My recollection is that Dorothy owned a set of the complete works or Voltaire, and Pound of course used De Mailla's Histoire Generale de la Chine as the principal source for the Chinese Cantos. Yeats, I believe, once remarked that Pound's Confucius resembled an 18th century intellectual, powdered wig and all. My own sense is that he was very much drawn to 18th-century political thought. Cheers! Tim Redman On Mon, 24 Jan 2000 17:20:40 -0500 "R.Gancie/C.Parcelli" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Does anybody know if Pound got any of his Confucious/Mencius through the > French Physiocrats? The Physiocrats are said to have introduced > Confucian thought to the Enlightenment. Under Quesnay they also > constituted an economic school of thought. Though the material I have > read has been somewhat contradictory, it appears that they stressed the > importance of the agrarian over the trade aspects of an economy. Some > commentators somewhat contradictorily point out that the Physiocrats > also stressed a laissez faire, anti-governmental approach to > mercantilism. > I'm familiar with Pound's connections to Fenollosa, Upward and his > possible reading of Pauthier (Stock) who probably reprises Quesnay and > the Physiocrats in his works, but does anyone know of a more direct > route from the Physiocrats to Pound? > The fact that they comprised an economic school would have appealed to > Pound. Their texts and translations would have been readily availble to > Pound. Their anti-government interference stance would have appealed to > the rightist, libertarian dimension of Pound's nature. The Physiocrats > thought was influential (along with Locke) as regards the American > founding fathers e.g. Adams and Jefferson. They've got everything going > for them yet I can't find any connection. Carlo Parcelli > -- > ÐÏࡱ Tim Redman School of Arts and Humanities, JO 31 University of Texas at Dallas P.O. Box 830688 Richardson, TX 75083-0688 (972) 883-2775 (o) (972) 883-2989 (fax)