Frederic H. Balfour

Frederic Henry Balfour (1846—27 May 1909) was a British expatriate editor, essayist, author, and sinologist, living in Shanghai during the Victorian era. He is most notable for his translation of the Tao Te Ching. Many of these translations appeared in his 1884 Taoist Texts: Ethical, Political and Speculative, also known simply as Taoist Texts.

Comparing translations of the same passages in the Tao Te Ching by two sinologists, separated by a century, shows the tendency away from literal exposition in favor of figurative, artistic prose in Taoist studies.

Frederic H. Balfour also was sceptical that Laozi was the author of the Taoist book Tao Te Ching; notably writing in Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook that Laozi "is a philosopher who never lived." Balfour believed that Laozi was an amalgam of wise ministers, or perhaps a literary device which Chuang Tzu used, as he expounded on his philosophy to students; very similar to the academic debate over the Greek philosopher Socrates.

Frederic H. Balfour was a prolific religious scholar, and published several volumes discussing the implications of theism on emerging societies. He also wrote several lengthy discourses on agnosticism. His letters about famine conditions in China were highly regarded, as little credible news regularly made it out of China during this period. Many of these letters appeared in Harper's Magazine. Balfour published several novels; under his own name, as well as under the pseudonym Ross George Dering. For most of his time in China, Balfour worked as editor-in-chief for North China Daily News, The Shanghai Evening Courier, and The Celestial Empire newspapers.

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