author
James Legge
1815–1897
A Scottish missionary-scholar who opened many English readers’ first doorway into the Chinese classics, he spent decades studying, teaching, and translating foundational texts from Confucian tradition. His work helped shape the early Western understanding of Chinese philosophy and literature.
3 Audiobooks
The Chinese Classics — Volume 1: Confucian Analects
by James Legge
About the author
Born in 1815 in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, James Legge became a Scottish missionary, sinologist, and translator best known for bringing major Classical Chinese works into English. After studying at King’s College, Aberdeen, and Highbury College in London, he went to Asia under the London Missionary Society, working in Malacca and later Hong Kong.
Alongside his missionary work, he devoted himself to Chinese language and scholarship. He produced influential English translations of the Confucian classics and other important texts, combining close reading with extensive notes that made them more accessible to readers unfamiliar with Chinese traditions.
In 1876 he became Oxford University’s first Professor of Chinese, a post he held until his death in 1897. Legge remains an important figure in the history of translation and sinology, remembered for the ambition, scale, and lasting reach of his efforts to interpret Chinese thought for an English-speaking audience.