Transcultural and Interreligious Encounter: James Legge’s Translation of the Yijing (Book of Changes, 1882)

Tuesday, 30 June 2026, 11am to 1pm

James Legge (1815–97), arguably the most prominent missionary-sinologist in the 19th century and the founding Professor of Chinese in Oxford in 1876, produced an English translation of the Yijing (Book of Changes), the highly venerated and influential Chinese classic, in 1882. Perceiving the Yijing as a Confucian classic with profound moralistic connotations, Legge even revered it as a “sacred book” containing some divine revelation. He claimed that the Chinese term Shangdi (Supreme Lord) meant “God–our God–the true God”; and that the operations of nature in the various seasons, as denoted by the trigrams, are the operations of Shangdi. This talk examines Legge’s pioneering attempt of introducing and translating the Chinese classic to the West, which engendered profound inter-religious encounters and dialogues between Confucianism and Christianity.

Venue: Weston Library - In-person event: Centre for Digital Scholarship - In-person event: Centre for Digital Scholarship Weston Library Broad Street Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 3BG United Kingdom

Department: Bodleian Libraries (Department)

Organiser: Kat Dickinson

Host: Centre for Digital Scholarship

Register here: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/oxford/translating-the-yijing-book-of-changes-registration-form-1