China and the West

Moore, Marianne. "Teach, stir the mind, afford enjoyment". [From a series of commentaries on selected contemporary poets, Bryn Mawr, 1952 ; betr. Ezra Pound].
Mr. Pound admires Chinese codifyings and for many a year has been ordering, epitomizing, and urging explicitness, as when he listed "A Few Don'ts" for Imagists…
Confucius says the fish moves on winglike foot ; and Prior, in his life of Edmund Burke, says Burke "had a peculiarity in his gait that made him look as if he had two left legs…
"As for Cathay, it must be pointed out", T.S. Eliot says, "that Mr. Pound is the inventor of Chinese poetry of our time" ; and seeing a connection between the following incident and "the upper middlebrow press"…
In The Great Digest and Unwobbling Pivot of Confucius, as in his Analects, Ezra Pound has had a theme of major import. The Great Digest makes emphatic this lesson : He who can rule himself can govern others ; he who can govern others can rule the kingdom and families of the Empire.
The men of old disciplined themselves.
Having attained self-discipline they set their houses in order.
Having order in their own homes, they brought good government
To their own state.
When their states were well governed, the empire was brought
Into equilibrium.
We have in the Digest, content that is energetic, novel, and deep : "If there be a knife of resentment in the heart or enduring rancor, the mind will not attain precision ; under suspicion and fear it will not form sound judgment, nor will it, dazzled by love's delight nor in sorrow and anxiety, come to precision." As for money, "Ill got, ill go". When others have ability, if a man "shoves them aside, he can be called a real pest." "The archer when he misses the bullseye, turns and seeks the cause of error in himself." There must be no rationalizing. "Abandon every clandestine egoism to realize the true root." Of the golden rule, there are many variants in the Analects : "Tze-kung asked if there was a single principle that you could practice through life to the end. He said sympathy ; what you don't want, don't inflict on another" (Book Fifteen, XXIII). "Require the solid of yourself, the trifle of others" (Book Fifteen, XIV). "The proper man brings men's excellent to focus, not their evil qualities" (Book Twelve, XVI). I am not worried that others do not know me ; I am worried by my incapacity' (Book Fourteen, XXXII). Tze-chang asked Kung-tze about maturity. Kung-tze said : To be able to practice five things would humanize the whole empire – sobriety (serenitas), magnanimity, sticking by one's word, promptitude (in attention to detail), Kindliness (caritas). As for "the problem of style. Effect your meaning. Then stop" (Book Fifteen, XL).