RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 212 Kong CT. London Missionary Society Archives, South China, April 24, 1845: Legge writes to the headquarters, sending copies of Collie's work to them. C Andrew J Nathan, "The Place of Values in Cross-Cultural Studies: The Example of Democracy and China", in Paul A. Cohen and Merle Goldman, eds., Ideas Across Cultures: Essays on Chinese Thought in Honor of Benjamin I. Schwartz (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1990), pp. 293-314. I quote here the three relevant sections. **After World War II] relativism especially recommended itself as a corrective to our society's nineteenth and early twentieth-century missionary impulses... that their way of life was not going to sweep the world.... (Ibid. p 296). **The relativist position |-| adopted in order to prevent missionary zeal from clouding our understanding of the non-Western world |. led in some cases to an equal but opposite kind of self-deception”. (Ibid. p 304). "Evaluative universalism by no means requires a return to the missionary mode of promoting Western values. It is not a call for proselytism but an expression of the belief, first, that value differences when they exist can, and can only, be honestly expressed, and second, that beliefs originating in different societies can fruitfully be confronted with one another, compared, and judged, even though disagreement is expected to persist”. (Ibid. pp 312-313). Recorded in Legge's autobiographical account entitled "Notes of My Life" (pp. 25-27), kept now in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. 12 These books are Paraphrasis Psalmorum Davidis Poetica (n.p., 1566) and Rerum Scoticorum Historia (ed. apud A. Arbuthnetum, 1582). English translations of both were available in Legge's time. Li This version was apparently intended as a replacement of the earlier rendition of The Book Of Poetry published by Legge in 1871. It was a completely revised text of both the verse and the commentarial notes. Because it only included the English text and not the Chinese text which appeared in the first edition, however, the later Oxford edition of 1893-1895 republished the earlier text. A comparison of this earlier rendition with the second edition (which others called Legge's "metrical“ Shijing "jén) would display the kind of discipline Legge had as a translator of classical texts. See James Legge, The Chinese Classics: translated into English, with Preliminary Essays And Explanatory Notes – Vol III: The She King; or, The Book Of Odes (London: Trübner & Co., 1876). See also Alfred Lister, "Dr. Legge's Metrical Shi-King", The China Review 5:1 (July 1876), pp. 1-8. 11 This Hebrew Psalter was prepared with a twenty-seven page introductory essay which included some critical commentary, and over three hundred pages of metrical paraphrases of the Psalms. Legge's position in presenting the Psalter was primarily meditative and not textual-critical; neither did this tome contain the kind of extensive commentarial apparatus which The Chinese Classics always included. Perhaps it is for some of these reasons that the manuscript was never published. It is now kept in the library of New College at the University of Edinburgh. 14 The printed text of this poetic summary of Chinese history I found in the Oriental Studies Library in Oxford. It was clearly planned and printed as part of some larger work. For the value of "cherishing the old", see the Analects 2:11, The Chinese Classics: Vol 1, op. cit., p. 49. Han Yu's opposition to Buddhist and Taoist superstitions, his courageous attack on their spiritual deceptions, and his consequent punishment must have stood as a courageous example to Legge. Han's specific interest in the old style, and his influence in stimulating interest in the renewed study of ancient texts and writing styles, parallels some of Legge's own interests. 17 After graduating from King's College, the young James spent time with his father ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 216 culture, which would make Chinese culture all the more accessible to the influences of Christianization. Secondly, it explains why other missionaries who considered Chinese culture to be simply pagan refused to have anything to do with a fusion of Confucianism and Christianity. In their minds, such a combination would hinder the advance of Christian civilization, obstruct the work of the Spirit of God, and ultimately be destructive of God's plan to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. Legge's claim that God had left a trace in Chinese culture threatened their view of the desperate losiness of the Chinese people. In fact, Legge himself would agree with them in general on the issue of the need for salvation, but he disagreed with the missiological strategy which refused to look for any point of support for missionary activity within Chinese culture. Those who opposed Legge were in effect supporting a basic assumption: God would not employ the pagan Chinese culture for the purpose of establishing His spiritual Kingdom. This explained, from their point of view, why He did not send them any special revelation of Himself. It was precisely this latter claim that Legge vehemently denied: to overlook the Shangdi traditions in the Chinese Classics was to deny historical facts related to the destiny of the Chinese peoples. See Confucianism in Relation to Christianity, op. cit. See for details of the comparison "Some New Dimensions in the Study of the Works of James Legge (1815-1897); Part II", op. cit., pp. 43ff. 1 57 James Legge, Christianity and Confucianism Compared in Their Teaching on the Whole Duty Of Man (London: Religious Tract Society, 1883). SH James Legge, Christianity in China: A Rendering of the Nestorian Tablet at Si-an-fu to Commemorate Christianity (London: Trübner & Co., 1888). SV The original twenty-four-page manuscript, entitled "Sketch of Ho Tsun Sheen", was written by Legge in March 19, 1872, and is kept in the South China letters of the London Missionary Society archives. It was later published as an article in a volume called Gleanings From The Mission Field (London: 1873?). MI See The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle (January 1833), p. 34; (March 1853), pp. 121-129; (December 1853), pp. 697-707; (supplement), pp. 757-764. A The Taoist priest Legge mentions was one who restricted his study to Laozi's Daode jing, rather than the more esoteric doctrines passed down in esoteric Taoist training. Legge found him "more prepared than the Confucian literati to receive the message of the Gospel". The elderly woman convert, at whose deathbed Legge sought a final testimony of trust in Christ, had been "a professor among her country-women of Taoist superstitions", but after becoming a Christian she had been a faithful and effective witness for Christ. See James Legge, The Religions of China, op. cit., pp. 275-276, 296-297. In Alexander Wylie's Memorials of Protestant Missionaries (Shanghae: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1867), pp. 119-121, eighteen manuscripts, pamphlets, and books are cited as prepared by Legge in Chinese. At least one of these was done with his Chinese colleague, Ho Jinshan. See Shengjing Zhengju (Proofs of the Bible) (Fuzhou: Taiping Street Gospel Hall Press, 1870). Among these texts are two pamphlets in story-telling form on the lives of Joseph and Abraham which are of particular interest. I have seen a copy of the former in the Bodleian Library, and discovered that it was written in Cantonese dialect; I suspect that the latter is done in a similar fashion, but no copy of it has yet been found. In the context of this passage, Dr. Legge found it necessary to emphasize that he had spent as much time with Chinese people as he did with their books. Every day he claimed to spend several hours in visiting them, not only in their homes, but also in their shops. In the same recollection, he also mentions regular ministry in the Chinese prison as part of his vocation. Later on in this passage, Legge's wit also comes through: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 217 he 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. See n. 26 M5 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. C See 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. 47 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. 100 See 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. 69 R. 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). *0 Among 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 4 IL Page 240 Page 241 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 218 in the Bodleian Archives at Oxford. 71 I have found no direct support for this claim, though according to Ralph Covell the influence of William Paley's natural theology on nineteenth century Protestant missionary apologetics was immense. See Ralph Covell, Confucius, The Buddha, and Christ: A History of the Gospel In Chinese (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1986), pp. 98-102. A helpful text on the background of William Paley and his rationalistic theology is D. L. LeMahieu's The Mind of William Paley: A Philosopher, and His Age (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1976). 72 This is a claim made in her essay entitled "James Legge" (pp. 10-11), presented to the Sino-Scottish Society at the University of Edinburgh on February 4, 1951. 73 See James Legge, The Chinese Classics, Vol 1, p. 89. This is significantly changed from the original 1861 edition. 74 Ibid. Page 367 75 Ibid., pp. 100-101. 76 Ibid., pp. 49-51, 94-97. 77 The Book of Rites and The Rites of Zhou, cited in The Chinese Classics. Vol 1, op. cit., pp. 110-111. 78 I am thinking here of Liang Qichao, who in 1902 and 1903 wrote some famous articles urging Chinese intellectuals to discard the inadequate value system of traditional Confucian life. See my article which includes this attack, “Liang Qi-Chao and the Problematic of Social Change: Analyzing a Philosophical Tension in Twentieth Century Chinese Philosophy". Synthesis Philosophica (Yugoslavia) 4:1 (1989), pp. 189-212. 79 Legge wrote a series of three articles on Qu Yuan entitled "The Li Sao Poem and its Author," all of which appeared in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain And Ireland. See n. 5. Another interpretation of these texts is offered in "The 'Failures' Of James Legge's Fruitful Life For China", op. cit., pp. 258-260. For a recent translation of Qu Yuan's "Heavenly Questions" see David Hawkes, The Songs of the South (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd, 1985). Legge did begin translating other poems of Qu Yuan, but never had them published. ================================================================================