Almost everything in China has a symbolic meaning. The pagodas piercing the sky, which can be found nationwide, originally symbolized the human penis in ancient times. Long ago, before people understood natural phenomena and natural disasters, they believed there must be a god or gods behind each event. This simplistic way of looking at the world manifested itself in the worship of mountains, water, stone, fire and sex.
Wall Paintings made by ancient Chinese can be divided to two categories: Labour and sex acts. The ancients believed that the human sex act is sacred, endorsed by heaven and capable of exorcising bad spirits. Sex worship was imbued into almost all aspects of ancient Chinese society. Pictures and artifacts featuring human coitus were etched or painted on the beam of a house or at the bottom of a large wood trunk to scare away the God of Fire and other unwelcome spirits or ghosts, thus protecting the family and household.
It was widespread that pillar-shaped objects symbolized the penis, while ring-shaped articles stood for the female vagina. Other symbols for the penis included birds and squirrels (maybe because of their quick, explosive actions and attacks), turtles, snakes and calabash (Probably because of their shape).
Two fish formed a ring, and buds, especially lotus buds, were common symbols of the female sex organ. The fish has very strong reproduction power with many eggs and two fishes resemble the labia of the vulva.
In early Chinese literature, sexual acts had metaphorical imagery. "Clouds" in the literature referred to a woman's ova and vaginal secretions. "Rain" refers to a man's emission of semen.
In China, worshipping sex is inevitably connected with worshipping reproduction. In ancient time, the prosperity of a family, a clan or an ethnic group was largely determined by the number of people in it. What would the ancient Chinese think of China's family planning policy that took effect in 1979 and limits reproduction to one child per family? |
Chou Dynasty - 770 BC to 222 BC Taoism wasn’t a formal religion during the Chou Dynasty but they did have Taoist doctrine. They divided men and women to the yin and the yang. Women were said to have an inexhaustible supply of yin essence. At the same time, men had a limited supply of yang. Men were forbidden to use their yang essence without acquiring plenty of yin essence. Meaning men had to maintain an erection and, before ejaculating give the women several orgasms so they will acquire her yin essence. If a man ejaculated or used up his yang essence without taking any yin essence, it was said to cause him health problems and even death.
For men, masturbation was unhealthy and forbidden, for it was said to cause a complete loss of his vital yang essence. However, women were allowed to masturbate freely as they were said to have an unlimited yin. Medical texts only warned women against masturbation with foreign objects believed to injure the womb and internal sexual organs. If a men had a “wet dream,” it was considered as health problem.
In this period, female homosexuality was common as for male, it was rare. Male homosexuality was forbidden because it was considered a complete loss of yang for both men. Since women had unlimited yin essence, there was no lost of yin in female homosexual relations. It was only during the Han dynasty that male homosexuality reached the same standard as among other societies.
In the beginning Chinese accepted prostitution. Men thought they can gain more yin from prostitutes than from normal women. They believed that since such women had sex with so many men, that they had acquired more yang essence from them, thus, they could give a patron more yang essence than he had lost. At early stage in human history Chinese medicine began to identify prostitutes with many diseases and started to warn men against them. |
Ch'in Dynasty - 221 BC to 24 AD The Ch'in Dynasty shifted the Taoist culture to Confucianism, which was completely different. Women were placed in an inferior position to men. All physical contact between men and women was confined to marriage and their bedroom or a couch. After leaving the bedroom or couch, there was to be no physical contact between husbands and wives. The sex act in itself was looked upon as a sort of sin by Confucianism. Sex was only for procreation and to provide a sacred family life.
Men were allowed to see concubines and there was an entire set of Confucianist rules for concubines, such as grooming rules. A man's concubine was not allowed to stay in bed after the sex act if his wife was not present but the concubine had to leave. Even if the concubine was age 50, the man was supposed to have sex with his concubine every five days. During this period, there were many sadistic relationships among the Ch'in dynasty families and many incestuous relationships between close kin members of the dynasty. |
Later Han Dynasty - 25 AD to 220 AD With the Han Dynasty came the return of Taoist doctrines, only by this point in time, Taoism was now an organized religion with its own church and priests. New sexual texts began to surface such as The Handbook of the Plain Girl and The Art of the Bedchamber. Both texts referred to a Yellow Emperor, who was attempting to live a long, healthy life and obtain a form of immortality through sex. Emphasis was placed on breathing techniques during sex to prolong a man's orgasm to make a woman orgasm several times to gain her yin essence.
New metaphors and symbolicism evolved in literature to show men and women and their sexuality. The color red was female, a crucible, the ova, her cinnabar (vulva). The color white became symbolic of men and their semen. The White Tiger was symbolic of men and the Green Dragon was symbolic of women. |
221 AD to 590 AD From 221 AD to 590 AD there were many conflicts between different cultures and ruling classes. There was intermixing between Taoist doctrines, Confucian doctrines and Buddhist doctrines. During the Sui Dynasty (590 AD to 618 AD) China returned to the Taoist doctrines and new sexual literature and manuals began to flourish, such as “The Secret Methods of The Plain Girl” and “Secret Prescriptions for the Bedchamber”
Many of the texts continue the sexual instruction to the Yellow Emperor, trying to tell him how to obtain a long, immortal healthy life, by having many sexual relations with many women gaining their yin essence without expending his yang essence or prolonging his orgasms/ejaculation. All of the texts are very detailed and each has unique sets of sexual positions with animal-like names for each individual sex position. Sex was seen as a cure-all for every health ailment that a man had, and different sexual positions were given as prescriptions to cure these ailments. |
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