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CLUES TO THE LIFE AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS NINETEENTH CENTURY EUROPEAN SINOLOGISTS – JAMES LEGGE (AD 1815-1897)
LAUREN F. PFISTER*
James Legge (1815-1897) was perhaps the most important intellectual, among both foreigners and Chinese, in 19th century Hong Kong. His eight-volume set of translations of the Chinese Classics, written in Hong Kong, has passed through at least nine reprintings (the most recent being in 1985). Numerous independent copies have been made of the second edition of the Four Books, which Legge himself re-edited (1893-1895) before he died in 1897. The complete set of translations, commentaries, and critical notes earned Legge much international recognition.
The international acclaim arrived as a result of correspondence which passed between Legge and the brilliant sinologist of the French Academy, Stanislas Julien, during the 1860s. When the latter died in 1872, an international prize for Chinese Literature was established under his name; Legge was its first recipient in 1875. This led a group of English businessmen and friends to promote the creation of a chair in Chinese for the retired missionary. Funds were raised, and Legge was accepted on rather unusual terms at Oxford University in Corpus Christi College as the First Professor of Chinese Language and Literature (1876-1897).
During Legge's tenure at Oxford, he was an active member of the Royal Asiatic Society, completed six further volumes of Confucian and Taoist translations for F. Max Müller's series, The Sacred Books of The East, while writing and lecturing to students and the general public in Oxford on a broad range of issues including Chinese language and literature, Taoism, Buddhism, Chinese History, Indian and Syrian influences in early Chinese History, as well as topics in Chinese philosophy and political thought.
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* This article is edited from a longer manuscript with the consent of the author [Editor]
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