Yoshiko Kita-- Tardy response to your query. I actually don't have any good answers for you. Again, Robert Kern's Orientalism, Modernism and the American Poem (1996) deals extensively with Emerson's dialogue with Orientalism and in turn his presence in both Fenollosa and Pound. The nexis of these three and the symbiosis of transcendentalism and China seems to me to be at the heart of his study. As for where Pound may have had more or less direct contact with discussions of Taoism, Zhaoming Qian mentions H.A. Giles' Chuang Tzu: Mysitc, Moralist and Social Reformer (1889), although I don't think there is any direct evidence that Pound consulted this book. Presumably some of it would be present in Giles' History of Chinese Literature which we know was very important to Pound. There would also be James Legge's translations with commentary Texts of Taoism (2 volumes I think), but again whether there is evidence Pound read these is unclear. I think there must have been any number of Wisdom of the East type books circulating about that would include accounts of Taoism. Where intellectual type Westerners would be likely to get their ideas of Taoism, I'm not sure either. Aside from the many readily available translations with commentary of Laozi and Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu), I half suspect much of this gets mixed up with Beat Zen and the like (did Alan Watts write on Taoism??). There was also the immensely popular book of the '70s Tao and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanance, which was taken with some seriousness by even high-brow types. Now there are any number of more or less popular treatments/adaptations from teh Tao of Pooh to the Tao of Physics. All of this, as Klein points out, present Taoism in its philosophical rather than its more "vulgar" practices and traditions. However, I'd add that I don't think the neat distinction between these two can be so easy made as he seems to suggest. Li Po for one had a good deal of the "vulgar" Taoism mixed in with his work, which I take it is why he seems such a different Taoist from, say, Wang Wei. My impression is that the Western concept of Taoism is a very academic one, a purified philosophical conception -- obviously, Pound was designating something else by the term, however, inadequately. Having said this, I have to say that what may sound like my scepticism concerning garden variety Western intellectuals' understanding of Taoism is primarily a recognition that my own knowledge of the topic is poor, to say the least. Jeff Twitchell-Waas Dear Daniel Pearlman, Jeff Twitchell-Wass and friends, > > I have a couple of questions about your > stimulating discussion on Taoism and E.P. > > Daniel, > I am interested in your suggestion that E.P.'s latent > Taoism is derived from American transcendentalism as his > philosophical tendency. If you have already discussed > it in a published work, would you please tell it to me? > > Jeff, > Concerning your fundamental questions, "what is > specifically Taoist in E.P.?" and so on, could you > or anyone suggest me that 1)what was the most prevailing > source (probably written in English) to know "Taoism" > for "intellectual Westerners" including E.P. during > the first half of this century? > 2) also at present? > > I am afraind that I'm not knowledgeable enough to conrtibute > anything to your current discussion, however, any > information would be greatly appreciated. > > Thank you, > > Yoshiko Kita > (Ibaraki, Japan)