I always drove this point home to those Chinese who are
interested
in both Chinese and English literature.
Ezra-Pounds-Chinese-Friends-Stories-in-Letters
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
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Free translation: Kung says that without beneWtting from Kuan Tzu (or Kuan Chung) he might have been subjugated by a foreign race.
? ? (also known as? ? )
Kuan Tzu in English translation
Show this to the librarian. I am sure there is such a book in English translation.
Pearson: see Letter 132 n.
Mullins' essay: Eustace Mullins (b. 1923), a regular visitor since 1949, authored Mullins on the Federal
? Reserve (1952).
135 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
Dear Poet Pound:
Only recently I found The Kuan Tzu which is supposed to contain the
writings of Kuan Tzu. Enclosed please Wnd 13 pages of quotations from this ancient Chinese economist.
Kindly tell Marcella [Spann] to send me her address. With kindest regards to you and D. P.
Respectfully yours, Chao Tze-chiang
The Kuan Tzu: Lewis Maverick, ed. , T'an Po-fu and Wen Kung-wen, trans. , Economic Dialogues in Ancient China: Selections from the Kuan-Tzu (1954).
13 pages of quotations: quotations copied from ibid. 31, 287, 290-5. Marcella: see Glossary on Spann, Marcella.
[New York] June 2, 1957
pound's discovery of an economist 169
136 Chao to EP (ALS-2; Beinecke)
Dear Poet Pound:
I am very glad that you are pleased by the economic thought of Kuan Chung.
To me Kuan is the greatest statesman and economist of China.
Enclosed please Wnd a short biography of Kuan. It does not contain much information. It is very unfortunate that biographies in traditional Chinese style are very brief. I have translated the most reliable biography of Kuan Chung by Si-ma Chien [Sima Qian], the greatest Chinese historian who lived in the Han dynasty (about 2000 years ago). I like to keep that translation for a few days in order to revise it because I want to give you a very correct translation. I understand you are anxious to know more about Kuan's life. But I worked in daytime and have time to do my own things in the evenings and weekends. I hope that you will excuse my being slow.
With kindest regards for you and D. P.
Respectfully yours Chao Tze-chiang
P. S. For Kung's praise of Kuan, read your translation of Analects (p. 67 verses XVI, XVII & XVIII, especially section 2 of XVIII. )
137 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
[New York] Aug. 3 [1957]
Dear Poet Pound:
The bookseller in Hong Kong wrote to me that he had put The Kuan Tzu in
registered mail. If not detained by the customs house, the book will arrive in about Wve weeks.
With kind regards to you and D. P.
Respectfully yours, Chao Tze-chiang
138 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
Dear Poet Pound:
I shall join the staV of The American Academy of Asian Studies, a graduate school
of the College of the PaciWc, as an associate professor of Chinese language and
[New York] June 16 [1957]
[New York] Aug. 20, 1957
170 pound's discovery of an economist
literature. The school is in San Francisco. Before going there I shall come to see you in the middle of September in order to know more about your life and your poems.
Enclosed please Wnd some excerpts in connection with Kuan Chung. With kindest regards to you and Mrs. Pound.
Respectfully your, Chao Tze-chiang
excerpts: ''The Legalist Tradition which Kuan Chung is in'' (one typed page); ''Nine-Square Fields'' (Wve typed pages), copied from J. J. L. Duyvendak, The Book of Lord Shang: A Classic of the Chinese School of Law (London: Probsthain, 1928), 41, 43-4, 48-9.
139 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
1326 Hyde St. Apt. 4 San Francisco 9, Calif. Nov. 3, 1957
Dear Poet Pound:
I appreciate your kind advice very much. I must follow it very closely.
My friend in New York told me that he had re-directed to you a Chinese edition
of the Kuan Tzu sent from Hong Kong. I imagine you have received it by now. It is unfortunate that my stay in Los Angeles was too short for me to visit Maverick and Hawley. But I have very happy correspondence with Maverick. I wrote to Hawley and have not heard from him. Perhaps I did not write his
right address on the envelope.
I sent you a Chinese bowl, a Chinese spoon and a pair of chopsticks as
birthday gifts. But I am sorry to say that they are not authentic. With best wishes to you and Mrs. Pound.
Respectfully yours Chao Tze-chiang
Maverick: Lewis Maverick, professor and publisher, edited Economic Dialogues in Ancient China: Selections from the Kuan-Tzu (1954).
140 Chao to EP (ALS-2; Beinecke)
San Francisco 9, Calif.
Dear Poet Pound:
I am very grateful for your recent letter. Yesterday I sent you and Mrs. Pound
a Chinese ivory ball with a dragon carved on it, together with a pedestal for it, as
1326 Hyde St. May 6, 1958
pound's discovery of an economist 171
a gift to celebrate your regain of liberty. Don't value it highly. It is ordinary Chinatown stuV, though it was made in Hong Kong. It is diYcult to get ancient Chinese things in this country.
Is Beauson [Pao Swen] Tseng the granddaughter of the so-called ''one of the Confucian remnants''? I understand she is a Christian. How can a Chinese Christian understand poetry?
It is my earnest hope that you will organize poets and scholars to work for the integration of Chinese and Western cultures. With your reputation as a great poet and your translations of the Odes, Kung, etc. , you are certainly the leader. I hope you will consider this suggestion.
I regret very much that when I was in New York, I did not go to visit you in Washington more frequently. I only wish that I could see you again and learn more about poetry from you. Some day I shall translate your Chinese Cantos into Chinese.
James Laughlin sounds like a careless publisher. I sent him my Tu Fu poems about one and half years ago, but he misplaced them somewhere.
I CONGRATULATE you again on your freedom. Carsun Chang asked me to extend you his congratulations.
With kindest regards to you & D. P.
Very respectfully yours Chao Tze-chiang
If you don't receive the ivory ball by next Monday, please let me know so that I shall inquire at the San Francisco Post OYce.
? ? 9
From Poetry to Politics
''Wang's middle name not in Mathews''
Among Pound's disciples of the St Elizabeths period was David Wang. Born in Hangzhou, China, David Hsin-fu Wang (Wang Shenfu ? ? ? , 1931-77) immigrated to the US in 1949, where he attended La Scuola Italiana of Middle- bury and completed his BA degree in English at Dartmouth College in 1955 (see Figs. 9. 1 and 9. 2). He contacted Pound after writing poetry in his shadow for several years. In his Wrst letter (July 1955) he claimed that Pound's wisdom had ''surpassed that of Confucius'' (Letter 141), which only prompted Pound to state: ''Mencius had the sense to say there was only one Confucius'' (Letter 142).
While Pound was not impressed by Wang's compliments, he was charmed by his middle name. The shen ? character was not in Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary. He at once wrote to David Gordon, Tze-chiang Chao, and Willis Hawley, inquiring about that word. Chao was the Wrst to respond: the Shuowen dictionary deWned it as ''Xourishing or prosperous'' and the Guangyun ''Xame (Wre burning on a piece of wood)'' (Beinecke). Thus on 13 July Pound was able to write back to Wang, addressing him as ''Mr Flame-style King'' (Letter 142).
The ideogram of Wang's middle name, Wre burning on a piece of wood, came back to Pound when he opened Thrones with enlightened monarchs from Martel to Charlemagne. It was logical to insert in this context: ''Wang's middle name not in Mathews ? '' (Canto 96/673).
The correspondence between Pound and Wang initially focused on literary interests. Wang sent Pound drafts of his poems and translations, which Pound returned with suggestions. Through Pound Wang got to know Noel Stock, who printed his ''Tang & Sung Poems'' in Edge, 3; Chao, who collaborated with him on a Chinese heritage project; and Marcella Spann, who shared with him the reading list of her college comparative literature course.
In early 1957 Pound was gathering material from F. W. Baller's edition of Sacred Edict (1907) for a new section of The Cantos. Slim though it appears, the volume contains two Chinese versions of Emperor Kangxi's ''Sacred Edict,'' a literary version by Emperor Yongzheng and a colloquial version by Salt-Commissioner
from poetry to politics 173
Wang Youpu. Baller provides only a translation of the latter. Pound advised Wang to render into English Yongzheng's text ''BOTH because I shd/ like it, and because Stock cd/ print it'' (Letter 148). Wang obviously was not interested in the task. Although he kept saying that he was working on it, he never turned in his translation.
Their correspondence became more political than literary during 1957-8. As a refugee from China, Wang was anti-Communist. From enthusiasm for eugenics he moved on to regard some races higher than other races. His pride in his ''high'' breeding and his false sense of injury, combined with the inXuence of segregation- ists like John Kasper, fed his anti-Semitism. In exchanges with Pound he indulged in his master's unabashed, oVensive rhetoric. Some of his statements are neo-fascist. In a letter of 12 July 1957, for instance, he said: ''My impression of the French is that they are of all Europeans the closest to the kikes in spirit and nature . . . I am for a united Europe under the rule of either Germany or Italy. Adolf [Hitler] and Benito [Mussolini] were certainly close to saints'' (Beinecke). Whether he was speaking his mind or aiming for shock value could only be conjectural.
In October 1957 Wang organized a club called ''North American Citizens for the Constitution: An AYliation of the Whib Party. '' There were no more than a dozen followers in the band. The name ''Whib'' or ''Wheat in Bread'' was taken from Pound. Wang was soon in trouble. A former classmate of his, David Rattray, after interviewing Pound, published an article in The Nation (16 No- vember 1957), in which he accused Wang of protecting ''white supremacy. '' Wang wrote to Pound on 14 January 1958, complaining that the accusation made him fear deportation ''to RED China'' (Letter 160).
A good service Pound rendered Wang was putting him in touch with William Carlos Williams. After a visit to the ailing poet in Rutherford, New Jersey, Wang began collaborating with him on some thirty-eight translations from Chinese poets, which eventually appeared in New Directions, 19 (1966). Williams proved a better inXuence on Wang. From the Williams-Wang correspondence (Beinecke and Dartmouth College Library) we see that Wang regretted to a degree his past doings. In one letter (30 June 1959), he expressed contempt for his former friend David Horton, referring to him as still ''promoting the elimination of Jews, Negroes, and other 'inferior' people'' (Beinecke). In another letter (27 January 1961), he told Williams that he had lent his name to get a place for an African American friend. ''Maybe, someday,'' he wrote, ''there will be a Jewish or a Chinese president who will do something for the Negroes'' (Beinecke).
Wang took his MA at San Francisco State College in 1961 and his Ph. D. at the University of Southern California in 1972. In April 1977 Wang's body was found outside a hotel in New York City. He had stayed in that hotel for a meeting of the Modern Language Association's Commission on Minority Groups. That story, along with Wang's entire career, has been treated by Hugh Witemeyer in ''The Strange Progress of David Hsin-fu Wand [Wang]'' (Paideuma 15/2 & 3 (1986)).
? Fig. 9. 1. David Wang, c. 1955. (Dartmouth College Library)
Fig. 9. 2. David Wang, c. 1955. (Dartmouth College Library)
? from poetry to politics 175
141 Wang to EP (TLS-2; Beinecke)
Dearborn, Michigan
Dear Mr. Pound,
I sincerely hope that this letter will reach you without interference, for about
two weeks ago, while I was in Hanover, New Hampshire, I mailed a little book of my verse, The Goblet Moon, to the following address:
Mr. Ezra Pound
Creator of World Literature Washington D. C.
U. S. A.
and it was sent back to me a few days ago with a note that the directory service in Washington has been discontinued. To me, it seems that the post oYce in Washington is appallingly ignorant.
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
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Free translation: Kung says that without beneWtting from Kuan Tzu (or Kuan Chung) he might have been subjugated by a foreign race.
? ? (also known as? ? )
Kuan Tzu in English translation
Show this to the librarian. I am sure there is such a book in English translation.
Pearson: see Letter 132 n.
Mullins' essay: Eustace Mullins (b. 1923), a regular visitor since 1949, authored Mullins on the Federal
? Reserve (1952).
135 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
Dear Poet Pound:
Only recently I found The Kuan Tzu which is supposed to contain the
writings of Kuan Tzu. Enclosed please Wnd 13 pages of quotations from this ancient Chinese economist.
Kindly tell Marcella [Spann] to send me her address. With kindest regards to you and D. P.
Respectfully yours, Chao Tze-chiang
The Kuan Tzu: Lewis Maverick, ed. , T'an Po-fu and Wen Kung-wen, trans. , Economic Dialogues in Ancient China: Selections from the Kuan-Tzu (1954).
13 pages of quotations: quotations copied from ibid. 31, 287, 290-5. Marcella: see Glossary on Spann, Marcella.
[New York] June 2, 1957
pound's discovery of an economist 169
136 Chao to EP (ALS-2; Beinecke)
Dear Poet Pound:
I am very glad that you are pleased by the economic thought of Kuan Chung.
To me Kuan is the greatest statesman and economist of China.
Enclosed please Wnd a short biography of Kuan. It does not contain much information. It is very unfortunate that biographies in traditional Chinese style are very brief. I have translated the most reliable biography of Kuan Chung by Si-ma Chien [Sima Qian], the greatest Chinese historian who lived in the Han dynasty (about 2000 years ago). I like to keep that translation for a few days in order to revise it because I want to give you a very correct translation. I understand you are anxious to know more about Kuan's life. But I worked in daytime and have time to do my own things in the evenings and weekends. I hope that you will excuse my being slow.
With kindest regards for you and D. P.
Respectfully yours Chao Tze-chiang
P. S. For Kung's praise of Kuan, read your translation of Analects (p. 67 verses XVI, XVII & XVIII, especially section 2 of XVIII. )
137 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
[New York] Aug. 3 [1957]
Dear Poet Pound:
The bookseller in Hong Kong wrote to me that he had put The Kuan Tzu in
registered mail. If not detained by the customs house, the book will arrive in about Wve weeks.
With kind regards to you and D. P.
Respectfully yours, Chao Tze-chiang
138 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
Dear Poet Pound:
I shall join the staV of The American Academy of Asian Studies, a graduate school
of the College of the PaciWc, as an associate professor of Chinese language and
[New York] June 16 [1957]
[New York] Aug. 20, 1957
170 pound's discovery of an economist
literature. The school is in San Francisco. Before going there I shall come to see you in the middle of September in order to know more about your life and your poems.
Enclosed please Wnd some excerpts in connection with Kuan Chung. With kindest regards to you and Mrs. Pound.
Respectfully your, Chao Tze-chiang
excerpts: ''The Legalist Tradition which Kuan Chung is in'' (one typed page); ''Nine-Square Fields'' (Wve typed pages), copied from J. J. L. Duyvendak, The Book of Lord Shang: A Classic of the Chinese School of Law (London: Probsthain, 1928), 41, 43-4, 48-9.
139 Chao to EP (ALS-1; Beinecke)
1326 Hyde St. Apt. 4 San Francisco 9, Calif. Nov. 3, 1957
Dear Poet Pound:
I appreciate your kind advice very much. I must follow it very closely.
My friend in New York told me that he had re-directed to you a Chinese edition
of the Kuan Tzu sent from Hong Kong. I imagine you have received it by now. It is unfortunate that my stay in Los Angeles was too short for me to visit Maverick and Hawley. But I have very happy correspondence with Maverick. I wrote to Hawley and have not heard from him. Perhaps I did not write his
right address on the envelope.
I sent you a Chinese bowl, a Chinese spoon and a pair of chopsticks as
birthday gifts. But I am sorry to say that they are not authentic. With best wishes to you and Mrs. Pound.
Respectfully yours Chao Tze-chiang
Maverick: Lewis Maverick, professor and publisher, edited Economic Dialogues in Ancient China: Selections from the Kuan-Tzu (1954).
140 Chao to EP (ALS-2; Beinecke)
San Francisco 9, Calif.
Dear Poet Pound:
I am very grateful for your recent letter. Yesterday I sent you and Mrs. Pound
a Chinese ivory ball with a dragon carved on it, together with a pedestal for it, as
1326 Hyde St. May 6, 1958
pound's discovery of an economist 171
a gift to celebrate your regain of liberty. Don't value it highly. It is ordinary Chinatown stuV, though it was made in Hong Kong. It is diYcult to get ancient Chinese things in this country.
Is Beauson [Pao Swen] Tseng the granddaughter of the so-called ''one of the Confucian remnants''? I understand she is a Christian. How can a Chinese Christian understand poetry?
It is my earnest hope that you will organize poets and scholars to work for the integration of Chinese and Western cultures. With your reputation as a great poet and your translations of the Odes, Kung, etc. , you are certainly the leader. I hope you will consider this suggestion.
I regret very much that when I was in New York, I did not go to visit you in Washington more frequently. I only wish that I could see you again and learn more about poetry from you. Some day I shall translate your Chinese Cantos into Chinese.
James Laughlin sounds like a careless publisher. I sent him my Tu Fu poems about one and half years ago, but he misplaced them somewhere.
I CONGRATULATE you again on your freedom. Carsun Chang asked me to extend you his congratulations.
With kindest regards to you & D. P.
Very respectfully yours Chao Tze-chiang
If you don't receive the ivory ball by next Monday, please let me know so that I shall inquire at the San Francisco Post OYce.
? ? 9
From Poetry to Politics
''Wang's middle name not in Mathews''
Among Pound's disciples of the St Elizabeths period was David Wang. Born in Hangzhou, China, David Hsin-fu Wang (Wang Shenfu ? ? ? , 1931-77) immigrated to the US in 1949, where he attended La Scuola Italiana of Middle- bury and completed his BA degree in English at Dartmouth College in 1955 (see Figs. 9. 1 and 9. 2). He contacted Pound after writing poetry in his shadow for several years. In his Wrst letter (July 1955) he claimed that Pound's wisdom had ''surpassed that of Confucius'' (Letter 141), which only prompted Pound to state: ''Mencius had the sense to say there was only one Confucius'' (Letter 142).
While Pound was not impressed by Wang's compliments, he was charmed by his middle name. The shen ? character was not in Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary. He at once wrote to David Gordon, Tze-chiang Chao, and Willis Hawley, inquiring about that word. Chao was the Wrst to respond: the Shuowen dictionary deWned it as ''Xourishing or prosperous'' and the Guangyun ''Xame (Wre burning on a piece of wood)'' (Beinecke). Thus on 13 July Pound was able to write back to Wang, addressing him as ''Mr Flame-style King'' (Letter 142).
The ideogram of Wang's middle name, Wre burning on a piece of wood, came back to Pound when he opened Thrones with enlightened monarchs from Martel to Charlemagne. It was logical to insert in this context: ''Wang's middle name not in Mathews ? '' (Canto 96/673).
The correspondence between Pound and Wang initially focused on literary interests. Wang sent Pound drafts of his poems and translations, which Pound returned with suggestions. Through Pound Wang got to know Noel Stock, who printed his ''Tang & Sung Poems'' in Edge, 3; Chao, who collaborated with him on a Chinese heritage project; and Marcella Spann, who shared with him the reading list of her college comparative literature course.
In early 1957 Pound was gathering material from F. W. Baller's edition of Sacred Edict (1907) for a new section of The Cantos. Slim though it appears, the volume contains two Chinese versions of Emperor Kangxi's ''Sacred Edict,'' a literary version by Emperor Yongzheng and a colloquial version by Salt-Commissioner
from poetry to politics 173
Wang Youpu. Baller provides only a translation of the latter. Pound advised Wang to render into English Yongzheng's text ''BOTH because I shd/ like it, and because Stock cd/ print it'' (Letter 148). Wang obviously was not interested in the task. Although he kept saying that he was working on it, he never turned in his translation.
Their correspondence became more political than literary during 1957-8. As a refugee from China, Wang was anti-Communist. From enthusiasm for eugenics he moved on to regard some races higher than other races. His pride in his ''high'' breeding and his false sense of injury, combined with the inXuence of segregation- ists like John Kasper, fed his anti-Semitism. In exchanges with Pound he indulged in his master's unabashed, oVensive rhetoric. Some of his statements are neo-fascist. In a letter of 12 July 1957, for instance, he said: ''My impression of the French is that they are of all Europeans the closest to the kikes in spirit and nature . . . I am for a united Europe under the rule of either Germany or Italy. Adolf [Hitler] and Benito [Mussolini] were certainly close to saints'' (Beinecke). Whether he was speaking his mind or aiming for shock value could only be conjectural.
In October 1957 Wang organized a club called ''North American Citizens for the Constitution: An AYliation of the Whib Party. '' There were no more than a dozen followers in the band. The name ''Whib'' or ''Wheat in Bread'' was taken from Pound. Wang was soon in trouble. A former classmate of his, David Rattray, after interviewing Pound, published an article in The Nation (16 No- vember 1957), in which he accused Wang of protecting ''white supremacy. '' Wang wrote to Pound on 14 January 1958, complaining that the accusation made him fear deportation ''to RED China'' (Letter 160).
A good service Pound rendered Wang was putting him in touch with William Carlos Williams. After a visit to the ailing poet in Rutherford, New Jersey, Wang began collaborating with him on some thirty-eight translations from Chinese poets, which eventually appeared in New Directions, 19 (1966). Williams proved a better inXuence on Wang. From the Williams-Wang correspondence (Beinecke and Dartmouth College Library) we see that Wang regretted to a degree his past doings. In one letter (30 June 1959), he expressed contempt for his former friend David Horton, referring to him as still ''promoting the elimination of Jews, Negroes, and other 'inferior' people'' (Beinecke). In another letter (27 January 1961), he told Williams that he had lent his name to get a place for an African American friend. ''Maybe, someday,'' he wrote, ''there will be a Jewish or a Chinese president who will do something for the Negroes'' (Beinecke).
Wang took his MA at San Francisco State College in 1961 and his Ph. D. at the University of Southern California in 1972. In April 1977 Wang's body was found outside a hotel in New York City. He had stayed in that hotel for a meeting of the Modern Language Association's Commission on Minority Groups. That story, along with Wang's entire career, has been treated by Hugh Witemeyer in ''The Strange Progress of David Hsin-fu Wand [Wang]'' (Paideuma 15/2 & 3 (1986)).
? Fig. 9. 1. David Wang, c. 1955. (Dartmouth College Library)
Fig. 9. 2. David Wang, c. 1955. (Dartmouth College Library)
? from poetry to politics 175
141 Wang to EP (TLS-2; Beinecke)
Dearborn, Michigan
Dear Mr. Pound,
I sincerely hope that this letter will reach you without interference, for about
two weeks ago, while I was in Hanover, New Hampshire, I mailed a little book of my verse, The Goblet Moon, to the following address:
Mr. Ezra Pound
Creator of World Literature Washington D. C.
U. S. A.
and it was sent back to me a few days ago with a note that the directory service in Washington has been discontinued. To me, it seems that the post oYce in Washington is appallingly ignorant.
