Yoshiko Kita--
 
Tardy response to your query. I actually don't have any good answers for
you.
 
Again, Robert Kern's Orientalism, Modernism and the American Poem (1996)
deals extensively with Emerson's dialogue with Orientalism and in turn his
presence in both Fenollosa and Pound. The nexis of these three and the
symbiosis of transcendentalism and China seems to me to be at the heart of
his study.
 
As for where Pound may have had more or less direct contact with
discussions of Taoism, Zhaoming Qian mentions H.A. Giles' Chuang Tzu:
Mysitc, Moralist and Social Reformer (1889), although I don't think there
is any direct evidence that Pound consulted this book. Presumably some of
it would be present in Giles' History of Chinese Literature which we know
was very important to Pound. There would also be James Legge's translations
with commentary Texts of Taoism (2 volumes I think), but again whether
there is evidence Pound read these is unclear. I think there must have been
any number of Wisdom of the East type books circulating about that would
include accounts of Taoism.
 
Where intellectual type Westerners would be likely to get their ideas of
Taoism, I'm not sure either. Aside from the many readily available
translations with commentary of Laozi and Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu), I half
suspect much of this gets mixed up with Beat Zen and the like (did Alan
Watts write on Taoism??). There was also the immensely popular book of the
'70s Tao and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanance, which was taken with some
seriousness by even high-brow types. Now there are any number of more or
less popular treatments/adaptations from teh Tao of Pooh to the Tao of
Physics. All of this, as Klein points out, present Taoism in its
philosophical rather than its more "vulgar" practices and traditions.
However, I'd add that I don't think the neat distinction between these two
can be so easy made as he seems to suggest. Li Po for one had a good deal
of the "vulgar" Taoism mixed in with his work, which I take it is why he
seems such a different Taoist from, say, Wang Wei. My impression is that
the Western concept of Taoism is a very academic one, a purified
philosophical conception -- obviously, Pound was designating something else
by the term, however, inadequately.
 
Having said this, I have to say that what may sound like my scepticism
concerning garden variety Western intellectuals' understanding of Taoism is
primarily a recognition that my own knowledge of the topic is poor, to say
the least.
 
Jeff Twitchell-Waas
 
 
 
 
Dear Daniel Pearlman, Jeff Twitchell-Wass and friends,
>
> I have a couple of questions about your
> stimulating discussion on Taoism and E.P.
>
> Daniel,
> I am interested in your suggestion that E.P.'s latent
> Taoism is derived from American transcendentalism as his
> philosophical tendency. If you have already discussed
> it in a published work, would you please tell it to me?
>
> Jeff,
> Concerning your fundamental questions, "what is
> specifically Taoist in E.P.?" and so on, could you
> or anyone suggest me that  1)what was the most prevailing
> source (probably written in English) to know "Taoism"
> for "intellectual Westerners" including E.P. during
> the first half of this century?
> 2) also at present?
>
> I am afraind that I'm not knowledgeable enough to conrtibute
> anything to your current discussion, however, any
> information would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Yoshiko Kita
> (Ibaraki, Japan)