Language Lessons: Pound's Letters to his Chinese Friends

This review examines Zhaoming Qian's newest contribution to the field of Pound studies, Ezra Pound's Chinese Friends, a collection of 162 previously uncollected letters between Pound and Chinese scholars of his acquaintance. Qian's collection answers fundamental questions that have long troubled Pound scholars: How well did Pound know Chinese? What were his translation practices, his dictionaries? Was he guided by eighteenth and nineteenth century Orientalist versions of Chinese projects, or did he seek guidance from Chinese scholars directly? Qian's carefully edited collection resolves these and other uncertainties regarding Pound's Chinese influences and his Confucian philosophy.