Wei,
I do not doubt that you are correct with respect to its central importance
for Pound, but you have merely asserted, and have not demonstrated, that the
Ta Hio was considered by Pound  to be a "metaphysical" and "theological"
document.  The "axe" metaphor suggests that Pound saw the Ta Hio, if
anything, as an "anti-metaphysical" document, something with which to cut
through the "jungle" of "Western idealism".  Rather like Occam's razor. And
the remaining quotes you have offered, while they do go to your point about
the weight Pound assigned this document, indicate that Pound regarded the Ta
Hio as primarily a secular document, i.e. a document governing the mundane
behavior of peoples engaging in social intercourse and civilized commerce.
The problem Pound identified in the predominant strains of western
judeo-christian idealism, is that, with its eye on eschatology, it was
otherworldy, rejecting the notion of individual and collective human
achievement, and infusing human sexuality with guilt. This strain of western
religious teaching (a typical tract would be "On Generation and Corruption")
would create more T.S. Eliots, not more William Carlos Williamses.
Tim Romano

You wrote:

> [...] Those who take Pound at his word NEED TO EXPLAIN THIS.  The Ta Hio,
Pound
> says, offers to untangle all the problems of Western thought.
>
>   [T]he whole of Western idealism is a jungle. Christian
>   theology is a jungle. To think through it, to reduce it
>   to some semblance of order, there is no better axe
>    than the Ta Hio
>        (SP, 78).
>
> In addition to providing the solution to theoretical problems of both a
> metaphysical and theological nature, the
> sacred work is, according to Pound, a fount of moral values.
>
>   There exists passage after passage in our serious
>   medieval thinkers which contains the terms 'virtu,'
>   virtus, with vivid and dynamic meaning.  But it is
>   precisely the kind of thought that is now atrophied
>   in the Occident.  This is precisely how we do not
>   now think.
>    It is for these values that we have need of
>   Ta Hio . . .
>    (SP, 78).
>
> Pound goes on to point out that the usefulness of the book lies not merely
> in the fact that it possesses
> solutions to both moral and theoretical problems.  The Ta Hio can also be
> used to  to combat social chaos in
> "barbarous" nations.
>
>   The 'value' of Confucius to the Modern World is not,
>   I think we may agree, limited to medicinal value for
>   the Occident.  There is visible and raging need of the
>   Ta Hio in barbarous countries like Spain and Russia,
>   but above all questions of emergency, of hypodermic
>   injection or strait-jacket for fever patients and lunatics,
>   there is also a question of milder and continuous hygiene.
>    No one has ever yet exhausted the wisdom of the
>   forty-six ideograms of the first chapter
>        (SP, 79).
>
> "NO ONE HAS EVERY YET EXHAUSTED THE WISDOM . . ."   Quite a superlative !!
> These ideograms which constitute the first chapter of the Ta Hio could, so
> Pound thought , solve problems of every
> sort --  theoretical, religious, moral, socio-political -- could even
> eliminate mass starvation.  Here he delineates the problem in a more
> detailed fashion.
>
>   We are oppressed by powerful persons who lie, who
>   have no curiosity, who smear the world and their
>   high offices with Ersatz sincerity . . . [who] dare not
>   investigate this that and the other, and so forth . . .
>   Neither does so-and-so nor his colleague (protected
>   by libel laws) dare read the Ta Hio.
>    Name, nomen, cognomen, etc., dare not be
>   left alone in a lighted room with this document.  They
>   cannot face the forty-six characters in the solitude of
>   their library.  All this testifies to the strength of the
>   chapter and to their need of it.  Men suffer malnutrition
>   by millions because their overlords dare not read the
>   Ta Hio
>    (SP, 80).
>
> Pretty strong words !!!  In light of such quotes, how can anyone
controvert
> the assertion that Pound was an orthodox Confucian?  Does Pound speak that
> way about any other specific religious or metaphysical work ?!?!
>
> Regards,
>
> Wei
>
> http://www.geocities.com/weienlin/poundindex.html
>
> -------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
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