Ezra Pound and Confucianism : remaking humanism in the face of modernity / Feng Lan.

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In Ezra Pound and Confucianism, Feng Lan offers the first study of Ezra Pound's project of establishing a Confucian humanism as an alternative to Western modernism.

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CHOICE Review

A reworked doctoral dissertation, this study is welcome in light of the dearth of scholarship on the influence of Confucianism on Pound's thought. Lan (Florida State Univ.) argues that Pound, turning from the West's dehumanizing capitalist modernity, created a new humanist discourse by fusing elements of Confucianism with elements of the Western intellectual tradition. The resulting fusion offered new strategies for coping with such problems as "the tension between the modern individual and the cultural tradition, the formation of the nation-state, natural environment, [and] crisis of spiritual beliefs." Dividing Pound's "Confucian project" into three phases--imitative, creative, and comprehensive--the author examines Pound's "misreadings" of Confucian scriptures and Confucianism's influence on Pound's rethinking of language, politics, and spiritual beliefs. In four successive chapters, Lan traces the development of Pound's new humanism, citing relevant sections from The Cantos. Lan's concluding chapter sketches the West's engagement with Confucianism and then evaluates Pound's Confucian humanism within this historical context. Lan concludes that Pound's pioneer work anticipates the "modern transformation of Confucianism." The study profits from Lan's familiarity with Chinese as well as English. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. J. C. Kohl emerita, Dutchess Community College