The Factors That Influenced Ezra Pound’s Translation and Introduction of Chinese Culture

Abstract

As a leading figure of Imagism in the early 20th century, Ezra Pound advocated guiding principles for the American New Poetry. It is quite well known that Ezra Pound was greatly influenced by Chinese culture. It is not only shown in Pound’s Cathy which consists of nineteen Chinese poems, but also proved by Pound’s introduction of Chinese Confucianism in his epic writing “Cantos”. The article aims at clarifying the factors that influenced Pound’s translation and introduction of Chinese culture in the light of aesthetics of reception and polysystem theory. The first part of the paper focuses on a brief introduction of the above theories. The second part mainly deals with the two factors exerting on Pound’s translation and introduction of Chinese culture: one is, Chinese poems represents “a new form of literature” that Pound has been seeking for a long time, that is to say, ancient Chinese poetry satisfied his expectations. The other is Ezra Pound purposed to utilize Chinese Confucian as a model for solving social problems in the chaotic, disintegrating western world