Lionel Giles

Lionel Giles (born in Sutton, 1875 – died 1958) was a British sinologist, writer and translator, and the son of the diplomat and sinologist Herbert Giles. He is remembered above all for his English translations of classical Chinese texts, which for decades were a standard point of reference for English-speaking readers. He worked at the British Museum, where he became assistant curator and later keeper of the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books.

He was the fourth son of Herbert Giles and his first wife, Catherine Fenn. He was educated privately in Belgium, Austria and Scotland before reading Classics at Wadham College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1899. Like many Victorian and Edwardian sinologists, he treated Chinese literature as a branch of the classics, and he used the Wade-Giles system of romanisation that his father had pioneered.

His best-known works are his 1910 versions of Sun Tzu's The Art of War and The Analects of Confucius. His Art of War sharply corrected the earlier translations by Everard Ferguson Calthrop, whose omissions and deliberate distortions he criticised. He also translated Taoist texts, including The Sayings of Lao Tzu, and works by Chuang Tzu and Lie Yukou, as well as The Book of Mencius. His work remains part of how Chinese thought has been introduced to Western readers.