JAMES

See also:

• LEGGE
• JAMES LEGGE (1815-1897)

LEGGE (1815-1897)  , British Chinese scholar, was born at Huntly, Aberdeenshire, in 1815, and educated at King's College, Aberdeen . After studying at the Highbury Theological College, London, he went in 1839 as a missionary to the Chinese, but, as China was not yet open to Europeans, he remained at Malacca three years, in charge of the Anglo-Chinese College there . The College was subsequently moved to Hong-Kong, where Legge lived for thirty years . Impressed'with the necessity of missionaries being able to comprehend the ideas and culture of the Chinese, he began in 1841 a translation in many volumes of the Chinese classics, a monumental task admirably executed and completed a few years before his death . In 187o he was made an LL.D. of Aberdeen and in 1884 of Edinburgh University . In 1875 several gentlemen connected with the China trade suggested to the university of Oxford a Chair of Chinese Language and Literature to be occupied by Dr Legge . The university responded liberally, Corpus Christi College contributed the emoluments of a fellowship, and the chair was constituted in 1876 . In addition to his other work Legge wrote The Life and Teaching of Confucius (1867); The Life and Teaching of Mencius (1875); The Religions of China (188o); and other books on Chinese literature and religion . He died at Oxford on the 29th of November 1897 .