[ { "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", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212266, "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": 208, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "185\n\nVI. Miscalculated Significance\n\nAfter the revolutions of China and the near dismantling of Britain's empire, one can ask what the significance of Legge's career is for today's changed world. One answer was suggested by Lindsey Ride, who claimed that:\n\n\"Legge was going to be a missionary to his own people and race first; he was going to translate and explain the learning of the East to the scholars and the missionaries of the West.\"\n\nRide went on to support this by citing the 1877 speech to the General Missionary Conference in Shanghai. Ride's biographical account of Legge is easily the most balanced and best informed of all the writings summarizing Legge's life until the 1980s. Despite this, however, Ride does not give a precise account of Legge's personal motivations and the context in which he was writing.\n\nLegge was a Christian and humanitarian sinological scholar: he was an academic by talent and training, and a Christian by conviction and character. He was concerned to translate and explain Chinese literature to the West, but he was just as much concerned to portray to the West the Chinese in their times of need. He aimed both to evaluate their cultural heritage and to minister to their religious inadequacies. Thus he alerted the English public to the famines in China in 1878, taught texts of the Chinese Bible at Oxford along with other Chinese literature, and, while at Oxford, produced not only the translations for The Sacred Books of the East, but also his most direct and scholarly apologetics for the Chinese need for Christ. Legge was never only a scholar, or interested only in explaining Chinese learning to the West.\n\nVII. Anti-missionary Bias\n\nPerhaps the most serious misunderstanding is the claim that no missionary could ever be a sinologist. The basis of this judgement does have a logical foundation, and can be expressed in something like the following terms: missionaries are absolutists, believing the message they hold to be rationally supreme, and historically demonstrable, and often (though this is not always explicitly stated) culturally preferable. In the light of these beliefs, they become intolerant of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212280, "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": 222, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "199\n\nas this related to Chinese classical culture. Having been somewhat hesitant to suggest the possibility of a missiological approach which included a more positive role for Confucianism, Dr. Legge in his first years at Oxford became fully convinced that this was the most appropriate strategy for Christian missionaries in traditional China. In this way traditions known and respected in Chinese society, from the common people to the Confucian scholars who effectively ruled the provinces, could be used as bridges for presenting and highlighting the need of China and her people for the Christian fulfillment in salvation through Jesus Christ.\n\nThis was the keynote of Legge's controversial 1877 speech presented at the First General Missionary Conference in Shanghai. Because many missionaries came to China during this period in which \"gunboat policies\" brought legal access of missionaries to China, many also experienced strong opposition from the often corrupt and \"atheistic\" mandarins who ruled the areas in which they were active. In the minds of these missionaries, to advocate an alliance with this kind of a system was to advocate a dismantling of basic Christian convictions in theology and ethics. What appears to be a condescending view of the superiority of European culture in the writings of many missionaries was from their point of view the only means of supporting the kinds of reformations which Christianity would, they felt, necessarily involve in Chinese society. Their opposition grew out of their sense of the devastating practical compromises which would have to be accepted if missionary strategies accommodated the Qing Confucian system.\n\nThe consequences of Prof. Legge's support of an “original Confucian monotheism” in the early historical annals of the Confucian Classics were unwelcome to many missionaries. By referring to the classical Confucian texts as the basis for Christian missionary strategy, Legge was by extension accepting, they felt, the imperial palace — the arbiter of Confucianism as the final court of appeal for Christian missionaries. A further complication arose because the worship of Shangdi, the technical term Legge associated with the Christian God in the Chinese Classics, was a religion limited to an imperial monopoly. Legge hoped that this religion and its rites could be transformed into a Christian institution and extended across the whole of China.\n\nRather than approach China as outsiders with a foreign message,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212282, "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": 224, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "201\n\nhis criticisms of Mencius cf.) In these revisions, the Christian sense of the bilateral duty to truth and to Deity was never lessened. What changed was Legge's understanding and sympathy toward Confucius as he compared the goals of the Classical tradition with those of the Christian tradition. They were neither religiously equal nor ethically equivalent, but they shared convictions about the nature of wisdom, commitments to moral virtues, and an understanding about the value of a self-critical humility in life which provided persuasive reasons for a bi-cultural harmonization. Although this perspective is most clearly brought out by a comparison of the 1861 and 1893-1895 editions of the Four Books, the basic arguments and their explicit justifications had been summarized in the Shanghai missionary conference paper of 1877.5%\n\nLegge's power to persevere through personal crises can only be explained by his deep sense of commitment to fulfil his vow of duty to Jesus Christ. For the sake of completing his task, he endured the death of his first wife (in October 1852) and four of their children (two in Malacca and two in Hong Kong); three periods of furlough when he returned with family members to England, two clearly for the sake of convalescence; risking death and hardship while travelling and evangelizing in the Chinese mainland (he was stoned by Chinese crowds at least two times in his career); and once being caught out at sea in the midst of a major typhoon, suspected by his family and colleagues of having been lost at sea. Although these might be seen as the trials of any difficult life, they were taken willingly, in spite of the cost, because of the deep commitment arising from his missionary call.\n\nSometimes scholars overlook this missionary calling when a man like Legge retires from mission work and enters academia. Though this might be the case for some, Legge experienced no disenchantment with his Christian faith once he entered Oxford. His missionary duty was carried on throughout his Oxford career, albeit expressed at the intellectual level,\n\nSoon after presenting his paper for the Shanghai General Missionary Conference in 1877, Prof. Legge served as the translator for a charitable organization which was seeking famine relief for the masses in China in 1878. This was directly related to his sense of Christian compassion, and was a means of practical response to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "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", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215988, "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-2002", "page_number": 287, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "221\n\nresearch and cross-cultural studies on an international scale. There is much of lasting value which has been gained here. For the light of this story is full of mottled shades, helping to expose the cultural complexities of the second generation of missionaries and indigenous Christians among Protestants in China as well as highlighting the work of one of their most creative and unexpected indigenous missionaries. Furthermore, it reveals a purposefully hidden event in the very early era of the post-Opium War treaty situation which has been all but forgotten. Now there is even more evidence to consider, far more than has previously been available, to indicate how and why the interacting forces of foreign military, local mandarin, Hong Kong missionary and Chinese local populations struggled through this very murky period in modern Chinese history.\n\nNOTES\n\n1. Further details about Legge's missionary-scholar career can be culled from my two-volume work entitled Striving for \"The Whole Duty of Man”: James Legge and the Scottish Protestant Encounter with China (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang), forthcoming in May or June 2003. Images of some of the other deaths surrounding Legge's later life while a professor in Chinese language and literature at Oxford can be culled from Norman J. Girardot's The Victorian Translation of China: James Legge's Oriental Pilgrimage (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002). An earlier version of this paper was read at the International Conference on James Legge held in the University of Aberdeen in April 1997.\n\n2. See George Legge, Lectures on Theology, Science, and Revelation, eds. James Legge and John Legge, with introduction by James Legge (London: 1863).\n\n3. In the five-volume set of William Canton's A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society (London: John Murray, 1904-1910), only two pages are devoted to recounting the basic elements of Ch'ea's Christian life and martyrdom, all being completely dependent on previous published sources in English. While a full chapter is devoted to Ch'ea in Helen Edith Legge's James Legge: Missionary and Scholar (London: Religious Tract Society, 1905), her account suffers from a lack of chronological consistency, some misrepresentation of facts, and a lack of understanding of the broader circumstances influencing the events leading to his murder.\n\n4. An immense amount of literature in the general area of Protestant missionary studies, for example, and two monumental works on Legge's two distinct careers as a missionary for the London Missionary Society in Hong Kong and as the first professor of Chinese language and literature at Corpus Christi College in Oxford (by Pfister and Girardot respectively), have highlighted these matters. For those interested in the more general trends of missionary studies", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]