The question has been posed: Did Pound believe Confucius was simply a moral philosopher, or did he see a close connection between Confucianism and fascism? I noted in an earlier post that Pound used ideograms, such as Hsin1 to link up the Confucianism and fascism. POUND HIMSELF connected the symbolism of Hsin1 with the symbolism of the fasces. We can look at one or two more examples. Hsin1 * was not the only ideogram which Pound saw as an emblem of fascist government. He also employed the character * Ping "to grasp," placing it beneath the German word Sagetrieb (coined by Pound and intended to mean "pass on the tradition"). Next to the character he wrote the words "as the hand grasps the wheat" (85.559). The ideograph does depict * a hand gripping an ear of grain * . Terrell notes that the character probably "caught Pound's eye because the basic [Italian] Fascist symbol is a hand holding together many spears of wheat." Would anyone wish to accuse Terrell of deliberately making a false connection in this case? The appearance of the symbol underneath the German "Sagetrieb" may have been intended to signify Pound's desire that the Confucian tradition of government should be passed on. At the bottom of the page (in one of his rare prose notes to the Cantos) Pound writes, Kung said that he added nothing. Canto 85 is a somewhat detailed confirmation of Kung's view that the basic principles of government are found in the Shu, the History Classic (85. 559). Eleven lines above this is the phrase "Dead in Piazzale Loreto," a reference to the spot where Mussolini died. The juxtaposition of a "fascist" ideograph and the reference to Mussolini's death, at such a late date (1955), clearly indicates that Pound had not renounced fascism. Note also that Pound speaks here of Kung's views about "the principles of government," that Kung is conceived as a political philosopher, and not as a simple moral philosopher. Pound realizes that since Mussolini is dead, and he himself is imprisoned, in St. Elizabeth's mental hospital, others will have to "pass on the tradition." The German word "Sagetrieb" was important to Pound. Part of its significance lay in the fact that the Nazi movement in Germany, in Pound's view, had served to confirm Mussolini's political doctrine. Pound associated a particular ideogram with Nazism in a one-page tract called "Communications." The character * Chung1 "center, or mean" is writ large in the center of the page. The similarity between Chung1 and the vorticist emblem has already been noted other critics. In this context it bears a certain resemblance to the Nazi swastika, especially since it is placed in close proximity to the words, written in bold capitals -- "THE NAZI MOVEMENT IN GERMANY."1 Now why does Pound place the character Chung1 (Center) next to the phrase "THE NAZI MOVEMENT IN GERMANY", unless he means to draw a connection between German fascism and philosophic concept embodied in the ideogram? Is it conceivable that Pound does not wish to draw together the central concepts of Nazism and Confucianism by using this symbol as he does? Both the swastika and Chung1*convey the idea of centeredness; both convey the idea of a still center from which motion emanates, an "unwobbling pivot" as Pound called it. In "Communications" Pound wishes to express the idea that, as society evolves, "money becomes the PIVOT of all social action" (Townsman, April 1939, 12). Pound points out that he is not alone in believing this: Der Kampf gegen das internationale Finanz und Leihkapital ist zum wichtigsten Programmpunkt. War on international finance and LOAN CAPITAL becomes the most weighty etc. in the struggle towards freedom. Adolf Hitler, Meinkampf, 1924 ("Communications"). No one doubts Pound's admiration for Hitler, I think, in light of this quote, and in light of numerous statements of praise Pound makes elsewhere. Beneath the symbol* Chung1 Pound writes in a somewhat Fuhreresque style, Only a race of slaves and idiots will be inattentive thereafter to the said pivot, the measure and memo- randum. Historians who neglect it in their writings are mere infants and any historian henceforth who commits such neglect deserves less than the pimp or the maitre de bordel. He is the ally of corruption, he is the carrier of every baccillus of evil. ("Communications"). There is no mention of Mussolini in this tract, though the compilation of quotations concludes with another from Hitler, and a note on its relation to the history of Chinese political thought. The position of a country abroad depends exclusively on its organization and INTERNAL coherence Der Fuhrer, 1939. (which is also Confucius' 5th paragraph of the Great Learning preceding the chapters by Thseng-Tseu Ta Hio). ("Communications"). The equation of Hitler's view of statecraft with the ideas of Confucius, made beneath the large Chinese character, serves as another indication of the poet's desire to fuse fascism and Chinese historico-political practice, and to have such a fusion symbolized concretely, in this case by the ideogram * Chung1. So we have here a clear statement by Pound that DER FUHRER'S STATEMENT IS ALSO THE SAME STATEMENT CONTAINED IN A CONFUCIAN TEXT. Pound believes they are the same. POUND HIMSELF EQUATES THEM. The ideogram Chung1, "middle or mean," is used numerous times by Pound in the Cantos. In another form * Chung4 is a name for Kung (Confucius). Philosophically speaking, it is used by Pound to represent the Confucian "doctrine of the mean." Pound's version of the doctrine, which he presents in his version of the "Chung Yung -- The Unwobbling Pivot," is that, The word "chung" signifies what is bent neither to one side nor to the other. The word "yung" signifies unchanging. What exists plumb in the middle is the just process of the universe and that which never wavers or wobbles is the calm principle of its mode of action (Con., 4). Strictly speaking this is an ethical doctrine, or at least would seem to be. But the doctrine of the mean has had profound political implications, and it is no coincidence that both Pound and numerous Marxist Chinese historians have agreed, although for different reasons, that the Confucian doctrine is consistent with fascist political aspirations. One contemporary Chinese critic of the doctrine, Cheh Chen, in an article entitled "Confucius' Doctrine of the Mean, a Philosophy of Opposition to Social Change," traces the use of the philosophy by different dynasties to maintain "the sacredness and inviolability of the feudal hierarchy." Speaking of the situation in mid-20th century China, Cheh Chen writes many tried in vain to use the threadbare doctrine of the mean to maintain . . . fascist landlord and comprador bour- geois dictatorship . . . In a word "everyone follows his nature, everyone enjoys his place and there are no conflicts . . ." (Cheh Chen, in Yang, Selected Articles, 56). While such a critique of Confucian doctrine may appear extreme, it is not untypical of a large body of criticism which began to be generated within China, long before the ascendancy of communism. Since the founding of the Chinese Republic in 1911, philosophers who sought to promote Western-style democracy, such as Ch'en Tu-hsiu, had begun to argue that "Confucian religion and republicanism cannot coexist. To promote one means to abandon the other" (Kam, 6). Thus, the study of the relationship between Chinese social history and Pound's philosophical development yields yet another irony: he attaches himself to Confucian philosophy at a time when its influence was rapidly declining. To miss this is to miss one of the greatest literary and historical ironies of the 20th century. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com