Actually I am compiling an
Anthology
of Chinese Literature (some 400 pages).
Ezra-Pounds-Chinese-Friends-Stories-in-Letters
) 7.
''cui ditta e` dentro'' (does it refer to Purg.
24.
53-54: ed a quel modo che
ditta dentro, . . . ? )
8. SAGETRIEB (bis) ? (Frobenius? ubinam? )
Otherwise 85 is perlucid to me. Shall be very happy to have my mind cleared about the 8 hard nuts.
Yours [signed] Achilles Fang
By the way, Couvreur's tone system is:
1 ? 2^ '3 4' 5'
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? a. fang and pound's classic anthology 155
490-491
? perhaps better ? ? ? ? ?
errata for 85: in the Wrst Italian and American editions of Rock-Drill (September 1955, March 1956)
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ''moao ? '' becomes ''moua,'' ''Meng'' becomes ''Me ? ng,'' and ? (not ? ) is inserted to justify 4
''tien . ''
Frobenius: see Glossary on Frobenius, Leo.
122 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
May 3, 1955
Dear Mr Pound,
Jack Hawkes, to whom I forwarded your letter, has expressed his apology and
promises to please you when he takes care of the major edition. (I met him weeks ago, but have been too busy to convey his message to you. )
Have been educating myself by taking the Cantos as my sextant: gone through JeVerson, Adamses, Van Buren, as well as Zobi, Mengozzi (Monte dei Paschi), Monumenta del Palazzo Ducale di Venezia, Muratori (Antichita` Estense), Sanudo (Vite), etc. Am grateful for the Cantos and like to express my wonder at the immense reading you have made.
Mary de Rachewiltz has sent me a copy of Confucio, a neat production. (Since the publisher has also sent me two copies, I shall deposit one in the Harvard Library). In what stage are the two Cantos announced for the next issue of the Hudson? If they contain Chinese items, I oVer myself as a proof-reader, if you
are willing.
Yours [signed] Achilles Fang
Zobi: Antonio Zobi, Storia civile della Toscana dal MDCCXXXVII al MDCCCXLVIII, 5 vols. (1850-2), source of Cantos 42-5, 50 (Terrell, 170, 192).
Mengozzi: Narciso Mengozzi, ed. , Il Monte dei Paschi di Siena e le Aziende in Esso Riunite, 9 vols. (1891-1925), source of Cantos 35, 42-5, 50 (Terrell, 139, 170, 192).
Monumenta . . . Venezia: Giambattista Lorenzi, Monumenti per servire alla storia del Palazzo Ducale di Venezia (1868), source of Canto 25 (Terrell, 99).
Muratori: L. A. Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, xxii (1733), source of Canto 26 (Terrell, 103). Confucio: Confucio (1955) with Mary de Rachewiltz's Italian translation of Fang's ''A Note on the
Stone-Classics. ''
the two Cantos: Cantos 88-9 in Hudson Review, 8/2 (Summer 1955).
? 156 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
123 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 4 Feb [1956]
Pleasant to Wnd Ch. El Norton in Santayana Letters
saving what a lousy hole is Haaavud.
IF Wilson has grounds for puttin the blame on yu/<if you are waiting to
satisfy your letch for precision> Gaw Damn it/there is NO alphabetic repre- sentation of chinese sound, let alone any fad of spelling it in amurkn alPHAbet that will Wt 27 diVerent kinds of chinkese thru 3000 years/
You can identify Hou Chi with fertility hoocheyKoochey if yu spell it CHI but as they pronounce it JE/
it takes ten years if you dont HEAR sombuddy SAY it Wnd a nice li'l JE-tzu in
his presepio [crib] long before the deWlements of kikery.
and HOW the HELL do yu expect me to improve the translations UNTIL I
have some approx sound AND the seal text opposite the present version/[? ] which is intended as where to go ON From / not that the dambastids ever do
go ON.
I give 'em frog [French] in 1918 / nobuddy took the chance / left fer grampaw
to tidy up NOW, etc.
Am I to start quoting Walter Scott and the serpent's tooth . . . . . . Rustichello da Pisa has just done a beaut to beat LaPira etc.
Norton: Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908), Harvard's Wrst professor of Wne arts (1873-97). Santayana: see Glossary on Santayana, George.
Hou Chi: ''Hou Tsi'' of Ode 245 (Classic Anthology, 161-3), ancestor of King Wen of Zhou (Chou). Walter Scott: Scottish poet and novelist Walter Scott (1771-1832).
Rustichello da Pisa: Italian romance writer to whom Marco Polo (1254-1324) dictated The Travels of
Marco Polo.
124 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 2 March [1956]
Dear Fang
Wilson on his own showing did NOT discuss english edition with D. P. however.
He now says he can not do the proper decent and complete edition because
you haven't given him the manuscript.
ever yrs.
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 157
125 EP to Fang (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 18 Jan 57
Dear Fang
Hawley said Harvard had wanted some pages of seal text replaced.
He seems to think this means publication. If it takes place I trust the enclosed note as to how we got the fotos will appear, giving due credit to W. H[awley].
Best for '57 Ez P
seal text: in a letter to EP of 11 January 1957, Hawley writes, ''I see Harv'd is Wnally coming across with seal ed! ''(Beinecke).
126 EP to Fang (TLS-1; Beinecke)
St Elizabeths Hospital Washington D. C. [October 1957]
Dear Dr. Fang
I have just recd/a letter from Wilson, of which he indicates that you have a
copy.
As I read it, this puts ALL the blame on you for the delay in publication of the
Odes in the ONLY form that interested me in the least. <I naturally wait for your side of the story before accepting it. >
As I recall it there was NO mention of added materials. All that was asked of you was to correct the obvious errors in typing the syllab[l]es which were intended MORE as a graph of the metric than as a phonetic equivalent of the MUCH disputed chinese sound, re/which no two sections of China are agreed, let alone re/the original phonetics that Kung would have, conjecturally, heard.
You professed some interest in the subject. And I thought you agreed that the lack of any seal text <text in seal character> for students should be remedied. I should be glad if you can tell me when in YOUR opinion the necessary matter will have been presented to Mr Wilson, so as to come to a decision re/withdrawing the whole thing, which would of course imply complete freedom to use it where I liked along with the <matter of my own> truncated popular edition which he now says he wormed out of me by promising to do a proper text from which I could myself more conveniently work toward improving the english.
? ? 158 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
sincerely yours [signed] Ezra Pound
P. S.
Your editing was not supposed to commit you to agreeing with my interpret- ations. There was no intention of implicating you in an agreement, which you could have disavowed in a single sentence.
At a time when I was physically too exhausted to correct the proofs and when anyone familiar as you are with your own language could have caught errors in the alphabetic representation which wd/have needed veriWcation one by one, by me.
The hatred of the Chinese Classics boils thru most of our Universities. Whether it rages more corruptly at Yale than elsewhere I don't know. They print handsome text book to guide their victims to newspapers printed in ideogram, and at least one of their degraded stooges and brain-washers has plainly said that they are NOT trying to interest pupils in the great literature.
127 Fang to EP (TLS-2; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
24/X/1957
Dear Mr Pound
Last Saturday (19/X) I happened to make one of my angelic visits to my former
oYce (the dictionary project is now thrown out of the window since January, when the new director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute took oYce; I stay home now, but shall continue to get my salary until next June) where a copy of Wilson's letter to you was waiting for me. This week I managed to contact Mrs Kewer of the Editorial Department (Wilson was busy and the Production Manager Burton Stratton was not in his oYce) and found out Wilson is waiting for my ''introduc- tion,'' insisting that he must have everything together once for all.
The fact is, Mrs Kewer has almost everything in her oYce: the complete seal- script text (I am told that Hawley has supplied her with the missing sheets) and the sound-key.
As for the sound-key I followed your wishes and did the minimum to it. I did not adopt the pronunciation of Kung's time (Archaic Chinese), nor that of every scholar (Ancient Chinese), nor even that of what I call orthophony (which resembles the system employed by Couvreur and Karlgren). In fact, all I did was to revise errors and supply lacunae, all in accordance with Mathews.
The sound-key was veri-typed and delivered to Mrs Kewer last January, when we had a conference (Mrs Kewer, B. Stratton, and myself ) in order to speed up the matter. At that time I asked the Press to go ahead and print (or rather photograph) the whole (ideograms, sound-key, and translation) immediately.
? a. fang and pound's classic anthology 159
For the past 10 months I have been waiting to hear that the work was all done. (When Omar [Pound] came to see me in June, or was it May? , I could assure him that the book will be out by if not before Xmas. )
As for the ''introduction'' I insisted at the afore-mentioned January confer- ence that there is no necessity, except the one written by E. P. himself. However, I told the people that if Wilson insists on having a short note on the seal-script text and the phonetic system you have employed, it could be done in a short while as soon as the photographing is done.
For some reason Wilson and the Syndics of Harvard University Press seem to set value on that introduction.
All I have now to do to ''expedite'' is write the required introductory note (I shall ask Wilson to put it rather at the end of the book; after all, the book is yours).
If I promise to you that I shall write a dull matter-of-fact note, I hope you will not raise Cain with poor Wilson, who is a[n] honest and honorable man, about it.
We may see the book out next spring.
Between you and me, the cause of all this delay is David Livingston DuVy, so named in commemoration of the African trip the DuVys made. Ever since the boy was born, Chase DuVy has been playing the happy mother at home; she seems to be doing editorial job for the H. U. P. only occasionally. The whole process of coordinating seal-script, sound-key, translation, and restoring your notes cut from the Wrst volume, can be completely done only by Mrs DuVy, who went through the said Wrst volume. Wilson probably is waiting for her to Wnd time to do the work.
Now, my advisement (not advice) at this moment is: Please forget what Wilson wrote to you, and have (sorry to use the word) patience. At any rate, leave everything to me to act in between. (It is unfortunate that the author and the publisher should irritate each other; but the main thing is to have the author's book published by the agreed publisher. Let me take all the blame from each side if need be. Let's have the book at all costs. ) Barring accidents, we may see the book out next year.
---------
I am now compiling An Anthology of Chinese Literature (2 vols. ) for Grove Press, New York. This is meant to be a school book, about 300 pages each. If you could give me advice, as you have done so to so many others, I shall be very grateful.
---------
Allow me to oVer you my heartfelt congratulations on your birthday. I do hope that Bridson succeeds in making the promised BBC broadcast on that day.
Cordially yours, [signed] Achilles Fang
Bridson . . . BBC broadcast: D. G. Bridson interviewed EP in 1956 and 1959. He presented edited tapes of the interviews on BBC in July 1959. See Poetry and Prose, ix. 293-309.
? 160 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
128 EP to Fang (TLS-1; Beinecke)
3514 Brothers Place Washington s. e. D. C. 18 May [1958]
Dear Fang
The spring is advancing, but there is no sign that the nature of the Harvard
Press is improving, or that your ''friend'' whats his name has ANY intention of publishing a decent edition of the ODES.
I am sorry to draw this matter to your attention again,
but curious as to whether you still retain ANY vestige of optimism.
The sabotage, the blocking of my work remains.
I cannot do any more toward improving the translations until I have a
convenient edition to work FROM. I. E. the sound, the seal text in front of me. The inWnite vileness of the state of education under the rump of the present
organisms for the suppression of mental life is not your fault. etctera/
in fact et cetera is about all that CAN be said for the state of scholarship under the pestilence.
cordially yours [signed] E. P.
129 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
29/V/1958
Dear Mr Pound,
Thank you for your note on the Anthology. I shall see to it that the Press
starts on the work after summer vacation. There is no reason to believe that Wilson et al. intend to back out.
Congratulations (excuse this banality). My wife and the two little ones are touring Germany this summer (parents and Geschwister [siblings] still there). I shall have to do a lot of work.
Actually I am compiling an Anthology of Chinese Literature (some 400 pages). It is not so much what should go into it as what is available in English and American.
Cordially [signed] Achilles Fang
? ? 8
Pound's Discovery of an Ancient Economist
''Chao ought not to be wasted''
By 1954 Pound had attracted a not too small group of disciples to his discussion sessions on the St Elizabeths lawn (see Fig. 8. 1). He was encouraging an increasing number of young poets and artists to publish on his favorite subjects. Among them were David Gordon, who translated Mencius under his tutelage for Edge (Melbourne) and Agenda (London), and William McNaughton, who edited Strike (1955-6) to which he contributed ''China and 'Voice of America. ' '' The following year a Chinese translator, Tze-chiang Chao, was drawn into this circle (see Fig. 8. 2).
Graduating from Sun Yat-sen University with a BA in English, Tze-chiang Chao (Zhao Ziqiang ? ? ? , 1913-c. 1985) worked for a time as a schoolteacher and as a journalist. In 1940 he began teaching economics at Lingnan University. Six years later he joined Shanghai Commercial Bank as a research oYcer. In 1949 he came to the US to take courses Wrst at Harvard and then at New York University, where he earned an MBA in banking and Wnance (1951). While looking for a job he attended lectures in English at Columbia.
The Pound-Chao correspondence began after Chao wrote to New Directions, asking if Pound would be willing to review his proposed collection of translations of Du Fu (712-70) and write a preface. For Chao Du Fu deserved a place no less than Li Bo ''because he [wrote] in the tradition of the Chinese Anthology DeWned by Confucius'' (Beinecke). At his urging, Pound began reading Du Fu both in translation and in the original. On 7 February 1955 Pound told Achilles Fang that ''mr Chao Tse-Chiang . . . brot in several Tu Fu that I did not know and was glad to read'' (Letter 120). With Pound's recommendation, Chao's translations of Du Fu appeared in Noel Stock's Edge and Peter Russell's Nine (London).
In order to help Chao Wnd a teaching job, Pound put him in touch with Norman Holmes Pearson at Yale and Guy Davenport at Harvard. In June 1957 he even enlisted the aid of John Theobald, a young instructor at a California university, with whom he had just begun a correspondence: ''if you cd/ get Chao you wd/ have a treasure . . . Chao ought not to be wasted/ more data if
162 pound's discovery of an economist
any chance of your getting him <a job>'' (Pound/Theobald, 37). His attempts came to naught.
Chao proved his true worth when Pound began seeking an economic theme for Thrones (1959). He shared with Pound literary as well as economic interests. While teaching at Lingnan, Chao published an article on the monetary theory of Guan Zhong (Kuan Chung), a seventh-century bc economist. The subject struck a chord when mentioned to Pound in December 1956. Guan Zhong was not an unfamiliar name. In The Analects, it occurred to Pound, Confucius acknowledged his debt to this man: ''Kwan Chung reciprocal'd, aided Duke Hwan as prime minister, overruling the princes; uniWed and rectiWed the empire, and people till today received the beneWts. But for Kwan Chung we'd be wearing our hair loose and buttoning our coats to the left'' (Confucius, 257).
Chao rendered the last statement as ''Kung says that without beneWtting from Kuan Tzu (or Kuan Chung) he might have been subjugated by a foreign race'' (Letter 134), which becomes ''But for Kuang Chung we should still dress as barbarians'' in Canto 106.
The correspondence between Pound and Chao culminated in the summer of 1957. It is a pity that Pound's letters to Chao are all lost. From Chao's side of the correspondence we can tell that Pound was pressing for more information about Guan: How did Guan's work escape the burning of books under the First Emperor of Qin? What were his quintessential economic concerns? Pound's enthusiasm for this topic is evident in a letter to Theobald of 11 June 1957: ''Chao. . . has just dug up Kuan Chung. MOST important economist recommended by Confucio/ I thought he had been lost in burning of books/ am awaiting further data from Chao'' (Pound/Theobald, 37).
Guan Zhong plays a role in Canto 106: ''The strength of men is in grain j NINE decrees, 8th essay, the Kuan j . . . . j How to govern is from the time of Kuan Chung. '' The elliptical references have been rightly attributed to Economic Dialogues in Ancient China: Selections from The Kuan-tzu, edited by Lewis Maverick (1954). However, it was Chao who introduced Pound to Maverick's book. Before Pound received a copy of Economic Dialogues, Chao had already copied out for Pound key passages from its Wrst essay, ''Wlling granaries. '' Further, Chao provided Pound with a biography of Guan and a chronology of the legalist tradition started with him, which combined to facilitate Pound's putting into perspective Guan's ideas. Only when he was certain of a connection between Guan's legalism and Confucianism did Pound list Guan in Canto 106.
In September 1957 Chao left the East Coast for San Francisco to take up a teaching job at the American Academy of Asian Studies, a school of the College of the PaciWc. Their correspondence continued for eight more months till Pound got out of St Elizabeths Hospital and returned to Italy.
Chao lived a loner's life in the next two and a half decades. He died without a family or relatives in San Francisco around 1985.
? Fig. 8. 1. EP on the St Elizabeths lawn, 1957. (Beinecke)
? Fig. 8. 2. Tze-chiang Chao, 1935. (Sun Yat-sen University Alumni Directory, 1935)
pound's discovery of an economist 165
130 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
Dear Poet Pound:
Enclosed please Wnd my translation of Tu Fu's poems. Kindly read them in
your leisure moments. If they are worthy of publication, I hope you will give me a letter of recommendation.
Martinelli has got out of the hospital. She is staying in her girl friend's home. With best wishes,
Yours respectfully, Chao Tze-chiang
P. S. Please mail back my manuscript with the enclosed stamped, self-addressed envelope.
Tu Fu: see Glossary on Du Fu.
Martinelli: American artist Sheri Martinelli (1918-96) lived between New York City/Greenwich and
DC in the 1950s. As a regular visitor she was adored by EP and DP. EP arranged to have her book of painting La Martinelli published in Milan in 1956.
131 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
New York 13, N. Y.
My dear Mr. Pound:
Please accept my deep gratitude for encouraging me to translate Chinese
poetry. The afternoon of Jan. 19, 1955 when we met is, to me, the most memorable afternoon, for you are the greatest poet I have ever talked to. On you I have two impressions: sensitivity (or quickness of mind) and sympathy which are, I suppose, the essential gifts of a born poet. Your sensitivity reminds me of Tu Fu's description of nature, while your sympathy reminds me of Tu Fu's attitude towards animals.
I received your notes with thanks. In a few days I shall contact Caedmon for recording my reading of Tu Fu's poems.
Sincerely I hope that you will get out of St Elizabeths very soon and be a free man again.
With all the best of luck to you. Remember me to Martinelli and McNaughton.
Very truly yours Chao Tze-chiang
[New York] [1954]
205 Worth Street Jan. 26, 1955
166 pound's discovery of an economist
Caedmon: Caedmon Publishers in New York issued ''Ezra Pound Reading His Poetry'' in 1960 and 1962 (Gallup, E5c, E5d).
McNaughton: see Glossary on McNaughton, William.
132 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
Dear Poet Pound:
Many thanks for your letter. I do not know whether Carsun Chang has got a
publisher for his History of Neo-Confucianism or not. But I have written to him and told him about your suggestion for the publication of his book.
I have been trying to get the New York Art Club to organize a lecture on the poetry of Ezra Pound. If I should be successful, I would like to have a pro-Pound man, like Pearson, to deliver it.
With kindest regards to you and D. P.
Respectfully yours, Chao Tze-chiang
Carsun Chang's address 2295 Hanover St.
Palo Alto, Calif.
Pearson: Norman Holmes Pearson (1909-75), Yale professor of American literature, served on the editorial board of the Square Dollar series.
133 Chao to EP (ALS-2; Beinecke)
[New York] Sept. 11 [1956]
Dear Poet Pound:
I highly appreciate Pearson's ? ? [persistence]. You are also ? ? [persist-
ent]. Like a Chinese classical scholar of the older generations, you live up to ? [humanity]. It is very unfortunate that China under the bad inXuence of Europe and America has had very few people who carry out this conception of Kung in their actions. But in you I found an embodiment of the principles taught me by my Confucian teachers in my childhood days.
Kung says: '' ? ? ? ? ? ? ? '' (''to get to the middle of mind when planning with men''--your own translation. ) You got to the middle of your mind when you wrote to Pearson and did other kind things for me.
[New York] March 19 [1956]
pound's discovery of an economist 167
About two months ago I sent to Prof. [George] Kennedy a letter of applica- tion for instructorship in Chinese literature, but have not heard from him. Perhaps he is on vacation. Of course I shall write to Pearson. When I get his reply I shall go to see him and Kennedy.
A few days ago I met [David] Wang. He was excited by your idea of Chinese heritage. The diYculty is that the people we want are scattered in this country, but we will contact some other people in the N. Y. area. We will start with people in nearby places and then write to Emery, Bynner, Espey & Kwock. We will use Carter's Shenandoah to publish a special issue on Chinese literature. McNaughton & Danton may write for us. It is good if you write to Fang about this idea.
I have sent my ''Vegetable Roots'' to Bynner & my two Tu Fu poems with an analysis on prosody to Stock. Stock has got my ''Ode on War Chariots'' by Tu Fu published in 20th Century (Australia).
With best wishes to you & Mrs. Pound
Respectfully, Chao
? ? : ? ? from Analects, 13. 1 (Confucius, 248) surfaces in Canto 97: ''not lie down j ? j ? '' (703). Kennedy: see Introduction, n. 23.
Emery: see Letter 91 n.
Bynner: see Glossary on Bynner, Witter.
Espey: John Espey, author of Ezra Pound's Mauberley: A Study in Composition (1955).
Kwock: see Glossary on Kwock, C. H.
Carter's Shenandoah: Thomas Carter (1931-63), a student at Washington & Lee University, edited the
small magazine Shenandoah from 1951 to 1953. Danton: Larry Danton, a young poet in EP's circle.
Tu Fu poems: ''Poems of Tu Fu,'' Edge, 1 (October 1956).
134 Chao to EP (ALS-4; Beinecke)
Dear Poet Pound:
Many, many thanks for your sympathy. Please send Pearson my thanks.
Dignity of the individual is an empty talk unless he is given means by society. Every one deserves a job suitable to him, or there must be something wrong with the economic order.
I am also interested in economics. Ask some one to borrow for you from the Library of Congress a copy of Kuan-Tzu, the greatest economist China has ever produced. Kuan-Tzu was made prime minister by Emperor [Duke] Huan of Ch'i. He made Ch'i the strongest empire of the time.
[New York] Dec. 24 [1956]
168 pound's discovery of an economist
In spite of the fact that China is rich in poetry, she lacks poems like Milton's Paradise Lost, Browning's dramatic monologues and Pound's Cantos. The Chinese have no poems of such grand scale. I always drove this point home to those Chinese who are interested in both Chinese and English literature. If I perfectly understand these poets, I may have something to contribute to Chinese literature from the Western point of view.
I have read Mullins' essay. She [He] should write a longer one. In a few days I shall mail to you my revised version of Tu Fu. With kindest regard to D. P & E. P.
Respectfully yours, Chao
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
ditta dentro, . . . ? )
8. SAGETRIEB (bis) ? (Frobenius? ubinam? )
Otherwise 85 is perlucid to me. Shall be very happy to have my mind cleared about the 8 hard nuts.
Yours [signed] Achilles Fang
By the way, Couvreur's tone system is:
1 ? 2^ '3 4' 5'
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? a. fang and pound's classic anthology 155
490-491
? perhaps better ? ? ? ? ?
errata for 85: in the Wrst Italian and American editions of Rock-Drill (September 1955, March 1956)
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ''moao ? '' becomes ''moua,'' ''Meng'' becomes ''Me ? ng,'' and ? (not ? ) is inserted to justify 4
''tien . ''
Frobenius: see Glossary on Frobenius, Leo.
122 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
May 3, 1955
Dear Mr Pound,
Jack Hawkes, to whom I forwarded your letter, has expressed his apology and
promises to please you when he takes care of the major edition. (I met him weeks ago, but have been too busy to convey his message to you. )
Have been educating myself by taking the Cantos as my sextant: gone through JeVerson, Adamses, Van Buren, as well as Zobi, Mengozzi (Monte dei Paschi), Monumenta del Palazzo Ducale di Venezia, Muratori (Antichita` Estense), Sanudo (Vite), etc. Am grateful for the Cantos and like to express my wonder at the immense reading you have made.
Mary de Rachewiltz has sent me a copy of Confucio, a neat production. (Since the publisher has also sent me two copies, I shall deposit one in the Harvard Library). In what stage are the two Cantos announced for the next issue of the Hudson? If they contain Chinese items, I oVer myself as a proof-reader, if you
are willing.
Yours [signed] Achilles Fang
Zobi: Antonio Zobi, Storia civile della Toscana dal MDCCXXXVII al MDCCCXLVIII, 5 vols. (1850-2), source of Cantos 42-5, 50 (Terrell, 170, 192).
Mengozzi: Narciso Mengozzi, ed. , Il Monte dei Paschi di Siena e le Aziende in Esso Riunite, 9 vols. (1891-1925), source of Cantos 35, 42-5, 50 (Terrell, 139, 170, 192).
Monumenta . . . Venezia: Giambattista Lorenzi, Monumenti per servire alla storia del Palazzo Ducale di Venezia (1868), source of Canto 25 (Terrell, 99).
Muratori: L. A. Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, xxii (1733), source of Canto 26 (Terrell, 103). Confucio: Confucio (1955) with Mary de Rachewiltz's Italian translation of Fang's ''A Note on the
Stone-Classics. ''
the two Cantos: Cantos 88-9 in Hudson Review, 8/2 (Summer 1955).
? 156 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
123 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 4 Feb [1956]
Pleasant to Wnd Ch. El Norton in Santayana Letters
saving what a lousy hole is Haaavud.
IF Wilson has grounds for puttin the blame on yu/<if you are waiting to
satisfy your letch for precision> Gaw Damn it/there is NO alphabetic repre- sentation of chinese sound, let alone any fad of spelling it in amurkn alPHAbet that will Wt 27 diVerent kinds of chinkese thru 3000 years/
You can identify Hou Chi with fertility hoocheyKoochey if yu spell it CHI but as they pronounce it JE/
it takes ten years if you dont HEAR sombuddy SAY it Wnd a nice li'l JE-tzu in
his presepio [crib] long before the deWlements of kikery.
and HOW the HELL do yu expect me to improve the translations UNTIL I
have some approx sound AND the seal text opposite the present version/[? ] which is intended as where to go ON From / not that the dambastids ever do
go ON.
I give 'em frog [French] in 1918 / nobuddy took the chance / left fer grampaw
to tidy up NOW, etc.
Am I to start quoting Walter Scott and the serpent's tooth . . . . . . Rustichello da Pisa has just done a beaut to beat LaPira etc.
Norton: Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908), Harvard's Wrst professor of Wne arts (1873-97). Santayana: see Glossary on Santayana, George.
Hou Chi: ''Hou Tsi'' of Ode 245 (Classic Anthology, 161-3), ancestor of King Wen of Zhou (Chou). Walter Scott: Scottish poet and novelist Walter Scott (1771-1832).
Rustichello da Pisa: Italian romance writer to whom Marco Polo (1254-1324) dictated The Travels of
Marco Polo.
124 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 2 March [1956]
Dear Fang
Wilson on his own showing did NOT discuss english edition with D. P. however.
He now says he can not do the proper decent and complete edition because
you haven't given him the manuscript.
ever yrs.
a. fang and pound's classic anthology 157
125 EP to Fang (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] 18 Jan 57
Dear Fang
Hawley said Harvard had wanted some pages of seal text replaced.
He seems to think this means publication. If it takes place I trust the enclosed note as to how we got the fotos will appear, giving due credit to W. H[awley].
Best for '57 Ez P
seal text: in a letter to EP of 11 January 1957, Hawley writes, ''I see Harv'd is Wnally coming across with seal ed! ''(Beinecke).
126 EP to Fang (TLS-1; Beinecke)
St Elizabeths Hospital Washington D. C. [October 1957]
Dear Dr. Fang
I have just recd/a letter from Wilson, of which he indicates that you have a
copy.
As I read it, this puts ALL the blame on you for the delay in publication of the
Odes in the ONLY form that interested me in the least. <I naturally wait for your side of the story before accepting it. >
As I recall it there was NO mention of added materials. All that was asked of you was to correct the obvious errors in typing the syllab[l]es which were intended MORE as a graph of the metric than as a phonetic equivalent of the MUCH disputed chinese sound, re/which no two sections of China are agreed, let alone re/the original phonetics that Kung would have, conjecturally, heard.
You professed some interest in the subject. And I thought you agreed that the lack of any seal text <text in seal character> for students should be remedied. I should be glad if you can tell me when in YOUR opinion the necessary matter will have been presented to Mr Wilson, so as to come to a decision re/withdrawing the whole thing, which would of course imply complete freedom to use it where I liked along with the <matter of my own> truncated popular edition which he now says he wormed out of me by promising to do a proper text from which I could myself more conveniently work toward improving the english.
? ? 158 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
sincerely yours [signed] Ezra Pound
P. S.
Your editing was not supposed to commit you to agreeing with my interpret- ations. There was no intention of implicating you in an agreement, which you could have disavowed in a single sentence.
At a time when I was physically too exhausted to correct the proofs and when anyone familiar as you are with your own language could have caught errors in the alphabetic representation which wd/have needed veriWcation one by one, by me.
The hatred of the Chinese Classics boils thru most of our Universities. Whether it rages more corruptly at Yale than elsewhere I don't know. They print handsome text book to guide their victims to newspapers printed in ideogram, and at least one of their degraded stooges and brain-washers has plainly said that they are NOT trying to interest pupils in the great literature.
127 Fang to EP (TLS-2; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
24/X/1957
Dear Mr Pound
Last Saturday (19/X) I happened to make one of my angelic visits to my former
oYce (the dictionary project is now thrown out of the window since January, when the new director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute took oYce; I stay home now, but shall continue to get my salary until next June) where a copy of Wilson's letter to you was waiting for me. This week I managed to contact Mrs Kewer of the Editorial Department (Wilson was busy and the Production Manager Burton Stratton was not in his oYce) and found out Wilson is waiting for my ''introduc- tion,'' insisting that he must have everything together once for all.
The fact is, Mrs Kewer has almost everything in her oYce: the complete seal- script text (I am told that Hawley has supplied her with the missing sheets) and the sound-key.
As for the sound-key I followed your wishes and did the minimum to it. I did not adopt the pronunciation of Kung's time (Archaic Chinese), nor that of every scholar (Ancient Chinese), nor even that of what I call orthophony (which resembles the system employed by Couvreur and Karlgren). In fact, all I did was to revise errors and supply lacunae, all in accordance with Mathews.
The sound-key was veri-typed and delivered to Mrs Kewer last January, when we had a conference (Mrs Kewer, B. Stratton, and myself ) in order to speed up the matter. At that time I asked the Press to go ahead and print (or rather photograph) the whole (ideograms, sound-key, and translation) immediately.
? a. fang and pound's classic anthology 159
For the past 10 months I have been waiting to hear that the work was all done. (When Omar [Pound] came to see me in June, or was it May? , I could assure him that the book will be out by if not before Xmas. )
As for the ''introduction'' I insisted at the afore-mentioned January confer- ence that there is no necessity, except the one written by E. P. himself. However, I told the people that if Wilson insists on having a short note on the seal-script text and the phonetic system you have employed, it could be done in a short while as soon as the photographing is done.
For some reason Wilson and the Syndics of Harvard University Press seem to set value on that introduction.
All I have now to do to ''expedite'' is write the required introductory note (I shall ask Wilson to put it rather at the end of the book; after all, the book is yours).
If I promise to you that I shall write a dull matter-of-fact note, I hope you will not raise Cain with poor Wilson, who is a[n] honest and honorable man, about it.
We may see the book out next spring.
Between you and me, the cause of all this delay is David Livingston DuVy, so named in commemoration of the African trip the DuVys made. Ever since the boy was born, Chase DuVy has been playing the happy mother at home; she seems to be doing editorial job for the H. U. P. only occasionally. The whole process of coordinating seal-script, sound-key, translation, and restoring your notes cut from the Wrst volume, can be completely done only by Mrs DuVy, who went through the said Wrst volume. Wilson probably is waiting for her to Wnd time to do the work.
Now, my advisement (not advice) at this moment is: Please forget what Wilson wrote to you, and have (sorry to use the word) patience. At any rate, leave everything to me to act in between. (It is unfortunate that the author and the publisher should irritate each other; but the main thing is to have the author's book published by the agreed publisher. Let me take all the blame from each side if need be. Let's have the book at all costs. ) Barring accidents, we may see the book out next year.
---------
I am now compiling An Anthology of Chinese Literature (2 vols. ) for Grove Press, New York. This is meant to be a school book, about 300 pages each. If you could give me advice, as you have done so to so many others, I shall be very grateful.
---------
Allow me to oVer you my heartfelt congratulations on your birthday. I do hope that Bridson succeeds in making the promised BBC broadcast on that day.
Cordially yours, [signed] Achilles Fang
Bridson . . . BBC broadcast: D. G. Bridson interviewed EP in 1956 and 1959. He presented edited tapes of the interviews on BBC in July 1959. See Poetry and Prose, ix. 293-309.
? 160 a. fang and pound's classic anthology
128 EP to Fang (TLS-1; Beinecke)
3514 Brothers Place Washington s. e. D. C. 18 May [1958]
Dear Fang
The spring is advancing, but there is no sign that the nature of the Harvard
Press is improving, or that your ''friend'' whats his name has ANY intention of publishing a decent edition of the ODES.
I am sorry to draw this matter to your attention again,
but curious as to whether you still retain ANY vestige of optimism.
The sabotage, the blocking of my work remains.
I cannot do any more toward improving the translations until I have a
convenient edition to work FROM. I. E. the sound, the seal text in front of me. The inWnite vileness of the state of education under the rump of the present
organisms for the suppression of mental life is not your fault. etctera/
in fact et cetera is about all that CAN be said for the state of scholarship under the pestilence.
cordially yours [signed] E. P.
129 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
[Cambridge, Mass. ]
29/V/1958
Dear Mr Pound,
Thank you for your note on the Anthology. I shall see to it that the Press
starts on the work after summer vacation. There is no reason to believe that Wilson et al. intend to back out.
Congratulations (excuse this banality). My wife and the two little ones are touring Germany this summer (parents and Geschwister [siblings] still there). I shall have to do a lot of work.
Actually I am compiling an Anthology of Chinese Literature (some 400 pages). It is not so much what should go into it as what is available in English and American.
Cordially [signed] Achilles Fang
? ? 8
Pound's Discovery of an Ancient Economist
''Chao ought not to be wasted''
By 1954 Pound had attracted a not too small group of disciples to his discussion sessions on the St Elizabeths lawn (see Fig. 8. 1). He was encouraging an increasing number of young poets and artists to publish on his favorite subjects. Among them were David Gordon, who translated Mencius under his tutelage for Edge (Melbourne) and Agenda (London), and William McNaughton, who edited Strike (1955-6) to which he contributed ''China and 'Voice of America. ' '' The following year a Chinese translator, Tze-chiang Chao, was drawn into this circle (see Fig. 8. 2).
Graduating from Sun Yat-sen University with a BA in English, Tze-chiang Chao (Zhao Ziqiang ? ? ? , 1913-c. 1985) worked for a time as a schoolteacher and as a journalist. In 1940 he began teaching economics at Lingnan University. Six years later he joined Shanghai Commercial Bank as a research oYcer. In 1949 he came to the US to take courses Wrst at Harvard and then at New York University, where he earned an MBA in banking and Wnance (1951). While looking for a job he attended lectures in English at Columbia.
The Pound-Chao correspondence began after Chao wrote to New Directions, asking if Pound would be willing to review his proposed collection of translations of Du Fu (712-70) and write a preface. For Chao Du Fu deserved a place no less than Li Bo ''because he [wrote] in the tradition of the Chinese Anthology DeWned by Confucius'' (Beinecke). At his urging, Pound began reading Du Fu both in translation and in the original. On 7 February 1955 Pound told Achilles Fang that ''mr Chao Tse-Chiang . . . brot in several Tu Fu that I did not know and was glad to read'' (Letter 120). With Pound's recommendation, Chao's translations of Du Fu appeared in Noel Stock's Edge and Peter Russell's Nine (London).
In order to help Chao Wnd a teaching job, Pound put him in touch with Norman Holmes Pearson at Yale and Guy Davenport at Harvard. In June 1957 he even enlisted the aid of John Theobald, a young instructor at a California university, with whom he had just begun a correspondence: ''if you cd/ get Chao you wd/ have a treasure . . . Chao ought not to be wasted/ more data if
162 pound's discovery of an economist
any chance of your getting him <a job>'' (Pound/Theobald, 37). His attempts came to naught.
Chao proved his true worth when Pound began seeking an economic theme for Thrones (1959). He shared with Pound literary as well as economic interests. While teaching at Lingnan, Chao published an article on the monetary theory of Guan Zhong (Kuan Chung), a seventh-century bc economist. The subject struck a chord when mentioned to Pound in December 1956. Guan Zhong was not an unfamiliar name. In The Analects, it occurred to Pound, Confucius acknowledged his debt to this man: ''Kwan Chung reciprocal'd, aided Duke Hwan as prime minister, overruling the princes; uniWed and rectiWed the empire, and people till today received the beneWts. But for Kwan Chung we'd be wearing our hair loose and buttoning our coats to the left'' (Confucius, 257).
Chao rendered the last statement as ''Kung says that without beneWtting from Kuan Tzu (or Kuan Chung) he might have been subjugated by a foreign race'' (Letter 134), which becomes ''But for Kuang Chung we should still dress as barbarians'' in Canto 106.
The correspondence between Pound and Chao culminated in the summer of 1957. It is a pity that Pound's letters to Chao are all lost. From Chao's side of the correspondence we can tell that Pound was pressing for more information about Guan: How did Guan's work escape the burning of books under the First Emperor of Qin? What were his quintessential economic concerns? Pound's enthusiasm for this topic is evident in a letter to Theobald of 11 June 1957: ''Chao. . . has just dug up Kuan Chung. MOST important economist recommended by Confucio/ I thought he had been lost in burning of books/ am awaiting further data from Chao'' (Pound/Theobald, 37).
Guan Zhong plays a role in Canto 106: ''The strength of men is in grain j NINE decrees, 8th essay, the Kuan j . . . . j How to govern is from the time of Kuan Chung. '' The elliptical references have been rightly attributed to Economic Dialogues in Ancient China: Selections from The Kuan-tzu, edited by Lewis Maverick (1954). However, it was Chao who introduced Pound to Maverick's book. Before Pound received a copy of Economic Dialogues, Chao had already copied out for Pound key passages from its Wrst essay, ''Wlling granaries. '' Further, Chao provided Pound with a biography of Guan and a chronology of the legalist tradition started with him, which combined to facilitate Pound's putting into perspective Guan's ideas. Only when he was certain of a connection between Guan's legalism and Confucianism did Pound list Guan in Canto 106.
In September 1957 Chao left the East Coast for San Francisco to take up a teaching job at the American Academy of Asian Studies, a school of the College of the PaciWc. Their correspondence continued for eight more months till Pound got out of St Elizabeths Hospital and returned to Italy.
Chao lived a loner's life in the next two and a half decades. He died without a family or relatives in San Francisco around 1985.
? Fig. 8. 1. EP on the St Elizabeths lawn, 1957. (Beinecke)
? Fig. 8. 2. Tze-chiang Chao, 1935. (Sun Yat-sen University Alumni Directory, 1935)
pound's discovery of an economist 165
130 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
Dear Poet Pound:
Enclosed please Wnd my translation of Tu Fu's poems. Kindly read them in
your leisure moments. If they are worthy of publication, I hope you will give me a letter of recommendation.
Martinelli has got out of the hospital. She is staying in her girl friend's home. With best wishes,
Yours respectfully, Chao Tze-chiang
P. S. Please mail back my manuscript with the enclosed stamped, self-addressed envelope.
Tu Fu: see Glossary on Du Fu.
Martinelli: American artist Sheri Martinelli (1918-96) lived between New York City/Greenwich and
DC in the 1950s. As a regular visitor she was adored by EP and DP. EP arranged to have her book of painting La Martinelli published in Milan in 1956.
131 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
New York 13, N. Y.
My dear Mr. Pound:
Please accept my deep gratitude for encouraging me to translate Chinese
poetry. The afternoon of Jan. 19, 1955 when we met is, to me, the most memorable afternoon, for you are the greatest poet I have ever talked to. On you I have two impressions: sensitivity (or quickness of mind) and sympathy which are, I suppose, the essential gifts of a born poet. Your sensitivity reminds me of Tu Fu's description of nature, while your sympathy reminds me of Tu Fu's attitude towards animals.
I received your notes with thanks. In a few days I shall contact Caedmon for recording my reading of Tu Fu's poems.
Sincerely I hope that you will get out of St Elizabeths very soon and be a free man again.
With all the best of luck to you. Remember me to Martinelli and McNaughton.
Very truly yours Chao Tze-chiang
[New York] [1954]
205 Worth Street Jan. 26, 1955
166 pound's discovery of an economist
Caedmon: Caedmon Publishers in New York issued ''Ezra Pound Reading His Poetry'' in 1960 and 1962 (Gallup, E5c, E5d).
McNaughton: see Glossary on McNaughton, William.
132 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
Dear Poet Pound:
Many thanks for your letter. I do not know whether Carsun Chang has got a
publisher for his History of Neo-Confucianism or not. But I have written to him and told him about your suggestion for the publication of his book.
I have been trying to get the New York Art Club to organize a lecture on the poetry of Ezra Pound. If I should be successful, I would like to have a pro-Pound man, like Pearson, to deliver it.
With kindest regards to you and D. P.
Respectfully yours, Chao Tze-chiang
Carsun Chang's address 2295 Hanover St.
Palo Alto, Calif.
Pearson: Norman Holmes Pearson (1909-75), Yale professor of American literature, served on the editorial board of the Square Dollar series.
133 Chao to EP (ALS-2; Beinecke)
[New York] Sept. 11 [1956]
Dear Poet Pound:
I highly appreciate Pearson's ? ? [persistence]. You are also ? ? [persist-
ent]. Like a Chinese classical scholar of the older generations, you live up to ? [humanity]. It is very unfortunate that China under the bad inXuence of Europe and America has had very few people who carry out this conception of Kung in their actions. But in you I found an embodiment of the principles taught me by my Confucian teachers in my childhood days.
Kung says: '' ? ? ? ? ? ? ? '' (''to get to the middle of mind when planning with men''--your own translation. ) You got to the middle of your mind when you wrote to Pearson and did other kind things for me.
[New York] March 19 [1956]
pound's discovery of an economist 167
About two months ago I sent to Prof. [George] Kennedy a letter of applica- tion for instructorship in Chinese literature, but have not heard from him. Perhaps he is on vacation. Of course I shall write to Pearson. When I get his reply I shall go to see him and Kennedy.
A few days ago I met [David] Wang. He was excited by your idea of Chinese heritage. The diYculty is that the people we want are scattered in this country, but we will contact some other people in the N. Y. area. We will start with people in nearby places and then write to Emery, Bynner, Espey & Kwock. We will use Carter's Shenandoah to publish a special issue on Chinese literature. McNaughton & Danton may write for us. It is good if you write to Fang about this idea.
I have sent my ''Vegetable Roots'' to Bynner & my two Tu Fu poems with an analysis on prosody to Stock. Stock has got my ''Ode on War Chariots'' by Tu Fu published in 20th Century (Australia).
With best wishes to you & Mrs. Pound
Respectfully, Chao
? ? : ? ? from Analects, 13. 1 (Confucius, 248) surfaces in Canto 97: ''not lie down j ? j ? '' (703). Kennedy: see Introduction, n. 23.
Emery: see Letter 91 n.
Bynner: see Glossary on Bynner, Witter.
Espey: John Espey, author of Ezra Pound's Mauberley: A Study in Composition (1955).
Kwock: see Glossary on Kwock, C. H.
Carter's Shenandoah: Thomas Carter (1931-63), a student at Washington & Lee University, edited the
small magazine Shenandoah from 1951 to 1953. Danton: Larry Danton, a young poet in EP's circle.
Tu Fu poems: ''Poems of Tu Fu,'' Edge, 1 (October 1956).
134 Chao to EP (ALS-4; Beinecke)
Dear Poet Pound:
Many, many thanks for your sympathy. Please send Pearson my thanks.
Dignity of the individual is an empty talk unless he is given means by society. Every one deserves a job suitable to him, or there must be something wrong with the economic order.
I am also interested in economics. Ask some one to borrow for you from the Library of Congress a copy of Kuan-Tzu, the greatest economist China has ever produced. Kuan-Tzu was made prime minister by Emperor [Duke] Huan of Ch'i. He made Ch'i the strongest empire of the time.
[New York] Dec. 24 [1956]
168 pound's discovery of an economist
In spite of the fact that China is rich in poetry, she lacks poems like Milton's Paradise Lost, Browning's dramatic monologues and Pound's Cantos. The Chinese have no poems of such grand scale. I always drove this point home to those Chinese who are interested in both Chinese and English literature. If I perfectly understand these poets, I may have something to contribute to Chinese literature from the Western point of view.
I have read Mullins' essay. She [He] should write a longer one. In a few days I shall mail to you my revised version of Tu Fu. With kindest regard to D. P & E. P.
Respectfully yours, Chao
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
