Actually, Wei, you are just the person to help me with an aspect of one
of my projects. I posed this question to the list before and got a small
but not detailed response. Recent reference to the Histoire de la Chine
reminded me of it. Is there any evidence that Pound came to his
knowledge of Confucious through the French Physiocrats. I have
encountered a number of instances where it is mentioned that the
Physiocrats translated Chinese texts and imbued their own approaches to
ecomonics and philosophy with Chinese agrarian principles. Quesnay, an
economist, of course was a leading light. The snug fit with Pound's
predilections is suggestive though a perusal of Quesnay's economic
theory has proven problematic. I haven't read the Histoire de la Chine.
My work on Pound included reading three one volume histories of China at
least one translated from the French. I read a lot of Confucious to
engage Pound. I read a lot of Taoism for myself. Carlo Parcelli