Wei,
What does this incident involving Ouang Siaopo and the extortion of the
merchant class exemplify?  You have said only what it was _not_ meant to
show, namely, any "sympathy for peasant rebellions" or "the importance of
class conflict".

Would you agree with this summary of Pound's view of government, that It
should be of the people, and for the people, but not by the people?

Tim Romano


You wrote:
> Pound's reference to a figure such as Ouang Siaopo in the Cantos, and his
> use of ideograms such as **  T'ai P'ing, were by no means designed to
elicit
> sympathy for peasant rebellions; much less were they intended to encourage
> the reader to consider the importance of class conflict in historical
> development.  The ideogrammic technique, which purports to "present one
> facet and then another  . . . " with the aim of providing a "just
> revelation," in practice, is used in the Cantos only to present certain
> facets.  Nothing in Chinese history which appears to contradict the basic
> tenets of fascism, is deliberately illuminated, though one catches an
> occasional glimpse of something outside this ideological field.
>



>
>                 and there arose in the province of Sse'tchuen a revolt
>                 because of the greed of the Mandarins
>                                 Not content with their salaries
>                                 began to bleed merchants for licenses
>                 which new damn tax made money so scarce in that
>
province
>                 that men cdn't buy the necessities.
>                                 Therefore Ouang Siaopo of the people
>                 demanded just retribution
>                         and they went against Tsing-chin city, and
>
took
>
Pong chan
>                 by violence and cut open the governor's belly
>                 which they filled up with silver
>                                 (bit of what he had extorted)
>                                                                 (55.295).
>