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began the habit of studying from 3:00 to 8:00 am, carrying the habit with him into his missionary life in Malacca (1839-1843) and Hong Kong (1843-1872), maintaining it even through his twenty-one years at Oxford.
II. Legge's Scottish Inheritance
Although Legge mentions numerous sources and authors in his autobiographical reflections written just a year before he died, the most profound early influence came from the 16th century Scottish intellectual, George Buchanan. Two of Buchanan's works had a long-lasting effect on Legge: the paraphrased psalms and his History of Scotland. Much more was elicited from Legge as a consequence of his exposure to these two works than might be initially expected.
Like many pious Scots, James' mother memorized the Psalms and often sang them during her daily work. While he was in grammar school, Buchanan's paraphrased psalms became a great attraction to the young Legge.
These rhyming psalms provided Legge with a stylistic framework into which he rendered the Chinese classic, The Book of Odes, (*) among other works. Some of Legge's most astute translations of the terse Chinese poems from this classic, first published in 1871, reflect the paraphrastic flexibility which Buchanan achieved in his work. A few years later Legge published a metrical version of the same Chinese classic, rendering its poems in everything from stylish English to Scottish drone, pursuing the goal of portraying the rich variety of language and style The Book of Odes itself contains. Here the influence of Buchanan is particularly clear.
Buchanan's influence on Legge went beyond the medium of Chinese verse. Before entering Oxford, Legge also rendered into English the whole of the Hebrew Psalter in similar paraphrastic poetry, accompanied by a critical introduction, as was his custom. For reasons unknown, this manuscript was never published.14
Having recognized the mnemonic value of rhymed paraphrases, Professor Legge also prepared a rhymed piece which cleverly related to new students the titles, order, and distinctions of the many dynasties within traditional Chinese history.
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190
began the habit of studying from 3:00 to 8:00 am, carrying the habit with him into his missionary life in Malacca (1839-1843) and Hong Kong (1843-1872), maintaining it even through his twenty-one years at Oxford.
II. Legge's Scottish Inheritance
Although Legge mentions numerous sources and authors in his autobiographical reflections written just a year before he died, the most profound early influence came from the 16th century Scottish intellectual, George Buchanan. Two of Buchanan's works had a long lasting affect on Legge: the paraphrased psalms and his History of Scotland. Much more was elicited from Legge as a consequence of his exposure to these two works than might be initially expected.
Like many pious Scots, James' mother memorized the Psalms and often sang them during her daily work. While he was in grammar school, Buchanan's paraphrased psalms became a great attraction to the young Legge.
These rhyming psalms provided Legge with a stylistic framework into which he rendered the Chinese classic, The Book of Odes, (*) among other works. Some of Legge's most astute translations of the terse Chinese poems from this classic, first published in 1871, reflect the paraphrastic flexibility which Buchanan achieved in his work. A few years later Legge published a metrical version of the same Chinese classic, rendering its poems in everything from stylish English to Scottish drone, pursuing the goal of portraying the rich variety of language and style The Book of Odes itself contains. Here the influence of Buchanan is particularly clear."
Buchanan's influence on Legge went beyond the medium of Chinese verse. Before entering Oxford, Legge also rendered into English the whole of the Hebrew Psalter in similar paraphrastic poetry, accompanied with a critical introduction, as was his custom. For reasons unknown, this manuscript was never published,14
Having recognized the mnemonic value of rhymed paraphrases. Professor Legge also prepared a rhymed piece which cleverly related to new students the titles, order, and distinctions of the many dynasties within traditional Chinese history.
35
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