LEGGE. JAMES, LL.D., b. Huntly, Aberdeenshire. in 1815; graduated at King's col lege and university in 1835; studied subsequently at Highbury theological college, Lon don, and received from the university of Aberdeen the degree of LL.D. in 1870. In 1839 he was appointed by the London missionary society a missionary to the Chinese, and cached Malacca in Dec. of the same veer. In 1840 he took charge of the Anglo-Chinese college founded by the rev. Dr. R. Morrison in 1825. In 18Th he removed to Hong Kong, where he discharged missionary duties, and ofricia:ed as minister of the English union church until 1867, when he visited England. While in England he was presented by the government of the colony with a service of plate " in acknowledgment of many valuable public services freely and gratuitously rendered." He was presented also by many of the Chinese inhabitants with a valuable and beautiful silver tablet, made after the Chinese fashion. In 1870 he returned to Hong-Kong. In 1875 seine gentlemen con nected with the China trade formed themselves into a committee to establish a chair of the Chinese language and literature at Oxford, to be occupied first by Dr. Legge. The university responded to the proposal, and the chair was constituted in Mar., 1876. Dr. Legge took a prominent part in the discussions held in 1847, in China, about the proper rendering in Chinese of the words God and Spirit, and published a volume in 1852 under the title of The Notimp of the Chinese concerning Gud and Spirits. His chief work is an
edition of the Chinese classics with the Chinese text, a translation in English, notes critical and exegetical, and copious prolegomena. lie was led to prepare this, he says, in 1811, from a conviction that lie "should not be able to consider himself qualified for the duties of his position until he had thoroughly mastered the classical hooks of the Chinese, and had investigated for himself the whole field of thought through which the sages of China had ranged, and in which were to be found the foundations of the moral, social, and political life of the people." His plan was to embrace what are called "the four Sin," and "the five King. The She were published in 2 volumes in 1861. Three of the King have been published, and with these are translations of various other impor tant ancient Chinese works. For these works the Julien prize, on occasion of its first award, was given to Dr. Legge by the Acad&nie des Belles Lettres et Inscriptions of the institute of France in 1875. He attended the congress of orientalists at Florence in 1878.