Wei,
Pound's faith was that "Authority comes from right reason." I think he
may have gotten that from Scotus Eriugena, but it doesn't really matter.
Everything I have read of the writings or sayings of Confucius seems to say
Kung believed this also, and this is why Pound thought so highly of
Confucius. It didn't matter whether that authority generated from the
people, a leader, a king or the law or from heaven as long as it was from
"right reason" for then it was just and people should be satisfied. This is
my interpretation. Yours seems to be that the source is more important than
the substance, and you hold the originator responsible for all the failings
of his followers like blaming Jesus for all the travesties of the
Inquisition. We all err, perhaps I am erring in my assessment of your
interpretation. Am I?
"Warts" or "cancerous tumours" - I wouldn't touch that one with a
ten-foot pole. Besides you have enough list members who are willing to
fence with you on a daily basis who are more articulate than myself. I would
rather spend my time reading Pound and continuing to learn more by doing so.
In 1963 I bought his "Confucius". I was twenty, I read in it this.
1. He said: At fifteen I wanted to learn,
2. At thirty I had a foundation.
3. At forty, a certitude.
4. At fifty, knew the orders of heaven.
5. At sixty, was ready to listen to them.
6. At seventy could follow my own heart's desire without overstepping
the t-square.
I had no doubt the #1 was correct. I remembered myself as a ninth grader
so interested in school that I carried a briefcase despite the jokes and
jeers of my fellow students. I provided the daily Latin translation for the
rest of the class to copy before 8th. period Latin class.
Fifteen years later in 1973 I had college, some law school, and graduate
school (but no degree) under my hat band and was living in a one room cabin
in the woods working as a grill cook and reading every bit of Eastern
philosophy I could get my hands on. - A foundation. - #2
At forty, 1983, my certitude was that those things I had learned really
did have something to do with living as I had developed my cabinet making
business with confidence and lived in a fine old house I rebuilt with my
own hands with the help of a "wee wifey waintin' in a wee button-ben"
At fifty I circled the above passage in my book in awe and wrote in the
margin "1993, I am fifty". The orders of heaven I had compiled in my studies
had taken the form of a perpetual lunar-solar circular calendar I fashioned
from my study of the alphabets of ancient languages. I got encouraging
correspondence from Gerald Hawkins on its applicability to the functioning
of the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge in England. It all merely
confirmed those orders of heaven that never cease to raise my failing
spirits as poetry does also.
Sixty I have not yet reached, and I know that I have not yet learned to
listen to them(the orders of heaven).
Seventy seems a long way off and #6 seems somewhat enigmatic to me. I
know what the t-square is. I have made a living using it, yet I have no idea
what my "heart's desire" will be at seventy, and it frightens me sometimes
to think of it. I'm not sure I will hold up under the joy of it if Confucius
continues to be correct. What will I do with the self-destructing fool I've
chosen as my shadow companion? But I suspect that the "heart's desire" is
something like that of nature's, and if this is true then the I Ching tells
"Nature creates all beings without erring: this is its straightness. It
is calm and still: this is its Foursquareness. It tolerates all creatures
equally: this is its greatness".
Thirteen years to find out.
Wei, I read your posting on the development of your interest in Pound
and found it interesting. This in a "round about way" gives you mine.
I may have made some statements in the past which were insensitive to
others in the same way Pound could give offense, and I would like to
apologize for such shortsightedness. I'm still trying to learn to listen.
"To be men, not destroyers."
Charles Moyer
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