You are on page 1of 12

Sexual life of the Middle Kingdom in the

Earlier Imperial Era, on the example of


Six Dynastys period.
History of Chinese sexuality and erotica is still in certain degree a subject,
that is not acknowledged enough by western sinologists. There are many
vague hints, misunderstandings and doubts. However, it could be predict,
that in near future there will be significant growth of publications
dedicated to those matters. The obvious cause of it is the increasing
interest of contemporary humanistic studies in the issues of carnality,
gender relations and history of marginalized groups such as women and
non-heteronormative individuals (feminism and queer studies). Challenge,
that is ahead of modern sinologists is rather great, because after the
publication of Roberts van Gulik classic work Sexual Life in Ancient China:
A Preliminary Survey of Chinese Sex and Society from ca. 1500 B.C. till
1644 A.D (first print 1961), there was no other as ambitious attempt (by a
Western scientist) to synthesise gathered knowledge about sexual life of
the pre-modern Chinese society in long historical perspective. But it has to
be remarked that some of the thesis presented in van Guliks work now are
outdated and has been criticized by such authors like Paul Rakita Goldin,
Charlotte Furth or Derek Bodde. No less van Guliks work still remains one
of the most important sources of knowledge about the history of sexual
habits, philosophy and culture of the Celestial Empire.
In this brief survey author will attempt to explain the nature of the
former Chinese sexual life, contracting mainly on the Six Dynasties period
(220-589). The source material used in the survey are The Ars Amatoria Of
Master Tung-Hsan and The Records of The Bedchamber by Fang-Nei-Chi.
Both handbook was partly translated by van Gulik in his Erotic Colour
Prints of the Ming Period and as he stated: present a cross-section of the

more important ancient chinese handbooks of sex which circulated during


the first five or six centuries of our era1.
Firstly the study will show the social context of the sexuality in the postHan China, as van Gulik perceived it. Then the author will present some of
the controversies pointed out by more recent scientist in reference to the
van Guliks conception. After that, the author will attempt to analyse the
mentioned sources.
The social context of Chinese sexual life
In the beginning it has to be remarked that unlike the Christians, the
former Chinese (at least till the end of the Early Empire era) did not
perceived the sexual activities as sinful. It does not mean of course that
various powers for specified reasons (moral, political, religious, legal, etc.)
did not strive to erect taboos or certain restrictions 2. But beside those
limitations, for example it was forbidden to seduce or to have an
intercourse whit own mother or stepmother, there was none internal
boundaries forbidding pleasure derived from sex (especially if it was
somehow temperate). So, between the wealthy Chinese males (mainly
gentry) it was ubiquitous to have more than one wife, and beside that,
sheering the bedchamber also whit concubines and maids. It was even
recommended to mate whit more than one partner for various rezones
witch will be discussed later. In the opinion of van Gulik, the sexual life of
the Chinese in the discussed period was quite free (as for the Chinese
standards) and the emphasis on the separation of sexes was not as
rigorous as in the later eras. The orthodox Confucian thought was rather
strict in relation to womens duties and their position in the social
hierarchy, which were precisely articulated in Lady Pans Chiao (died 116
1R. H. van Gulik, Erotic Colour Prints of the Ming Period : With an Essay on
Chinese Sex Life from the Han to the Ch'ing Dynasty, B.C. 206- A.D. 1644, vol. I,
Leiden, Boston 2004 , p.65.
2 P. R. Goldin, The Cultural and Religious Background of Sexual Vampirism in
Ancient China, Theology & Sexuality, 2006, Volume 12(3), p. 306.

AD) Nu-chieh. But van Gulik argues that it was not implicitly obeyed jet 3.
To support his thesis he quotes fragment of Ko Hungs (283-343) Pao-pu
tzu:
The vulgar women of today cease their business of sericulture and weaving; they let
lapse their duty [to make] black cap-tassels; they do not spin their hemp; but they
sashay around in the marketplace. They abandon matters pertaining to food and drink
and cultivate their circle of friends. They pay visits to each other and go to their relatives.
When the stars come out, they bear torches and do not stop their travels. They take
many servants and followers, resplendently overflowing the roads. Their maidservants,
menservants, envoys, and guards form a throng as at a marketplace. On the road they
jest lewdly; it is detestable and hateful. Sometimes they stay overnight at other homes;
sometimes they brave the night and return. They wander and play at Buddhist
monasteries; they watch fishermen and farmers; they ascend peaks and draw near to the
rivers; they leave their districts for celebrations and funerals. They ride in their carriages
with the curtains spread open and go around the city. Cups and goblets are poured in the
streets, and they play songs as they go along.

Van Gulik states that this fragment describes the behaviour in daily
life of women in Ko Hungs times. It can be imagined that the unmoral
ways of the IV century women were for the Chinese author a signee of
developing demoralization and the crisis of old values. But for van Gulik it
was probably a proof for his vison of Chinese sexual life. Derek Bodde
summarizes this vision in the following words: major thesis in van Gulik's
1961 study of Chinese sexual life that Confucian puritanism assumed
prominence only from the thirteenth century (late Sung dynasty) onward,
and became an obsession only during the Ch'ing dynasty (1644- 1911),
when the Chinese showed a nearly frantic desire to keep their sexual life
secret from all outsiders. 4 But before those times sexual activity was not
treat as something that should be oppressed. Matters of sex was widely
discussed in bedchamber manuals (fang shu) witch circulated openly
between late Han and early Thang era 5. The texts form the Han period
(Art of Bedchamber manuals) were concentrated mainly on promoting
3 R. H. van Gulik, Sexual Life in Ancient China: A Preliminary Survey of Chinese
Sex and Society from ca. 1500 B.C. till 1644 A.D, Leiden 1974, p. 103.
4 D. Bodde, Sex in Chinese Civilization, American Philosophical Society
Proceedings, 129, 1985, p. 166.

health of both partners and procreation. The taostic manuals, on the other
hand, presented a different point of view. Taoist were interested in
improving the techniques of gathering womans chi through sexual acts,
but whit out any loss of own (male) chi, by usage of the coitus interruptus
method. Acquiring perfection in preventing ejaculation, as it was believed,
should guarantee longevity or even aid the adept in his quest for the
greatest achievement - immortality. Though, it have to be mentioned that
coitus interruptus was recommended by the (somehow) traditional or
mainstream bedchamber art masters as well. The difference between
them and the Taoists was the final goal (respectively procreation and
longevity) and the attitude to women. Van Gulik states that taositic sexual
vampirism should be considered as quite apart from the mainstream
bedchamber art rather related to the Confucian thought, but evoking even
older tradition of the ancient Chinese cosmology (sex act as a
representation of union of Heaven and Earth)6.

The controversies
Despite this distinction, van Guliks interpretation of the Chinses sexual
customs is mainly positive and considering that man should give the
woman complete satisfaction every time he copulates with her 7, it can be
said that the relations between the sexes regarding to pleasure was if not
equal, then at least quite similar for more than two thousand years. Derek
Bodde argues though, that in reality the Chinese attitude toward sex was
5 C. Furth, Rethinking van Gulik, [in:] Engendering China: Women, Culture, and
the State, ed. C. K. Gilmartin, G. Hershatter, L. Rofel, T. White, 1994, p. 127.
6 R. H. van Gulik, Erotic Colour Prints, p. 13.
7 R. H. van Gulik, Sexual Life in, p. 97.

far more ambiguous and for most of the imperial era rather oppressive 8.
For him, the first signs of the increasing social conservatism and
masculinism could be found in the end of Thang or beginning of Sung
period9. Also Fung Fu Ruan states that China start becoming a sex close
and negative country from the beginning of the Late Imperial age 10.
Different way of conceptualizing the subject was proposed by Paul Rakita
Goldin. Author of Culture of sex in Ancient China also refers to Ko Hungs
Pao-pu tzu, but his approach to the quoted earlier fragment is distinct. He
says that Ko Hungs observations were already outdated11. The detailed
analysis of the post-Han China discourse related to sex and sexuality
shows that the intellectual climate prevailing in the disintegrated empire
was much more revolutionary, unorthodox and somehow unique in the
Chinese history. The rituals (seen as empty forms) was not only
questioned, but intentionally disobeyed. For example family members did
not referred to each other by honorific tiles. Goldin illustrates such
situation by a paraphrase of the passage from Huo-ni: When Wang Anfeng (i.e., Wang Jung, 234305) reprimanded his wife for calling him ching
and thereby being disrespectful according to the rites, she replied
disarmingly, I am intimate with you and I love you; therefore I call you
you. If I do not call you you, who should call you you? He never
complained about it again12.
Directness and intimacy of this short quarrel between a married couple is
(possibly) not only representative for the post-Han era, but also exceeding
for the whole Chinese history of socials customs. It give us the imagination
of how different from were the gender relation, fundamental for the
characteristics of the sexual life, in the relatively short time between Han
8 D. Bodde, op. cit., p. 168.
9 Ibid., p. 166.
10 F. F. Ruan, Sex in China. Studies in Sexology in Chinese Culture, New York
1991, p. 8.
11 P. R. Goldin, The Culture of Sex in Ancient China, Honolulu 2002, p. 115.
12 Ibid., p. 116.

and Sui rule. After the rise of the centralized empire the subjects had to be
subordinated again, and he range of freedoms had to be limited to keep
the Middle Kingdom united. The old ways had to be reset, and that also
refers to sexual life.

Philosophical background of the sexual intercourse


Before some of the ideas presented in the handbooks mentioned before
could be discussed, it is mandatory to explain briefly the Yin-Yang doctrine,
because it became the basis of Chinese sexual philosophy 13. In the
traditional Chinese cosmology all the products of reality, as well as
objects, events and phenomena are made of primal matter chi (qi). In the
perceived world chi manifest itself in the form of one of two aspects:
active Yang, which is related to Heaven, positive and constructive force,
masculinity and also connotes fire, sun, and men sexual organs (Yang Ju),
and there is passive Yin - related whit femininity, Earth, destruction,
weakness and womans gentiles (Yin Tao). It could be said that Yin and
Yang are the essences of sexes, that shape bodies as well as minds of
males or females. Also it have to be noted that chi in humans organisms
can occur in condensed form (ching), and for man it was conceived as
seamen. For woman ching was manifested in her vaginal secretions. It was
chi in respectively ultimate Yang or Yin sate. Because emission of seamen
diminish mans vital force, the ejaculation frequency has to be strictly
controlled, and preferably limited only to intercourse serving siring an
offspring. However this rule do not apply to womens ching, since her
supply of Yin is considered as us unlimited in quantity, at least in van
Guliks interpretation14.

After that has been said, we can move on to

analyses of the first source material.

13 F. F. Ruan, op. cit., p. 15.


14 R. H. van Gulik, Erotic colour prints, p. 8.

The Handbooks analysis


As in most of the Art of Bedchambers manuals the knowledge comes
from mythical figures, namely Plain (Primordial) Girl, Dark Girl or
Elected (Wise) Girl. There should be two more mythical Girls, but the
sources are silent about their names. The one, whit whom, they often
share their knowledge with is the Yellow Emperor. But in case of The Ars
Amatoria Of Master Tung-Hsan, the reader encounters hints expressed by
the Master himself, listed by an anonymous listener or pupil. The Records
of The Bedchamber on the other hand is record of a dialog between the
mythical figures. Parts, witch author of this survey perceives as the most
significant will be quoted15, and the rest will be summarized.
Master Tung-hsan said: Of all the ten thousand things created by Heaven, man is the
most precious. Of all things that make man prosper none can be compared with sexual
intercourse. It is modeled after Heaven and takes its pattern by Earth, it regulates Yin
and rules Yang. Those who understand its significance can nurture their nature and
prolong their years; those who miss its true meaning will harm themselves and die before
their time.

From this passage we learn how imported the sex activates seamed for the
former Chinese. Although the significance of sexual intercourse is rooted
to longevity of partners and their health in general. The aspect of pleasure
us the goal is not mentioned, so it could be said that obtaining pleasure
was a secondary objective or even just a mean leading to the primary
goal.
After the quoted fragment, Master Tung-hsan mentions that
methods he compiled in his book comes from the Dark Girl and that it is
only the essentials. Than he suggests that a couple should follow the
rhythms of the nature, and do not modify the laws of universe. Sexual
activity is not an autonomous sphere of human life, but a part of greater
picture, that should be always under consideration. Thus the four seasons
succeed each other, man calls and woman follows, above there is action
and below compliance; this is the natural order of all things [] the man
should thrust from above and the woman receive below. If they unite in
15 All the quoted fragments com form van Guliks Erotic Colour Prints, p. 15-72.

this way, it can be called Heaven and Earth in even balance. Paragraphs
form IV- XII are referring to the process of coitus itself. Master Tung-hsan
not only describes how the foreplay should be held, but lists much more
detailed information like: when to start the penetration, how deep should it
be, at what angle in should be precede, in what rhythm. Also how to
supplement

the

penetration

whit

other

caress,

such

kisses

or

complements. Furthermore, from the Fang-Nei-Chis book the reader can


learn precisely how to recognize every stage of womens arousal form
somatic symptoms and what kind of penetration should he use. The Plain
Girl said: Woman has the five signs and the five desires, and moreover
the ten ways of moving her body during the act. Also both books present
at least 30 sexual position, every one whit own original name (Overlapping
Fish Scales, The Mounting Turtle, Goat Facing A Tree and so on). What is
conspicuous here, is the language of the description. Literature related to
the Art of Bedchamber has its own phraseology like Jade Stalk penis or
Cinnabar Crevice vagina. It would be easy to say that in China, unlike to
the Western culture, there was an autonomous language reserved only for
the describing the matters of sex, but it could be argued, if such idea
would it not be an example of orentalistic way of thinking. It is true that
the Westerns often use terms belonging to the medical discourse (or
simply vulgarisms), but the handbook such us the one by Master Tunghsan, was perceived as a medical book in China as well. Furthermore it
would be difficult to define handbooks us belonging to only one separate
category of discourse, because the medicine, philosophy, alchemy and so
one, were strongly related to each outer. No less the quasi-poetic language
of the chines handbook, is something worth mentioning.
The XII paragraph refers to the preventing ejaculation.
Then the man closes his eyes and concentrates his thoughts, he presses his tongue
against the roof of his mouth, bends his back and stretches his neck. He opens his
nostrils wide and squares his shoulders, closes his mouth and sucks in his breath. Then
(he will not ejaculate and) the semen will ascend inwards on its own account. A man can
completely regulate his ejaculations.

The benefits of

such behaviour was listed in The Records of The

Bedchamber: [] Plain Girl said: If a man engages once in the act

without emitting semen, then his vital essence will be strong. If he does
this twice, his hearing and vision will be acute. If thrice, all diseases will
disappear. If four times, his soul will be at peace. If five times, his blood
circulation will be improved. If six times, his loins will become strong. If
seven times, his buttocks and thighs will increase in power. If eight times,
his body will become glossy. If nine times, he will reach longevity. If ten
times, he will be like an Immortal. It must be noted that acquiring
mastery in the Art of Bedchamber has been reserved strictly for males.
Women should not learn it secrets, because their could use it against men.
After understanding the true purpose of sexual activity, they could try not
only to prevent the process of strengthening male chi, but possibly even
evolve their own techniques of feeding on their partners. Fang-Nei-Chi
refers to this subject directly: Master Chung-ho said: A man expert in the
nurturing of his Yang essence should not allow the woman to know this
art. (Her knowing it) will be of no benefit to him and will even cause him to
become ill. This is what is meant by the proverb: A dangerous weapon
should not be lent to others. As Charlotte Furth interpreted it:
bedchamber manuals did not claim that the primordial vitality of yin
essence, as embodied in females, was an inexhaustible reservoir available
to nourish the male. In mortal females, as in mortal males, reproductive qi
is exhausted in use, making those who couple rival power in an economy
of finite resources. Bed chamber manuals, therefore are the locus classicus
for the common place Chinese metaphor of sexual intercourse as combat,
with its representation of the partners as enemies destined for victory or
defeat.16 Because womens chi was not unlimited as van Gulik perceived
it, the male was obliged to have sex whit more than one women and
should chose rather young girls in view of the quality of their chi. As it
written in The Records of The Bedchamber: A man should select for his
sexual partners young women whose breasts have not yet developed and
who are well covered with flesh. They should have hair. [] She should
either have no pubic and axillary hair at all or such hair should be fine and
smooth. Thanks to the description, it can be is easily recognized that the
16 C. Furth, op. cit. p. 135.

most suited for intercourse is a girl that just hit puberty. As it was
mentioned before, because the Art of the Bedchamber was forbidden for
females, a young girl starting her sexual life didnt really know, not only
how to pleasure (her) man, but also what is about to happen, after she lay
whit him. The man on the other hand should already know how to behave
to take the best advantage form the intercourse. Besides information
strictly related to sexual activities the books also offer guidance in siring a
healthy ascended (ancient Chinese eugenics), and how to care after a
pregnant women. In the end the both books present recipes for boosting
potency elixirs, after-defloration painkillers, as well as different drugs
causing penis enlargement or shrinking vagina.
Concluding, the harmony of the gender relations, as van Gulik
perceived them was de facto a myth. The mans duty to pleasure his
partner(s) was an instrument for opiating health benefits, and can be even
interpreted as a way of controlling women. Because of such notion
Charlotte Furth named van Gulik an orientalist and a product of colonial
era17, and accused him of interpreting the former China sexual costumes
form a perspective of a well suited, heterosexual male who imposes an
idealistic imagination about sex formed in the 20 th century Western
society. For the defence of van Gulik it can be mentioned that it was not
really his fault that in the final form of his work the description of Chinese
sexual habits had a such positive valorisation. It was Joseph Needham who
convince van Gulik that [] that there was nothing perverse or
pathological in the sexual techniques described and prescribed by the
Daoist adepts [...] Chinese sex life through the centuries had been
remarkably healthy, free from the aberrations of sadism and masochism,
but immensely skilled in happy variation and mutual donation.18

17 C. Furth, Rethinking van Gulik again, NAN N, 2005, Vol. 7, p. 74.


18 Quoted after A. L. Rocha, vide A. L. Rocha, Scientia sexualis versus ars erotica:
Foucault, van Gulik, Needham, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological
and Biomedical Sciences, 2011, vol. 42, p. 337.

Still the question remains, if the Art of Bedchamber manuals are a valid
source of knowledge about the sexual life former Chines? The analyses
made by the author of the survey showed that the handbooks contains a
lot of detailed information about the sexual habits and help to understand
how the sexual activates was perceived by the Chinese. But whit out using
other sources, our view of the subject would be quite narrow and even
somehow misleading. Especially referring to the unique period of the Six
Dynasties era. First of all it should be noted that for many people in former
China the view that humans are no more than aggregations of chI would
be rather repulsive, also it is quite doubtful, that acquiring immortality
thank to sexual intercourse was not presumed at least as unusual or even
bizarre19. Furthermore, abridgment only to bedchamber manuals hide form
as a wide spectrum of different sexual habits like homosexual contacts or
teachings of religious minority groups such as distinctive for the post-Han
period sect of the Celestial Masters. Although the Celestial Masters
conceived of sexual intercourse as an exchange of yin and yang chI
(similar to authors of the analysed handbooks), the members of the sect
did not practice the union of chi for the purpose of stealing their
partners vital essences20. The ritualized intercourse was a specific rite
of passage, and both of the participants were perceived as equals. This
equality found it reflection in the nonsexual customs of the community, as
female acolytes could avoid the obligation to marry husbands chosen by
the male heads of their clan; indeed, they could look forward even to the
possibility of ordination alongside the men in the sect. 21 This example
only confirms how diverted was the sexual life and gender relations in the
Middle Kingdom, at least before the Later Empire era, and how difficult is
to form one unequivocal interpretation of it.

19 P. R. Goldin, The Cultural and Religious, p. 306-307.


20 P. R. Goldin, Culture of sex, p. 118.
21 Ibid.

Bibliography:
1. Engendering China: Women, Culture, and the State, ed. C. K.
Gilmartin, G. Hershatter, L. Rofel, T. White, Harvard University Press,
London, Cambridge 1994.
2. Goldin P. R., The Culture of Sex in Ancient China, University of
Hawaii Press, Honolulu 2002.
3. NAN N, Volume 7, Issue 1, p. 71 78.
4. Proceedings Of The American Philosophical Society, Vol. 129, No. 2,
1985, p. 161-172.
5. Ruan F. F., Sex in China. Studies in Sexology in Chinese Culture,
Springer Science+Business Media, New York 1991.
6. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical
Sciences 42 (2011), p. 328343.
7. Theology & Sexuality, Vol. 12(3), 2006, p. 285-308.
8. Van Gulik R. H., Erotic Colour Prints of the Ming Period : With an
Essay on Chinese Sex Life from the Han to the Ch'ing Dynasty, B.C.
206- A.D. 1644, vol. I, Brill, Leiden, Boston 2004.
9. Van Gulik R. H., work Sexual Life in Ancient China: A Preliminary

Survey of Chinese Sex and Society from ca. 1500 B.C. till 1644 A.D,
E. J. Brill, Leiden 1974.

You might also like