Wei,
    Destiny (Spengler's favorite goddess) has broken a path for
civilizations to follow which has lead them to each other in time, and when
they meet if they do not collide head on in conflict over their distrusts of
each other then they trade. They trade for the things which they do not have
but think they want or need. China gave us tea, silk, china, Confucius, and
Lao Tzu. We were longer in getting at the latter. The West gave China the
porcelain pan, opium, cotton, missionaries, Marx, and finally science. It
was longer for them to master the latter. To what destiny this road takes us
remains to be seen, but we continue to learn from each other, and sometimes
we use what we get form the other in an entirely different way.
    Your comment concerning your lack of "sensitivity to large numbers of
people on this list who do derive great spiritual sustenance from Pound" is
noted and perhaps not so much your fault afterall as that inferred
condemnation which is read into your analysis. If China has been hamstrung
by Confucian tradition, the West has the serious problem of "Faustophobia"
brought on by an overly patriarchal, guilt-ridden conscience troubled by the
pursuit of the forbidden friuit of knowledge, a belief that we are being
tempted by the Fallen Angel of hubris, and a "stupid salvation mechanism"
i.e. obedience to Jawway =reward and disobedience = punishment. Freud
examined this and elaborated on it. Elaine Pagels has exposed this Satan as
the Bogey Man he is. Pound called it "god-blithering tosh". And the quoted
formula above was offered by our old friend, Nietzsche. (Incidently, Pound
called him an "ill-balanced hysterical teuto-pollack" - No one escaped his
caustic tongue). But didn't Marlowe say, "I'll burn my books"?  - very
important words in English literature.
    All of this brings me to comment on your stated choice of music as an
uplifter  of the soul. I also love the Beethoven Quartets esp. the later
ones. They seem to have a depth and confidence that simplifies and distills
even the most essential. And of Mozart operas "The Magic Flute" is my
favorite. Someone could make a comparison with Papageno, lock on mouth,to
Pound's Ouan Jin's mouth being erased in the Pisan Cantos , both being a
necessary condition to save the life of the written text or word. Or as
Rabate says in his book, "The per-fection of the Word requires the
disappearance of the subject who utters it." p.148. In other words the poet
as demi-god must save the Word by his own self-sacrifice. "tempus tacendi"?
He may have been anticipating his defense in court also.
    But I would bet "Don Giovanni" is your favorite. Am I right? I must
relate a story about a performance of this opera. As you know the rake must
atone in the end. So in the last scene he descends into hell. At this
particular performance the elevator platform stuck at the point when he was
only half-way down leaving his head and upper torso still revealed. So he
was brought up again and the descent was reattempted only to fail once
again.Whereupon a member of the audience exclaimed for all to hear, "How
wonderful, Hell is full."
    My comment, however had I been there, would have been, "He must be
standing on Ezra Pound's shoulders." It would have bombed, but one or two
may have laughed.

Salubriously,
CDM