Fang by
courtesy
of P.
Ezra-Pounds-Chinese-Friends-Stories-in-Letters
Ezra Pound's Chinese Friends
This page intentionally left blank
Ezra Pound's Chinese Friends
Stories in Letters
edited and annotated by
ZHAOMING QIAN
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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Data available
Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
Biddles Ltd. , King's Lynn, Norfolk
ISBN 978-0-19-923860-6 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
ss 2008 Previously unpublished letters and writings of Ezra Pound by courtesy of Mary de Rachewiltz and Omar S. Pound, used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation, agents.
Photos used by courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, and New Directions Publishing Corporation, agents.
ss 2008 Postscripts of Dorothy Pound by courtesy of Omar S. Pound.
ss 2008 Scenes from Ezra Pound's screen book by courtesy of Mary de Rachewiltz.
ss 2008 Letters and photographs of Carsun Chang by courtesy of Diana Chang and June
T. F. Chang Tung.
ss 2008 Letters and photographs of Tze-chiang Chao and C. H. Kwock by courtesy of C. H. Kwock.
ss 2008 Letters and photographs of Achilles Fang by courtesy of Ilse Fang.
ss 2008 Letters and photographs of P. H. Fang by courtesy of P. H. Fang.
ss 2008 Photograph of Angela Jung Palandri by courtesy of Angela Jung Palandri.
ss 2008 Letters and photograph of F. T. Sung by courtesy of Hongru Song.
ss 2008 Letters and photograph of Fengchi Yang by courtesy of Lionello Lanciotti.
ss 2008 Writing of William McNaughton by William McNaughton.
ss 2008 Compilation, introductions, annotations, translations, and additional editorial matter by Zhaoming Qian.
Grateful acknowledgment is given to New Directions Publishing Corporation for permission to use the following copyrighted works of Ezra Pound: Excerpts from Ezra Pound's Poetry and Prose: Contributions to Periodicals, copyright ss 1991 by the Trustees of the Ezra Pound Literary Property Trust; excerpts from The Cantos of Ezra Pound, copyright ss 1934, 1937, 1940, 1948, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1966, and 1968 by Ezra Pound, reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation; The Great Digest, The Unwobbling Pivot, The Analects, from Confucius, edited by Ezra Pound, translated by Ezra Pound, from Confucius, copyright ss 1947, 1950 by Ezra Pound, reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Book cover from Ezra Pound's Shih-Ching: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius appears courtesy of Harvard University Press, Copyright ss 1954, 1982 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
To Barry Ahearn, George Bornstein, and
Marjorie Perloff
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations ix List of Figures xi Introduction xiii Notes on the Text xxiii
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
7. 8. 9.
10.
F. T. Sung's China Plan for Pound 1 ''China is interesting, VERY''
Miss Tseng and the Seven Lakes Canto 9 ''Descendant of Kung and Thseng-Tsu''
Yang as Pound's Opponent and Collaborator 18 ''To sacrifice to a spirit not one's own is flattery''
Achilles Fang and Pound's Bilingual Confucius 40 ''All answers are in the FOUR BOOKS''
Pound as Miss Jung's Dissertation Adviser 88 ''One's opinions change''
Pound and Carsun Chang 96 ''Confucianism as Confucius had it''
William McNaughton's Memoir: ''What Pound and
Carsun Chang Talked About at St Elizabeths'' 105
Achilles Fang and Pound's Classic Anthology 107 ''The barbarians need the ODES''
Pound's Discovery of an Ancient Economist 161 ''Chao ought not to be wasted''
From Poetry to Politics 172 ''Wang's middle name not in Mathews''
P. H. Fang and the Naxi Rites in The Cantos 196 ''I have found your Muen Bpo & KA MA gyu''
viii contents
Appendix
Ezra Pound's Typescript for ''Preliminary Survey'' (1951)
207
Glossary 229 Index 235
General
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ACS autograph postcard signed
ALS autograph letter signed, followed by numeral indicating number of leaves
of the original, e. g. ALS-3 1/4 autograph letter signed consisting of three
leaves
ANS autograph note signed
TL typed letter unsigned, followed by numeral indicating number of leaves of the original, e. g. TL-2 1/4 typed letter unsigned consisting of two leaves
Libraries and Collections
AJP Private collection of Angela Jung Palandri, Eugene, Oregon
Beinecke Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University Brunnenburg Ezra Pound Library, Brunnenburg, Italy
HRHRC Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin Lilly Lilly Library, Indiana University
LL Private collection of Lionello Lanciotti, Rome, Italy PHF Private collection of P. H. Fang, Belmont, Massachusetts
Published Writings of Ezra Pound
Canto
LE Personae
Poetry and Prose SP
The Cantos (14th printing; New York: New Directions, 1998) (references are to canto and page number. )
Literary Essays, ed. T. S. Eliot (1954; New York: New Directions, 1968) Personae: The Shorter Poems, ed. Lea Baechler and A. Walton Litz (1926; rev. ed. New York: New Directions, 1990)
Ezra Pound's Poetry and Prose: Contributions to Periodicals, 10 vols. , ed. Lea Baechler et al. (New York: Garland, 1991)
Selected Prose, 1909-1965, ed. William Cookson (New York: New Directions, 1973)
Published Translations of Ezra Pound
Classic Anthology Shih-Ching: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius (1954; Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1982)
Confucius Confucius: The Great Digest, The Unwobbling Pivot, The Analects (1951; New York: New Directions, 1969)
x list of abbreviations Published Letters of Ezra Pound
Letters in Captivity Pound/Japan Pound/Theobald
Ezra and Dorothy Pound: Letters in Captivity, 1945-1946, ed. Omar Pound and Robert Spoo (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)
Ezra Pound and Japan: Letters and Essays, ed. Sanehide Kodama (Redding Ridge, Conn. : Black Swan, 1987)
Letters of Ezra Pound and John Theobald, ed. Donald Pearce and Herbert Schneidau (Redding Ridge, Conn. : Black Swan, 1984)
Works by Others
Gallup Donald Gallup, Ezra Pound: A Bibliography (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983)
Legge James Legge, The Chinese Classics, 7 vols. (1865; Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960)
Mathews R. H. Mathews, Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary (1931; Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1944)
Terrell Carroll F. Terrell, A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980)
1. 1 1. 2 2. 1 2. 2
2. 3 2. 4 3. 1 3. 2 3. 3 4. 1 4. 2 5. 1 5. 2 6. 1 6. 2 6. 3 6. 4 7. 1 7. 2 7. 3 7. 4 7. 5 8. 1 8. 2 9. 1 9. 2
10. 1 10. 2 10. 3 10. 4
LIST OF FIGURES
F. T. Sung, 1914 4 EP in London, 1916 5 ''Night Rain'' from EP's screen book 12 ''Autumn Moon,'' ''Evening Bell,'' ''Sailboats Returning''
from EP's screen book 12 Pao Swen Tseng, 1928 13 Pao Swen Tseng and Yueh-nung Tseng, 1955 14 EP in Rome, c. 1941 20 Fengchi Yang, c. 1960 21 Letter 10 22 Sample of the Tang Stone-Classics 43 Achilles Fang, 1951 44 Angela Jung, 1952 91 EP at Sant'Ambrogio, 1967 92 Carsun Chang, 1953 98 Carsun Chang, 1957 99 Autographs of EP and Chang, 1953 100 C. H. Kwock and Louis Armstrong, 1958 101 Achilles Fang, 1953 110 EP's sound key to Ode 167 111 EP's seal text of Ode 167 112 Cover of Classic Anthology 113 Achilles and Ilse Fang, 1957 114 EP on the St. Elizabeths lawn, 1957 163 Tze-chiang Chao, 1935 164 David Wang, c. 1955 174 David Wang, c. 1955 174 ''By the temple pool'' 200 P. H. and Josephine Fang with Zhaoming Qian, 2003 200 EP's note to P. H. Fang 201 The Fangs to EP and DP, 1959 202
Figures 1. 2, 3. 1, 3. 3, 4. 1, 5. 2, 6. 3, 7. 2, 7. 3, 8. 1, and 10. 3 ss 2008 Mary de Rachewiltz
and Omar Pound, permission by New Directions Publishing Corporation, agents.
Figure 1. 1 ss 2008 Hongru Song, permission by Hongru Song.
Figures 2. 1 and 2. 2 ss 2008 Mary de Rachewiltz, permission by Mary de
Rachewiltz.
Figure 3. 2 ss 2008 Lionello Lanciotti, permission by Lionello Lanciotti. Figures 4. 2, 7. 1, and 7. 5 ss 2008 Ilse Fang, permission by Ilse Fang.
Figure 5. 1 ss 2008 Angela Jung Palandri, permission by Angela Jung Palandri.
xii list of figures
Figures 6. 1 and 6. 2 ss 2008 Diana Chang and June Chang Tung, permission by Diana Chang and June Chang Tung.
Figures 6. 4 and 8. 2 ss 2008 C. H. Kwock, permission by C. H. Kwock. Figures 10. 1, and 10. 4 ss 2008 P. H. Fang, permission by P. H. Fang.
For figures 2. 3, 2. 4, 9. 1, and 9. 2, see disclaimer in ''Notes on the Text,'' p. xxiv.
INTRODUCTION Pound is the inventor of Chinese poetry for our time.
I predict that the next century will see, even be dominated by, a dialogue between the U. S. and China in which Pound's poetry will take on an importance and weight not obvious at the moment: that not only has he woven a new wholeness, at any rate potential wholeness, out of European and American, but also of Chinese, elements.
Tom Scott2
No literary Wgure of the past century--in America or perhaps in any other Western country--is comparable to Ezra Pound (1885-1972) in the scope and depth of his exchange with China. To this day, scholars and students still Wnd it puzzling that this inXuential poet spent a lifetime incorporating Chinese lan- guage, literature, history, and philosophy into Anglo-American modernism.
A package of notes and manuscripts Pound received from the widow of the American orientalist Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908) in late 1913 Wrst opened his eyes to the Imagist strength of Japanese Noh drama, Chinese classic poetry, and the Chinese written character. His 1915 volume Cathay from Fenollosa's Chinese poetry notes paved the way for his transition to high modernism. It also earned him recognition as ''the inventor of Chinese poetry for our time. '' This Wrst success led to his inquiry into Confucianism. In Guillaume Pauthier's French version of the Confucian Four Books (Les quatre livres) he discovered a philoso- phy that would correct Western civilization. 3 Consequently, Confucius recurs again and again in Pound's long poem The Cantos. His Canto 13 is a eulogy of Confucius' respect for the individual. Cantos 52-71 juxtapose early Republican America with China from Confucius' ideal kings Yao and Shun to Qing emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng as a way to suggest the right forms of government. Cantos 85 and 86 pay tribute to the Confucian tenets found in Shu jing or the Book of History, and Cantos 98 and 99 to Kangxi's ''Sacred Edict. '' In the 1940s and early 1950s, Pound translated into English three of the Confucian Four Books and all 305 odes of the Confucian Book of Odes. 4
How well did Pound know Chinese? How did he go about rendering Chinese texts into English? He is known to have owned a set of Robert Morrison's
1 2 3
Chine (1846; rpt. Paris: Librairie Garnier Fre`res, 1910).
4
Ezra Pound, trans. , ''Confucius: The Unwobbling Pivot & The Great Digest,'' Pharos, 4 (Winter [1946] 1947); ''The Analects,'' Hudson Review, 3/1 (Spring 1950); The Classic Anthology DeWned by Confucius (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1954).
T. S. Eliot, introduction, Selected Poems of Ezra Pound (London: Faber and Faber, 1928), xvi. Tom Scott, ''The Poet as Scapegoat,'' Agenda, 7/2 (1969), 57.
Guillaume Pauthier, Confucius et Mencius: Les quatre livres de philosophie morale et politique de la
T. S. Eliot1
xiv introduction
multivolume Dictionary of the Chinese Language since 1914, carried a small Shanghai Commercial Press Chinese-English dictionary to the Disciplinary Training Center outside Pisa in 1945, and purchased a copy of Mathews' Chi- nese-English Dictionary around 1947. 5 Did he learn the Chinese language from dictionaries? Was he guided exclusively by eighteenth-to nineteenth-century orientalists' versions in his various Chinese projects?
Fang by courtesy of P. H. Fang.
ss 2008 Photograph of Angela Jung Palandri by courtesy of Angela Jung Palandri.
ss 2008 Letters and photograph of F. T. Sung by courtesy of Hongru Song.
ss 2008 Letters and photograph of Fengchi Yang by courtesy of Lionello Lanciotti.
ss 2008 Writing of William McNaughton by William McNaughton.
ss 2008 Compilation, introductions, annotations, translations, and additional editorial matter by Zhaoming Qian.
Grateful acknowledgment is given to New Directions Publishing Corporation for permission to use the following copyrighted works of Ezra Pound: Excerpts from Ezra Pound's Poetry and Prose: Contributions to Periodicals, copyright ss 1991 by the Trustees of the Ezra Pound Literary Property Trust; excerpts from The Cantos of Ezra Pound, copyright ss 1934, 1937, 1940, 1948, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1966, and 1968 by Ezra Pound, reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation; The Great Digest, The Unwobbling Pivot, The Analects, from Confucius, edited by Ezra Pound, translated by Ezra Pound, from Confucius, copyright ss 1947, 1950 by Ezra Pound, reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Book cover from Ezra Pound's Shih-Ching: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius appears courtesy of Harvard University Press, Copyright ss 1954, 1982 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
To Barry Ahearn, George Bornstein, and
Marjorie Perloff
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations ix List of Figures xi Introduction xiii Notes on the Text xxiii
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
7. 8. 9.
10.
F. T. Sung's China Plan for Pound 1 ''China is interesting, VERY''
Miss Tseng and the Seven Lakes Canto 9 ''Descendant of Kung and Thseng-Tsu''
Yang as Pound's Opponent and Collaborator 18 ''To sacrifice to a spirit not one's own is flattery''
Achilles Fang and Pound's Bilingual Confucius 40 ''All answers are in the FOUR BOOKS''
Pound as Miss Jung's Dissertation Adviser 88 ''One's opinions change''
Pound and Carsun Chang 96 ''Confucianism as Confucius had it''
William McNaughton's Memoir: ''What Pound and
Carsun Chang Talked About at St Elizabeths'' 105
Achilles Fang and Pound's Classic Anthology 107 ''The barbarians need the ODES''
Pound's Discovery of an Ancient Economist 161 ''Chao ought not to be wasted''
From Poetry to Politics 172 ''Wang's middle name not in Mathews''
P. H. Fang and the Naxi Rites in The Cantos 196 ''I have found your Muen Bpo & KA MA gyu''
viii contents
Appendix
Ezra Pound's Typescript for ''Preliminary Survey'' (1951)
207
Glossary 229 Index 235
General
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ACS autograph postcard signed
ALS autograph letter signed, followed by numeral indicating number of leaves
of the original, e. g. ALS-3 1/4 autograph letter signed consisting of three
leaves
ANS autograph note signed
TL typed letter unsigned, followed by numeral indicating number of leaves of the original, e. g. TL-2 1/4 typed letter unsigned consisting of two leaves
Libraries and Collections
AJP Private collection of Angela Jung Palandri, Eugene, Oregon
Beinecke Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University Brunnenburg Ezra Pound Library, Brunnenburg, Italy
HRHRC Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin Lilly Lilly Library, Indiana University
LL Private collection of Lionello Lanciotti, Rome, Italy PHF Private collection of P. H. Fang, Belmont, Massachusetts
Published Writings of Ezra Pound
Canto
LE Personae
Poetry and Prose SP
The Cantos (14th printing; New York: New Directions, 1998) (references are to canto and page number. )
Literary Essays, ed. T. S. Eliot (1954; New York: New Directions, 1968) Personae: The Shorter Poems, ed. Lea Baechler and A. Walton Litz (1926; rev. ed. New York: New Directions, 1990)
Ezra Pound's Poetry and Prose: Contributions to Periodicals, 10 vols. , ed. Lea Baechler et al. (New York: Garland, 1991)
Selected Prose, 1909-1965, ed. William Cookson (New York: New Directions, 1973)
Published Translations of Ezra Pound
Classic Anthology Shih-Ching: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius (1954; Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1982)
Confucius Confucius: The Great Digest, The Unwobbling Pivot, The Analects (1951; New York: New Directions, 1969)
x list of abbreviations Published Letters of Ezra Pound
Letters in Captivity Pound/Japan Pound/Theobald
Ezra and Dorothy Pound: Letters in Captivity, 1945-1946, ed. Omar Pound and Robert Spoo (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)
Ezra Pound and Japan: Letters and Essays, ed. Sanehide Kodama (Redding Ridge, Conn. : Black Swan, 1987)
Letters of Ezra Pound and John Theobald, ed. Donald Pearce and Herbert Schneidau (Redding Ridge, Conn. : Black Swan, 1984)
Works by Others
Gallup Donald Gallup, Ezra Pound: A Bibliography (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983)
Legge James Legge, The Chinese Classics, 7 vols. (1865; Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960)
Mathews R. H. Mathews, Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary (1931; Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1944)
Terrell Carroll F. Terrell, A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980)
1. 1 1. 2 2. 1 2. 2
2. 3 2. 4 3. 1 3. 2 3. 3 4. 1 4. 2 5. 1 5. 2 6. 1 6. 2 6. 3 6. 4 7. 1 7. 2 7. 3 7. 4 7. 5 8. 1 8. 2 9. 1 9. 2
10. 1 10. 2 10. 3 10. 4
LIST OF FIGURES
F. T. Sung, 1914 4 EP in London, 1916 5 ''Night Rain'' from EP's screen book 12 ''Autumn Moon,'' ''Evening Bell,'' ''Sailboats Returning''
from EP's screen book 12 Pao Swen Tseng, 1928 13 Pao Swen Tseng and Yueh-nung Tseng, 1955 14 EP in Rome, c. 1941 20 Fengchi Yang, c. 1960 21 Letter 10 22 Sample of the Tang Stone-Classics 43 Achilles Fang, 1951 44 Angela Jung, 1952 91 EP at Sant'Ambrogio, 1967 92 Carsun Chang, 1953 98 Carsun Chang, 1957 99 Autographs of EP and Chang, 1953 100 C. H. Kwock and Louis Armstrong, 1958 101 Achilles Fang, 1953 110 EP's sound key to Ode 167 111 EP's seal text of Ode 167 112 Cover of Classic Anthology 113 Achilles and Ilse Fang, 1957 114 EP on the St. Elizabeths lawn, 1957 163 Tze-chiang Chao, 1935 164 David Wang, c. 1955 174 David Wang, c. 1955 174 ''By the temple pool'' 200 P. H. and Josephine Fang with Zhaoming Qian, 2003 200 EP's note to P. H. Fang 201 The Fangs to EP and DP, 1959 202
Figures 1. 2, 3. 1, 3. 3, 4. 1, 5. 2, 6. 3, 7. 2, 7. 3, 8. 1, and 10. 3 ss 2008 Mary de Rachewiltz
and Omar Pound, permission by New Directions Publishing Corporation, agents.
Figure 1. 1 ss 2008 Hongru Song, permission by Hongru Song.
Figures 2. 1 and 2. 2 ss 2008 Mary de Rachewiltz, permission by Mary de
Rachewiltz.
Figure 3. 2 ss 2008 Lionello Lanciotti, permission by Lionello Lanciotti. Figures 4. 2, 7. 1, and 7. 5 ss 2008 Ilse Fang, permission by Ilse Fang.
Figure 5. 1 ss 2008 Angela Jung Palandri, permission by Angela Jung Palandri.
xii list of figures
Figures 6. 1 and 6. 2 ss 2008 Diana Chang and June Chang Tung, permission by Diana Chang and June Chang Tung.
Figures 6. 4 and 8. 2 ss 2008 C. H. Kwock, permission by C. H. Kwock. Figures 10. 1, and 10. 4 ss 2008 P. H. Fang, permission by P. H. Fang.
For figures 2. 3, 2. 4, 9. 1, and 9. 2, see disclaimer in ''Notes on the Text,'' p. xxiv.
INTRODUCTION Pound is the inventor of Chinese poetry for our time.
I predict that the next century will see, even be dominated by, a dialogue between the U. S. and China in which Pound's poetry will take on an importance and weight not obvious at the moment: that not only has he woven a new wholeness, at any rate potential wholeness, out of European and American, but also of Chinese, elements.
Tom Scott2
No literary Wgure of the past century--in America or perhaps in any other Western country--is comparable to Ezra Pound (1885-1972) in the scope and depth of his exchange with China. To this day, scholars and students still Wnd it puzzling that this inXuential poet spent a lifetime incorporating Chinese lan- guage, literature, history, and philosophy into Anglo-American modernism.
A package of notes and manuscripts Pound received from the widow of the American orientalist Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908) in late 1913 Wrst opened his eyes to the Imagist strength of Japanese Noh drama, Chinese classic poetry, and the Chinese written character. His 1915 volume Cathay from Fenollosa's Chinese poetry notes paved the way for his transition to high modernism. It also earned him recognition as ''the inventor of Chinese poetry for our time. '' This Wrst success led to his inquiry into Confucianism. In Guillaume Pauthier's French version of the Confucian Four Books (Les quatre livres) he discovered a philoso- phy that would correct Western civilization. 3 Consequently, Confucius recurs again and again in Pound's long poem The Cantos. His Canto 13 is a eulogy of Confucius' respect for the individual. Cantos 52-71 juxtapose early Republican America with China from Confucius' ideal kings Yao and Shun to Qing emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng as a way to suggest the right forms of government. Cantos 85 and 86 pay tribute to the Confucian tenets found in Shu jing or the Book of History, and Cantos 98 and 99 to Kangxi's ''Sacred Edict. '' In the 1940s and early 1950s, Pound translated into English three of the Confucian Four Books and all 305 odes of the Confucian Book of Odes. 4
How well did Pound know Chinese? How did he go about rendering Chinese texts into English? He is known to have owned a set of Robert Morrison's
1 2 3
Chine (1846; rpt. Paris: Librairie Garnier Fre`res, 1910).
4
Ezra Pound, trans. , ''Confucius: The Unwobbling Pivot & The Great Digest,'' Pharos, 4 (Winter [1946] 1947); ''The Analects,'' Hudson Review, 3/1 (Spring 1950); The Classic Anthology DeWned by Confucius (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1954).
T. S. Eliot, introduction, Selected Poems of Ezra Pound (London: Faber and Faber, 1928), xvi. Tom Scott, ''The Poet as Scapegoat,'' Agenda, 7/2 (1969), 57.
Guillaume Pauthier, Confucius et Mencius: Les quatre livres de philosophie morale et politique de la
T. S. Eliot1
xiv introduction
multivolume Dictionary of the Chinese Language since 1914, carried a small Shanghai Commercial Press Chinese-English dictionary to the Disciplinary Training Center outside Pisa in 1945, and purchased a copy of Mathews' Chi- nese-English Dictionary around 1947. 5 Did he learn the Chinese language from dictionaries? Was he guided exclusively by eighteenth-to nineteenth-century orientalists' versions in his various Chinese projects?
Among the archival materials kept at the Beinecke Library of Yale University and the Lilly Library of Indiana University are over two hundred letters and postcards Pound received from his Chinese friends--F. T. Sung (1883-1940), Fengchi Yang (1908-70), Achilles Fang (1910-95), Veronica Huilan Sun (b. 1927), Carsun Chang (1886-1969), C. H. Kwock (b. 1920), Tze-chiang Chao (1913- c. 1985), David Wang (1931-77), and P. H. Fang (b. 1923). Did Pound seek guidance from any of them? Those who have written about Pound and China have failed to address this fundamental question. 6 No one was able to do so until a few years ago since the letters Pound wrote to the above and other Chinese were sealed or had not been found. 7
This book brings together 162 revealing letters between Pound and his Chinese friends, eighty-Wve of them newly opened up and none previously printed. Accompanied by my introductions and notes, these selected letters make available for the Wrst time the forgotten stories of Pound and his Chinese
5
See Robert Morrison, A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, in Three Parts (Macao: The Honorable East India Company Press, 1815); Zhang Tiemin, Chinese-English Dictionary (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1933); R. H. Mathews, Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary (Shanghai: China Inland Mission and Presbyterian Mission Press, 1931; rpt. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1944).
6
Blossoms from the East: The China Cantos of Ezra Pound (Orono, Me. : National Poetry Foundation,
1983); Zhaoming Qian, Orientalism and Modernism: The Legacy of China in Pound and Williams
(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995); Mary Paterson Cheadle, Ezra Pound's Confucian
Translations (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997); Ming Xie, Ezra Pound and the
Appropriation of Chinese Poetry (New York: Garland Publishing, 1999); and Feng Lan, Ezra Pound
and Confucianism (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005). Cheadle is the only critic to have
devoted some attention to Achilles Fang's impact on Pound. Nevertheless, relying on one side of
their correspondence Cheadle's discussion of Pound and Fang is unavoidably less than satisfactory.
This page intentionally left blank
Ezra Pound's Chinese Friends
Stories in Letters
edited and annotated by
ZHAOMING QIAN
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in
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Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc. , New York
ss Zhaoming Qian 2008.
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2008
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Data available
Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
Biddles Ltd. , King's Lynn, Norfolk
ISBN 978-0-19-923860-6 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
ss 2008 Previously unpublished letters and writings of Ezra Pound by courtesy of Mary de Rachewiltz and Omar S. Pound, used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation, agents.
Photos used by courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, and New Directions Publishing Corporation, agents.
ss 2008 Postscripts of Dorothy Pound by courtesy of Omar S. Pound.
ss 2008 Scenes from Ezra Pound's screen book by courtesy of Mary de Rachewiltz.
ss 2008 Letters and photographs of Carsun Chang by courtesy of Diana Chang and June
T. F. Chang Tung.
ss 2008 Letters and photographs of Tze-chiang Chao and C. H. Kwock by courtesy of C. H. Kwock.
ss 2008 Letters and photographs of Achilles Fang by courtesy of Ilse Fang.
ss 2008 Letters and photographs of P. H. Fang by courtesy of P. H. Fang.
ss 2008 Photograph of Angela Jung Palandri by courtesy of Angela Jung Palandri.
ss 2008 Letters and photograph of F. T. Sung by courtesy of Hongru Song.
ss 2008 Letters and photograph of Fengchi Yang by courtesy of Lionello Lanciotti.
ss 2008 Writing of William McNaughton by William McNaughton.
ss 2008 Compilation, introductions, annotations, translations, and additional editorial matter by Zhaoming Qian.
Grateful acknowledgment is given to New Directions Publishing Corporation for permission to use the following copyrighted works of Ezra Pound: Excerpts from Ezra Pound's Poetry and Prose: Contributions to Periodicals, copyright ss 1991 by the Trustees of the Ezra Pound Literary Property Trust; excerpts from The Cantos of Ezra Pound, copyright ss 1934, 1937, 1940, 1948, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1966, and 1968 by Ezra Pound, reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation; The Great Digest, The Unwobbling Pivot, The Analects, from Confucius, edited by Ezra Pound, translated by Ezra Pound, from Confucius, copyright ss 1947, 1950 by Ezra Pound, reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Book cover from Ezra Pound's Shih-Ching: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius appears courtesy of Harvard University Press, Copyright ss 1954, 1982 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
To Barry Ahearn, George Bornstein, and
Marjorie Perloff
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations ix List of Figures xi Introduction xiii Notes on the Text xxiii
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
7. 8. 9.
10.
F. T. Sung's China Plan for Pound 1 ''China is interesting, VERY''
Miss Tseng and the Seven Lakes Canto 9 ''Descendant of Kung and Thseng-Tsu''
Yang as Pound's Opponent and Collaborator 18 ''To sacrifice to a spirit not one's own is flattery''
Achilles Fang and Pound's Bilingual Confucius 40 ''All answers are in the FOUR BOOKS''
Pound as Miss Jung's Dissertation Adviser 88 ''One's opinions change''
Pound and Carsun Chang 96 ''Confucianism as Confucius had it''
William McNaughton's Memoir: ''What Pound and
Carsun Chang Talked About at St Elizabeths'' 105
Achilles Fang and Pound's Classic Anthology 107 ''The barbarians need the ODES''
Pound's Discovery of an Ancient Economist 161 ''Chao ought not to be wasted''
From Poetry to Politics 172 ''Wang's middle name not in Mathews''
P. H. Fang and the Naxi Rites in The Cantos 196 ''I have found your Muen Bpo & KA MA gyu''
viii contents
Appendix
Ezra Pound's Typescript for ''Preliminary Survey'' (1951)
207
Glossary 229 Index 235
General
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ACS autograph postcard signed
ALS autograph letter signed, followed by numeral indicating number of leaves
of the original, e. g. ALS-3 1/4 autograph letter signed consisting of three
leaves
ANS autograph note signed
TL typed letter unsigned, followed by numeral indicating number of leaves of the original, e. g. TL-2 1/4 typed letter unsigned consisting of two leaves
Libraries and Collections
AJP Private collection of Angela Jung Palandri, Eugene, Oregon
Beinecke Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University Brunnenburg Ezra Pound Library, Brunnenburg, Italy
HRHRC Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin Lilly Lilly Library, Indiana University
LL Private collection of Lionello Lanciotti, Rome, Italy PHF Private collection of P. H. Fang, Belmont, Massachusetts
Published Writings of Ezra Pound
Canto
LE Personae
Poetry and Prose SP
The Cantos (14th printing; New York: New Directions, 1998) (references are to canto and page number. )
Literary Essays, ed. T. S. Eliot (1954; New York: New Directions, 1968) Personae: The Shorter Poems, ed. Lea Baechler and A. Walton Litz (1926; rev. ed. New York: New Directions, 1990)
Ezra Pound's Poetry and Prose: Contributions to Periodicals, 10 vols. , ed. Lea Baechler et al. (New York: Garland, 1991)
Selected Prose, 1909-1965, ed. William Cookson (New York: New Directions, 1973)
Published Translations of Ezra Pound
Classic Anthology Shih-Ching: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius (1954; Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1982)
Confucius Confucius: The Great Digest, The Unwobbling Pivot, The Analects (1951; New York: New Directions, 1969)
x list of abbreviations Published Letters of Ezra Pound
Letters in Captivity Pound/Japan Pound/Theobald
Ezra and Dorothy Pound: Letters in Captivity, 1945-1946, ed. Omar Pound and Robert Spoo (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)
Ezra Pound and Japan: Letters and Essays, ed. Sanehide Kodama (Redding Ridge, Conn. : Black Swan, 1987)
Letters of Ezra Pound and John Theobald, ed. Donald Pearce and Herbert Schneidau (Redding Ridge, Conn. : Black Swan, 1984)
Works by Others
Gallup Donald Gallup, Ezra Pound: A Bibliography (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983)
Legge James Legge, The Chinese Classics, 7 vols. (1865; Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960)
Mathews R. H. Mathews, Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary (1931; Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1944)
Terrell Carroll F. Terrell, A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980)
1. 1 1. 2 2. 1 2. 2
2. 3 2. 4 3. 1 3. 2 3. 3 4. 1 4. 2 5. 1 5. 2 6. 1 6. 2 6. 3 6. 4 7. 1 7. 2 7. 3 7. 4 7. 5 8. 1 8. 2 9. 1 9. 2
10. 1 10. 2 10. 3 10. 4
LIST OF FIGURES
F. T. Sung, 1914 4 EP in London, 1916 5 ''Night Rain'' from EP's screen book 12 ''Autumn Moon,'' ''Evening Bell,'' ''Sailboats Returning''
from EP's screen book 12 Pao Swen Tseng, 1928 13 Pao Swen Tseng and Yueh-nung Tseng, 1955 14 EP in Rome, c. 1941 20 Fengchi Yang, c. 1960 21 Letter 10 22 Sample of the Tang Stone-Classics 43 Achilles Fang, 1951 44 Angela Jung, 1952 91 EP at Sant'Ambrogio, 1967 92 Carsun Chang, 1953 98 Carsun Chang, 1957 99 Autographs of EP and Chang, 1953 100 C. H. Kwock and Louis Armstrong, 1958 101 Achilles Fang, 1953 110 EP's sound key to Ode 167 111 EP's seal text of Ode 167 112 Cover of Classic Anthology 113 Achilles and Ilse Fang, 1957 114 EP on the St. Elizabeths lawn, 1957 163 Tze-chiang Chao, 1935 164 David Wang, c. 1955 174 David Wang, c. 1955 174 ''By the temple pool'' 200 P. H. and Josephine Fang with Zhaoming Qian, 2003 200 EP's note to P. H. Fang 201 The Fangs to EP and DP, 1959 202
Figures 1. 2, 3. 1, 3. 3, 4. 1, 5. 2, 6. 3, 7. 2, 7. 3, 8. 1, and 10. 3 ss 2008 Mary de Rachewiltz
and Omar Pound, permission by New Directions Publishing Corporation, agents.
Figure 1. 1 ss 2008 Hongru Song, permission by Hongru Song.
Figures 2. 1 and 2. 2 ss 2008 Mary de Rachewiltz, permission by Mary de
Rachewiltz.
Figure 3. 2 ss 2008 Lionello Lanciotti, permission by Lionello Lanciotti. Figures 4. 2, 7. 1, and 7. 5 ss 2008 Ilse Fang, permission by Ilse Fang.
Figure 5. 1 ss 2008 Angela Jung Palandri, permission by Angela Jung Palandri.
xii list of figures
Figures 6. 1 and 6. 2 ss 2008 Diana Chang and June Chang Tung, permission by Diana Chang and June Chang Tung.
Figures 6. 4 and 8. 2 ss 2008 C. H. Kwock, permission by C. H. Kwock. Figures 10. 1, and 10. 4 ss 2008 P. H. Fang, permission by P. H. Fang.
For figures 2. 3, 2. 4, 9. 1, and 9. 2, see disclaimer in ''Notes on the Text,'' p. xxiv.
INTRODUCTION Pound is the inventor of Chinese poetry for our time.
I predict that the next century will see, even be dominated by, a dialogue between the U. S. and China in which Pound's poetry will take on an importance and weight not obvious at the moment: that not only has he woven a new wholeness, at any rate potential wholeness, out of European and American, but also of Chinese, elements.
Tom Scott2
No literary Wgure of the past century--in America or perhaps in any other Western country--is comparable to Ezra Pound (1885-1972) in the scope and depth of his exchange with China. To this day, scholars and students still Wnd it puzzling that this inXuential poet spent a lifetime incorporating Chinese lan- guage, literature, history, and philosophy into Anglo-American modernism.
A package of notes and manuscripts Pound received from the widow of the American orientalist Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908) in late 1913 Wrst opened his eyes to the Imagist strength of Japanese Noh drama, Chinese classic poetry, and the Chinese written character. His 1915 volume Cathay from Fenollosa's Chinese poetry notes paved the way for his transition to high modernism. It also earned him recognition as ''the inventor of Chinese poetry for our time. '' This Wrst success led to his inquiry into Confucianism. In Guillaume Pauthier's French version of the Confucian Four Books (Les quatre livres) he discovered a philoso- phy that would correct Western civilization. 3 Consequently, Confucius recurs again and again in Pound's long poem The Cantos. His Canto 13 is a eulogy of Confucius' respect for the individual. Cantos 52-71 juxtapose early Republican America with China from Confucius' ideal kings Yao and Shun to Qing emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng as a way to suggest the right forms of government. Cantos 85 and 86 pay tribute to the Confucian tenets found in Shu jing or the Book of History, and Cantos 98 and 99 to Kangxi's ''Sacred Edict. '' In the 1940s and early 1950s, Pound translated into English three of the Confucian Four Books and all 305 odes of the Confucian Book of Odes. 4
How well did Pound know Chinese? How did he go about rendering Chinese texts into English? He is known to have owned a set of Robert Morrison's
1 2 3
Chine (1846; rpt. Paris: Librairie Garnier Fre`res, 1910).
4
Ezra Pound, trans. , ''Confucius: The Unwobbling Pivot & The Great Digest,'' Pharos, 4 (Winter [1946] 1947); ''The Analects,'' Hudson Review, 3/1 (Spring 1950); The Classic Anthology DeWned by Confucius (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1954).
T. S. Eliot, introduction, Selected Poems of Ezra Pound (London: Faber and Faber, 1928), xvi. Tom Scott, ''The Poet as Scapegoat,'' Agenda, 7/2 (1969), 57.
Guillaume Pauthier, Confucius et Mencius: Les quatre livres de philosophie morale et politique de la
T. S. Eliot1
xiv introduction
multivolume Dictionary of the Chinese Language since 1914, carried a small Shanghai Commercial Press Chinese-English dictionary to the Disciplinary Training Center outside Pisa in 1945, and purchased a copy of Mathews' Chi- nese-English Dictionary around 1947. 5 Did he learn the Chinese language from dictionaries? Was he guided exclusively by eighteenth-to nineteenth-century orientalists' versions in his various Chinese projects?
Fang by courtesy of P. H. Fang.
ss 2008 Photograph of Angela Jung Palandri by courtesy of Angela Jung Palandri.
ss 2008 Letters and photograph of F. T. Sung by courtesy of Hongru Song.
ss 2008 Letters and photograph of Fengchi Yang by courtesy of Lionello Lanciotti.
ss 2008 Writing of William McNaughton by William McNaughton.
ss 2008 Compilation, introductions, annotations, translations, and additional editorial matter by Zhaoming Qian.
Grateful acknowledgment is given to New Directions Publishing Corporation for permission to use the following copyrighted works of Ezra Pound: Excerpts from Ezra Pound's Poetry and Prose: Contributions to Periodicals, copyright ss 1991 by the Trustees of the Ezra Pound Literary Property Trust; excerpts from The Cantos of Ezra Pound, copyright ss 1934, 1937, 1940, 1948, 1956, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1966, and 1968 by Ezra Pound, reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation; The Great Digest, The Unwobbling Pivot, The Analects, from Confucius, edited by Ezra Pound, translated by Ezra Pound, from Confucius, copyright ss 1947, 1950 by Ezra Pound, reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Book cover from Ezra Pound's Shih-Ching: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius appears courtesy of Harvard University Press, Copyright ss 1954, 1982 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
To Barry Ahearn, George Bornstein, and
Marjorie Perloff
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations ix List of Figures xi Introduction xiii Notes on the Text xxiii
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
7. 8. 9.
10.
F. T. Sung's China Plan for Pound 1 ''China is interesting, VERY''
Miss Tseng and the Seven Lakes Canto 9 ''Descendant of Kung and Thseng-Tsu''
Yang as Pound's Opponent and Collaborator 18 ''To sacrifice to a spirit not one's own is flattery''
Achilles Fang and Pound's Bilingual Confucius 40 ''All answers are in the FOUR BOOKS''
Pound as Miss Jung's Dissertation Adviser 88 ''One's opinions change''
Pound and Carsun Chang 96 ''Confucianism as Confucius had it''
William McNaughton's Memoir: ''What Pound and
Carsun Chang Talked About at St Elizabeths'' 105
Achilles Fang and Pound's Classic Anthology 107 ''The barbarians need the ODES''
Pound's Discovery of an Ancient Economist 161 ''Chao ought not to be wasted''
From Poetry to Politics 172 ''Wang's middle name not in Mathews''
P. H. Fang and the Naxi Rites in The Cantos 196 ''I have found your Muen Bpo & KA MA gyu''
viii contents
Appendix
Ezra Pound's Typescript for ''Preliminary Survey'' (1951)
207
Glossary 229 Index 235
General
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ACS autograph postcard signed
ALS autograph letter signed, followed by numeral indicating number of leaves
of the original, e. g. ALS-3 1/4 autograph letter signed consisting of three
leaves
ANS autograph note signed
TL typed letter unsigned, followed by numeral indicating number of leaves of the original, e. g. TL-2 1/4 typed letter unsigned consisting of two leaves
Libraries and Collections
AJP Private collection of Angela Jung Palandri, Eugene, Oregon
Beinecke Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University Brunnenburg Ezra Pound Library, Brunnenburg, Italy
HRHRC Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin Lilly Lilly Library, Indiana University
LL Private collection of Lionello Lanciotti, Rome, Italy PHF Private collection of P. H. Fang, Belmont, Massachusetts
Published Writings of Ezra Pound
Canto
LE Personae
Poetry and Prose SP
The Cantos (14th printing; New York: New Directions, 1998) (references are to canto and page number. )
Literary Essays, ed. T. S. Eliot (1954; New York: New Directions, 1968) Personae: The Shorter Poems, ed. Lea Baechler and A. Walton Litz (1926; rev. ed. New York: New Directions, 1990)
Ezra Pound's Poetry and Prose: Contributions to Periodicals, 10 vols. , ed. Lea Baechler et al. (New York: Garland, 1991)
Selected Prose, 1909-1965, ed. William Cookson (New York: New Directions, 1973)
Published Translations of Ezra Pound
Classic Anthology Shih-Ching: The Classic Anthology Defined by Confucius (1954; Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1982)
Confucius Confucius: The Great Digest, The Unwobbling Pivot, The Analects (1951; New York: New Directions, 1969)
x list of abbreviations Published Letters of Ezra Pound
Letters in Captivity Pound/Japan Pound/Theobald
Ezra and Dorothy Pound: Letters in Captivity, 1945-1946, ed. Omar Pound and Robert Spoo (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)
Ezra Pound and Japan: Letters and Essays, ed. Sanehide Kodama (Redding Ridge, Conn. : Black Swan, 1987)
Letters of Ezra Pound and John Theobald, ed. Donald Pearce and Herbert Schneidau (Redding Ridge, Conn. : Black Swan, 1984)
Works by Others
Gallup Donald Gallup, Ezra Pound: A Bibliography (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983)
Legge James Legge, The Chinese Classics, 7 vols. (1865; Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960)
Mathews R. H. Mathews, Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary (1931; Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1944)
Terrell Carroll F. Terrell, A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980)
1. 1 1. 2 2. 1 2. 2
2. 3 2. 4 3. 1 3. 2 3. 3 4. 1 4. 2 5. 1 5. 2 6. 1 6. 2 6. 3 6. 4 7. 1 7. 2 7. 3 7. 4 7. 5 8. 1 8. 2 9. 1 9. 2
10. 1 10. 2 10. 3 10. 4
LIST OF FIGURES
F. T. Sung, 1914 4 EP in London, 1916 5 ''Night Rain'' from EP's screen book 12 ''Autumn Moon,'' ''Evening Bell,'' ''Sailboats Returning''
from EP's screen book 12 Pao Swen Tseng, 1928 13 Pao Swen Tseng and Yueh-nung Tseng, 1955 14 EP in Rome, c. 1941 20 Fengchi Yang, c. 1960 21 Letter 10 22 Sample of the Tang Stone-Classics 43 Achilles Fang, 1951 44 Angela Jung, 1952 91 EP at Sant'Ambrogio, 1967 92 Carsun Chang, 1953 98 Carsun Chang, 1957 99 Autographs of EP and Chang, 1953 100 C. H. Kwock and Louis Armstrong, 1958 101 Achilles Fang, 1953 110 EP's sound key to Ode 167 111 EP's seal text of Ode 167 112 Cover of Classic Anthology 113 Achilles and Ilse Fang, 1957 114 EP on the St. Elizabeths lawn, 1957 163 Tze-chiang Chao, 1935 164 David Wang, c. 1955 174 David Wang, c. 1955 174 ''By the temple pool'' 200 P. H. and Josephine Fang with Zhaoming Qian, 2003 200 EP's note to P. H. Fang 201 The Fangs to EP and DP, 1959 202
Figures 1. 2, 3. 1, 3. 3, 4. 1, 5. 2, 6. 3, 7. 2, 7. 3, 8. 1, and 10. 3 ss 2008 Mary de Rachewiltz
and Omar Pound, permission by New Directions Publishing Corporation, agents.
Figure 1. 1 ss 2008 Hongru Song, permission by Hongru Song.
Figures 2. 1 and 2. 2 ss 2008 Mary de Rachewiltz, permission by Mary de
Rachewiltz.
Figure 3. 2 ss 2008 Lionello Lanciotti, permission by Lionello Lanciotti. Figures 4. 2, 7. 1, and 7. 5 ss 2008 Ilse Fang, permission by Ilse Fang.
Figure 5. 1 ss 2008 Angela Jung Palandri, permission by Angela Jung Palandri.
xii list of figures
Figures 6. 1 and 6. 2 ss 2008 Diana Chang and June Chang Tung, permission by Diana Chang and June Chang Tung.
Figures 6. 4 and 8. 2 ss 2008 C. H. Kwock, permission by C. H. Kwock. Figures 10. 1, and 10. 4 ss 2008 P. H. Fang, permission by P. H. Fang.
For figures 2. 3, 2. 4, 9. 1, and 9. 2, see disclaimer in ''Notes on the Text,'' p. xxiv.
INTRODUCTION Pound is the inventor of Chinese poetry for our time.
I predict that the next century will see, even be dominated by, a dialogue between the U. S. and China in which Pound's poetry will take on an importance and weight not obvious at the moment: that not only has he woven a new wholeness, at any rate potential wholeness, out of European and American, but also of Chinese, elements.
Tom Scott2
No literary Wgure of the past century--in America or perhaps in any other Western country--is comparable to Ezra Pound (1885-1972) in the scope and depth of his exchange with China. To this day, scholars and students still Wnd it puzzling that this inXuential poet spent a lifetime incorporating Chinese lan- guage, literature, history, and philosophy into Anglo-American modernism.
A package of notes and manuscripts Pound received from the widow of the American orientalist Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908) in late 1913 Wrst opened his eyes to the Imagist strength of Japanese Noh drama, Chinese classic poetry, and the Chinese written character. His 1915 volume Cathay from Fenollosa's Chinese poetry notes paved the way for his transition to high modernism. It also earned him recognition as ''the inventor of Chinese poetry for our time. '' This Wrst success led to his inquiry into Confucianism. In Guillaume Pauthier's French version of the Confucian Four Books (Les quatre livres) he discovered a philoso- phy that would correct Western civilization. 3 Consequently, Confucius recurs again and again in Pound's long poem The Cantos. His Canto 13 is a eulogy of Confucius' respect for the individual. Cantos 52-71 juxtapose early Republican America with China from Confucius' ideal kings Yao and Shun to Qing emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng as a way to suggest the right forms of government. Cantos 85 and 86 pay tribute to the Confucian tenets found in Shu jing or the Book of History, and Cantos 98 and 99 to Kangxi's ''Sacred Edict. '' In the 1940s and early 1950s, Pound translated into English three of the Confucian Four Books and all 305 odes of the Confucian Book of Odes. 4
How well did Pound know Chinese? How did he go about rendering Chinese texts into English? He is known to have owned a set of Robert Morrison's
1 2 3
Chine (1846; rpt. Paris: Librairie Garnier Fre`res, 1910).
4
Ezra Pound, trans. , ''Confucius: The Unwobbling Pivot & The Great Digest,'' Pharos, 4 (Winter [1946] 1947); ''The Analects,'' Hudson Review, 3/1 (Spring 1950); The Classic Anthology DeWned by Confucius (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1954).
T. S. Eliot, introduction, Selected Poems of Ezra Pound (London: Faber and Faber, 1928), xvi. Tom Scott, ''The Poet as Scapegoat,'' Agenda, 7/2 (1969), 57.
Guillaume Pauthier, Confucius et Mencius: Les quatre livres de philosophie morale et politique de la
T. S. Eliot1
xiv introduction
multivolume Dictionary of the Chinese Language since 1914, carried a small Shanghai Commercial Press Chinese-English dictionary to the Disciplinary Training Center outside Pisa in 1945, and purchased a copy of Mathews' Chi- nese-English Dictionary around 1947. 5 Did he learn the Chinese language from dictionaries? Was he guided exclusively by eighteenth-to nineteenth-century orientalists' versions in his various Chinese projects?
Among the archival materials kept at the Beinecke Library of Yale University and the Lilly Library of Indiana University are over two hundred letters and postcards Pound received from his Chinese friends--F. T. Sung (1883-1940), Fengchi Yang (1908-70), Achilles Fang (1910-95), Veronica Huilan Sun (b. 1927), Carsun Chang (1886-1969), C. H. Kwock (b. 1920), Tze-chiang Chao (1913- c. 1985), David Wang (1931-77), and P. H. Fang (b. 1923). Did Pound seek guidance from any of them? Those who have written about Pound and China have failed to address this fundamental question. 6 No one was able to do so until a few years ago since the letters Pound wrote to the above and other Chinese were sealed or had not been found. 7
This book brings together 162 revealing letters between Pound and his Chinese friends, eighty-Wve of them newly opened up and none previously printed. Accompanied by my introductions and notes, these selected letters make available for the Wrst time the forgotten stories of Pound and his Chinese
5
See Robert Morrison, A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, in Three Parts (Macao: The Honorable East India Company Press, 1815); Zhang Tiemin, Chinese-English Dictionary (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1933); R. H. Mathews, Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary (Shanghai: China Inland Mission and Presbyterian Mission Press, 1931; rpt. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1944).
6
Blossoms from the East: The China Cantos of Ezra Pound (Orono, Me. : National Poetry Foundation,
1983); Zhaoming Qian, Orientalism and Modernism: The Legacy of China in Pound and Williams
(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995); Mary Paterson Cheadle, Ezra Pound's Confucian
Translations (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997); Ming Xie, Ezra Pound and the
Appropriation of Chinese Poetry (New York: Garland Publishing, 1999); and Feng Lan, Ezra Pound
and Confucianism (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005). Cheadle is the only critic to have
devoted some attention to Achilles Fang's impact on Pound. Nevertheless, relying on one side of
their correspondence Cheadle's discussion of Pound and Fang is unavoidably less than satisfactory.
