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spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
5.0
From the introduction:
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 discussed sex openly and seriously as one of the most important topics of human speculation. This sophisticated and long-standing tradition 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 tradition. 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; and 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.There's more but I would genuinely end up just quoting the entire book at length, and that would require more space than I have here. Note that, although this book was published in 2001, the romanisation style used is Wade-Giles, not pinyin. Accordingly, "Shih-ching" is now more commonly known as Shijing; "Tso-chuan," Zuo Zhuan; "Ch'u-tz'u," Chu Ci; "Sun Pin," Sun Bin; "Lao-tzu," Laozi; "Tao-te ching," Dao De Jing; "Ch'in," Qin dynasty; and so on. Saying the Wade-Giles romanised words aloud usually clarifies their meaning, although I did have to look up what "Tso-chuan" was supposed to be, because ch and zh are two entirely different sounds for me. Anyway, it's a good book.
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 worshipper and his or her deity, or between a ruler and his subjects. These sources include some of the most revered and influential texts in the Chinese tradition, such as the Shih-ching 詩經 (Canon of Odes), the Tso-chuan 左傳 (an orthodox commentary to the Springs and Autumns), and the Ch’u-tz’u 楚辭 (Lyrics of Ch’u). The study focuses on such central works in order to highlight the significance and utility of the metaphor of copulation in the ancient Chinese literary world. I intend to show, first, that there is far more sexual symbolism in ancient Chinese literature than is often recognized and, second, that there are crucial dimensions of the classical texts that can be appreciated only with a greater sensitivity to both the presence and the literary functions of these images. It is especially important for readers to be aware of these issues because some of the most powerful uses of sexual imagery lie at the very core of the literary tradition and profoundly influenced succeeding generations.
The next chapter focuses on the Confucian view of women. What mental capacities did early Confucians recognize in women? This is a critical question because Confucians viewed the mind (and its corresponding moral responsibilities) as the fundamental distinction between humans and animals. The early Confucian tradition conceived of women as moral equals of men—despite the charges of sexism and misogyny that have been voiced in modern times. Views of women from other philosophical camps are also considered. According to one popular paradigm, females are soft and pregnable whereas males are hard and impregnable, and the two sexes must be assigned duties commensurate with this basic difference. Methods of War 兵法, by Sun Pin 孫臏 (fl. 354–341 B.C.), for example, divides all fortresses into “male” and “female,” depending on how easily they can be penetrated by an attacker. Such texts as the Lao-tzu 老子 (Tao-te ching 道德經) expand on this concept by elevating the “female” and her welcoming softness. The “female” conquers by submitting, for, like water, she is formless and can adapt to any situation, whereas the rigid “male” cannot mold himself to the shape of the Way. However, it should be noted that the Lao-tzu (like other texts that made use of these categories) was referring not to men and women but to ideal “male” and “female” aspects present in all human beings.
The focus of the third chapter is the new imperial ideology of the Ch’in and Han dynasties. In accordance with the conceptions reflected in the metaphors of copulation described in chapter 1, sexuality was now conceived as the most telling indication of one’s political intentions. Consequently, unregulated or illicit sexual activity was associated with, or construed as symptomatic of, unregulated or illicit political activity. The four centuries of the Han dynasty witnessed an increasing emphasis on the regulation of sexual relations and the concomitant ritualization of relations between male and female. Chinese scholars have long pointed out that many of the famed liaisons of preimperial times would have violated the rituals that were set down in the Han. (The original point of such observations was to show that these rituals, which subsequent generations took to be documents from highest antiquity, were really imposed products of a later age.) This tendency shows the imperial ideology at work, gradually tightening the reins on permissible sexual activity in order to contain lawlessness in political life.
Finally, the epilogue surveys the aristocratic rejection of this ideology after the fall of the Han, at a time when real political power came to lie in the hands of wealthy hereditary families, who continually resisted the claims of sovereignty made by the impotent emperors of a succession of short-lived dynasties.
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