No More Learning

This Wrst meeting between Pound and Achilles Fang was immediately fol- lowed by vigorous exchanges of letters. The extant Pound-Achilles Fang cor- respondence consists of some 214 items, 108 from Pound to Fang and 106 from Fang to Pound. Considering their massiveness and importance I have given these letters two chapters: the letters of 1950-2 are reproduced in this chapter, and those of 1952-8 are presented in Chapter 7.
Many of the early Pound-Fang letters concern the Stone-Classics edition of The Great Digest & The Unwobbling Pivot. They reveal that Fang contributed more than just ''A Note on the Stone-Classics'' (Confucius, 11-15), which Pound found ''very well written'' (Letter 46). During their Wrst meeting, Fang handed over to Pound a list of recommended changes in the romanization of Chinese names. Pound accepted them, conceding that they would ''Wt without ruining sonor- ity'' (Letter 27). As the edition was more complex than any other Pound books he had handled, Laughlin invited Fang to review the proofs, not only to ''mark in pencil the changes in spelling'' but also to ''examine the proofs of the facing Chinese characters and see whether they were all right, and whether they were lined up properly'' (Beinecke). Fang graciously complied with the request, a relief for both Laughlin and Pound.
The letters tell us a great deal about Pound's Confucian studies at St Elizabeths. As a fervent book collector, Fang took pleasure in sharing his own copies of Chinese classics with Pound. (Before his death Fang willed his collection to Beijing University, with an initial shipment of some 5,000 volumes. ) Among those texts he sent Pound was Shu jing (Book of History) in the original, a source of Rock-Drill (1955), and at Pound's request Fang gave him an account of the ''Thirteen Classics. '' After reading through some of these volumes, Pound
42 a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius
came to a conclusion, which he repeated again and again in subsequent letters: ''All the answers are in the FOUR BOOKS. ''
As a scholar Fang delighted in discussing Confucian terminologies with Pound. The two usually disagreed with each other on readings of Confucius and Mencius. Their debate on one issue could continue for weeks, even months. Occasionally Pound's interpretation would strike Fang as brilliant. One such example is Pound's deWnition of the Confucian word zhi ? , which prompted Fang to say: ''your interpretation of ? seems to solve a number of knotty problems in Kung's book'' (Letter 30). The exchanges between Pound and Fang on concepts such as jing ? (respect) and ''four TUAN'' ? ? (four virtuous beginnings of human nature) may appear tedious, but they have a bearing on Pound's late cantos. When read in conjunction with Letters 42, 44, and 58, Pound's uses of the ''four TUAN'' in Cantos 85, 89, and 99 recall and intensify his earlier references to the Confucian belief in ren ? or virtuous human nature.
As a dictionary compiler, Fang was able to answer Pound's trying queries about Chinese dictionaries, evaluating in speciWc terms their respective strengths and weaknesses. From the beginning Pound surprised Fang with his insight into the reorganization (in the seventeenth century) of Chinese diction- aries from a 540-root (radical) system to a 214-root system. For him the change was ''one of [the] greatest intellectual acts in all history'' (Letter 29). At Pound's urging, Fang investigated the development of Chinese dictionaries from Shuo- wen (100-21 ad) to Kangxi (1716), resulting in a working bibliography that illuminates the organizational changes (Letter 57).
Pound was of course curious to know what Fang might think of Fenollosa's essay ''re/ the chinkese langwidG OR ideogram which is fer somethings the most precise and, in fact, only satisfactory medium for making certain statements'' (Letter 37). His own view on the Fenollosan approach had under- gone some noticeable transformation. With Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary he was able to study Chinese sound, even its tone. He would rhyme Chinese syllables with English syllables in Thrones (1959). In one of his letters to Fang, he wrote: ''For years I never made ANY attempt to hitch ANY sound to the ideograms/content with the meaning and the visual form'' (Letter 56).
The exchanges between Pound and Fang in 1950-2 encouraged them to continue their work together. During that period Pound was increasingly frustrated by his failed attempts to bring out an edition of the Confucian Odes with a Chinese sound key and a Chinese seal text. Fang oVered to assist him in this complex project. The story of how the Odes project was going to strain their friendship will be uncovered in their late correspondence.
? Fig. 4. 1. Sample of the Tang Stone-Classics. (Lilly)
? Fig. 4. 2. Achilles Fang with his daughter Madeleine, 1951. (Ilse Fang)
But very necessary. ancient awareness
& practice. --------------
as to excitement, Dr Fang, I had some.
very cordially yours & hoping see you soon.
a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius 45
24 Fang to EP (ALS-2; Lilly)
Dear Dr Pound,
Many thanks for your kind letter. Now I can proceed and do that short note
on Stone Classics. K'ienlung's edict does not contain anything very exciting; should I succeed in turning out a fairly readable version, I shall submit it for your inspection.
I hope to come to Washington around Christmas and have written to that eVect to the Superintendent.
Yours respectfully Achilles Fang
your kind letter: EP's message delivered by James Laughlin on 25 November 1950: ''I sent your letter down to him and he replies as follows: 'All glory to the nobl Fang/whom shall be DEEElighted to see at any time gawd letZim git here. It is the T'ang text we are using. ' He also likes very much the little snapshot you sent of the stones, and I hope we may keep this, and have it enlarged and use it for some of our publicity'' (Beinecke).
short note: ''A Note on the Stone-Classics'' (Confucius, 11-15).
K'ienlung's edict: for Qianlong's preface to the Qing Stone-Classics, see Fang's version in Confucius,
13-15. Emperor Qianlong (1711-99) succeeded Yongzheng (Yong Tching of Canto 61) in 1736, who succeeded Kangxi (Kang Hi of Canto 60) in 1723.
25 EP to Fang (ALS-1; Beinecke)
EP
23 Boylston Hall Harvard College Cambridge, Mass. Nov. 26, 1950
S. Eliz DC 2 Dec [1950]
46 a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius
26 EP to Fang (ALS-2; Beinecke)
S. Elizabeths Hospital Wash D. C. [5 December 1950]
Dear Dr Fang,
Thanks so much for the foto.
I shall be delighted to see you if you manage to get to Washington.
Visiting hours any day from 1-4 P. M. but please write to Superintendent,
S. Eliz, now & your name will then be on the visiting list and no time lost after your arrival.
It is the T'ang lettering, rubbings, but text as in Legge & opinions as per Yong Ching or Sacred Edict of Kang H(s)i.
gratefully yours E. P.
the foto: see Letter 24 n.
Legge: see Letter 22 n.
Yong Ching or Sacred Edict of Kang H(s)i: F. W. Baller, ed. , Sacred Edict (Shanghai: China Inland Mission,
1907), with Emperor Yongzheng's literary and Salt Commissioner Wang Youpu's colloquial expan- sions of Kangxi's Edict and Baller's English translation of the latter, source of Cantos 98-9.
27 EP to Fang (TL-1; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [30 December 1950]
to FANG, Achilles
strictly anonymous communication.
Thanks very much.
Also the corrections will Wt without ruining sonority.
**
Probably no need to send the Stilwell and other book if you give me the titles,
they can probably be got from library. **
BUT the next question is: which of the OTHER 13 classics can be got at? Neither Hawley nor Orientalia [Hummel] have mentioned any of them in their catalogues. The Four, the Odes, Spr/ and Aut, the Shu/yes, got 'em. Also Li Ki, Couvreur. (Hummel sez call it LEE GEE)
What else can a man read? i. e. GET the original texts of? **
? a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius 47
Meant to say that Giles ''Strange Tales,'' one of the few evidences of civilized sinology. Fellow named Orr, or Ogg or something did decent trans/ of the Shu, as far as I can remember.
and take tranquility to feed my breath
? the italians say: e` paciWco [it's obvious]
? ? when a thing is acceptable without discussion dog's man too active
Stilwell: The Stilwell Papers, ed. Theodore White (New York: Sloane Associates, 1948). During World War II Joseph W. Stilwell (1883-1946) was US chief of the joint staV in the China-Burma-India war zone.
13 classics: Book of Odes, Book of History, Book of Changes, Book of Rites, Gongyang's Commentary, Guliang's Commentary, Zuo's Commentary, Rites of Zhou, Records of Rites, Book on Filial Piety, Analects, Erya, and Mencius. For reference to ''the 13 classics,'' see Fang's version of Qianlong's preface (Confucius, 15).
[Hummel]: Arthur William Hummel (1884-1975), director of the Library of Congress Orientalia Division (1928-54).
''Strange Tales'': Herbert A. Giles (1845-1935), Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1916), a version of Liaozhai zhiyi by Pu Songling (1640-1715).
? : see Letter 28.
28 Fang to EP (TLS-4; Lilly)
Dear Mr Pound,
Thank you ever so much for your two ''anonymous communications. '' As
Mrs Pound might have conveyed to you how I enjoyed meeting you, ''every minute of it'' (as people in this country would say), I do not repeat myself here. Sometimes it's a pity that one remains a heathen, for one cannot draw upon the saying, ''The Lord has been good to me. ''
What edition of the Shu [Book of History] have you got? I have here a copy of Legge, pirated, exactly identical with the Four Books you have: Chinese text, notes, etc. If you are interested in it, I shall be glad to mail it to you.
I believe Couvreur's Li Ki and Tso Tchouan (Tso's commentary on Spring and Autumn) are in the library there.
Li Ki may be considered as a Reallexikon or encyclopedia of ancient learning, while Tso Tchouan (anglice: Tso Chuan) is a model for later historians, who have a penchant for the anecdotal.
But the liber librorum [book of books] is the Shu. It is not so dull as most ignoramuses think but often very lively. And it has direct bearing on Kung and Meng [Mencius].
Legge's translation of the Shu is, it is humbly submitted, comparable to Giles' Strange Tales. Both the Presbyterian missionary and the British consul are heavy
[Cambridge, Mass. ] January 3, 1951
48 a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius
in style; so are the Shu and the Liao Chai Chih I [Strange Tales]. I mean, Legge's Shu is not bad at all.
As soon as you give me word, I shall mail the book post-haste. (A friend of mine here has a copy of Liao Chai Chih I; do you like to have it? He is willing to part with his duplicate copy. )
I wonder if you would like to read Edouard Chavannes' Les me ? moires historiques de Se ? -ma Ts'ien: a readable translation of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Shih Ki, which very often reads like Herodotus. By the way, Ssu-ma Ch'ien has served as a model for most of the best prosateurs of China and Japan (and Korea and Annam). The last chapter in the last volume (Vol. 5) contains Kung's biography. (Chavannes' book is not complete; of the original 130 chapters he translated about half. )
Now I can see where you got that chen, circumXex. It is the mistake of Tsang's dictionary. The fact is, chen and che^n do not make any diVerence; both are pronounced dj n. The circumXex is meant to indicate that e is not pro- nounced e as in end but something like u in (American and not British) under. The proofreading of Tsang's book is at fault: e, when not in diphthongs, should have been made uniformly either e^ or e.
Hope Fenollosa's ''East and West'' was not dreary reading. Tomorrow I am sending Williams' dictionary, which has the good point, inter alia, of distin- guishing between k and ch.
Yours respectfully [signed] Achilles Fang
Thank you for the new address of Peter Russell.
Very sorry to have caused you to write on Paige's editorship of Letters. Mr Horton might have spared you the pain by simply ignoring what I had to gabble out of sheer inadvertency. However, I am glad to get another anonymous communication. (When I see Macleish, I shall tell him that you had no hand in the editing of that book. May I show him your letter? I will not undertake anything rash without your permission, of course. )
I wonder if
And they worked out the Y-king or changes to guess from (Canto LIII p. 12)
could be revised to
And he etc etc
or to Wen Wang etc etc (for Wen Wang see p. 11),
for I should like to use the (revised) passage as motto for my Pisan-explication. De Mailla 1. 239-240 (s. v. 1142 av. Chr. ) has:
Ouen-ouang (Wen-wang ? ? ) resta trois ans dans les prisons de Yeou-ly (Yu-li ? ? ): [ . . . ]
? ? ? ? ? ? e
a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius 49
Doesn't this describe E. P in Pisan?
(By the way, Wen-wang was thrown into prison by the last king of the Yin-- also called Shang--dynasty, Cheou-sin (p. 12, i. e. Shou-sin ? ? ), who saw, and correctly, his Nemesis in this amiable man. )
A propos of ? (at the beginning of the Analects translation in Hudson Review and at the end of Canto LIX, London ed. ), pronounced king (k unaspirated) or ching (Mandarin, which turns k and k' followed by i or u ? into ch and ch', e. g. Hummel's LEE GEE). [ . . . ]
Speaking of the term ? , Chu Hi once said:
My teacher Ch'eng I-ch'uan was the Wrst to elucidate this term ad- equately. In recent years Ch'eng Sha-sui would refute his view, saying that ancient sages never spoke of the term ?
in isolation but always spoke of respecting one's parents, respecting one's sovereign, or respecting one's elders (? ? , j? , j? ), the object being always attached to the verb. But this doesn't make sense. The sage (Confucius? ) spoke of ? ? ? ? [cultivate oneself and be respectful], ? ? ? ? [be respectful and no fault] and ? ? ? ? [be respectful and advance daily]. Do not these instances prove that the term was used unattached? If, for argument's sake, we are to practise ''respect'' when we have parents, a sovereign, or elders, then should we be disrespectful when they are not about? . . .
---------
(By the way, will you please drop ''respectfully'' when you write to me; for
you are an ''elder'' ? to me. ) ---------
Isn't it remarkable that [Leo] Tolstoi should say ''Simply, without any relation to anything deWnite''?
---------
Do you suppose the term ? has any relation to reverentia in Maxima debetur puero reverentia [The greatest respect is owed to the boy]
(I'm quoting from Juvenal and not from Thackeray's The Newcomes)? or to And Kung said
''Respect a child's faculties (Canto XIII p. 59)
----------
Karlgren (Analytical Dictionary of Chinese and Sino-Japanese, Paris 1923, p. 138, no. 396), s. v. ? :
The seal shows this to contain, besides ? to beat, not kou ? but ? and ? :
to ? speak ? nicely (cf. ? , ? ).
----------
By the way, Karlgren, no. 929, analyses your character ? into ''to ? roast ? dog's ? meat. '' Speaking of dogs, I was a bit amused to notice, near Hartford, the sign-board ''Uncle Ezra's Dog Farm,'' which forcibly reminded me of Congress Heights.
? ? ? 50 a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius
the Four Books you have: James Legge, The Four Books (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1923). Couvreur's Li Ki and Tso Tchouan: Se ? raphin Couvreur (1835-1919), Li Ki (Ho Kien Fu: Mission
catholique, 1913) and Tch'ouen ts'iou et Tso-tchouan (Ho Kien Fu: Mission catholique, 1914). Giles' Strange Tales: see Letter 27 n.
Ssu-ma Ch'ien: see Glossary on Sima Qian.
Tsang's dictionary: O. Z. Tsang, A Complete Chinese-English Dictionary (Shanghai: Lin Nan Middle
School, 1920). EP's unWnished essay ''Preliminary Survey'' (see Appendix) is based on Tsang's
dictionary. See Letter 30 n.
''East and West'': Ernest Fenollosa (see Glossary), East and West: The Discovery of America and Other
Poems (1893; New York: Crowell and Co. , 1936).
Williams' dictionary: Samuel Wells Williams, Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1950). Peter Russell: see Letter 91 n.
Paige: Douglas Duncan Paige (b. 1924) interviewed EP and edited Selected Letters, 1907-1941 (1950)
while teaching at Wellesley College.
Horton: see Glossary on Horton, T. David.
MacLeish: see Glossary on MacLeish, Archibald.
De Mailla: see Glossary on De Mailla, Joseph-Anne-Marie de Moyriac.
Wen-wang: see Glossary on Wen, King.
? : jing; cf. Confucius, 193: ''? respect for the kind of intelligence that enables grass seed to grow grass; the
cherry-stone to make cherries. '' See also Cantos 85/575 and 98/711 where ? occurs without an
object attached.
Ch'eng I-ch'uan: Cheng Yichuan (1033-1107), cofounder with Zhu Xi (see Glossary) of the Cheng-
Zhu school of Confucian ethics.
Juvenal: Roman poet Juvenal (c. 55-127 ad), Satires 14. 47.
Thackeray's The Newcomes: William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63), The Newcomes (1853-5). Karlgren: see Glossary on Karlgren, Bernhard.
29 EP to Fang (TL-2; Beinecke)
[St Elizabeths Hospital] [Washington, DC] [5 January 1951]
hnBL FANG
kindly NOT show letter to M[a]cLeish, but convey comfort ANonymously. Ez/ haz CHOU; ideogram, latin and frog [French]/ Couvreur also Legge
english. HERE
Li Ki in Rapallo. no need or desire for it in D. C. seeking CHINESE texts not
yet chewed thru.
Young Igor <i. e. my son-in-law's kid brother> sends half dozen proverbs in
his last letter.
Don't much want translations unless I can get the original at the same time. How can I tell what the style is if I have only the trans/? ?
Fenollosa's notes interesting, and HIS ''style'' OF the period.
***
no objection to hnBL Fang misquoting or improving ''they'' to ''he'' re the
I CHING (or King) but I had in mind the successive returns, and wasn't setting
a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius 51
up to be Ouen-ouang [King Wen]. and didn't get Mr Sung's edition, or see ideogramic text until I had got out of the gorilla cage into the hell hole.
As to RESPECT/there are degrees/I SUSpect Tolstoi and ALL goddam hrooshuns [Russians]/ seem to recall that Kung mentioned cases where respect was NOT required. Tolstoi? A Mihite? Or at any rate a slav/
will look up text and see what verb Kung uses in the case of the bloke aetat [aged] Wfty who was still an ass. as distinct from the neo-nato. The neo-nato might be held to have some of the sense of the cherry-stone?
of course if the hnBL Fang is THAT MUCH older than a neonato? ?
Also/as change from seal to the 214 root system was cert/ one of [the] greatest intellectual acts in all history. I see no reason to exclude the idea that the 214 root system may occasionally have improved on the preceding.
The good Hawley will probably rise thru the ceiling, if such idea is ever mentioned in his vicinage.
as to Chu Hi and the Ch'eng.
I d/n well know that respect is sometimes used in speciWc ref/ and that when I had got to grass-seed and looked back to Italian version to see if I needed to revise, I found that I could NOT revise/ because it would not Wt context/
BUT surely the term is pretty well isolated where Kung distinguishes between the Chun[g] [respecting one's sovereign] and the Hsiao [respecting one's par- ents] (if there is ANY use my trying to transliterate romanJikly anyhow between the gent and the piker.
(Hope Uncle Ezra's dawg farm aint an imitation of Amy's High-Lo kennels. Mebbe he got there Wrst. (precedingly born)
Oh yes, once again, if I start answering back to Fang, and continue to read, then F/has already puttt down at least part of the answer. Canto XIII.
AND: them bloomink SWEEDES! ! ! !
Thanks for indicating the Stilwell which will rd/at 1st/op/and probably the Belden/as to White Papers? ? is it safe? I once recd/ten vols/of U. S. treasury reports, read several pages and LOOK where it landed me.
CHOU: Se ? raphin Couvreur, Chou King (Paris: Cathasia, 1950), a Latin-French-Chinese edition of Shu jing (Book of History), source of Cantos 85-6.
Igor: see Glossary on De Rachewiltz, Igor.
Sung's edition: Z. D. Sung, The Symbols of Yi King (Shanghai: China Modern Education, 1934). cherry-stone: see Letter 28 n.
214 root system: the 214-radical system Wrst adopted by Mei Dingzuo in Zihui (Character Treasure,
1615). See Letter 57.
Hawley: see Glossary on Hawley, Willis Meeker.
Chu Hi and the Ch'eng: see Letter 28 n. and Glossary on Zhu Xi.
SWEEDES: see Glossary on Karlgren, Bernhard.
Belden: Fang sent EP a copy of Jack Belden's China Shakes the World (New York: Harper, 1949) to stir
interest in modern China.
52 a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius
30 Fang to EP (TLS-1; Beinecke)
Dear Mr. Pound,
Yesterday I had the temerity to mail you the Stilwell book; and this in spite of
your injunction and Meng's advice (IV B xxiii, second sentence. Legge's version is very much perverted; a more sensible translation would be--''When to give and not to give are both equally proper, etc. ''). I already seem to hear you declaiming, Quo usque, o Achilles, abutere nostra patientia? [Abuse our patience, O Achilles, to what extent? ]
Hope to send you the Belden book soon. I can't say whether it would be ''safe'' to read White Papers. 1054 pages of it cannot all serve the triple objective, ut doceat, ut moveat, ut delectet [to teach, to move, to delight]; and yet, part of the Annexes (pp. 413 sqq. ) seems to be quite readable.
Thank you ever so much for two more anonymous communications. As for your notes, I am now writing down the ideograms. (I am afraid, some of the CH words have to be regrouped under K. ) After they are retouched here and there, no ''comments, castigatory, astringent, tolerant etc. '' would be needed. Please give me a bit more time for the work. Hope to use the plenipotentiary power judiciously.
Thank you sincerely for the three A books. Adams is fascinating; Agassiz is a little heavy; as for Alighieri's Paradiso, I should not forget that Eliot proWted by your advice. If a bloke happens to have a name beginning with B, would you prescribe him Boccaccio, Baudelaire, and Browning-Sordello? (Excuse this Xippancy. )
It is true that the Wrst word in ''Respect a child's faculties'' stands for ? and not ? ; but Kung surely was using the two terms synonymously. At any rate, in [Analects] XVI viii (p. 177), ? seems to stand for ? .
By the way, your interpretation of ? seems to solve a number of knotty problems in Kung's book. I've been looking through commentaries, but so far failed to come across any that lays emphasis on that term. Please accept my congratulations. I shall not fail to expand on this aspect of Your Confucianism.
Respectfully yours [signed] Achilles Fang
I have here a few texts (? [Book of Changes],? [Book of History],? [Book of Odes],? ? [Book on Filial Piety]) belonging to my wife, who is willing to part with them. As soon as I hear from you, I shall mail them to you.
Stilwell book: see Letter 27 n. Belden book: see letter 29 n.
Cambridge, Mass. January 12th 1951
a. fang and pound's bilingual confucius 53
your notes: ''Preliminary Survey'' (see Appendix). In the winter of 1950-1 EP used O. Z. Tsang's Complete Chinese-English Dictionary (1920) as a guide to speculate about sound-symbolism in primitive Chinese. He didn't use Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary because Hawley had warned of its ''scrambled romanization'' (12 January 1947, Lilly). For Fang's criticism of Tsang's dictionary, see Letter 28.
Adams: see Glossary on Adams, Brooks.
Agassiz: see Glossary on Agassiz, Louis.