The Analects of Confucius, the Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean

Rating:
Summary: Essential if you are serious about Confucius
Review: The other reviews on this page are quite insightful; I have a few more comments:

1. Modern readers tend not to be enamored of Legge's prose, but it has its own coherence and merit. What is most remarkable, however, is the accuracy of his translations, in view of their date. You may not agree with his views and interpretations; you may not like his phraseology; but he simply does not make mistakes. His translations are supported by copious (if dense) footnotes that explain the rationale behind his translating decisions. (To be sure, these notes are intended for highly informed readers.) You can never say that Legge is wrong; you can say that you prefer to read the text a different way.

2. A point that no one seems to have made: one advantage of this edition is that it is one of the few available in the West with the complete Chinese text.

In sum: this is a reasonably priced paperback that includes the original Chinese text and the first great Western translation of the Analects. If you are serious about Confucius, you cannot ignore this book.

Rating:
Summary: After You've Read the Other Translations, Try This One
Review: There are lots of good reasons to condemn Legge's translations of the Chinese classics to the graveyard of moribund scholarship. He's barely readable - yes, it's true. Legge was no giant of the written word when he did these translations to begin with, and the passage of time has made the phrasing seem so archaic that you wonder if he was trying to sound unintelligible even when he wrote it.

Legge also uses a transliteration system that is so eccentric as to be indecipherable if you are trying to trace out the actual sounds of the Chinese words. The reason for this seems to be that the pronunciation of Chinese has changed sufficiently to make his transliteration obsolete.

But Legge has one advantage that no other translator had, or ever can have again. He did his translations when the Confucian scholarly tradition was still alive in China, and as a result he could consult with scholars within this tradition to determine the meaning of the phrases as they were understood in the traditional context. It's a little like having an erudite clergyman explain the meaning of a phrase in the Bible rather than an archeologist - while both explanations are valid in their own way, the clergyman's explanation will indicate a living belief rather than a dissection.

And that is Legge's great value. Most Chinese language scholars will give him a nod, even today. For the beginner, he's not a good place to start, admittedly. But he has his virtues.

Rating:
Summary: Readable but dated and very scholarly for general reader
Review: This collection of these three texts of Confucius translated by James Legge were my first introduction to the writings and philosophy of Confucius. When I was in the bookstore, I decided to pick this book out of the others because like,Evans-Wentz original translations of Tibetan Buddhist text, I prefer to pick the book with the most information and research put in to it. I also trusted James Legge because he went to China and studied with Confucius scholars. I have not read any other translation of Confucius so I must judge this translation on its own. Since it was translated around 1893, you can tell in the language. Yes, it can be pretty dry at times but after looking up a lot of words in the dictionary and getting more deep into Confucius' thought, I thought I understood the text well. You should read a few pages though before you buy this book because I am sure a lot of people would hate it. Which leads me to the next cautionary, this book is VERY scholarly and dense. I could barely even follow the notes at the bottom of the text. They mostly have to do with the treatment of the translation of Chinese characters. Also unless you have an extensive background of Chinese history and the Confucian tradition, the introduction are hard to follow because they expect you know the background information already. Another thing, which isn't James Legge's fault, I would love to see is some information discussing the cultural revolution's reaction to the Confucian tradition and how it is slowly coming back.

I would warn everyone to check out this book in a library or bookstore before buying it to see how it meets their needs. I found it very useful, even though a lot of it was over my head.