CANTO LIV

 Ezra Pound The Cantos New York: New Directions, 1998. 255

Canto 54 overview 

From the Warring States to the decline of the Tang: 279 BC – 805 AD

The poem starts with an anchor into the preceding canto during the last decades of the Warring States period; Battle of Jimo 279 BC is embedded into the wars between the states of Chu and Yan in canto 53. These states were the strongest competitors to the Qin state, which would conquer them by 221 BC.

The Qin dynasty, 221-206 BC. Pound does not include the conquest and unification of empire under the Emperor Qin Shi Huang – just the burning of the books and the unravelling of the dynasty after his death.

The Western Han dynasty 202 BC-23 AD – full picture of the dynasty, almost every emperor mentioned, with the exception of the usurper Wang Mang who created a hiatus: his Xin dynasty (9-23 AD), followed by two years of civil war, split the Han era into two periods: Western Han (202 BC–9) and Eastern Han (25-220 AD). 

Eastern Han [period after the Wang Mang interlude] – 23-220 AD.

The Three Kingdoms period, 221-263 AD. No detailed summary of the full period, just the turning points when the state of Wei conquers the Shu state in 263 and then the Wu in 280. After the Shu victory, the new dynasty of [Western] Jin emerges in 265.  

Western Jin dynasty – 265–317. All emperors but the last one receive a mention in the canto. Uprising of the five barbarians who sack first Luoyang in 311 and then Chang’an in 316.

Sima Rui flees south of the Huai River, establishing himself as Yuan of Jin, the founder of the Eastern Jin dynasty in 317.

The Eastern Jin, 317-420. A dynasty south of the Hoai River, with the capital at Jiankang (today’s Nanjing).

Northern and Southern Dynasties – 420-479. During this period, the Eastern Jin falls by means of a coup. The winner establishes the Liu Song dynasty, 420-479, the first of of the short-lived dynasties of Liu Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen. The Northern states consolidate under the rule of the Wei dynasty (439-534 AD) founded by the Tuoba clan in 439.

Pound insists more on the southern dynasties and then returns with a few lines on the Wei, especially on Emperor Xiaowen (408-452 AD), who consolidated Buddhism in China and moved the Wei capital to Luoyang.           

The Sui dynasty, 589-618. The founder of the dynasty reintegrates North and South and establishes a new dynasty covering the whole of China. The dynasty is short-lived under the pressure of the civil works programs that the Emperor Yang of Sui imposes on the population, especially the Grand canal and the Great Wall.

The Sui is destroyed by a rebellion of its chancellor, Li Yuan and his family, who establish a new dynasty, the Tang, in 618. 

Tang dynasty, 618-907. Pound presents the reign of Emperor Taizong in greater detail and surveys rapidly his successors. 

The canto ends with the death of Tang Emperor Dezong, in 805.

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CANTO XLIX [the “old king” - Emperor Yang of Sui]