Frederic Henry Balfour

Who is Frederic Henry Balfour?

Frederic Henry Balfour 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 writings known today as the Tao Te Ching. Many of these translations appeared in his 1884 treatise: Taoist Texts: Ethical, Political and Speculative, also known simply as Taoist Texts. Although later discoveries of supplemental manuscripts have somewhat obscured Balfour's early sinology, his work is still used as a primary source for many scholars of the Tao Te Ching.