The question has been posed: Did Pound believe Confucius was simply a moral
philosopher, or did he see a close connection between Confucianism and
fascism? I noted in an earlier post that Pound used ideograms, such as
Hsin1 to link up the Confucianism and fascism. POUND HIMSELF connected the
symbolism of Hsin1 with the symbolism of the fasces. We can look at one or
two more examples.
Hsin1 * was not the only ideogram which Pound saw as an emblem of fascist
government. He also employed the character * Ping "to grasp," placing it
beneath the German word Sagetrieb (coined by Pound and intended to mean
"pass on the tradition"). Next to the character he wrote the words "as the
hand grasps the wheat" (85.559). The ideograph does depict * a hand
gripping an ear of grain * . Terrell notes that the character probably
"caught Pound's eye because the basic [Italian] Fascist symbol is a hand
holding together many spears of wheat." Would anyone wish to accuse
Terrell of deliberately making a false connection in this case?
The appearance of the symbol underneath the German "Sagetrieb" may have been
intended to signify Pound's desire that the Confucian tradition of
government should be passed on. At the bottom of the page (in one of his
rare prose notes to the Cantos) Pound writes,
Kung said that he added nothing. Canto 85 is a
somewhat detailed confirmation of Kung's view
that the basic principles of government are found
in the Shu, the History Classic
(85. 559).
Eleven lines above this is the phrase "Dead in Piazzale Loreto," a reference
to the spot where Mussolini died. The juxtaposition of a "fascist"
ideograph and the reference to Mussolini's death, at such a late date
(1955), clearly indicates that Pound had not renounced fascism. Note also
that Pound speaks here of Kung's views about "the principles of government,"
that Kung is conceived as a political philosopher, and not as a simple moral
philosopher.
Pound realizes that since Mussolini is dead, and he himself is imprisoned,
in St. Elizabeth's mental hospital, others will have to "pass on the
tradition."
The German word "Sagetrieb" was important to Pound. Part of its
significance lay in the fact that the Nazi movement in Germany, in Pound's
view, had served to confirm Mussolini's political doctrine. Pound
associated a particular ideogram with Nazism in a one-page tract called
"Communications." The character * Chung1 "center, or mean" is writ large in
the center of the page. The similarity between Chung1 and the vorticist
emblem has already been noted other critics. In this context it bears a
certain resemblance to the Nazi swastika, especially since it is placed in
close proximity to the words, written in bold capitals -- "THE NAZI MOVEMENT
IN GERMANY."1
Now why does Pound place the character Chung1 (Center) next to the phrase
"THE NAZI MOVEMENT IN GERMANY", unless he means to draw a connection between
German fascism and philosophic concept embodied in the ideogram? Is it
conceivable that Pound does not wish to draw together the central concepts
of Nazism and Confucianism by using this symbol as he does?
Both the swastika and Chung1*convey the idea of centeredness; both convey
the idea of a still center from which motion emanates, an "unwobbling
pivot" as Pound called it. In "Communications" Pound wishes to express the
idea that, as society evolves, "money becomes the PIVOT of all social
action" (Townsman, April 1939, 12).
Pound points out that he is not alone in believing this:
Der Kampf gegen das internationale Finanz und
Leihkapital ist zum wichtigsten Programmpunkt.
War on international finance and LOAN CAPITAL
becomes the most weighty etc. in the struggle
towards freedom.
Adolf Hitler, Meinkampf, 1924
("Communications").
No one doubts Pound's admiration for Hitler, I think, in light of this
quote, and in light of numerous statements of praise Pound makes elsewhere.
Beneath the symbol* Chung1 Pound writes in a somewhat Fuhreresque style,
Only a race of slaves and idiots will be inattentive
thereafter to the said pivot, the measure and memo-
randum. Historians who neglect it in their writings
are mere infants and any historian henceforth who
commits such neglect deserves less than the pimp
or the maitre de bordel. He is the ally of corruption,
he is the carrier of every baccillus of evil.
("Communications").
There is no mention of Mussolini in this tract, though the compilation of
quotations concludes with another from Hitler, and a note on its relation to
the history of Chinese political thought.
The position of a country abroad depends exclusively
on its organization and INTERNAL coherence
Der Fuhrer, 1939.
(which is also Confucius' 5th paragraph of the Great
Learning preceding the chapters by Thseng-Tseu Ta
Hio).
("Communications").
The equation of Hitler's view of statecraft with the ideas of Confucius,
made beneath the large Chinese character, serves as another indication of
the poet's desire to fuse fascism and Chinese historico-political practice,
and to have such a fusion symbolized concretely, in this case by the
ideogram * Chung1.
So we have here a clear statement by Pound that DER FUHRER'S STATEMENT IS
ALSO THE SAME STATEMENT CONTAINED IN A CONFUCIAN TEXT. Pound believes they
are the same. POUND HIMSELF EQUATES THEM.
The ideogram Chung1, "middle or mean," is used numerous times by Pound in
the Cantos. In another form * Chung4 is a name for Kung (Confucius).
Philosophically speaking, it is used by Pound to represent the Confucian
"doctrine of the mean." Pound's version of the doctrine, which he presents
in his version of the "Chung Yung -- The Unwobbling Pivot," is that,
The word "chung" signifies what is bent neither
to one side nor to the other. The word "yung"
signifies unchanging. What exists plumb in the
middle is the just process of the universe and
that which never wavers or wobbles is the calm
principle of its mode of action
(Con., 4).
Strictly speaking this is an ethical doctrine, or at least would seem to be.
But the doctrine of the mean has had profound political implications, and
it is no coincidence that both Pound and numerous Marxist Chinese historians
have agreed, although for different reasons, that the Confucian doctrine is
consistent with fascist political aspirations. One contemporary Chinese
critic of the doctrine, Cheh Chen, in an article entitled "Confucius'
Doctrine of the Mean, a Philosophy of Opposition to Social Change," traces
the use of the philosophy by different dynasties to maintain "the sacredness
and inviolability of the feudal hierarchy." Speaking of the situation in
mid-20th century China, Cheh Chen writes many
tried in vain to use the threadbare doctrine of the mean
to maintain . . . fascist landlord and comprador bour-
geois dictatorship . . . In a word "everyone follows his
nature, everyone enjoys his place and there are no
conflicts . . ."
(Cheh Chen, in Yang, Selected Articles, 56).
While such a critique of Confucian doctrine may appear extreme, it is not
untypical of a large body of criticism which began to be generated within
China, long before the ascendancy of communism. Since the founding of the
Chinese Republic in 1911, philosophers who sought to promote Western-style
democracy, such as Ch'en Tu-hsiu, had begun to argue that "Confucian
religion and republicanism cannot coexist. To promote one means to abandon
the other" (Kam, 6). Thus, the study of the relationship between Chinese
social history and Pound's philosophical development yields yet another
irony: he attaches himself to Confucian philosophy at a time when its
influence was rapidly declining.
To miss this is to miss one of the greatest literary and historical ironies
of the 20th century.
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