China and the West

Allen Upward was Ezra Pound's mentor on Chinese poetry. When Pound was introduced to Upward in London in 1911, Upward had already made a name for himself as a poet and a writer of original thought. Although Upward's admiration for Confucius may have inspired Pound's lifelong interest in Confucianism, his enduring influence on Pound in the area of Chinese poetry. This influence may be attributed to two important events : The publication of Upward's Scented leaves from a Chinese jar [ID D29136], a sequence of poems based on Chinese works. In these poems, Pound found what had earlier fascinated him in Japanese haiku – sharp, contrasting colors and the evocative juxtaposition of emotions and images. Pound wrote to Dorothy : "The chinese things in Poetry are worth the price of admission". The second event was Upward's initiation of Pound into the study of Herbert Allen Giles A history of Chinese literature.