taught that a ruler's sense of virtue was his primary prerequisite for leadership. His primary goal in educating his students was to produce ethically well-cultivated men who would carry themselves with gravity, speak correctly, and demonstrate consummate integrity in all things.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1517171121/?tag=2022091-20
Texts of Taoism (Volume 1)
( These two volumes contain the complete James Legge tran...)
These two volumes contain the complete James Legge translation of the sacred writings of the great mystical religion that for millennia has counterbalanced the official Confucianism of the Chinese state. Together with the Confucian canon, these writings have been avidly studied by generations of Chinese scholars and literary men and their place in the formation of Chinese civilization is central. First published as volume xxxix and xl of Max Müller's Sacred Books of the East series, these volumes contain the complete texts of the Tao Te Ching attributed to Lao Tzü; the writings of Chuang Tzü; and several shorter works; the T'ai Shang or Tractate of Actions and Their Retributions, the Ch'ing Chang Ching or Classic of Purity, the Yin Fu Ching of Classic of the Harmony of the Seen and Unseen, the Yü Shu Ching or Classic of the Pivot of jade, and the Hsia Yung Ching or Classic of the Directory for a Day. Many of these lesser documents are to be found in translation only in this collection. Professor Legge, who held the chair in Chinese language and literature at Oxford for 20 years, introduces the collection with a discussion of differences among Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, the authorship of the Tao Te Ching, the real meaning of Tao in Chinese thought, and other backgrounds. Orientalists and students of religion have long recognized this collection as indispensable. But laymen will find that the Tao Te Ching is not only profound but provocative and stimulating and that the parables and tales in the work of Chuang Tzü are delightful reading.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486209903/?tag=2022091-20
James Legge
Edit ProfileEducation
James Legge enrolled in Aberdeen Grammar School at age 13 and then King's College, Aberdeen at age 15.
Career
After studying at the Highbury Theological College, London, Legge went in 1839 as a missionary to the Chinese, but, as China was not yet open to Europeans, he remained at Malacca three years, in charge of the Anglo-Chinese College there. The College was subsequently moved to Iiong-Kong, where Legge lived for thirty years. Impressed "with the necessity of missionaries being 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 admirably executed and completed a few years before his death. In 1870 he was made an LL. D. of-Aberdeen and in 1884 of Edinburgh University. In 1875 several gentlemen connected with the China trade suggested to the university of Oxford a Chair of Chinese Language and Literature to be occupied by Dr Legge. The university responded liberally, Corpus Christi College contributed the emoluments of a fellowship, and the chair was constituted in 1876.
Achievements
Works
book
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THE ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS (annotated)
(The Analects of Confucius, is a collection of sayings and...)
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Texts of Taoism (Volume 1)
( These two volumes contain the complete James Legge tran...)
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The I Ching: The Book of Changes (Sacred Books of China: The Book of Changes)
( One of the most important books in the history of Orien...)
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The Four Books: The Classic Texts of Confucianism in Chinese and English
(The Four Books is the authoritative canon of texts of Con...)
-
THE ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS (annotated)
Religion
In the Book of Documents and the Classic of Poetry, the word, "Shangdi" (Chinese: 上帝; pinyin: Shàngdì; Wade-Giles: Shang Ti; lit. "High Emperor"), is used in reference to a deity. Legge believed and argued that the word, "Shangdi" represented a monotheistic god; therefore, he thought it an appropriate term for translating words in reference to the Christian God into Chinese. He believed that using a term already deeply entrenched in Chinese culture could prevent Christianity from being seen as a completely foreign religion. His opponents argued that this would cause confusion due to the word's use in Taoism and Chinese folk religion.
Connections
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Born
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Died
January 29, 1897 (aged 81) -
Nationality
British