[
    {
        "id": 212262,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1990",
        "page_number": 204,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "181\n\nreceived honorary doctorates from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Aberdeen, his alma mater.\n\nYet James Legge has, both within his own lifetime and since his death in 1897, been greatly misunderstood and misrepresented. There are seven areas of misunderstanding which are discussed in what follows, as well as seven clues as to why this has been the case.\n\nSeven Misunderstandings of Legge's Work\n\n1. Missionary Rejections\n\nAfter having taken up his professorship at Oxford, Legge was invited by the missionary community in China to present a paper at the First General Conference of Protestant Missionaries in Shanghai in 1877. “Confucianism in Relation to Christianity\" has been cited by later sources as a remarkably sensible and sensitive document which, while affirming the revelational priority of Christian faith, retains a high regard for Confucius and some aspects of Confucianism. However, the speech generated conflict when it was presented in absentia on May 11, 1877.\n\n६\n\nSo antagonized were some members of the conference by certain aspects of the speech that they voted in a subcommittee to delete Legge's contribution from the published proceedings. Friends of Legge consequently arranged for it to be published independently in London. A side issue involved in this rejection was that Legge had discussed some aspects of a question, which had been banned from discussion at the conference, the so-called “term question\". The question focused on the appropriate terms to be employed in translating the Christian ideas of God, spirits, and the Holy Spirit. Most of the opposition, however, was based upon Legge's claims that original Confucianism did have a limited knowledge of the true God. He went on to explain how Confucianism became sidetracked from its proper understanding of God (Shangdi, 上帝) and so needed to be supplemented by Christian revelation. Legge argued that because Confucianism is not inherently opposed to Christianity (as he felt Buddhism and \"Brahmanism\" were), missionaries could justifiably learn much by studying the texts of Confucianism and building bridges on Confucian foundations for effective Christian evangelism. A strong attack on Legge's assumptions was soon published in the",
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        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299",
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    {
        "id": 212291,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1990",
        "page_number": 233,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "210\n\n12 Helen Edith Legge, James Legge: Missionary and Scholar (London: Religious Tract Society, 1905), pp. 37-38, and Lindsey Ride, op. cit., p. 10.\n\n13 Cf. Records of the General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of China held at Shanghai, May 10-24, 1877 (Shanghai: Presbyterian Mission Press, 1878).\n\n14 James Legge, Confucianism in Relation to Christianity (London: no publisher's details, 1877), 12 pages.\n\n13 In fact, Legge had no knowledge that the Term Question had been proscribed by the Conference's executive committee when he wrote his paper. Cf. Anonymous, \"The Shanghai Missionary Conference\". The Chinese Recorder (May-June, 1877), esp. pp. 242, 248. Legge had begun advocating his position on the Term Question in major debates begun in 1850. Cf. James Legge. An Argument for Shang-te as the Proper Rendering of the Words Elohim And Theos, in the Chinese Language; with Strictures on the Essay of Bishop Boone in favour of the Term Shin, etc. etc. (Hong Kong, 1850), 43 pages, and William Boone, The Notions of the Chinese Concerning Gods and Spirits: with an Examination of the Defense of an Essay, on the Proper Rendering of the words Elohim and Theos, into the Chinese Language. (Includes another of Legge's essays.) (Hong Kong, 1852), 166 pages. The best summaries of the Term Question I have found are in S. Wells Williams, \"The Controvery among the Protestant Missionaries on the Proper Translation of the words God and Spirit into Chinese”, Bibliotheca Sacra 35 (October 1878), pp. 732-778, and George O. Lillegard, A History of the Term Question Controversy in our China Mission and the Chief Documents in the Case (Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts: (printed as manuscript), 1930). James Legge himself summarized the issues from his perspective in A Letter to Prof Max Müller chiefly on the Translation into English of the Chinese Terms Ti And Shang Ti (London: Trübner & Co. Pub, 1880).\n\nRobert N. Nelson, The Chinese Recorder 8:3 (May-June, 1877), pp. 351-359. See my Some New Dimensions in the Study of the Works of James Legge (1815-1897); part [\". Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal XII (1990), pp. 29-50, esp. pp. 46-49.\n\nBarthelemy St. Hilaire, Journal des Savants (Fevrier 1894) pp. 66–78; (Juin 1894) pp. 321-331; (Juillet 1894) pp. 381-392; (Septembre 1894) pp. 509-520. He had given an earlier review of the whole series edited by Müller in Ibid (Juin 1888) esp. pp. 311-314. St. Hilaire's position is summarised in the February 1894 (pp. 66-67) and September 1894 (pp. 513-519) Journals. On Fairbairn's actions, see W. B. Selbie. The Life Of Andrew Martin Fairbairn (London: 1914), p. 308.\n\n18 Franz Kühnert, \"Die Philosophie des Kong-dsy (Confucius) auf Grund des Urtextes. Ein Beitrag zur Revision der bisherigen Auffassungen”. Sitzungsberichte der Philosophisch-Historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Academie der Wissenschaften, Band 132, (Wien, F Tempsky, 1895).\n\nOne of the scholars with whom Legge was particularly impressed when he produced the first edition of his Chinese Classics was the Ming Confucian, Mao Xihe (El). Still, Legge admired Zhu Xi's scholarship. In preparing his second edition (1893-1895) of the Four Books. Legge mentioned that he had become more and more impressed with the wisdom of many of Zhu Xi's renderings. This does not mean, however, that Legge was unwilling to disagree with Zhu Xi. See my \"Serving or Suffocating the Sage? Reviewing the Efforts of Three Nineteenth Century Translators of The Four Books with Special Emphasis on James Legge (AD 1815-1897)\", The Hong Kong Linguist, Vol. 7 (Spring/Summer 1990) pp. 25-56, esp. pp. 44-45.\n\n20 Arthur von Rosthorn. \"Confucius, Legge. Kühnert\": Sitzungsberichte der Philosophisch-Historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Academie der Wissenschaften, Band 135. (Kaiser. Adademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, 1897), 21 pages.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299",
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