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of fact, focusing on the negative comments made by Legge without balancing them by Legge's sensitivity to broader ethical and religious contexts. Furthermore, Kranz showed none of Legge's sensitivity to the values of Chinese cultural and ethical standards; all of his comments were marred by a crass condescension.
This attempt to discredit Confucius and Legge's interpretation of Confucius went without criticism for only a few years. In 1904, another author in the The Chinese Recorder noted that Kranz had employed for his purposes only the earlier (1861) edition of Legge's work. He was apparently unaware of Legge's positive re-evaluation of Confucius which had appeared in his second (1893-1895) edition.
V. Unintentional Imbalance
If the judgements of strangers are too often insensitive, the justifications of relatives are sometimes too sensitive. Pastor Kranz's distortions were drawn from general and personal ignorance; Helen Legge's biography, James Legge: Missionary and Scholar, was a self-conscious piece, full of personal insights and general awareness of her subject's interests and intentions, but somewhat unbalanced.
Helen Legge was commissioned by the Religious Tract Society to write the biography. James Legge's career and professional life could be neatly divided: thirty-five years were spent in the service of the London Missionary Society; twenty-one years were devoted to his academic work in Oxford. Although his Christian concerns and his Chinese interests were consistent throughout his professional life, the institutional change marked a watershed in the direction and character of his efforts. Nevertheless, in Helen's biography, thirteen of fourteen chapters dealt with her father's missionary life! This may well have been the preference of the publisher, but, even though Helen interspersed some notes on her father's academic career, far too little of the scholar appears in the book.
This unbalanced presentation was redressed twenty years later. One of Legge's students became the third Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at Oxford. William Edward Soothill prefaced his book on Chinese Religions with a dedication which read: “To James Legge, a Great Scholar and a Devoted Missionary”
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of fact, focusing on the negative comments made by Legge without balancing them by Legge's sensitivity to broader ethical and religious contexts. Furthermore, Kranz showed none of Legge's sensitivity to the values of Chinese cultural and ethical standards; all of his comments were marred by a crass condescension.
This attempt to discredit Confucius and Legge's interpretation of Confucius went without criticism for only a few years. In 1904. another author in the The Chinese Recorder noted that Kranz had employed for his purposes only the earlier (1861) edition of Legge's work. He was apparently unaware of Legge's positive re- evaluation of Confucius which had appeared in his second 1893-1895 edition.”
V. Unintentional Imbalance
If the judgements of strangers are too often insensitive, the justifications of relatives are some times too sensitive. Pastor Kranz's distortions were drawn from general and personal ignorance; Helen Legge's biography, James Legge: Missionary and Scholar, was a self-conscious piece, full of personal insights and general awareness of her subject's interests and intentions, but somewhat unbalanced.
Helen Legge was commissioned by the Religious Tract Society to write the biography. James Legge's career and professional life could be neatly divided thirty-five years were spent in the service of the London Missionary Society; twenty-one years were devoted to his academic work in Oxford. Although his Christian concerns and his Chinese interests were consistent throughout his professional life, the institutional change marked a watershed in the direction and character of his efforts. Nevertheless, in Helen's biography, thirteen of fourteen chapters dealt with her father's missionary life! This may well have been the preference of the publisher, but, even though Helen interspersed some notes on her father's academic career, far too little of the scholar appears in the book.
This unbalanced presentation was redressed twenty years later. One of Legge's students became the third Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at Oxford. William Edward Soothill prefaced his book on Chinese Religions with a dedication which read: “To James Legge.
a Great Scholar and a Devoted Missionary"
J
1136
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