Chung1 (or Zhong) is one the most frequently used characters in Chinese, and
has an extremely large number of meanings.  Pound uses it, or a variation on
it, at least nine times in the Cantos.  Properly represented it looks
something like this.

               I
               I
               I
               I
    ---------- I ----------
   I           I           I
   I           I           I
   I           I           I
   I           I           I
    ---------- I ----------
               I
               I
               I
               I

It is essentially a square with a vertical line drawn through to signify
centrality or the middle.

This is the first character in the word Zhongguo (which literally means
middle country, center country, or the middle kingdom).  This signifies
China, and for Chinese the character zhong by itself means China in many
contexts, and can be used to modify other words to signify "something
Chinese."  For instance, when "zhong" is added to "wen", a word meaning
language, we get "zhongwen", meaning the Chinese language.

The character zhong can signify, depending on the context, all of the
following :  Traditional Chinese, midday, center, heart, midlevel, medium,
between, intermediate, suspend, Communist (as in Zhonggong), centrality,
polytechnic, as well as the mean, the middle way, the center, neutral, and
other simpler words, such as "in" or "among".

So we can easily choose to interpret the meaning of the character to be
whatever we wish to read into it.  The same is true for Pound, and the same
is true for Confucius.

Carpenter reports that in a letter Pound wrote to W. Lewis, he "signed EZ
with the E, in the shape of a swastika"
(Carpenter, 558).  I have not seen the letter myself, but I think it
reasonable to take Carpenter at his word.  I pointed out before that Pound
wrote the swastika symbol in his notes to Canto 54, where he describes
Hitler and Mussolini watching submarine maneuvers, and depicts the Chinese
empire at its high point. (Nolde is the source for this observation).

One can choose to interpret such things in various ways.  Mr. Moody, for
instance, may choose to interpret Pound's use of Chung1 (zhong) as
indicative of the poets search for the principle of the pivot, or the
center, or "the mean" as expressed in Chinese philosophy.  He may interpret
the Confucian concepts apolitically.  This is his choice.  Furthermore, if
Mr. Moody wishes to interpret the poetry as something apart from the prose
and the radio broadcasts, he may choose to do so.  Tim Romano may choose to
interpret certain passages of the poetry in the light of certain prose
passages.  That is his right.  After all, each of is guided by our own
principles of selectivity.

For example, when reading in the opening of the Pisan Cantos the line, "Thus
Ben and la Clara at Milano . . .", I could choose to ignore that particular
line and leave it out.  I could read the passage without that reference to
Mussolini, or interpret it to be something other than a reference to
Mussolini.

In fact, when reading the first page of the Cantos, I might choose to leave
out all the vowels, in which case we would get

nd th n w nt d wn t th sh p . . .

Perhaps I dislike vowels and find them unattractive, or I believe they ruin
the aesthetic effect of the poem.  So I could choose not to read them.

I believe in the absolute freedom of the interpreter.  So that if I were an
interpreter who liked Hitler MORE than Pound did, I could read the first
line of the Cantos this way

And then HITLER HITLER went down HITLER to the HITLER ship HITLER HITLER
HITLER . . .

My own opinion (OPINION, mind you) is that Pound liked Chung1, he liked
Confucius, he liked Mussolini, and he liked Hitler; and that he thought they
were all compatible.  And I also believe that he SAID they were all
compatible (on numerous occasions).

But he also liked the word "and" (which is used quite freqently in the
Cantos, more often than the word, Chung, or the word, Confucius, or the word
Mussolini).  So it might be more accurate to say that the essence of Pound's
thought is contained in the word "and"  ( or maybe in the letter "a", which
he used even more often than the word "and").

We are all free to choose our own interpretations!!!

Let us exercise that freedom.

Regards,

Wei



       ____
               I
               I
               I
    ---------- I ----------
   I           I           I
   I           I           I
   I           I           I
   I           I           I
    ---------- I ----------
               I
               I
               I____






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