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Secondary sourceBook1887

The Life and Teaching of Confucius

James Legge · 1887

James Legge's 1887 biography of Confucius, combining his life story with explanations of his teachings.

A major secondary biography of Confucius by a leading translator of his works.

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The Life and Teaching of ConfuciusPDF · 354 pages
James Legge, The Life and Teaching of Confucius, 1887.

About this source

What it is

This book, written by the scholar James Legge and published in 1887, presents the life and teachings of Confucius with explanatory notes. It forms part of Legge's larger project translating the Chinese Classics. The scanned original is held by the Internet Archive.

Why it matters

Legge was one of the most influential Western translators of Confucian texts, and his biography shaped how English-speaking readers understood Confucius for generations. It shows how a 19th-century scholar interpreted an ancient Chinese philosopher for a Western audience.

Look closer

  • Why might a Western scholar's interpretation of Confucius differ from a Chinese scholar's?
  • What choices did Legge make in organizing a 'life and teachings' together?
  • What might be left out when a biography is written over two thousand years after its subject lived?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Confucius on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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