No More Learning

49. Winston, P. M. : Time (July 30, 1945]. Since Churchill was defeated in the election of July 26, a photograph showing him leav- ing Hitler's chancellery in this issue may have evoked the words "last appearance. "
50. e poi . . . uguale: I, "and then I asked the sister / of the little shepherdess of the hogs / and these Americans? / do they be- have well? / and she: not very well / not very well at all/ and I: Worse than the Ger- mans? / and she: the same. "
51. Lincoln Steffens: Joseph Lincoln S. , 1866-1939, an American journalist whose political speeches and writings appealed to Pound in the late 20s [19:24,25].
52. Vandenberg: Arthur Hendrick V. , 1884-1952, member of the U. S. Senate from Michigan (1928-52); he was leader of the Senate "isolationist bloc" before WWII, but later served as a U. S. delegate to the United Nations conference in San Francisco (1945).
line 351; WT, 50; Dante, Par. X, Conv. 4, Pur. XXIV; Aristotle, Politics VII, 4; Otto Eisenschiml, Why Was Lincoln Murdered? , Little, Brown, 1937; James Legge, The Shoo King, in The Chinese Classics, vol. III, 1865 (rpt. Hong Kong University Press, 1960).
Background
EP, SP, 322, 71, 323; GK, 77, 84, 105; P, 152; SR, 48; Otto Eisenschiml, In the Shadow ofLincoln's Death, New York, Wil- fred Funk, 1940; Eustace Mullins, This Difficult Individual, Ezra Pound, New York, 1961, [EM, Difficult] ; 1. Kirkpatrick,Musso- lini: A Study o f a Demagogue, London, 1964.
Exegeses
Thomas Grieve, "Annotations to the Chinese in Section: Rock- Drill," Pai, 4-2 & 3, 362-509 (unless otherwise documented, the Chinese materials in the glosses for Rock-Drill are based on this study). HK, Era, 528; Neault, Pai, 3-2, 219-27; JW, Seven Trouba- dours, 156-57; Mondolfo,Pai, 3-2, 286; HK,Pai, 1-1, 83; Richard Jesse Freidenheim, "Ezra Pound: Canto 85," Ph. D. dissertation, Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1977.
Glossary
CANTO LXXXV Sources
David M. Dewitt, The Judicial Murder ofMary E. Surratt, Balti- more, 1895; Guy W. Moore, The Case ofMrs. Surratt, Univ. of Oklahoma, 1954; Seraphin Couvreur, Chou King, Paris, Cathasia, 1950 [Couvreur]; Russell Grenfell, Unconditional Hatred, Devin- Adair, 1953 [UH]; CON, 27-29, 232,21,20,77; James Legge, The Four Books, Shanghai, 1923 [Legge]; Sophocles, Electra,
1. Ideogram: Ling2 [M4071]. Combines "heaven" over "cloud" over "3 raindrops" over "ritual. " Pound translates as "sensi- bility. "
2. Our dynasty: The Shang dynasty (1753- 1121 B. C. ). The line is Pound's version of a line in Couvreur's Chou King, P. IV , Chap. XIV: "Now our Chou King grandly
and excellently has taken over God's affairs" [po 295]. This chap. , entitled "The Numer- ous Officers," is an announcement to the remaining officers of the Shang dynasty made by the duke of Chou after he had helped King Wu conquer Shang and move to the new city, La. The message of Chou is that Cheou, the last king of Shang, lost his sovereignty to King Wu because of his moral
disorder [53:56].
3. Ideogram: I [M2936], "he, she, it, that one. "
4. Ideogram: Yin [M7439], "ruler," thus "I yin" means "the one who rules. "
5. I Yin: Chief minister of Ch'eng T'ang, 1766-1753 B. C. , first emperor of the Shang dynasty. After the death of T'ang, I Yin became a sort of regent and mentor to the young king and taught him the principles of virtuous government. His teachings are the substance of P. III, Chaps. IV, V, and VI [pp. 1l3-132] of Chou King.
6. roots: ''The word 'roots' is emphatic . . . ; a dynasty grows massively when a great sen- sibility roots it" [HK, Era, 528]. Note rhyme with the tree Yggdrasil of Norse Mythology [cf. 38 below; 90:3].
7. Galileo . . . 1616: In 1616 no works of Galileo were specifically listed in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum established in 1564; but the essential principles of his thought as found in Copernicus were cited. Pound's source is Unconditional Hatred by Captain Russell Grenfell [87:21]. This book is also the source of "Wellington's peace. " Grenfell examines the accusation that Germany was the sole cause of two world wars and rejects
? 468
it as unscientific and biased. But war propa-
ganda in England made it impossible to talk about: "It became as dangerous from 1940 to 1945 to suggest this accusation was not in accordance with the evidence as it had been for Galileo to question the belief . . . sup- ported by the Papacy . . . that the sun went around the earth. Galileo's published theory was put on the Index . . . in 1616. . . . In like fashion, any objection to the official propa- ganda . . . that the Germans were the wicked people of the world was liable to get the
objector into trouble" [pp. 186-187J.
8. Wellington's peace: Grenfell (Uff) con- trasts the unreasonableness of the Churchill- Roosevelt war objectives (the total destruc? tion of Germany as a European power following "unconditional surrender") with the wisdom of Wellington, whose guidelines after Waterloo prevented either Germany or France getting territory which might lead to future wars [87:21 J.
9. Ideogram: Chih [M939J, "come to rest. " This character, used 8 times in The Cantos, has a pivotal function: as in the Ta Hsio, chih is the ground whence virtuous action springs. Pound translates: "The Great Learn- ing, . . is rooted in coming to rest, being at ease in perfect equity. Know the point of
rest and then have an orderly mode of pro~ cedure" [CON 27? 29J. To the Analects Pound adds a note: "There is no more im- portant technical term in the Confucian phi- losophy than this chih (3) the hitching post, position, place one is in, and works from"
[CON, 232J . Pound based a number of his visual reactions to Chinese characters on the etymologies of Morrison [87: 87] , which are now supposed to be unscientific and in-
accurate. As did Morrison, Pound saw a base horizontal stroke,_. as "earth," a top hori- zontal stroke,-, as "heaven," and a middle horizontal stroke, ? as "man," who lives be- tween heaven and earth. Thus, the ideogram for the fully humane man who lives accord- ing to the process of heaven and earth is the character for man used in combination with the horizontal strokes for heaven and earth 1=:. Since this gloss is a cue to Pound's
85/543
continuous perception about hundreds of other characters, the reader is urged to get the idea firmly in mind. The character for ling, above, has the strong base line for earth and the strong stroke for heaven over all. Here chih3 pictures the hitching post based firmly on the earth. If we add a horizontal stroke at the top for heaven, we get the character for "right. " Put the sun, a j over the earth, _ , and we have "dawn. " The ideogram for "earth, soil, land" shows an
element of the character for "tree" standing
on the earth: L . The character for "king," I , has a vertical line showing the king's function as a man translating heaven's will to the people. The character for p'i [cf. 179 belowJ adds a perception of Pound not shared by many others: the 3 strokes be? tween heaven and earth become an arrow pointing toward heaven. And the same char- acter minus the horizontal base stroke be- comes a negative, "with no ground beneath it. " At 98/685, this perception is applied to "the lot of 'em, Yeats, Possum and Wynd- ham. " And so on with numerous characters in the text [John Cayley, Pai, 13? 1 J.
10. gnomon: (a) a sundial; (b) a column or shaft erected perpendicular to the horizon. Shadows define the position of the sun and the time of day. Also a Neoplatonie light metaphor: shadows are defined as light (lux, lumen) pours. Chou King contains records of
85/543-545
central responsibility and function of the state, she was a Western ruler, one who, like Elizabeth, can be identified with the Confu? cian idea of order.
14. Versus . . . (turbae): L, "Opposed to . . . disorderly crowd," Couvreur: " 'Quae despi- ciebant probos prudentesque viros et ad- haerebant potentihus, vere plurimae erant turbae' "(" 'Many were the unruly men who scorned virtue and ability and aligned them- selves with might''') [Pt. III, Chap. II, sec. 4J. Tchoung HOllei, one of the principal ministers of Ch'eng T'ang is describing the rabble (turbae) who, disdaining men of worth (hsien), followed instead the dissolute and slothful Chieh and thus jumped to what they believed to be "the winning side. " Ch'eng Tang, with the assistance of his min- ister I Yin, successfully opposed Chieh and established the Shang dynasty. Pound ex- tends the example to all civilization: the consequence of condemning virtue and abili- ty is social disorder.
IS. Ideogram: Hsien [M2671 J, "virtuous, worthy, good. "
16. 11. 9: Chap. II, Sec. 9 (the announcement of Chung Hui) in Pt. III of Chou King. "rchoung" and "Cheu" appear in that chap- ter: "he who would take care of his end must be attentive to his beginning. "
469
astronomers watching fixing the seasons.
their
gnomons
and
11. Queen Bess: Elizabeth I [66:71J. Pound was impressed with her scholarship and the Confucian qualities she demonstrated as a magnanimous ruler [107: 126J.
12. Ovid: [4/15; 7/24; 76/462J. Elizabeth was famous for her learning. The record shows that at a visit to Cambridge she was asked to say a few words, "just three would do," in Latin. She finally rose and delivered a 600-word oration in impeccable Latin. The record does not show exactly what of Ovid she translated.
13. Cleopatra: Realizing as she did that con- trol of the currency and of coinage was a
19. Ideogram: Jen [M3099J, "perfect vir- tue; humaneness. "
17. Tchiiung: death. "
Chung
[MI500],
"end?
25. epitome. , , : A "gist" or "pith" sum- marizing the passages from Chou King with emphasis on the characters.
26. The sun: In the character for chih4 [ef. 20 aboveJ, we have three components: ~D. The top two carry the sense of prudence; the bottom one, E=l , is the sun radical and indi- cates "process" or the idea of "through time. "
27. Justice . . . prudence: F, "justice of civility, of wisdom. " An explanatory note of Couvreur says that heaven gave man ("put into his heart") these principles.
28. wei heou: French transcription of wei [M7066], "only," and hou [M2144], "ruler," which together mean "sovereign. "
29. E8? icx: H, "wisdom. "
30. chueh: [MI680J.
A personal pronoun: "his, their. " What Pound sees in the charac- ter Jfi. is not what philologists see. The first component, r ,he sees as a shelter; under this, ~, "grass"; and to the right, jt, a radical which means "lacking," which may imply hopes. When these three things cohere we have a rhyme with "what SPLENDOUR' IT ALL COHERES" [109:17; 116/797J.
3 I. Not led . . . contriving: Pound's idea of a Couvreur passage concerning the motiva- tion of a good sovereign,
32. eccellenza: I, "excellence. "
33. THE FOUR TUAN: The four principles of Confucianism-love, duty, propriety, and wisdom.
34. Ideo: Tuan [M6541 J, "principles, foun- dations, "
35. Hulled rice . . . easter: Pound sees in the character for i [M3001J, ~ (not in canto), components for hulled rice, *" and silk, "*. The character refers to cups or vases used in libations in a religions context: thus, the idea of Easter.
36, bachi: I, from bachicoltore, ~'silk worm breeder," meaning "cocoon. " Italian peasant
18. cheu: Shih [M5772J , "beginning. "
20. Ideogram: Chih prudence, "
[M933 J,
"wisdom;
21. i-li: I [M2932]' "by, with"; Ii [M3886], "politeness,"
22. J[: Chung [MI508], "heart, recti? tude. " Note that the phrase "(1508, Ma? thews)" in the right margin should be next to this character.
23. t. J- :Hao [M2062J, "good, excellent. "
24. 'f': Chia [M61O], "armour, scaly. "
? 470
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85/546-547
471
women brought bachi to mass concealed in their aprons, an old pagan tradition persis- ting into the present.
37. T'ang: [53:40]. He inscribed on his bathtub, "Make it New. "
38. Ygdrasail: Yggdrasil. In Norse mytholo- gy the great tree whose branches extend throughout' the universe. In Western terms a subject rhyme with "the process" or "the way,"
39. poi: I, "then,"
40. Ideogram: Shih [M5780], "a period of time. "
41. Ideogram: Ch'en [M331], "sincere, trustworthy. "
42. Ideogram: Ch'en. Another form. To- gether, shih ch'en, meaning "to be sincere," comes from a Couvreur passage that Legge translates: "Dh! let us attain to be sincere in these things and so we shall likewise have a happy consummation. "
. . .
44. Hia: Hsia. The first dynasty [53: 44].
45. i moua pou gning: I [M302l] , rna [M4557], pu [M5379], ning [M4725]. Couvreur's French transcription: "likewise
all were in tranquility. "
46. Perspicax . . . : L, "He who cultivates himself is keen. " The line does not occur exactly in this form in Couvreur's Latin, but the idea does.
47. This "leader" . . . pole: The
these lines with the gouged pumpkin are not clearly in the relevant sections of Couvreur or Legge. Thus they probably derive from a Poundian nonphilological examination of some characters. The young king [cf. 55
below] was named T'ai Chiao The second component in his name [cf. 24 above] may have suggested a gouged pumpkin hoisted on a pole. As recorded in the "T'ai Chia", I Yin sent the young king into seclusion by the tomb of his grandfather because he did not follow I Yin's advice.
piece entitled "Deus est Amor," published in 1940, by "Quotations from Richard St Victor" [SF, 71]. The people who inhabit The Cantos, early and late, may be judged as types belonging to Hell, Purgatory, or Para- dise on the basis of several criteria. One of the most important of these is their mode of thought. Said Pound: "Richard St Victor had hold of something: sic: There are three modes of thought, cogitation, meditation and contemplation. In the first the mind fiits aimlessly about the object [Hell], in the second it circles about in a methodical man? ner [Purgatory], in the third it is unified with the object [Paradise]" [GK, 77]. Rich- ard will come up by name and citations from his thoughts with increasing frequency in the later cantos [87/570, 576, 90/607]. Rich- ard's three modes of thought come to be expressed graphically by other clusters of threes: earth, cocoon, wasp; earth, crysalis, butterfly (the kings in their islands); light, crystal, jade; and so on [Neault, Pai, 3-2,
219-227].
53. Erigena: [36:9; 83:8]. To entertain the king (Charles the Bald) he brightened up his style with classical quotes, he being about the only person around in the 9th century who could do so [83: ! O].
54. Y Yin: [cf. 5 above].
55. young king: T'ai Chia [cf. 47 above].
in the palace at T'ung, where he can be quietly near the remains of the former king. "
58. fish-traps: The character for "deceive" is used in a metaphor that translates, "a fish? trap of wicker," suggesting something weak and temporary. If the young king were to go on in his old ways, he would, when ruler, "bitch" the generation he ruled by weak, unprincipled expedients (in a word, Confucian disorder) and not build on solid virtue and humanitas.
59. k'o . . . : K'e [M3320], "competent"; chung [M1500] , "end"; yun [M7759], "sin- cere"; te [M6l62] , "virtue" [cf. 48 above]. Or, "In the end he [the young king] became sincerely virtuous. "
60. elbow-grease: Pound's rendition of, "What achievement can be made without earnest effort? "
61. Szu: [M5592]. "To sacrifice. " Cou- vreur's "seu," "year. " From the "T'ai Chia" "on the first day of the 12th month of the 3rd year, I Yin took the imperial cap and robes, and escorted the young king back to Po" [Legge, IV, V, ii].
43. "Birds
"The earlier sovereigns of Hea cultivated ear- nestly their virtue, and then there were no calamities from Heaven. The spirits . . . were all in tranquillity; and the birds and beasts, the fishes and tortoises, all realized the hap- piness of their nature. " Flood and flame are calamities from heaven.
excess":
Legge translates:
ideas in
56. CONTEMPLA TlO:
calls "chinks," "sophists," and "hindoo im? maturities" which are out to destroy Rich? ard of St Victor's state.
57. T'oung loco palatium": L, "T'ung the place of palaces. " According to I Yin, the young king was not learning to be a 'virtuous sovereign but rather he was being stubborn, with a self? centered mind of his own ("squirrel-headed"), a state of mind which I Yin was not about to encourage by pam? pering. So I Yin said of the young king, "failure to change his course. This is real
'unrighteousness, and is becoming by practice a second nature. I cannot bear to be near such a disobedient fellow. I will build a place
48. Ideogram:
Pound's idea of the character: "the action resultant from this straight gaze into the heart. The 'know thyself' carried into action" [CON,2l].
49. Texv1J: H, "skill in making things. " A 1952 addenda to GK [po 351] says that be- fore Aristotle was "cold in his grave, the compilers of the so? called 'Magna MoraBa' had already omitted TEXNE from the list of mental faculties given in the Nicomachean Ethics. "
SO. aec:WTov: H, "oneself. " 51. Dante: [74:385].
52. St Victor: Richard, ? -1I73, said to be from Scotland, was a celebrated scholastic philosopher and the most important 12th- century mystic; his system, both visionary and down? to-earth, made him significant for both Dante and Pound. Dante wrote: "Rich? ard / Who in contemplation was more than a man" [Far. X, 131-132]. Richard's De Con- templatione [Benjamin Major] is mentioned by Dante in his letter to Can Grande [Epis- tula XIII, 80]. Pound mentions Richard of- ten in his prose works. Richard's distinctions between cogitatio, meditatio, and contem?
platio are, in the design of The Cantos, as important (in my opinion more) as Dante's Hell-Purgatory-Paradise design in The Divine Comedy. Said Pound: "I would say that every book of value contains a bibliography declared or implied. The De Vulgari Eloqui refers us to Richard of St Victor, Sardello, Bertran de Born, and Arnaut Daniel. Dante was my Baedeker in Provence" [SF, 322]. In fact, Pound expresses his own convictions about the way divinity manifests in the world as much by quotations from Richard
as any other way. In 1956 he documented a
TO
[M6l62] ,
"virtue. "
It is what
Pound
62. vain . . . done: From,
eign will not with disputatious words throw the old rules of government into confusion, and the minister will not for favour and gain continue in an office whose work is done;- then the country will lastingly and surely enjoy happiness" [Legge, IV, V, III].
63. i jenn iuen: I [M3016], "one"; jen [M3097], "man"; yuan [M7707], "good. " Together, "let the one man be good. " If the emperor be good, order will flow from him.
64. Ideogram: I [M2932], "whereby. "
65. Ideogram: Chen [M346], "virtue. "
66. reddidit . . . : L, "he restored the gov- ernment to the emperor. " Couvreur's Latin. The context of these words informs the rest of tllis canto page. I Yin, "having returned the government into the hands of his saver" eign, and being about to announce his retire?
"When the
sover-
? 472
85/547-549
85/549-550
473
ment, set forth admonitions on the subject of virtue. "
67. Ideogram: Ch'en [M339], "present. "
and changed the name of the dynasty to Yin. After the move, he exhorted the people to care for the young and helpless and to make the best of their new home. The fol- lowing 5 characters are a part of that exhor- tation: "Seek everyone long continuance in your new abode. "
82. Ideogram: Ko [M3368], "each, all. "
83. Ideogram: Ch'ang [M213], "long, of space or time. "
84. Ideogram: Yu [M7592], "to proceed. "
85. Ideogram: Chueh [M1680], personal pronoun: "he, she, it, etc. "
86. Ideogram: Chu [MI535], "to dwell. "
87. Baros .