The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

241 Pages·2001·3.671 MB·English

by  Paul Rakita Goldin

Chinese history/Cultural studies/Gender studies GGoollddiinn
Paul Rakita Goldin
The subject of sex was central to early Chinese thought. Discussed openly and
T The Culture of
seriously as a fundamental topic of human speculation, it was an important source
of imagery and terminology that informed the classical Chinese conception of social h
and political relationships. This sophisticated and long-standing tradition, however, e
has been all but neglected by modern historians. In The Culture of Sex in Ancient Sex
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China, Paul Goldin addresses central issues in the history of Chinese attitudes toward
sex and gender from 500 B.C.to A.D.400. u
l in Ancient China
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A survey of major preimperial sources, including some of the most revered and u
influential texts in the Chinese tradition, reveals the use of the image of copulation
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as a metaphor for various human relations, such as those between a worshipper
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and his or her deity or a ruler and his subjects. In his examination of early Confucian

views of women, Goldin notes that, while contradictions and ambiguities existed in o
the articulation of these views, women were nevertheless regarded as full partici- f
pants in the Confucian project of self-transformation. He goes on to show how
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assumptions concerning the relationship of sexual behavior to political activity
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(assumptions reinforced by the habitual use of various literary tropes discussed
x
earlier in the book) led to increasing attempts to regulate sexual behavior through-

out the Han dynasty. Following the fall of the Han, this ideology was rejected by i
n
the aristocracy, who continually resisted claims of sovereignty made by impotent
emperors in a succession of short-lived dynasties.
A
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Erudite and immensely entertaining, this study of intellectual conceptions of sex
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and sexuality in China will be welcomed by students and scholars of early China and
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by those with an interest in the comparative development of ancient cultures. e
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Paul Rakita Goldin teaches Chinese history and philosophy at the t
University of Pennsylvania.
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h
Cover art:Two Chinese peonies from Chieh-tzu-yüan hua-chuan(Manual of Painting i
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from Mustard-Seed Park, 1701). The peony appears as an emblem of
sexual love as early as the Canon of Odes, and its root was a common a
ingredient in ancient Chinese aphrodisiacs.
Cover design:Heather L. Truelove
University of Hawai’i Press
Honolulu, Hawai’i 96822-1888
www.uhpress.hawaii.edu
The Culture of Sex
in Ancient China

The Culture of
Sex in Ancient China
Paul Rakita Goldin
University of Hawai‘i Press
Honolulu
© 2002 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
07 06 05 04 03 02 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Goldin, Paul Rakita
The culture of sex in ancient China / Paul Rakita Goldin.
p. cm.
English and Chinese.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8248-2405-9 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-8248-2482-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Sex—China—History—To 1500. 2. Sex and history—China. 3. Sex in
literature. 4. Chinese literature—To 221 B.C.—History and criticism. 5. Chinese
literature—221 B.C.–960 A.D.—History and criticism. 6. China—Civilization—
To 221 B.C. 7. China—Civilization—221 B.C.–960 A.D. I. Title.
HQ18.C6 G63 2002
306.750931—dc21 2001027687
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Council on Library Resources.
Book design by Kenneth Miyamoto
Printed by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: The Aims of This Book 1
1. Imagery of Copulation 8
2. Women and Sex Roles 48
3. Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 75
Epilogue: Privacy and Other Revolutionary Notions at the End
of the Han 111
Notes 123
Bibliography 193
Index 225
v

Acknowledgments
Portions of this book were originally read as public lectures. Chapter
2 was presented as “The View of Women in Early Confucianism” at
the annual conference of the Eastern Division of the American Philo-
sophical Association, Washington, D.C., December 29, 1998; at Stan-
ford University, February 8, 1999; and at the University of California,
Los Angeles, February 9, 1999. Chapter 3 was presented as “Sex,
Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Chinese Empire” at the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, September 28, 1999. I would like to thank
the audiences at these lectures for critical discussions that aided me
in making final revisions for the book. An abbreviated version of
chapter 1 appeared as “Imagery of Copulation in Early Chinese
Poetry,” in Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews21 (1999), 35–66;
and an earlier version of chapter 2 appeared as “The View of Women
in Early Confucianism,” in The Sage and the Second Sex: Confucianism,
Ethics, and Gender, ed. Chenyang Li (Chicago: Open Court, 2000),
133–161.
The idea for this study came to me in the course of several sus-
tained conversations with my colleague, Matthew H. Sommer, a spe-
cialist on sex law in late imperial China. I have also benefited from
discussions with other scholars: Constance Cook, Scott Cook, Bernard
Faure, Amy Gadsden, Eric Henry, Eric Hutton, Jiang Xinyan, Li
Chenyang, TinaLu, Victor H. Mair, Gilbert L. Mattos, Andrew Meyer,
William H. Nienhauser, Jr., David W. Pankenier, Moss Roberts, Haun
Saussy, David Schaberg, Nancy S. Steinhardt, Bryan W. Van Norden,
Robin Wang. The Center for East Asian Studies of the University of
vii
viii Acknowledgments
Pennsylvania provided a grant to prepare an undergraduate course
entitled “Sex and Society in Ancient China,” for which I gathered
much of the material incorporated in this book. Many thanks also to
Patricia Crosby and the staff at the University of Hawai‘i Press, as well
as Rosemary Wetheroldand the G&S editors, for the care with which
they have handled the production of this book.
Introduction
The Aims of This Book
This is a study of intellectual conceptions of sex and sexuality in
China from roughly 500 B.C.to A.D.400. Ancient Chinese writers dis-
cussed sex openly and seriously as one of the most important topics
of human speculation. This sophisticated and long-standing tradi-
tion has been almost entirely neglected by historians for a number of
reasons that will be considered presently. The consequence is that
studies of writings dealing with sex are sorely needed to redress our
ignorance of a subject that was central to the ancient Chinese tradi-
tion. The sources for this book are primarily philosophical, literary,
and religious texts. This work is not intended as a history of sexuality
or sexual behavior (and the material on which it is based sheds very
little light on people’s sexual practices). Historians have begun to
question whether any such history can—or should—be written;1and
in any case, for ancient China, the extant sources are not sufficiently
informative for that purpose. The sources do reveal, however, that
Chinese authors wrote earnestly about sexual activity and expected
their readers to consider the subject thoughtfully. Sexual intercourse
constituted a fundamental source of imagery and terminology that
informed the classical Chinese conception of social and political
relationships.
The book is divided into three chapters and an epilogue that
progress in roughly chronological order. Chapter 1 surveys the
major preimperial sources that employ the image of copulation as a
metaphor for various human relations, such as those between a wor-
shipper and his or her deity, or between a ruler and his subjects.
1