Ezra Pound's 'Poetico-Political Mission' and the Revival of Confucianism in Modern China

Abstract

The following essay attempts to compare and collate Ezra Pound's poetico-political 'mission' of redeeming the West through his interpretations, translations and commentaries of the Confucian system of thinking with the ongoing revival of Confucius in China. Did Pound's poetico-political visions of a Confucian framework for the Western world consider whether or not Confucianism had ever taken root in Ancient China much less in modern China ? Is present day China's return to the Old Master a re-idolisation of him or a promotional stimulus to her globalising crusade ? Or can this return be interpreted as the spiritual and cultural asset to sustain and nurture her global élan ? Where does the 'real' Figure of Confucius lie between Pound's poetico-political 'mission' and China's own mission to influence the world ? Indeed, my readings of Pound's meditations on Confucian thinking, and their poetic and political implications in today's ever-expanding Chinese economy, may explain, relatively speaking, the Chinese Communist Party's need to accompany its economic and technological discourses, challenges and drives by a Mentor whose towering momentiousness, however 'ancient' or 'antiquated', confers to these discourses, challenges and drives, a powerful civilising Figure, whose rectitude, probity and virtue quell or mitigate any untoward consequence of these economic and technological adventures, purvey them a sound and stable humanised or enlightened resource.

Keywords: Confucius-Ezra Pound-Cantos-globalization-mission-Order-Beauty-Harmony-Analects

DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/79-04

Publication date: April 30^th 2022