James Legge - Selected Works

Selected Works

Legge's most enduring work has been The Chinese Classics: with a Translation, Critical and Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, and Copious Indexes, 5 vols., (Hong Kong: Legge; London: Trubner, 1861–1872):

• Volume 1: Confucian Analects, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the Mean (1861). Revised second edition (1893), Oxford: Clarendon Press, reprinted by Cosimo in 2006 (ISBN 978-1-60520-643-1).
• Volume 2: The works of Mencius (1861), Revised second edition (1895), Oxford: Clarendon Press, reprinted by Dover Books in 1990 (ISBN 978-0-486-26375-5).
• Volume 3: The Shoo King (Book of Historical Documents) (1865):
  • Part 1: Prolegomena (with Bamboo Annals) and Chapters 1–36
  • Part 2: Chapters 37–58 and indexes
• Volume 4: The She king (Classic of Poetry) (1871)
  • Part 1: Prolegomena and first section
  • Part 2: Second, third and fourth sections
• Volume 5: The Ch'un ts'ew (Commentary of Zuo), with the Tso chue (Spring and Autumn Annals) (1872)
  • Part 1: Books 1–8
  • Part 2: Books 9–12

These contain parallel Chinese and English text, with detailed notes, introductions and indexes. Chinese names are transcribed in Legge's own romanization.

Legge originally planned his Chinese Classics as seven volumes, but his translations of the I Ching and Book of Rites (and several others) were instead included in the Sacred Books of the East series edited by Max Müller (Oxford: Clarendon Press):

• Volume 3: The Shû king (Book of Documents). The religious portions of the Shih king (Classic of Poetry). The Hsiâo king (Classic of Filial Piety). (1879)
• Volume 16: The Yî king (I Ching) (1882)
• The Lî Kî (Book of Rites) (1885), 2 vols.:
  • Volume 27: Chapters 1–10
  • Volume 28: Chapters 11–46
• The Texts of Taoism: The Tâo Teh King (Tao Te Ching); The Writings of Kwang-dze (Chuang Tzŭ), 2 vols.:
  • Volume 39: Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzŭ books 1–17.
  • Volume 40: Chuang Tzŭ books 18–33 and shorter works: the Taishang Ganying Pian (Tractate of Actions and their Retributions), the Qingjing Jing (Classic of Purity), the Yinfujing (Classic of the Harmony of the Seen and Unseen), the Yushu Jing (Classic of the Pivot of Jade) and the Nei Riyong Jing (Classic of the Directory for the Day).

Other works:

• The religions of China: Confucianism and Tâoism described and compared with Christianity, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1880.
• The Nestorian monument of Hsî-an Fû in Shen-hsî, China, London: Trübner & co., 1888; repr New York: Paragon Book, 1966, ISBN 978-0-8188-0062-7. (Contains Chinese-English parallel)