China and the West

Stevens, Wallace. The letters of Wallace Stevens [ID D30294].
Letter from Wallace Stevens to Elsie Moll ; Thursday Evening [New York, March 18, 1909]
Shall I send a picture or two to make a private exhibition for you ? Well, here they are, and all from the Chinese, painted centuries ago : 'pale orange, green and crimson, and white, and gold, and brown' ; and 'deep lapis-lazuli and orange, and opaque green, fawn-color, black, and gold' ; and 'lapis blue and vermilion, white, and gold and green. I do not know if you feel as I do about a place so remote and unknown as China – the irreality of it. So much so, that the little realities of it seem wonderful and beyond belief. – I have just been reading about the Chinese feeling about landscape. Just as we have certain traditional subjects that our artists delight to portray (like 'Washington Crossing the Delaware' or 'Mother and Child' etc. etc.!) so the Chinese have certain aspects of nature, of landscape, that have become traditional. – A list of those aspects would be as fascinating as those lists of 'Pleasant Things' I used to send. Here is the list (upon my soul!) –
The Evening Bell from a Distant Temple
Sunset Glow over a Fishing Village
Fine Weather after Storm at a Lonely Mountain Town
Homeward-bound Boats off a Distant Shore
The Autumn Moon over Lake Tung-t'ing
Wild Geese on a Sandy Plain
Night Rain in Hsiao-Hsiang.
This is one of the most curious things I ever saw, because it is so comprehensive. Any twilight picture is included under the first title, for example. 'It is just that silent hour when travellers say to themselves, 'The day is done', and to their ears comes from the distance the expected sound of the evening bell'. – And last of all in my package of strange things from the East, a little poem written centuries ago by Wang-an-shih :
'It is midnight ; all is silent in the house ; the
Water-clock has stopped. But I am unable to
sleep because of the beauty of the trembling
shapes of the spring-flowers, thrown by the moon
upon the blind. '
I don't know anything more beautiful than that anywhere, ore more Chinese – and Master Green-cap bows to Wang-an-shih. No : Wang-an-shih is sleeping, and may not be disturbed. – I am going to poke around more or less in the dust of Asia for a week or two and have no idea what I shall disturb and bring to light. – Curious thing, how little we know about Asia, and all that. It makes me wild to learn it all in a night – But Asia (a brief flight from Picardy – as the mind flies) will do for some other time…

Letter from Wallace Steven to his wife Elsie ; Monday Afternoon, [New York], Jan. 2 [1911].
Walked down Fifth Avenue to Madison Square and, after lunch, went into the American Art Galleries, where, among other things, they are showing some Chinese and Japanese jades and porcelains.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to his wife Elsie ; 20 Aug. (1911).
Stevens enclosed in his letter the excerpt of the essay on Chinese painting The noble features of the forest and the stream by Guo Xi.
"Nearly a thousand years ago the critic, Kuo His [Guo Xi], in his work, The Noble Features of the Forest and the Stream, expressed once for all the guiding sentiment of Chinese landscape painting. He takes it as axiomatic that all gently disposed people would prefer to lead a solitary and contemplative life in communion with nature, but he sees, too, that the public weal does not permit such an indulgence. This is not the time for us [he writes] to abandon the busy worldly life for one of seclusion in the mountains, as was honorably done by some ancient sages in their days. Though impatient to enjoy a life amidst the luxuries of nature, most people are debarred from indulging in such pleasures. To meet this want, artists have endeavored to represent landscapes so that people may be able to behold the grandeur of nature without stepping out of their houses. In this light painting affords pleasures of a nobler sort, by removing from one the impatient desire of actually observing nature. Such a passage yields its full meaning only upon very careful reading. One should note the background of civilization, quietism, and rural idealism implied in so casual an expression as the luxuries of nature. Nor should one fail to see that what is brought into the home of the restless worldling is not the mere likeness of nature, but the choice feeling of the sage."

Letter from Wallace Stevens to his wife Elsie ; Sunday Evening [New York July 25, 1915].
Then I went over to the Botanical Garden where I spent several hours in studying the most charming things. I was able to impress on myself that larkspur comes from China. Was there ever anything more Chinese when you stop to think of it ? And coleus comes from Java. Good Heavens, how that helps one to understand coleus – or Java. There were bell-flowers from China too, incredibly Chinese… There are patches of marigolds, portulaca, petunias, everlastings, etc. One or two things were absolutely new to me. One was a Chinese lantern plant. This is a plant about two feet high which bears pods, the size of peppers. The pods are green at one end and at the bottom, as they hang, are orange or yellow, so that they resemble lantenrs…

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Harriet Monroe ; Highland Court Hotel, Harford, Connecticut, May 29th, 1916.
The characters are a little more individualized. They seem to me to be distinct parts. Proper acting would bring them out. They may be a little thin to a reader's eye, particularly since I have retained 1st Chinese, 1nd Chinese etc.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Harriet Monroe ; Hartford, Wednesday, October 8, 1919.
Have you seen this month's Little Review with the quotation from the Chinese ?
[Fenollosa, Ernest ; Pound Ezra. The Chinese written character. In : Little review ; vol. 6 (Oct. 1919)].

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Harriet Monroe ; Hartford. Aug. 24 [1922].
It is a pleasant surprise to have your card from North Carolina with its news from Peking. One of these days, when the different things on their way to Hartford from Peking, Paris, Geneva, London, Mexico (cigars), actually arrive I shall have exhausted the possibilities of life within my scope.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Harriet Monroe ; Sept. 23rd, 1922
I have just returned to the office to-day from a short absence and find the announcement of yr soirée. A telegram would be so demned conspicuous. Sorry. But I also find a package from Peking containing two packages of jasminerie, one of which I have pried open to smell one of the good smells, out of China. It is a very good smell indeed and I am delighted. Nothing could please me more. Do, please, tell your sister, la belle jasminatrice, how grateful I am. I look forward to some subsequent marvel ; but am patient as you required me to be. For a poet to have even a second-hand contact with China is a great matter ; and a desk that sees so much trouble is blessed by such reversions to innocence.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Harriet Monroe ; Harford, Oct. 28, 1922.
The box from Peking reached us yesterday. Box, I say, for lo and behold, Mrs. Calhoun sent not one or two, but five, really delightful things. Of these, the chief one is a carved wooden figure of the most benevolent old god you ever saw. He has a staff in one hand and in the other carries a lotus bud. On the back of his head he has a decoration of some sort with ribbons running down into his gown. The wood is of the color of dark cedar but it is neither hard nor oily. And there you are. But the old man, Hson-hsing, has the most amused, the nicest and kindliest expression : quite a pope after one's own heart or at least an invulnerable bishop telling one how fortunate one is, after all, and not to mind one's bad poems. He is on a little teak stand as is, also, each of the other things. The other things are a small jade screen, two black crystal lions and a small jade figure. The jade pieces are white. We have placed the screen behind the prophet, so that if he desires to retire into its cloudy color he can do so conveniently and we have set the lions in his path, one on each side. The heads of these noisy beasts are turned back on their shoulders, quite evidently unable to withstand the mildness of the venerable luminary. The other figure precedes the group as hand-maiden and attendant casting most superior glances at the lions meaning, no doubt, to suggest that it would be best for them to put their tails between their legs and go about their business. Can you, in plain Sandburg, beat it ? Mrs. Stevens will try to take a photograph of the group, so that you can see it for yourself. I have had considerable experience in buying things abroad through other people. This, however, is the first time the thing has been wholly successful ; for this group has been chosen with real feeling for the objects. The old man is so humane that the study of his is a good as a jovial psalm. I must have more, provided he is not a solitary. But I intend to let that rest for the moment for Mrs. Calhoun has clearly gone to a lot of trouble. I have written to her today. But I am as much indebted to you for this blissful adventure and I must thank you too. One might have got a more vanity ! Is it the case, as it seems to be, that there is no vanity in China ? There is, of course, since China has its own classics. This group, however, is pure enough…

Letter from Wallace Stevens to his wife Elsie ; [Havana, Cuba] Sunday Afternoon, Febr. 4, 1923.
There are plenty of places where English is spoken but to move about freely it is imperative to know Spanish. Even the Chinese speak it. There are a good many Chinese here…

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Harriet Monore ; Harford, [July 1924?].
Mrs. Calhoun wrote to me a few weeks ago, from which it appears that 'Harmonium' reached Peking.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Morton Dauwen Zabel ; [Hartford] Oct. 22, 1934.
I wish I knew Miss Monroe's address in Peking : that is to say, I wish I knew it, if you thought that she would be interested in doing a little shoping.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Harriet Monroe ; Harford, March 13, 1935.
Last autumn, when I heard that you were in Pekin I wrote to Mr. Zabel (his name sounds like an exercise in comparative philology) to ask him your address, because, of course, the mere idea of your being in Pekin, instead of suggesting temple roofs, suggested tea and other things. He sent me your address, but you would have been starting home before my letter reached you… But I suppose that, in the course of a few months, I shall have some money that I can call my own : not much, but enough to buy, say, a pound of Mandarin Tea, a wooden carving, a piece of porcelain or one piece of turquoise, one small landscape painting, and so on and so on. On the other hand, if you think that this would bore your sister, let me know. I should want to send the money through you, and not directly.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Ronald Lane Latimer ; [Hartford], Nov. 5, 1935.
I think that I have been influenced by Chinese and Japanese lyrics.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Ronald Lane Latimer ; [Harford] Nov. 21, 1935.
A man would have to be very thick-skinned not to be conscious of the pathos of Ethiopia or China, or one of these days, if we are not careful, of this country.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Harriet Monore ; Hartford, Dec. 4, 1935.
As you know, I had intended to send you some money for Mrs. Calhoun and, if I had carried out my plans, I should about now be receiving several crates of ancient landscapes, rare Chinese illustrated books, Chun Yao ware, Tang horses, and so on. The truth is that I actually wrote a letter giving you some idea of what I should like to have and then tore it up because it would have run into a great deal of money. I felt too that it would do me good to go without something that I could not have. The exhibition of Chinese works of art that has just opened in London must be a marvelous thing. I get as much satisfaction from reading well-written descriptions of an exhibition of that sort and of the objects in it as I do from most poetry.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to James A. Powers ; [Hartford] Dec. 17, 1935.
I sent Mr. Qwock [Benjamin Kwok, student Lingnan University, Guangzhou] some money last spring, with a request for some erudite teas. It appears that, when this letter reached Canton, he had left on a holiday in Central China, or in the moon, or wherever it is that Chinese go in the summer time. But on his return to his studies in the autumn he wrote to me and said that he had written to one of his uncles, who lives in Wang-Pang-Woo-Poo-Woof-Woof-Woof, and has been in the tea business for hundreds of generations. I have no doubt that in due course I shall receive from Mr. Qwock enough tea to wreck my last kidney, and with it some very peculiar other things, because I asked him to send me the sort of things that the learned Chinese drink with that sort of tea.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Benjamin Kwok ; Hartford, Dec. 20, 1935.
Yesterday (that is to say, on December 19th) three boxes reached me, their contents in perfect condition. This too was very pleasant, because they came just in time for Christmas. What you have sent is precisely what I desired to have, and I particularly liked the little metal jars or canisters containing the better teas. Only recently I had been reading about Chrysanthemum Tea ; now you have made it possible for me to have some myself. This morning for breakfast I had some of the best Kee-Moon, and found it to be a delightful tea. Hearing about Central China and about Hankow, and now about Macao (which we only know of here as a celebrated Portugese gambling center) somehow or other brings me in much closer contact with these places than I ever had before… The climate that you will have in Macao is, I suppose, something like our climate in Florida, because, as I remember the pictures of Macao, the place is full of palms and gives one the impression of being distinctly southern.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Henry Church ; [Harford] Nov. 20, 1944.
About Duthuit : I have his little book, or perhaps I should call it album, on Chinese Mysticism and modern Painting. This was published in Paris, and I had Vidal send it to me. I looked at it over the weekend and I should judge from the style that Duthuit is an affable, witty and extremely tolerant person. This is a little broader view of him than I should have had except for the suggestions in your letter. He seemed to be highly sensitive and intelligent, but his friendliness and wit are something that one would have to experience. If you are interested in this book, I shall be glad to send it down to you… [Duthuit, Georges. Chinese mysticism and modern painting. (Paris : Chroniques du Jours, 1936)].

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Henry Church ; [Hartford], July 19, 1945.
At the end of June I went up to Cambridge. I met Dr. Richards ; Robert Woods Bliss was there… There was a Chinese there, one of China's delegates to San Francisco, who quoted from Confucius one of those sayings that relieve life of all its complexities.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Thomas McGreevy ; [Harford] ; Febr. 17, 1950.
Something has spoiled going south : perhaps it is the cold war, or the iron curtain, or the bamboo curtain. A am afraid that the Chinese have been much disappointed in the bamboo curtain, but it would be a good thing for Russia.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Earl Miner ; Nov. 30, 1950
While I know about haiku, or hokku, I have never studies them… I have been more interested in Japanese prints although I have never collected them… No doubt, too, I have perhaps a half dozen volumes of Chinese and Japanese poetry somewhere in the house. But all this is purely casual.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Helen Head. Simons ; [Hartford], Dec. 21, 1950.
This year there is so much to be thankful for : the Eskimos have corrugated roofs on their houses at your expense and mine ; Tito is passing around sandwiches and lemonade on the U.S.A. ; and we are giving a million Chinese a little outdoor exercise which is probably good for them.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Peter H. Lee ; [Hartford], Febr. 26, 1952.
The scroll pleases me more than I can tell you. I have hung it in my own room and shall keep it there for a little while, although not permanently because there is a good deal of dust in that room and I want to keep it clean. It goes perfectly with the paper in that room. On the whole, the tones are all neutral. It may be said that even the tones of the berries are neutral because they are so inconspicuous. I don't recognize the birds with their crests and strong feet. They are probably birds very well known in your part of the world, but I do not recall them. On the other hand, the flowers with the reed-like stems around the rocks are what are called Chinese lilies here. They might be white jonquils. All this seems to be part of an idyllic setting in some remote past, having nothing to do with the tormented constructions of contemporary art. The scroll made the same impression on me when I first looked at it that a collection of Chinese poems makes : an impression of something venerable, true and quiet. I am happy to have the scroll. I know that scroll is not the world for it but I do not recall the correct name for it.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Fredrick Morgan ; [Harford], March 20, 1953.
There is a young Korean at Yale, Peter Lee, who sent me some translations of ancient Korean poetry which made the same impression on me that translations of ancient Chinese poetry make.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Peter H. Lee ; [Hartford], June 30, 1954.
If you want to send one of your Korean paintings to me, don't hesitate because there is nothing that I should like more. On the other hand, Europe is full of museums that are interesting in things of that sort. There used to be at Frankfort a China-Haus. I have no doubt that it would grab at anything you offered it.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Peter H. Lee ; [Harford], July 9, 1954.
The most fashionable translator from the Chinese in England at the present time is Arthur Waley and if you could find out who published his books, you might find that those publishers, having developed, possibly, something of a clientele for such subjects, would be interested.

Letter from Wallace Stevens to Peter H. Lee ; [Hartford] Jan. 4, 1955.
The scroll reached me yesterday. And also a letter from Mr. Pearson, who spoke about you, so that in a way yesterday was Peter Lee Day. The scroll is delightful. I have not yet quite determined where to put it. It is enough for the moment just to possess it and to be able to look at it. It represents my ideal of a happy life : to be able to grow old and fat and lie outdoors under the trees thinking about people and things and things and people… Mr. Pearson bought a little piece of sculpture in London on his last trip which I hope to see. Your scroll will do for me what that piece of sculpture will do for him. Both things are like an old book full of associations of which one becomes the possessor and which makes more difference to one than the most brilliant novel by the most fashionable novelist.