China and the West

Russell, Bertrand. A fresh look at empiricism, 1927-42. ). In : Russell, Bertrand. Basic writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959. (New York, N.Y. : Simon and Schuster, 1961).
Dr. [John] Dewey and I were once in the town of Changsha during an eclipse of the moon : following immemorial custom, blind men were beating gongs to fritter the heavenly dog, whose attempt to swallow the moon is the cause of eclipses. Throughout thousands of years, this practice of beating gongs has never failed to be successful ; every eclipse has come to an end after a sufficient prolongation of the din. This illustration shows that our generalization must not use merely the method of agreement, but also the method of difference.

Jiang, Menglin. Xi chao. [Über Bertrand Russell]. [ID D28409].
It was due to Bertrand Russell that young minds began to get interested in principles of social reconstruction, which roused them against both religion and imperialism, is highly inaccurate. First, the exploration of the question of social reconstruction was the major theme of the May Fourth Period, and Russell was invited to China in part because his social philosophy responded to the questions the Chinese were already asking. Second, Chinese antipathy toward religion long antedated Russell's visit. (The Boxer Rebellion in 1900 was in part an anti-Christian movement; and anti-Confucianism, to the extent that Confucianism may be called a religion, was part of the fabric of the May Fourth Movement.) And third, hostility toward imperialism was as old as nineteenth-century gun-boat diplomacy and was exacerbated further by events of the early twentieth century, including particularly the results of the Versailles Peace Settlement of 1919. The Chinese did not need Russell to stimulate their ire against imperialism.

Dewey, John. Message to the Chinese people. (1942). In : Dewey, John. Lectures in China, 1919-1920 [ID D28360]. [The Chinese text was a propaganda leaflet distributed over Chinese cities by the U.S. Army Air Force, 1942].
Your country and my country, China and the United States, are alike in being countries that love peace and have no designs on other nations. We are alike in having been attacked without reason and without warning by a rapacious and treacherous enemy. We are alike, your country and mine, in having a common end in this war we have been forced to enter in order to preserve our independence and freedom. We both want to see a world in which nations can devote themselves to the constructive tasks of industry, education, science, and art without fear of molestation by nations that think they can build themselves up by destroying the lives and the work of the men, women, and children of other peoples. We are alike, your country and mine, in being resolved to see this fight through to the end.
In one important respect we are unlike. You have borne the burden, heat, and tragedy of the struggle much longer than we have. We are deeply indebted to you for the enduring and heroic struggle you have put up. Our task is severe but it is much easier than it would have been were it not for what you have done in holding a powerful enemy at bay through these long years of suffering. We are now comrades in a common fight and in defending our-selves ; all our energies are pledged to your defense and your triumph.
The United Nations will win the whole war, and the United States and China will win against Japan. Of that there can be no more doubt than that the sun will rise tomorrow. Because we are a peaceful nation, we, like you, were taken at a disadvantage at the outset. I assure you that the early disaster has been a stimulus that has evoked the united energies and the unalterable resolve of the people of this county. We are in it with you and with the other peoples near you, and we shall carry on till complete victory is ours, and till you and they are forever relieved of the menace under which you have lived for so many years. For the twenty-one demands Japan made upon you a quarter of a century ago is an enduring memorial of how many years you have lived under a threat from which you shall not suffer in future years, and you are able to return to the peaceable task of building up you own culture in peaceful cooperation with other nations of goodwill.
You have assumed by your heroic struggle a new position in the family of nations. You have won the undying respect and admiration of all nations that care for freedom. As the result of the victorious outcome of the war all inequalities to which you have been subject will be completely swept away. Our gratitude to you, our respect for you, our common struggle and sacrifice in the common cause, guarantee to China an equal place in the comity of nations when the light of victory dawns. Both of our nations, even in the midst of the sufferings we undergo and the sacrifices we make, can be of good cheer as we make a reality out of our vision of a world in which we can live without constant dread, and where we have taken a step forward toward a world of friendship and goodwill. In this new world you are assured the position of spiritual leadership, of Eastern Asia to which your enduring tradition of culture as well as your present heroic struggle so richly entitle you. We cannot forget that a Japan got her technical and mechanical resources, industry, and war from Western nations, so she got her literature, her art, and all that is best in her religion from you. The coming victory will restore to China her old and proper leadership in all that makes for the development of the human spirit.

Letter from Alice Forster, mother of E.M. Forster, to Xiao Qian ; 11 January 1942.
"I am so glad you were happy with us. I hope you will come again soon. We all indeed enjoyed your visit. Most kind of you to send me the very interesting 'Dragon Book' and the lotus seeds. We have not opened the box yet but shall do so when Morgan comes back from London."

Letter from E.M. Forster to Xiao Qian ; June, 1942.
Forster arrange a Meeting for Xiao to meet his friends, including Bob Buckingham and Joe Ackerley : "Dinner next Sunday, 14th. Mr. Buckingham has been in since I began this letter. He is coming on Sunday to the flat and we very much wish you could join us in it for an informal meal. I am asking Mr. Ackerl[e]y also. The flat is 9, Arlington Park Mansions, Chiswick, W.4 (Tel : CHI 2407) – close to the Chiswick Empire on Tumham Green. The hour of the meal would be 7.0. Do come if you can – send me a line to West Hackhurst as soon as you can conveniently."
Letter from Xiao Qian to E.M. Forster ; June 12, 1942.
Xiao notes about the dinner : "held at Arlington Mansion, with Bob Buckingham, John Hampson, Joe Ackerl[e]y present. My first night in that enchanting flat, with a rickey table lamp which either refused to be on or insisted on remaining. Mr. Forster cooked a glorious breakfast. .. Before entering the flat, I was taken over the Bridge of Heaven, had my first bird-eye-view of south-western London".

E.M. Forster invited Xiao Qian to a Rede lecture on Virginia Woolf at the British Institute on 5 March 1942. Xiao wrote in his autobiography : "I, for my part, had long been interested in the English novel – I admired Woolf up in her ivory tower but almost worshipped Forster who welcomed the whole world into his books".

Pound, Ezra. Ezra Pound speaking : radio speeches of World War II [ID D29148].
30 years or a hundred ; Febr. 3 (1942).
…The laws of right government have been known since the days of Yao and Shun, ole Chinese emperors, and from the time of Shun to King Wen was a 1000 years, and from Wen to Confucius 500.
And they say when the policies of Shun and of Wan were set together (compared), they were as the two halves of a seal, or it might be of a tally stick.
And for nigh onto 4000 years I think no one has dodged the facts of these policies. And from the time of Confucius every dynasty in China that has lasted 300 years has been founded on the law of Confucius, a man or a group, seem' the horse sense of government, as learned by Confucius, I mean he learned it looking at history, talking of Shun and Wan and after him whenever a great man learned it he started or upheld some sort of imperial order.
The President hath power ; Febr. 19 (1942).
…England's conduct in China has been for the most part an infamy. Let some bloody-minded betrayer of the British people get up in their grimy assembly and tell the world of their kind acts in the Orient. From the sacking of the Imperial Palace in Peking to the Jewsoons', Sassoons' century of infamy and of opium with Robert Cecil their advocate…
Napoleon, etc. ; March 2 (1942)
…Mencius referred t, the folly of starting a war for something you couldn't GET; something the war could not bring to the monarch Mencius was talking to. So he said, climb trees to catch fish…
Why pick on the Jew ? ; March 6 (1942).
…Very nice to hear, I mean you are mebbe comforted to HEAR that you got 100 million Chinese soldiers all ready to die for democracy. I mean if you are a democracy. But you ain't got 'em. Well, why lean on what ain't thaar ?...
Disbursement of wisdom ; July 2 (1942).
…The Chinese have a more monumental exposition of the same theme: In evil time the sage can enjoy his own wisdom; when the land is well governed, the people benefit from his instructions…
Financial defeat ; U.S. ; March 26 (1943).
…I am perfectly aware that I might as well be writing Greek or talking Chinese with a foreign accent, so far as making this statement clear to the hearer or reader is concerned. And the public can most certainly not be blamed for this, as you could read a hundred books, by no means despicable books, on economics, without finding any hint that such an idea about money is possible…
I repeat in quoting these statements that I might as well be talking Chinese or Tibetan so far as the average reader or bearer [hearer?] is concerned. Money is a means of exchange, an implement by which exchanges are effected, it is a measure of exchange, it is called 'a title to goods', a measured claim. It is both a title and a measure…
Conscience ; April 24 (1943)
… I have mentioned the small boys in Trenton N.J. who played at being Emperor of the World. Infantilism in high places! And Madame Chek, on February 18, made a stirring speech to the American Congress speaking better American than Sol Bloom and half the assembled delegates, and with a better delivery than Mr. Roosevelt. I have no doubt the audience fell for it as leaves in autumn. It was an appeal to one's sympathies. I should have been swept off my feet if I hadn't been lying down at the time, next to my radio. Bedside habit of radio. The Chinese have a very old saying, that it is an ill omen if the hen crows. Canta la gallina. Mme. Chiang's appeal was clear enough. Everyone wants their own country to be governed by their own people. But it is Wang Chin Wei and not Mons. C.K. Chek who has got back the treaty ports, the extraterritorial rights for his country.
And the grouped ideograms that are translated, 'man of high character', indicate, unless I miss my guess, the men through whom and in whom one hears the voice of his forebears. Order at home. China with 400 millions IN ORDER would indeed be an element for world stability. But that order must RISE IN CHINA. In 300 or more years of history, in fact in all the history we have of that country, the order must rise inside. At no time has China been at peace in the hands of a government run from outside on loan capital. That is Mme. Chiang's error. Her aim is admirable, but she climbs a tree to catch fish.
When Mencius said that to King Huei, of Liang, the King said: 'Is it as bad as that? ' And Mencius answered: 'Worse, for you would do no harm. You would not of course catch any fish. But you would do no further damage'.
This loss of Chinese wisdom, under the smatter of Y.M.C.A. dogmatism, and occidental class teachings is not the answer.
I have heard from someone who knows him that Chiang himself did not want the war with Japan, but was worked into it, on sheer theory, sheer western nonsense. Kung is to China as water to fishes. Meaning Confucius, the Confucian doctrine is the true habitat of the Son of Heaven, and from the Emperor down to the common people, the duty or root is ONE. And that root is NOT to be found in an exotic government imposed in the interests of foreign loan capital.
If the Chinese ever get hold of a few copies of the Talmud, there will be even less room for the servants, Jewish or Goyim, of the doctrines therein contained. And if the root be confusion, the fruit cannot be order. Mme. Chiang appealing for help to a smaller nation may be a stirring figure. But the grab in French Africa in no way assists her husband in Chungking.
Japan is NOT the hereditary enemy of China. There are over two millenia of history wherein the two nations did NOT damage each other. Whereas the history of Anglo-Saxon relations with China is one record of infamy. One almost unmitigated stink. And the Japanese have recorded some of the more recent chapters in a work whose translated title reads: 'The British Empire and British People.'
Mme. Chiang arouses one's sympathies. BUT the error lies in this idea that a universal theory will govern the world WITHOUT local order. If neither Chungking nor Washington can bring order into their OWN country, what likelihood is there that a still looser and larger bureaucracy having still less definite responsibilities, and still less competent executive offices, would be able to do any better?...
An occasional miracle happens. In China men have set up a series of dynasties. Acts of heroic creation, 160 to build or continue, and 160 years to decline. NOT one of the great dynasties, the durable dynasties, was built on gangster grab. Kublai was a great Kahn, but the Ming came 89 years later.
The cheap half baked smattering of western half learning, the lies of half trained professors, shot into foolish young students have NOT been of use to China. If the ancient Kings are too far back to be counted, the Chinese would have learned more from Han, Sung, Tiang, Hong-Vou and Tai Tsong, than from Woodrow Wilson and the Sassoons.
No one can pronounce Chinese names so as to satisfy everyone. If you don't like my transliterations, that is, if any oriental auditor is puzzled, let me put the sentence: Chinese history itself contains more lessons, and better lessons, than have been learned by a scattered joblot of college students, hurled into jerk water colleges, or into the London Fool of Economics or Oxford.
That is perhaps Mme. Chiang's tragedy. Foreign loan capital is NO substitute for the tradition of Wen and Wu, for the lesson of pre-Christian dynasties…
[On brains or medulla] ; June 20 (1943)
… My proposal was, as I say, tri-lingual. Italian, English, and ideogram. That is, Chinese ideogram used as a written tongue, but with Japanese pronunciation. That gives you the languages of Confucius, Shakespeare, and Dante. There is no sentiment in this selection. You say the Germans would never accept this. That is, you don't say so because you are quite crazy in talking of re-educating nations which are far more educated than you are. I believe our Germans would place unsentimental reasons first, the Germans are more diligent than other men, great numbers of them habitually —. Secondly, my opinion is—I omitted the German language, because that language retains more inflections than the three languages I selected.
I say, ideogram with Japanese pronunciation, because almost no foreigner can pronounce Chinese properly, let alone manage the tones, because the pronunciation varies with the different regions of China, and because I find no agreements as how the sounds, such as one can understand, or really hear, should be transcribed in our alphabet. Whereas the Japanese is phonetically simple as the Italian, whose sounds in many ways they resemble. I say Italian, not French, not merely for political reasons. French is hell to pronounce. You have to screw up your nose for the nasals. Apart from the political, Italian is spoken like she is writ. No monkey business. Every letter is pronounced in the same way wherever it occurs. The only apparent exception is the c and ch before a and o. Before a and o, c is hard and before i and e it is soft. The hard sound is written ch before i and e. But the spelling is uniform and follows in all cases and there are no— —.
I would suggest that the Japanese sign for the syllables, for the sound of the syllables, be transliterated to the Roman alphabet when they accompany the ideogram. Let me explain. The written Chinese is common in both Japan and China. All those written signs are the same for Japan and all China. Anyone who reads them in one place knows what they mean in another. It is the common tongue or common written tongue for all those millions…
Coloring ; July 3 (1943)
… Ideas are colored by what they are dipped in. There was a young Chinaman the other day, nearly accusin' me of havin' invented Confucius. He had been UNeducated by contact with half-baked occidental ideas. Lost his own cultural heritage, didn't think Confucius was so modern, that was because he hadn't read him, of course. Mencius was also accused of having brightened up Confucius, but he knew better. He knew he hadn't.
Formerly, when Kung died, the disciples after staying together three years, packed their baggage and returned to their homes, but Tzu Kung went back and built a house on the altar ground, and lived there alone for three years. And the disciples thought Yew Jo might serve as teacher, but Tzu said:
Washed in the waters of Kiang and Han, bleached in the autumn sun.
After that, no. There is nothing to add. Nothing to add to that whiteness.
Mebbe the difference between the Greek flash in the pan, and the Chinese persistence is due to Kung's having got the answer. Mencius following and enforcing it…
Civilization ; July 24 (1943)
… No, the comment on a medieval poem don't just stop there, any more than Frobenius' research just STOPS with some bit of African sculpture, or with some prehistorical drawin' on the side of a rock. Grosseteste writin' on light, hooks up with the ideogram of the sun and moon at the start of Confucius' testament…
My edition of the Great Learning is in Italian, not in American, as was my first edition. And it has the Chinese text facin' it. And I know a good deal more now than when Glenn Hughes printed my first version in his University books…

Pound, Ezra. A visiting card (1942). "I believe that the most useful service that I could do for Italy would be to put before you, every year, a few lines of Confucius, so that they might sink into the brain."

[Twain, Mark]. Wan tong liu lang ji. Make Tuwen ; Zhang Duosheng yi. [ID D29573].
Chen Bochui said in the preface that the long absence of Huckleberry Finn had been a great loss for Chinese children's literature. He congratulated the translator "Thanks to the unremitting and persistent efforts to Mr. Zhang, the book is now presented before us. How could I not be overjoyed !"

Moore, Marianne. Who seeks shall find. In : The Nation ; no 155 (17 Oct. 1942). [Review of Have Come, Am Here, by José Garcia Villa (The Viking Press).
The delicacy with force of such writing reminds one of the colors of black ink from a hogs'-hair brush in the hand of a Chinese master.

Wilder, Thornton. The skin of our teeth. (New York, N.Y. : Harper, 1942). [Uraufführung Shubert Theatre, New Haven, Conn., October 15, 1942].
http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060088934. S. 146.
A whip in the hand and a jogging motion of the body indicated that a man was on horseback in the Chinese theater…

Shelley Smith Mydans und Carl Mydans, als Reporter und Fotograf für Life, werden von den Japanern in Manila und dann Shanghai inhaftiert.

Robert Payne berichtet über die Schlacht von Changsha für die London Times.

Robert Payne unterrichtet englische Literatur an der National Fudan University in Chongqing.

Soren Egerod studiert klassische Philologie, Sanskrit und komparative Linguistik an der Universität Kopenhagen.

Aufführung von Da ma xi tuan = The big circus von Leonid Nikolaevich Andreyev im Shanghai Theatre, in der Übersetzung von Shi Tuo (Adaptation von Andreyev, Leonid Nikolaevich]. Chi er guang de ren. Mai Fu yi. (Shanghai : Zhong hua shu ju, 1935), unter der Regie von Huang Zuolin.

Edward Hyers Clayton kehrt nach Amerika zurück und wird Pastor in Red Bank, N.J.

Peter Goullart ist Vertreter der Chinese Industrial Coopertatives der Guomindang in Lijiang (Yunnan).

Scott Langshaw Burdett wird April-August von Japanern inhaftiert.

Xia Changshi ist Professor an der Zentraluniversität und der Chongqing-Universität.