[
    {
        "id": 212286,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1990",
        "page_number": 228,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "205\n\n“Scottish Commonsense” philosophy was a conscious effort in the eighteenth century to counteract the sceptical implications of the radical philosopher, David Hume. The young Legge had read the writings of Thomas Reid, Dugald Stewart and Thomas Brown while a student at King's College in the early 1830s. He claimed later that he did not agree with all their philosophical implications, preferring a less rationalistic philosophy (perhaps that of William Paley), but even his granddaughter, the late Prof. Mary Dominica Legge, underscored his preference for Aristotelean ethics over the Confucian equivalent. If the content of James Legge's thought is rooted in the Biblical interpretations of the Non-Conformist tradition and Paley's evangelical system of natural theology, the categories came largely from the Commonsense tradition.\n\n72\n\nIt was these categories which, as translator and interpreter, James Legge employed in evaluating Confucian ethics, education, and epistemology. The lack of rational precision in a number of places in Confucius' life evoke from Legge a sense that there was a “want of freedom” in Confucius' behaviour. He likewise criticized the important Song dynasty Confucian commentator, Zhu Xi, for implying that, when knowledge is complete, the thoughts are by this means necessarily made sincere or without self-deception. For Legge, the moral life stemmed from a spiritual source related to the moral will, which was more penetrating and more complex than a mere mental grasp of things.\n\n7.1\n\nIn his study of Confucius' philosophy, Legge identifies specific details of the sage's biography in which his evasion of the truth (in one case involving an oath) is claimed to have produced an \"injurious influence” as an example to later Chinese people. There is also a conflict between Confucius' more humble claims about himself and the claims made about him by later Confucianists. At times these claims approach blasphemy, and Legge minces no words in decrying these assertions. The fact that other canonical texts included passages in which Confucius appears as the advocate of an ethic of revenge, especially when it involved family or clan ties, was an additional issue Legge regarded as deserving unqualified criticism. Whether or not these texts were historically reliable, their negative ethical influence was undeniable.\n\nWhat is important here is that the ethical questions Legge asked",
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    {
        "id": 212298,
        "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": 240,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "217\n\nhe testified that there was hardly a house in Victoria except the brothels - where he had not repeatedly been and where he was not known as a friend. See James Legge. \"The Colony of Hong Kong\", The China Review, op. cit., pp. 168-169. Unfortunately, these remarks were edited out of the reprint of this talk found in The Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 11 (1971), op. cit.\n\nSee n. 26\n\nM5 The impact and importance of Legge's life as a Non-Conformist academic has been summarized in my article in Ching Feng, “The 'Failures' of James Legge's Fruitful Life for China', op. cit. Another more general point about dissenting churches should be made: in late nineteenth century Great Britain, the academic circles of academics who were dissenters appear to have functioned as a contrapuntal voice in the mainstream of English society. The publication of The British Quarterly became an organ for dissenting viewpoints which illustrates this point. Another factor involved in the influence of dissenting believers was the fact that many of the children of these people married into major families within English society. A perfect example is one of Legge's daughters from his first marriage, Eliza, who married a gentleman who later became the first Inspector-General of the Chinese Maritime Customs, Horatio Nelson Lay. See Lindsay Ride, op. cit., p. 9.\n\nC\n\nSee the case of Dr. Wong Foon, London Missionary Society Archives. Letters from South China, dated April 12, 1856. Further discussion occurs in letters of October 12, 1859, April 14, 1860, and November 28, 1860.\n\n47 Legge's opposition to opium and coolie trades, among other problems, was stated publicly in his address at the Hong Kong City Hall in 1872. See \"The Colony of Hong Kong\", The Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, op. cit., pp. 190-191. In 1870, Legge had joined his Chinese pastoral colleague Ho Jinshan in promoting a petition which opposed the newly legalized gambling opened by the Hong Kong government primarily for the sake of revenue. Over one thousand two hundred names, most of whom were Chinese, signed the petitions presented to the government on February 21st and March 6th, 1871. See Hong Kong Government Office, Colonial Office Records, CO129/149, 5, pp. 188-197 and 8, pp. 208-234.\n\n100\n\nSee the letter addressed to James Legge by Sir W. G. Liddell, the appointed representative of Oxford University, dated February 27, 1875 (Bodleian Library archives). Liddell makes it clear to Legge in the letter that his Non-Conformist background should not be a source of turmoil if he were admitted to the University. Although the letter also includes the qualification that Legge's credentials indicate a person of high standing, the doubt in Liddell's mind about the character of anyone from a dissenting tradition is explicit. It may be the case, as Mary Dominica Legge claimed, that James Legge was the first non-Anglican professor admitted to Oxford after 1871, but I have not yet found a way to verify this.\n\n69\n\nR. F. Horton commented, however, that Prof. Legge's involvement with the Non-Conformist Union was minimal. See his comments in his text, An Autobiography (London: 1918).\n\n*0\n\nAmong those with whom Prof. Legge had some direct spiritual interaction was the famous Hegelian philosopher, T. H. Green. In a letter dated April 29 (no year, but probably 1879, when both men were on the provisional committee of Somerville College), Green responds to a lengthy rejoinder Prof. Legge had given to a book Green had written. Green had sent the letter because, apparently, the professor had treated him like an orthodox believer,\" and Green felt there was a sort of hypocrisy in allowing you to continue under that impression\". The letter ends with Green politely defending his philosophical position, but also mirroring some sense of challenge to alter his views which must have been expressed by Prof. Legge. This letter is found\n\n4\n\nIL\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241",
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