Research On Commentaries In The Han And Tang Dynasties Cited In James Legge’s Translation Of The Four Books

In 1861,James Legge translated Confucian Analects,the Great Learning,and the Doctrine of the Mean into English and published them in Hong Kong as the first volume of his Chinese Classics.At the same year,the second volume of the Chinese Classics was also published,which was the translation of Mencius.By that time,he had completed his translation of the ancient classics the Four Books.Having been popular for over a hundred year,the Chinese Classic is still considered as the standard version of the translation of the Four Books.Legge’s "scholar-translation" made his translation more rigorous,mainly through the prolegomena that gave historical background of the Four Books as well as a large number of detailed notes below the text.The notes included theme of the chapter,the reference of words and phrases,the commentaries of ancient Chinese scholars and Legge’s own comments.Therefore,his notes are not only the simple supplement to the original text and translation,but also a kind of imitation of the ancient Chinese canonical commentaries,which could be regarded as a crosscultural "scripture commentary" on the classics.There is plenty of space for further discussion and exploration within these notes and commentaries.In the translation of the Chinese Classics,James Legge took Zhu Xi’s interpretation as primary reference,but his notes still contained a large number of Han and Tang commentaries.As an important part of the Chinese scripture tradition,the influence of the Han and Tang commentaries on Legge’s translations and notes cannot be ignored.However,most scholars have focused on Song Learning and Zhu Xi in the text of Legge’s notes,few have made an in-depth analysis of the Han and Tang commentaries.This thesis focuses on the commentaries and their connection with the Chinese commentaries in the Chinese Classics by studing its first edition published in 1861 and revised version published in 1893—1895.This thesis is divided into five parts:the introduction mainly introduces the origin and significance of writing,the relevant research at home and abroad,and the research ideas and innovations of this thesis.The first chapter focuses on the life of James Legge and summarizes his translation style of the Four Books.The second chapter adopts historical and documentary research method to explore the specificity of the era in which Legge translated the Chinese Classics,including tracing the tradition of translating created by missionaries in China during Ming and Qing dynasties,reviewing the academic culture of late Qing,and understanding the perference of his assistant Wang Tao in selecting materials.The third chapter studies different perspective and characteristics of his translation of the Four Books in light of his references to the Han and Tang commentaries,and analyzes his attitude of approval,refutation or compromise from his reconstruction of these ancient texts.The fourth chapter analyzes James Legge’s evangelical purposes for citing Han and Tang commentaries,which aims at integrating Christian civilization into the Confucian classics.The conclusion summarizes the research results of this thesis,and points out the academic significance of Han and Tang commentaries cited by Legge in the perspective of cross-cultural communication.