Paul Rakita Goldin

The Culture of
Sex
in Ancient China
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
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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
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Book design by Kenneth Miyamoto

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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, Reviews 21 (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, Tina Lu, 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 Wetherold and 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;1 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.
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
2 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

These sources include some of the most revered and influential texts
in the Chinese tradition, such as the Shih-ching (Canon of Odes),
the Tso-chuan (an orthodox commentary to the Springs and Au-
tumns), and the Ch’u-tz’u (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 an-
cient Chinese literature than is often recognized and, second, that
there are crucial dimensions of the classical texts that can be appre-
ciated only with a greater sensitivity to both the presence and the lit-
erary 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 pro-
foundly 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 cor-
responding moral responsibilities) as the fundamental distinction
between humans and animals. The early Confucian tradition con-
ceived of women as moral equals of men—despite the charges of sex-
ism and misogyny that have been voiced in modern times. Views of
women from other philosophical camps are also considered. Accord-
ing 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 ,
by Sun Pin (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.2 Such texts as the Lao-tzu (Tao-te ching
) 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
Introduction 3

political intentions. Consequently, unregulated or illicit sexual activ-

ity was associated with, or construed as symptomatic of, unregulated
or illicit political activity. The four centuries of the Han dynasty wit-
nessed 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 observa-
tions 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 con-
tinually resisted the claims of sovereignty made by the impotent
emperors of a succession of short-lived dynasties.

An ancillary intention of this study is to provide for theorists and

comparativists an account of the ancient Chinese case. One of the
most basic ideas in the history of sexuality is constructionism, which
holds that our own notions of sexuality and identity are a function of
our culture and society—our discourse, as it is sometimes called.3
The point is often made by invoking what we call sexual orientation;
a sexual human being is typically considered today to be hetero-
sexual, homosexual, or bisexual. In ancient Greece, however, such
distinctions are famously absent, as historians have demonstrated
repeatedly. Simply put, the only relevant distinction was between the
penetrator and the penetrated.4 So the consequence of construc-
tionism must be that we cannot understand sexuality apart from its
cultural environment, and we would gain far more insight into our
own sexualities if we compared as many different sexual discourses as
possible. However, the fact remains that the modern case has been
compared almost exclusively with that of ancient Greece. So far, most
recent work in the sexuality of cultures other than that of ancient
Greece has taken the form of discrete lecture-length articles bound
together in collaborative volumes, and not in synthetic, book-length
histories.
4 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

The history of “Chinese studies” as a field helps to explain why

the subject matter of this book, crucial though it may be, has been
ignored for so long. The first Western scholars of China tended to
fall into one of two categories: missionaries or Orientalists. The mis-
sionary tradition extends all the way back to Jesuits like Matteo Ricci
(1552–1610), whose avowed intention was to bring the Christian
faith to all parts of the globe, but who soon discovered that they
would be vastly more persuasive if they could claim to know some-
thing about the cultures in which they established their missions.5
Other missionaries—such as James Legge (1815–1897)6 and Séraphin
Couvreur (1835–1919)—contributed greatly to the understanding of
China in the West, but they were primarily interested in those aspects
of Chinese civilization that would help them become more effective
proselytizers: Confucianism and the Chinese classics; religion; litera-
ture; history; and so forth. Understandably, they were not much
interested in books about sex. Their legacy has silently influenced
posterity in this respect as in so many others. Because much of the
later work was designed to further the scholarship of missionaries
like Legge, it was perhaps inevitable that sex would be overlooked as
a legitimate subject of inquiry.
The other great branch of early Sinologues was the Orientalists,
or scholars who perceived “the Orient” essentially as a monolithic,
coherent entity. Their work was often intended to show the ubiqui-
tous similarity of various cultural forms, whether in India, China,
Mesopotamia, or Persia. Perhaps the greatest example of the Orien-
talist approach was that of Arthur Waley (1889–1966), whose English
translation of the canonical Odes is accompanied by numerous foot-
notes pointing out that such-and-such a practice is found today
among Koreans, Annamese, Jews, and so on.7 For the Orientalist,
these comparisons are compelling because they are thought to dem-
onstrate the basic unity of cultures throughout the Orient.8 For our
purposes, the general problem with Orientalism is that it is primarily
concerned with China not as China but only as part of a putative
“Orient.” Orientalists were never interested in studying the Chinese
discourse as a unique case in the history of world civilizations; to
them, it merely represented an “Oriental” case that could be fruit-
fully compared to that of other “Oriental” cultures. (The specter of
imperialism is inescapable here. “The Orient” never made any sense
as a geographical unit except as one that was available to Europe in
Introduction 5

the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries for exploita-

tion and colonization.)9 Moreover, the Orientalists were professional
academics and were encumbered by the same prudishness that has
infected the entire academy until only recently.10 Like the mission-
aries, but for different reasons, they were not inclined to publish
scholarly works dealing with sexuality as an intellectual problem.
Times have changed, and it is much more feasible now to engage
in the kind of study proposed here. There have, in fact, been many
recent studies of sex in modern and early modern China in the con-
text of various disciplines, such as law, literature, and history.11 But
there still are almost no works that consider the ancient period.
The most notable exception is R. H. van Gulik’s Sexual Life in Ancient
China,12 first published in 1961 and still the only secondary source
available for much of its subject matter. However, van Gulik’s work
needs to be superseded in many respects. His decision to render all
potentially indelicate passages into Latin is outmoded and indicative
of his ambivalent attitude toward his own subject of inquiry. In addi-
tion, his citation errors are too frequent, even though his erudition
is equally admired by his supporters and his critics. But the main prob-
lem is more serious: the book relies on an obsolete methodology.
Van Gulik has been both praised13 and criticized14 for his conten-
tion that ancient Chinese “sexual habits were healthy and normal”
and that “pathologia sexualis” was not largely represented. As van
Gulik himself declares, one of the main purposes of his Sexual Life in
Ancient China was to refute the idea that ancient Chinese sex prac-
tices were abnormal or depraved.15 Herein he is hamstrung by his
Victorianism. It is clear from his book that he is thinking mostly of
sadism and masochism, categories that he evidently inherits directly
from the great Austrian psychologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840–
1902).16 The whole notion of sexual perversion (or pathologia sex-
ualis) is a well-documented product of nineteenth-century Europe,
when psychiatrists as professionals arrogated to themselves the task
of defining “healthy” and “perverted” sexual impulses.17 Reading
perversion or the lack or perversion back into the ancient Chinese
arena is analogous to projecting our conceptions of homosexuality
and heterosexuality back onto ancient Greece: it is fundamentally
anachronistic. So the limitations of van Gulik’s work on China, and
in particular his concern with the idea of perversion, are the result
of his failure to set aside the paradigms of his own time and place.
6 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Van Gulik is also famous for his admiring comments on the

ancient Chinese and their enlightened concern for the sexual plea-
sure of women.18 He has thereby misled untold numbers of casual
readers. The noted contemporary critic and psychoanalyst Julia Kris-
teva,19 for example, engaged in a lengthy meditation on the Chinese
conception of female jouissance (she was apparently working from a
French translation of van Gulik’s book, in which the term “jouissance”
must have been used to denote orgasm) in terms that sound so
Freudian and mystical as to obscure any remaining affinity with the
original Chinese context. The reality is much less pretty and has to
do with early Chinese medical theories.
All human beings were thought to be made up of ch’i , literally
“vapor,” or undifferentiated matter, which appears in the world in
two complementary aspects, yin and yang . Furthermore, human
beings were thought to contain ching , or “refined essence,” which
is ch’i in its most concentrated form and which is emitted from the
body at the moment of orgasm. For men, the ching was conceived as
the semen, or ch’i in its ultimate yang state; for women, the ching was
conceived as vaginal secretions, or ch’i in its ultimate yin state. Fur-
thermore, it was believed that all human beings needed a healthy
balance of yin-ch’i and yang-ch’i, and one of the best ways to obtain
the aspect of ch’i that one lacked naturally was by having sexual inter-
course with a member of the opposite sex and absorbing his or her
ching in the process. It was especially beneficial if one could stop up
one’s own ching, so as not to lose any of one’s own precious essence,
while taking in that of one’s partner. This is the source of the basic
idea that a man should refrain from ejaculating excessively and
should either injaculate or repress his ejaculation entirely.20 But for
the sex act to have any medical value, the male had to make sure that
the female reached orgasm and emitted her yin-ch’i. This is why so
many sex manuals—which were written exclusively for men—go to
great lengths to counsel the reader on the art of pleasing women sex-
ually. In theory, of course, a woman could do the same thing to a
man by repressing her own orgasm and encouraging his, and a num-
ber of later texts refer to that possibility explicitly.21 But the concern
for female sexual pleasure that van Gulik observed ultimately derives
from those works, intended for male audiences, which explain how
to tap the life essence of unsuspecting females. Certain other man-
uals stress the importance of pleasing a woman so as to keep her by
one’s side as a willing victim in a state of constant sexual readiness.22
Introduction 7

The motivation was hardly an egalitarian concern for the woman’s

pleasure.23
This model may help to explain, incidentally, why there are so
few notices in ancient Chinese literature of homoeroticism, whether
between men or women.24 In the calculus of ch’i exchange, sexual
intercourse between members of the same sex was absolutely irrele-
vant, because the losses and gains of each party effectively canceled
each other out. There are some references to sexual encounters
between women in the same harem25 (one of many indications that
the extant texts belong to the world of the social elite), but these
women, of course, are never portrayed as homosexual or even bi-
sexual. Women were simply containers of yin-ch’i, and it was immate-
rial how they exchanged their ch’i with each other, as long as they
remained healthy sources of energy for the males who kept them. As
we shall see, there were other, less reifying images of women as well;
nevertheless, it was inconceivable for anyone to consider sexual rela-
tions between women as an issue with social ramifications or as a sign
that different women might have different sexual orientations.
We must not forget that these issues were not commonly recog-
nized by historians until well after van Gulik’s day. It would hardly
have been possible for van Gulik to take into account historiograph-
ical problems that we ourselves have only recently come to appre-
ciate. However, now that the historical study of human sexuality
has reached a requisite level of sophistication, it is possible to begin
the daunting task of reexamining Chinese conceptions of sexual
relations.
1

Imagery of Copulation

Some of the oldest and most problematic love poems in the Chinese
tradition are those contained in the anthology called Canon of Odes
(Shih-ching ), one of the most venerable collections in the Con-
fucian corpus. It has been observed for centuries that this text
contains many poems that describe in straightforward language the
pleasures and emotions associated with carnal love. The following is
a typical example.
There is a pelican on the bridge.
It does not wet its beak.
That boy there
does not consummate his coition.

Oh, dense! Oh, lush!

The morning rainbow on South Mountain.
Oh, pretty! Oh, lovely!
This young girl is starving.1

(Mao 151: “Hou-jen” )2

The poetic significance of the pelican is derived from the fact that
it eats fish—for the capture of fish is an image that frequently accom-
panies union between male and female in the Odes.3 In this poem,
however, the pelican does not wet its beak; that is to say, it does not
enter the water to catch fish. The boy, true to the image, does not
consummate his courtship of the young girl, leaving her to “starve.”

8
Imagery of Copulation 9

It is evident also that the girl’s hunger is intended figuratively: nat-

urally, we understand that she is starving for the boy’s love, not liter-
ally for food. As one would expect, hunger is a frequent image for
sexual appetite.4 Thus when we encounter in one poem a discussion
of the various species of fish available for one to eat, we should be
prepared to take the image as a metaphor for copulation—that is, of
joining one human being with another.
When you eat a fish,
must it be a bream from the river?
When you take a wife,
must she be a Chiang of Ch’i?

When you eat a fish,

must it be a carp from the river?
When you take a wife,
must she be a Tzu of Sung?

(Mao 138: “Heng-men” )

Traditional commentators point out that Chiang and Tzu are the
surnames of the rulers of Ch’i and Sung, respectively.5 The point
here seems to be that there are other fish in the river. Just as one
must be willing to eat fishes other than bream and carp—the finest
that one can catch—one ought not limit one’s choice of wife solely
to women of important ducal houses.
“Crafty youths” frequently make ardent girls suffer.
Oh, that crafty youth!
Oh, he does not talk to me.
It is your fault.
Oh, you make me unable to eat.

Oh, that crafty youth!

Oh, he does not eat with me.
It is your fault.
Oh, you make me unable to rest.

(Mao 86: “Chiao-t’ung” )

This poem expands on the image of eating on two levels. The Chi-
nese text distinguishes between two types of eating: ts’an in the
first stanza, shih in the second. The line “Oh, you make me unable
to eat” conveys a double message. On the one hand, it can easily
10 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

be read, in light of the previous poems, as the girl’s complaint that

the boy is depriving her of sexual gratification. But on a different
level, her heartache really does make it impossible for her to eat
(ts’an). Food would be a poor substitute for—and at the same time a
reminder of—the pleasure that she is now missing.
“The Crafty Youth” is also interesting for its traditional interpre-
tation, which invokes a political significance to the poem that a
casual reader could hardly have surmised. The oldest critical utter-
ance is simply that “‘The Crafty Youth’ criticizes indifference”
.6 The orthodox Mao commentary, however, takes this state-
ment as a reference to Lord Chao of Cheng (r. 700 B.C.),
whose personal name was Hu (Indifferent). This lord was raised to
the throne of Cheng by a minister named Chung of Chai —only
to be forced to flee later that same year when the state of Sung
captured Chung and compelled him to crown someone else.7 How
could even an ancient reader possibly be expected to recognize such
an allusion? Moreover, whose “indifference” is being criticized? One
might have assumed that the poem intends to chastise the crafty
youth for being indifferent to the poor girl’s plight. However, the
analogy suggested by the Mao commentary implies that Lord Chao
is represented by the jilted girl and consequently that he brought
on his own fate by allowing a mere minister to anoint feudal lords.
But saying that Lord Chao is culpable for his own indifference is anal-
ogous to blaming the girl for her own sorrow—and there is no
indication in the poem that she is at fault. These problems are not
tractable. The orthodox commentaries do not work out all the rami-
fications of this peculiar reading, which is, in any case, presented
too sketchily to be fully understandable.8
Such complicated and unapparent interpretations have led sev-
eral twentieth-century critics to ridicule the entire commentarial tra-
dition to the Odes. Herbert A. Giles, for example, complains,
Early commentators, incapable of seeing the simple natural beauties
of the poems, which have furnished endless household words and a
large stock of phraseology to the language of the present day, . . . set
to work to read into country-side ditties deep moral and political
significations. Every single one of the immortal Three Hundred has
thus been forced to yield some hidden meaning and point an appro-
priate moral.9
This process has been labeled by another modern reader as “exeget-
ical debris,” fit only to be cleared away.10
Imagery of Copulation 11

Why did generations upon generations of commentators insist

that the Odes, however bawdy, contained important symbolic and
moral meaning? Specifically, why do they commonly explain the
images of manifestly sexual unions in such poems as “The Crafty
Youth” as metaphors for the relation between a ruler and one or
more of his subjects? For many, it may have been impossible to
ignore the weighty opinion of Confucius (551–479 B.C.).
11

The Master said: The Odes are three hundred, but they are appraised12
in one phrase: “There is no improper thinking.”13
As is well known, Confucius considered the Odes to be one of
the most important texts for students to master because of the moral
lessons to be gained from it.14 Consequently, traditional commenta-
tors did not feel that one had understood a poem in the Odes until
one could elucidate its moral significance—and for poems like
“The Crafty Youth,” fulfilling that mission requires a liberal dose of
creative reading. But Confucius’ statement contains a dimension
that has not been fully appreciated by readers ancient and modern
alike. The phrase that Confucius takes here to mean “There is no
improper thinking” appears in one of the Odes, and commentators
since Hsiang An-shih (d. 1208) have argued that the Master
has misconstrued the original text.
Ah, without mishap
may these horses replicate.15

(Mao 297, “Chiung” )

Confucius seems to have misunderstood—deliberately or not—

the function of the character ssu . In the poem, ssu is merely an
interjection, or at best an initial particle intended to evoke a certain
mood. But Confucius takes it in its full verbal sense, “to think.”16
Commentators dissatisfied with Confucius and his didactic approach
to literature hasten to point out that, in distorting the original, he set
the tone for centuries of readers who would not reject any reading,
however tortured, as long as it illustrated an appropriate moral.
The extended senses of the verb ssu include pining for a lover
and yearning for carnal pleasures. One of the most famous exam-
ples comes from the epithalamium that opens the entire collection,
namely “The Kuan-ing Ospreys” (kuan is the sound of ospreys’ char-
acteristic call).
12 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

“Kuan, kuan” [cry] the ospreys

on the isle in the river.
The reclusive, modest girl
is a good mate for the noble man.

Long and short is the duckweed

To the left and to the right we look for it.
The reclusive, modest girl—
waking and sleeping he seeks her.
He seeks her and does not obtain her.
Waking and sleeping he pines and yearns for her.
Oh, anxious! Oh, anxious!
He tosses and twists and turns onto his side.

Long and short is the duckweed.

To the left and to the right we gather it.
The reclusive, modest girl—
among lutes and citherns, he shows her his friendship.
Long and short is the duckweed.
To the left and to the right we pick it.
The reclusive, modest girl—
as a bell to a drum, he delights in her.

(Mao 1: “Kuan-chü” )

The distraught lover is certainly thinking, but there is an unmistak-

ably lustful element in his thoughts. Some commentators, such as
Ma Jui-ch’en (1782–1853),17 even take the phrase wu-mei
(here “waking and sleeping”) to mean “dreaming and sleeping”; that
is to say, he fantasizes about the fine girl in his bed at night. And how
can we forget what the horses are doing in the poem that Confucius
alludes to: “Ah, without mishap / may these horses replicate.” The
point of the phrase is to express the desire that the fine horses pro-
create successfully.
Confucius certainly must have been aware of the poem that he
was quoting, and it is clear that he was familiar with “The Kuan-ing
Ospreys” as well.
18

The Master said: In “The Kuan-ing Ospreys,” there is joy without licen-
tiousness, grief without injury.19
Imagery of Copulation 13

Suppose we assume that Confucius knew what he was doing. He

knew that “There is no improper thinking” originally came from a
poem about horses copulating; and he knew that in construing the
character ssu as a verb, he was inviting the reader to think of the
aroused lover from “The Kuan-ing Ospreys.” Confucius’ point is that
the symbolism of the Odes embodies meaning beyond its literal sig-
nificance. In making this argument, Confucius consciously misreads
the line, for he intends to show that this more elevated level of dis-
course is attainable only by breaking out of a literal frame of mind.
One must “misread” the Odes.20
This exegetical spirit was congenial to classical readers. They were
well aware, for example, that the metaphor of copulation was often
employed in liturgies sung by priests and priestesses in rituals in-
tended to attract ancestral spirits. One poem in the collection is
written in such a style.

“Yu, yu,” the deer cries.

It eats the artemisia in the wild.
I have a lucky guest.21
Sound the cithern; blow the pipes.
Blow the pipes; sound the reeds.
This receiving basket—take it.
The man who likes me
will show me the practices of Chou.

(Mao 161: “Lu-ming” )

The deer grazing on the artemisia is what traditional literary crit-

icism refers to as an “arousal” (hsing ), a natural image arousing
the emotions and introducing the theme that is to follow.22 As we
have seen, the image of eating portends sexual activity in these poems,
and sure enough, within four lines, the speaker makes her desires
clear. The “receiving basket” is a well-attested euphemism for the
female reproductive organs.23 She is entreating the “lucky guest” to
show her how they do it in Chou.
The lucky guest, moreover, is probably preternatural. To be sure,
the poem is comprehensible as an unexceptional celebration of love
between man and woman. But classical readers would have recog-
nized instantly that the word for “guest” (pin ) is also the name of
an important rite wherein a ruler or ritual celebrant “hosts” a god
14 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

or spirit, offering him food. In this sense, pin means “hosting.”

The word recurs constantly with this meaning both in oracle-bone
inscriptions and in later texts.24 In “The Deer Cries,” the woman
hosts her guest not only by providing food and music, like any good
hostess, but also by presenting her “receiving basket,” where the
spirit might descend and sojourn.25
Hierogamous unions like those implied in “The Deer Cries” are
described in greater detail in the so-called Lyrics of Ch’u (Ch’u-tz’u
), a later collection named after the great warlike state that
dominated the south of the ancient Chinese world.26 One poem
is dedicated to “The Eastern August Magnificent One” ,a
sidereal deity.27

Auspicious is the day, the hour good.28

Respectfully we will please the Supreme August
One.
Fondle the long sword, the jade hilt-ring.
The girdle gems chime and call out, lin-lang.
The yao-gem mats are laden with jade.
Why not take and hold the fragrance of the
ch’iung-branch?
The melilotus and meat are presented on an
orchid mat.
We offer cassia wine and pepper spirits.
Raise the drumstick and beat the drum.
In broad and easy measures, a peaceful song.
They arrange in order the reed-organs and
citherns, the ocean of musicians.
The enchantress dances, with gorgeous robes.
The fragrance wafts in the air and fills the hall.
The Five Tones are mixed; luxuriously they
combine.
The lord is rejoicing, happy and content.29

This invocation30 employs many of the same images as “The Deer

Cries.” After arousing the divinity with organs and citherns, the
priestess then offers her body. Ling , “the enchantress,” is a com-
mon term for a shamaness who pleases a spirit by copulating with
him.31 Moreover, chiao-fu , the phrase that commentators gener-
ally take to mean “gorgeous robes,” can readily mean, “lewdly she
longs for it.” Fu, we remember, appears in “The Kuan-ing Ospreys”
as one of the verbs describing the lover’s nocturnal agitation. The
Imagery of Copulation 15

next two lines continue the image. Fang , “the fragrance,” as we

shall see, is a recurring epithet of a lord or god, and fan-hui ,
“luxuriously they combine,” can refer either to the Five Tones of the
same line—or to the enchantress and her spirit-lover in the middle
of the hall.
Another hierogamous union appears in an ancient myth.

32

When Yü set the floodwaters in order, opening a passage to Mount

Huan-yüan, he turned into a bear. He said to a woman of T’u-shan,
“When I desire to feed, you will hear the sound of my drum and
come.” Yü tripped on a stone, and mistakenly hit the drum. The
woman of T’u-shan approached; when she saw that Yü had just “done
the bear,” she was embarrassed and left. She arrived at Mount Sung-
kao and turned into a stone. Then she gave birth to Ch’i.

Yü is the great culture-hero who tamed the floods and designed

the rivers for the water to flow in. The T’u-shan woman is usually
taken to be his wife, but she might also have been a priestess or sha-
maness who worshipped him in the manner of the “enchantress.”
This aspect of the myth is made clear when Yü announces that he will
soon desire to “feed” .33 His strange act of turning into bear lends
this passage most of its significance; it is usually adduced by scholars
as evidence of shamanic practices in ancient China. After all, the
animal-dance, which is intended to harness the superhuman powers
of animals such as bears, is a notable feature of shamanism. It is in
the form of a bear, moreover, that Yü impregnates his mate. She is
embarrassed and soon gives birth to their son, Ch’i.
The myth of Yü’s bear-dance and the invocation to “The Eastern
August Magnificent One” are important in that they illustrate unam-
biguously how the language of sex could be employed in a sustained
metaphor only a few centuries after the compilation of the Canon
of Odes. In other words, if we are to accept the testimony of these
sources, then we must recognize that the commentators to the Odes
were not entirely unjustified in reading metaphorically the images of
copulation present in poems like “The Deer Cries” and “The Crafty
Youth.” A reader attuned to the significance of the feast for the
“lucky guest” can discern many more instances of hierogamy in the
Odes even where traditional commentators do not.
16 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Oh, the red-lacquered bows are unbent.

We receive and store them.
I have a lucky guest.
The core of my heart I bestow on him.
The bells and drums are already set up.
All morning I feast him.

Oh, the red-lacquered bows are unbent.

We receive and carry them.
I have a lucky guest.
The core of my heart delights in him.
The bells and drums are already set up.
All morning I honor him.

Oh, the red-lacquered bows are unbent.

We receive and set them in their cases.
I have a lucky guest.
The core of my heart loves him.
The bells and drums are already set up.
All morning I toast him.

(Mao 175: “T’ung-kung” )34

Other poems make it even clearer that the “lucky guest” is a

deceased ancestor.35 Several pieces describe, for example, how the
“impersonator” (shih ; literally “corpse”) becomes possessed by the
spirits during a ceremony intended to appease them.36 One such
hymn adds,
They grasp the furnace with grave steps.
They prepare the trays, very large:
some have roast meat, some have broiled.
The wives of the lords are reverent.
They prepare the dishes, very many,
for the guest, for the visitor.

At the end of the ceremony, the “impersonator” rises and the spirits,
satiated, depart.
The ritual ceremony is already completed;
The bells and drums have already given their warning.
The filial grandsons proceed to their station.
The officiating priest37 brings down the
announcement:
“The spirits have all drunk and ceased.”
Imagery of Copulation 17

The august impersonator rises.

The drums and bells send the impersonator off.
The spirit-guardians38 suddenly go back.

(Mao 209: “Ch’u-tz’u” )

And similarly,
The boundaries and fields are uniform.
The mass of millet is abundant.
The harvest of the great-grandson
is used to make wine and food.
Confer on me, impersonated guest,
a long life of myriad years.

(Mao 210: “Hsin Nan-shan” )

The speaker here is addressing an ancestral spirit—perhaps, if

we take the “great-grandson” literally, he is addressing his deceased
great-grandfather—who is being “impersonated” by a medium. In
exchange for wine and food, the supplicant hopes to be granted long
life.
These poems force us to reconsider the entire collection. The sex-
ual imagery in “The Kuan-ing Ospreys,” for example, can now easily
be seen as a metaphor for the yearning of a worshipper for his god-
dess. For we remember that the bells and drums, which are virtually
ubiquitous in the invocational literature, appear in the final stanza of
that poem as well.
Long and short is the duckweed.
To the left and the right we pick it.
The reclusive, modest girl—
as a bell to a drum, he delights in her.

(Mao 1)

In this light, it makes sense that the girl is “reclusive” ; the ardent
male is separated from his goddess, who remains aloof.39 With bell
and drum, the forlorn supplicant, like the “enchantress” of the Lyrics
of Ch’u, hopes to entice his beloved to mate with him on earth. The
bell and drum are so frequently coupled in the literature that their
function here may be to suggest metaphorically the harmonious
union of the girl and her admirer: “As a bell to a drum, he delights
in her.”
18 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

However, while commentators regularly take the lover’s yearn-

ing here as a metaphor for something less licentious, I do not know
of any that read “The Kuan-ing Ospreys” as the invocation of a god-
dess. In typical fashion, the traditional interpretations attribute some
political or historic significance to the poem. Not all commentators
agree on the specifics, but most read the love song allegorically, as an
indication of a ruler’s relations with his wives and hence as a telling
indicator of the prevailing mores.40
There are several poems in the collection that elucidate this sym-
bolic dimension to the metaphor of copulation. Many of the same
accoutrements of the hierogamic union between priestess and god-
head appear also in poems where the figure of the divinity is clearly
replaced by that of a ruler.
On the mountain there are thorn-elms.
In the marshes there are elms.
You have a robe and skirt.
You do not drag them, do not wear them.
You have carriage and horse.
You do not gallop them, do not spur them.
It is as though you are dead!
Another will enjoy them.

On the mountain there are k’ao-trees.

In the marshes there are niu-trees.
You have courts and halls.
You do not sprinkle them, do not sweep them.
You have bells and drums.
You do not strike them, do not beat them.
It is as though you are dead!
Another will take care of them.

On the mountain there are lacquer trees.

In the marshes there are chestnut trees.
You have wine and food.
Why do you not play your cithern daily?
You should be happy and pleased.
You should make your days endless.
It is as though you are dead!
Another will enter your chamber.

(Mao 115: “Shan yu ou” )

Imagery of Copulation 19

This ruler or lordling is courted with all the trappings that the
priestess uses to seduce the god: wine and food, citherns, bells and
drums. (The sexual connotations of the carriage and horse, further-
more, will become evident later.) Similarly, in the phrase “happy and
pleased” we see two familiar terms used to describe the joy of
mating. But if all the laden imagery were not enough, the final line
makes the sexual dimension explicit: “Another will enter your cham-
ber,” that is, make you a cuckold. If you do not enjoy the favors that
are bestowed upon you, someone else will.
The oldest extant interpretation of this poem focuses on its polit-
ical ramifications. “‘On the Mountain There Are Thorn-Elms’ criti-
cizes Lord Chao of Chin [r. 744–738 B.C.]” .41 Sup-
posedly, that lord had all the materials of good government at his
disposal, but because he did not “cultivate the Way” , he ended
in ruin. In his failure to sprinkle and sweep his courtyards, we are
given to understand that he neglected to keep his state in order.
Whether or not we accept the specific allusion to Lord Chao of Chin,
we see that in the case of this poem, despite the derision of scholars
like Giles, an interpretation along political lines fits well. The indo-
lent addressee of the poem displays traits that are readily associated
with a king or ruler.
One of the most famous poems in the collection addresses the
themes of copulation and rulership in a sophisticated idiom that
engages the reader’s critical acumen.
Back and forth [fly] the yellow birds.42
e
They settle on the jujube tree (*kr k).43
Who follows Lord Mu?
e
Tzu-chü Yen-hsi (*s k).
This Yen-hsi
is the finest in a hundred.
He approaches the pit.
In fear, in fear he trembles.
That azure Heaven
annihilates my good man.
Oh, how can he be redeemed?
A hundred men for him alone.
Back and forth [fly] the yellow birds.
They settle on the mulberry tree (*saang).
Who follows Lord Mu?
Tzu-chü Chung-hang (*gaang).
...
20 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Back and forth [fly] the yellow birds.

They settle on the thorn tree (*tshra:).
Who follows Lord Mu?
Tzu-chü Ch’ien-hu (*xaa:).

(Mao 131: “Huang-niao” )

“Lord Mu” is Lord Mu of Ch’in (r. 659–621), and the three

men named Tzu-chü are nobles whom the Lord has commanded to
be buried with him. The event is narrated in the Tso-chuan (a
literary chronicle from approximately 300 B.C.).44

45

Jen-hao, Earl of Ch’in [i.e., Lord Mu], died. Three sons of the Tzu-
chü family—Yen-hsi, Chung-hang, and Ch’ien-hu—were buried alive.
They were all the best in Ch’in. The citizens46 grieved for them, and
recited47 “The Yellow Birds.”48

The historical background explains the significance of the epithet

t’e for Tzu-chü Yen-hsi (“the finest in a hundred”): t’e also means
the male of a domesticated species, a fine victim for a sacrifice. But
the key to the entire poem lies in the image of the yellow birds. Every
time they land on a different tree, another scion of the household
dies. Indeed, their movements take on the import of prognostica-
tions; the name of each tree that they rest on rhymes with that of
the hero about to be sacrificed.49 Chung-hang, for example, knows
that his time has come when the yellow birds settle on the mulberry
(*saang).
The “yellow bird” is a name for the oriole that appears in the con-
text of the Odes as a specific symbol for separation between man and
wife.50 One poem juxtaposes the beautiful orioles to the plight of a
widow with seven young children.
The gentle wind from the south
blows on the heart of that jujube tree.
The jujube tree is verdant.
The mother pains and toils.

The gentle wind from the south

blows on the wood of that jujube tree.
The mother is sage and good.
We do not have a compassionate man.
Imagery of Copulation 21

There is a cold spring

beneath [the city of] Chün.
There are seven sons.
The mother toils in misery.

Dazzling are the yellow birds,

lovely their tones.
There are seven sons.
They do not soothe the mother’s heart.

(Mao 32: “K’ai-feng” )

But the most telling images appear in another poem called “The
Yellow Birds.”
Yellow birds, yellow birds,
do not gather on the corn.
Do not peck at my grain.
The people in this country
are not willing to nourish me.
I will return; I will go back,
back to my country and kin.

Yellow birds, yellow birds,

do not gather on the mulberry.
Do not peck at my liang -millet.
The people in this country
I cannot ally with.
I will return; I will go back,
back to my several brothers.

Yellow birds, yellow birds,

do not gather in the oak.
Do not peck at my li-millet.
The people in this country
I cannot dwell with.
I will return; I will go back,
back to my several ancestors.

(Mao 187: “Huang-niao”)

The speaker is a widow or an abandoned woman; the only manner

in which she could have left her “country and kin” in the first place
is by having married a man from another district. The people of the
22 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

alien region refuse to support her, and she must go back to her
homeland. The yellow birds gathering on the trees are an image of
loss and desolation.
We understand, then, the import of the orioles alighting on the
trees in the first “Yellow Birds” poem. It is a trope of arousal intended
to evoke the appropriate mood. Moreover, the yellow birds make the
reader think of the widowed women in “The Gentle Breeze” and the
second “Yellow Birds,” and we immediately realize that the party who
will feel the greatest loss for the Tzu-chü brothers is not the “citizens”
but the men’s own wives, who are unnaturally separated from
them.
The full message emerges in the phrase “back and forth” .
Chiao can mean “back and forth,” or “crosswise,” but specifically in
the sense of “crossing,” or “meeting.” The significance of the image
cannot have been lost on ancient readers. When birds fly in such a
way that they keep crossing each other’s path, they are mating. It is
no coincidence that chiao is also the most basic term for sexual inter-
course. The intentionally ambiguous phrase chiao-chiao huang-niao
means not only “Crosswise, crosswise fly the yellow birds” but also
“They copulate, they copulate, the yellow birds.” The poem is about
two competing relations: that between the brothers and their lord on
the one hand, and that between the brothers and their wives on the
other. Lord Mu forces his vassals to be true to him to the end, sever-
ing whatever connection they had with their own wives and family.
Poems like “The Yellow Birds” forge a profound link between the
image of sexual intercourse and the relation between a ruler and his
subjects,51 shedding greater light on the hermeneutic tradition that
could read a simple poem like “The Crafty Youth” as an indictment
of a petty lord whom most readers probably had never heard of. Per-
haps that poem really was intended as an allusion to Lord Chao of
Cheng; perhaps not. What is important is that the ancient critics rec-
ognized a dimension of the Odes that many modern readers over-
look: imagistic poems with a veneer of simplicity can pack several
layers of meaning for a sophisticated audience.
Consider the traditional interpretation of another poem, “The
Nine-Meshed Net.”
The fish in the nine-meshed net
are rudd and bream.
I see this young man
in regal robes and embroidered skirt.
Imagery of Copulation 23

The wild geese fly along the sandbar.

When the Duke goes back, there will be no place
[for us].
I will stay with you one more time.

The wild geese fly along the hill.

The Duke is going back and will not return.
I will lodge with you one more time.

Oh, here we had the regal robes.

Oh, do not go back with our Duke.
Oh, do not make my heart grieve.

(Mao 159: “Chiu-yü” )

Evidently, the poem depicts the end of a love affair between a girl
and a man in the service of “the Duke.” Unfortunately, the Duke is
about to go back, and that change will be the end of their relation:
“There will be no place [for us].” The opening arousal is appropri-
ate; the fish caught in the net, as we have seen, constitute a versatile
symbol for the sex act. It has been pointed out, furthermore, that the
wild geese, like the yellow birds, consistently signify conjugal separa-
tion, both in the Odes and in the ancient divination literature.52 They
figure as the natural arousal for a sorrowful song of parting.
The traditional interpretation, which even some of the most
receptive modern readers cannot accept,53 is that “The Nine-Meshed
Net” is a hymn of praise to the Duke of Chou, who served as Regent
to the infant King Ch’eng (r. 1042/1035–1006) in the years
1042–1036 B.C.54 It was allegedly written by the “Grand Masters of
Chou” when the Duke of Chou was about to return home
after having subdued a rebellion led by his brothers in the east.55 The
female speaker represents the people of the east, who have benefited
from his enlightened rule; now they yearn to “lodge” with him one
last time. We might be reluctant to let the specific reference stand—
after all, other bronze-age documents paint a portrait of the Duke of
Chou that is not entirely flattering56—but for the most part, there is
nothing far-fetched about an allegorical reading. We have seen re-
peatedly how the Odes employ sexual imagery to metaphoric effect. If
the image of the enchantress’ receiving basket can convey her culti-
vation of an ancestral spirit, and if the copulating birds can serve as
an emblem for the relation between the Tzu-chü brothers and Lord
24 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Mu of Ch’in, then little should stand in the way of understanding

the girl cohabiting with a young man in regal robes as a figure for
the people serving their beloved lord. The ancient authorities do
not bother with the manifest sexual dimensions of the poem pre-
cisely because these are the elements of the poem that require no
commentary.

The metaphorical understanding of sexual intercourse—that is, as a

representation of the relationship between a ruler and his subjects,
or between a divinity and his human worshippers—rests on the com-
munal conception of the sex act itself. The analogy of the male as
ruler and the female as subject, for example, has its roots in the
social roles played by males and females in ancient China. This point
is developed in the closing stanzas of another poem.
A male child is born.
He is made to sleep on a bed.
He is made to wear a skirt.
He is made to play with a scepter.
His crying is loud.
His red knee-covers are august.
He is the hall and household’s lord and king.

A female child is born.

She is made to sleep on the floor.
She is made to wear a wrap-cloth.
She is made to play with pottery.
She has no wrong and right.
Only wine and food are for her to talk about.
May she not send her father and mother any
troubles.

(Mao 189: “Ssu-kan” )

Each line in one stanza parallels the corresponding line in the other
stanza. For example, while the baby boy plays with a scepter, a clear
symbol of might and rulership, the baby girl is given pottery in order
to acquaint her with the chores that await her in the future.57 And
whereas the boy’s knee covers are “august” , the same term used in
the Lyrics of Ch’u for the “Magnificent One,” the girl tends to the wine
and food that she will present to her several rulers: husband, king,
and god.58
Imagery of Copulation 25

The last lines in each stanza highlight another crucial dynamic in

the metaphor of copulation. The line “May she not send her father
and mother any troubles” calls to mind various poems in which the
girl urges her lover to proceed quietly, lest their love-play waken her
parents and cause her shame.
In the field there is a dead roe.
With white grass we wrap it.
There is a girl who longs for spring.
A fine fellow seduces her.

In the forest there is the p’u-su tree.

In the field there is a dead deer.
With white grass we bind it.
There is a girl like jade.

Oh, undress me slowly.59

Oh, do not upset my kerchief.60
Do not make the shaggy dog bark.

(Mao 23: “Yeh yu ssu chün” )

One of the most famous and enigmatic poems to make use of the
theme is “The Banks of the Ju,” a river in the east.
Along those banks of the Ju,
I cut the long branches.
I have not seen my lord.
My pangs are like the morning hunger.

Along those banks of the Ju,

I cut the long twigs.
I have seen my lord.
He has not abandoned me.

The bream has a reddened tail.

The royal hall is as if ablaze.
Although it is as if ablaze,
My parents are very near.

(Mao 10: “Ju-fen” )

It has recently been suggested that the “royal hall” (wang-shih )

should be read “jade hall” (yü-shih ), a likely euphemism for the
26 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

vagina.61 To be sure, the blazing hall is a sign of the girl’s excitement.

The various arousals in the poem, furthermore, are true to the scene.
The bream with the rubescent tail, coupled with the narrator’s morn-
ing hunger, set the tone for sexual tension.
But we must also recall here the twin stanzas describing the birth
of boys and girls. The point of the conclusion to “The Banks of the
Ju,” like that of “In the Field There Is a Dead Roe,” is that the girl
cannot risk being caught with her lover by her father and mother—
that would send her parents troubles. Moreover, the phrase “royal
hall” echoes the parallel line for boys: “He is the hall and house-
hold’s lord and king” . The hall, some commentators argue,
is the hall of worship for the family’s ancestors.62 This is why the boy
is so valuable; he is entitled to cultivate the ancestors and ensure har-
monious relations with them. In “The Banks of the Ju,” the lovers
choose the ancestral hall as their meeting place precisely because it
is occupied only on extraordinary occasions. The image of the blaz-
ing hall contains a subtle but unmistakable connotation of illicit sex-
ual congress. On the one hand, the hall is supposed to be the locus
of ancestor worship, which, as we have seen, is conventionally por-
trayed in terms of a sexual relation. In this poem, however, rather
than having sublimated or ritual intercourse with their ancestors, the
boy and girl have sexual intercourse with each other, knowing full well
that they must keep their liaison secret. Who knows what may hap-
pen if the “father and mother” should hear their passion? Perhaps
we even ought to read fu-mu as “fathers and mothers,” for the
innumerable ancestral spirits present in the hall.
The striking image of the illicit affair in the family shrine illumi-
nates exactly what was considered dangerous about extramarital sex-
ual relations: they confuse the issue of patrimony. Nowhere is this
issue more graphically apparent than in the chaotic story of Lord
Hsüan of Wei (r. 718–700 B.C.), as related in the Tso-chuan.

63

Before [coming to the throne],64 Lord Hsüan of Wei had illicit rela-
tions with Chiang of I [his father’s concubine]. She gave birth to Chi-
tzu; [Lord Hsüan] entrusted him to the Right Noble Son. He found
him a wife from Ch’i, but since she was beautiful, Lord [Hsüan] took
Imagery of Copulation 27

her [for himself]. She gave birth to Shou and Shuo. [Lord Hsüan]
entrusted Shou to the Left Noble Son. Chiang of I hanged herself.
Hsüan’s other wife and the Noble Son Shuo slandered Chi-tzu. Lord
[Hsüan] sent him to Ch’i, and sent thugs to wait for him at Hsin,
where they would kill him. Shou-tzu informed [Chi-tzu], and told him
to flee. [Chi-tzu] was unwilling, saying, “If I reject my father’s com-
mand, what use am I as a son? If there is a state without a father, then
it would be acceptable.” When it came time to go, [Shou-tzu] intoxi-
cated [Chi-tzu] with wine. Shou-tzu carried his banner ahead of him,
and the thugs killed him. When Chi-tzu arrived, he said, “It is I that
you seek; what was his crime? I beg you to kill me!” So they killed him
too.65

Modern readers are often shocked when it comes time for Chi-tzu
to offer his own life, but we must remember that had he taken advan-
tage of the situation to flee, it would have proven wholly incongru-
ous with his earlier determination not to avoid his death. The point
is that Chi-tzu refuses to “reject [his] father’s command” ,
an ideal of filial piety that his own father failed deplorably to live up
to. Lord Hsüan fornicated with the wives of his father and his son,
and it could only have been foreordained that the offspring of these
abominable unions met with their tragic end. However, the real
calamity, from the point of view of classical readers, is not that Chi-
tzu and Shou-tzu are both slain, but that the succession of the state
of Wei has been thrown into confusion because of Lord Hsüan’s phi-
landering. Who will tend the ancestral hall? One son is a murderer;
the other two are dead.66
Another famous case of adultery among rulers and their wives is
said in the Tso-chuan to have induced the countryfolk to compose
ballads like those found in the Odes.

67

The Marquis of Wei [i.e., Lord Ling of Wei, r. 534–493 B.C.]

invited Sung Ch’ao for his lady, Nan-tzu. They met at T’ao. The Heir-
Apparent [of Wei], K’uai-k’uei, was offering [the city of] Yü to Ch’i,
and passed through the fields of Sung. The people in the fields were
singing about it, saying, “You have already settled your sow in heat.
Why not send back our fine boar?”

Nan-tzu was a daughter of the ruling house of Sung who was noto-
rious for her incestuous relationship with Sung Ch’ao, her brother.68
28 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Here Nan-tzu’s lawful husband, Lord Ling of Wei, not only condones
her lewdness but actually encourages it by inviting her brother to
copulate with her in T’ao. In case the image of the sow and boar were
not clear enough, the commentator Tu Yü (A.D. 222–284) re-
marks: “A lou-chu [‘sow in heat’] is a pig that is seeking offspring. It
is used as an analogy for Nan-tzu. The ‘fine boar’ is an analogy for
Sung Ch’ao” .
Here too, the consequence of adultery is that the ancestral line is
thrown into disorder. In surrendering his wife to another, Lord Ling
ultimately paves the way for the loss of his own son.

69

The Heir-Apparent was ashamed at [the farmers’ song], and he said

to Hsi-yang Su, “Follow me to visit Her Majesty. When Her Majesty has
an audience with me, I will turn and look at you. Then kill her.” Su
said, “Yes.” So he visited the Lady. The Lady had an audience with the
Heir-Apparent. The Heir-Apparent turned three times, but Su did
not advance. The Lady saw his expression, and screamed as she ran
away, saying, “K’uai-k’uei is going to kill me.” Lord [Ling] grasped her
hand so that she might climb up to a terrace. The Heir-Apparent
absconded to Sung.70

Lord Ling then had no choice but to appoint a secondary son as

Heir-Apparent, but when Ling died three years later, the new Heir-
Apparent refused to ascend the throne. Nan-tzu was finally forced
to accept the son of her would-be assassin as the next Lord of Wei.
Peace was not restored to the realm until 476 B.C.—a full twenty years
after Nan-tzu’s ill-fated coupling with her brother.71
Adultery and its awful consequences for the next generation are a
favorite theme of the Tso-chuan.

72

Hsi Ch’ou [of Chin] came on an embassy [to Lu], and sought a wife
from Sheng-po. Sheng-po took away Mr. Shih’s wife in order to give
her to [Hsi Ch’ou]. The wife said, “Even birds and beasts do not lose
their mates. What will you do?” [Shih] said, “I cannot die or be ban-
ished” [i.e., he fears the consequences of disobeying]. So his wife left.
Imagery of Copulation 29

She bore two sons to Hsi. When Hsi died, the men of Chin sent her
back to Shih. Shih met her at the Yellow River, and drowned her two
sons. His wife was angry, saying, “You yourself could not shelter your
mate, but caused her to go away. Moreover, you cannot succor a
man’s orphans, but kill them. What will be your end?” Then she swore
[separation] from Shih.73
The stories of Mr. Shih and Lord Ling of Wei—and of their
wives—may differ radically from the point of view of individual cul-
pability, but they both have the same result for the children. It is as
though unlawful sexual relations cannot produce offspring that will
survive. Indeed, this is the opinion of a figure as renowned as Tzu-
ch’an (otherwise known as Kung-sun Ch’iao ), the chief
minister of the state of Cheng from 543 until his death in 522 B.C.74

75

Moreover, I have heard that there should not be [women] of the

same surname [as their husband] in the inner quarters. Their off-
spring will not prosper. The beauty [of those who commit incest] will
first be exhausted; then they will breed disease in each other. There-
fore the gentleman hates [incest]. A former record says, “In buying a
consort, if you do not know her surname, divine it.”76 The ancients
were careful about offenses against these two principles [i.e., as Tzu-
ch’an has made clear earlier, observation of the incest taboo and
excessive nocturnal activity]. That male and female be of different sur-
names is a great concern of ritual.77
Tzu-ch’an is speaking here specifically of incest rather than of
adultery, but the figure of Nan-tzu shows how the two transgressions
are but different manifestations of the same basic violation. Mar-
riages that offend against the ancestral hall, whether incestuous or
adulterous—or both—beget death and disease. That is precisely why
the ritual codes address the issues of marriage and the purchase of
consorts; the sex act is inherently a ritual act. We may even apply Tzu-
ch’an’s principle to “The Yellow Birds.” Lord Mu’s relations with the
Tzu-chü brothers, we remember, are portrayed in images of sexual
union. Having the men buried alive with him is improper and, above
all, excessive. It is tantamount, if we extend the metaphor, to
necrophilia. An abomination of that magnitude must bring on all
the disasters that Tzu-ch’an warns us of—and these, as we have seen,
are embodied in the complex figure of the yellow birds.
30 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Women and men knew the larger consequences of adultery and

incest, because the connection between marriage and the husband’s
ancestral hall were well established. One young woman interpreted a
dream about another family’s temple as an omen that she must wed
one of their sons.
78

A man of Ch’üan-ch’iu had a daughter who dreamt that she used her
curtains as a screen for the temple of the Meng family. Thereupon
she eloped with [Meng] Hsi-tzu; her companion followed her.79

In the larger context of the Tso-chuan, the girl of Ch’üan-ch’iu plays

but a minuscule role. She is never named, and we do not hear from
her again. But the episode illustrates well the ancients’ awareness of
marriage and its significance for the ritual integrity of the clan.80
These stories further the association, first made in the Odes, between
the “hall and household” and the baby boy. In a sense, the girl is not
a full member of the group, because she is destined to serve in
someone else’s ancestral hall.
This conception of sexuality explains why the improper cultiva-
tion of spirits is called yin-ssu , or “licentious worship.” The
phrase became especially well known in imperial times as the term
used by Taoist patriarchs to denote heterodox divinity cults.81 One of
the oldest articulations of the idea occurs in the Tso-chuan.

82

The Marquis of Chin moved [the body of] Heir-Apparent Kung [to a
new grave]. In the autumn, Hu T’u was going to the lesser capital,
when he happened upon [the ghost of] the Heir-Apparent. The Heir-
Apparent made him ascend [his carriage] and act as his charioteer.
He said to him, “I-wu [the ruler of Chin] has no propriety. I have
made a request of Ti: I will bestow Chin unto Ch’in, and Ch’in will
cultivate me.” [Hu T’u] responded, “I have heard, ‘Spirits do not con-
sume what is not of their kind; people do not cultivate what is not of
their lineage.’ Will the sacrifices to you not be wasted?”83

Heir-Apparent Kung is Shen-sheng (d. 656 B.C.). The opera-

tive belief behind his request is that spirits need human beings to
feed them with sacrifices. As one commentary points out, the “lesser
capital” is the city of Ch’ü-wo , the former capital of Chin, where
Imagery of Copulation 31

the ancestral shrines are located and preserved.84 If anyone is going

to “happen upon” a ghost, therefore, it will be in the vicinity of
the lesser capital. Shen-sheng is enraged that his body has been dis-
interred and transferred somewhere else, and he wishes to punish
the offender—I-wu, his half-brother—by handing the state over to
his greatest rival. Hu T’u, his former charioteer, warns him that his
plan will not succeed, because there will be no one to sacrifice to him
if Chin is destroyed.85
This understanding of sacrifice informs another famous story in
the Tso-chuan.

86

The people of Cheng alarmed each other about [the ghost of] Po-yu
[i.e., Liang Hsiao , d. 543 B.C.], saying, “Po-yu is coming!” Then
they would all run around, not knowing where they were going. In the
second month of the year in which the legal codes were cast [i.e., 536
B.C.], someone dreamt that Po-yu was walking in armor, saying, “On
jen-tzu day, I will kill [Ssu] Tai [Po-yu’s killer]. On jen-yin day of next
year, I will also kill [Kung-sun] Tuan.” When jen-tzu day arrived, Ssu
Tai died, and the citizens increased their fears. In the month of peace
with Ch’i and Yen [i.e., 535 B.C.], on jen-yin, Kung-sun Tuan died, and
the citizens were even more frightened. The next month, Tzu-ch’an
elevated Kung-sun Hsieh and Liang Chih [Po-yu’s son] in order to
placate [the ghost]. Then things ceased. Tzu-t’ai-shu asked the rea-
son. Tzu-ch’an said, “When ghosts have a place to return to, they do
not become a menace. I afforded him a returning-place.”87

The “place to return to” , of course, is an ancestral hall filled

with sacrifices. Liang Chih had to be appointed officially as a succes-
sor to his father for Po-yu’s spirit to be satisfied. As Tzu-ch’an goes on
to explain, the ghost was justified. Like the ghost of Shen-sheng, that
of Po-yu had been wronged; he was starving, and the people of Cheng
should not have neglected him.88 It is not clear why it took eight
years—and two deaths—for Tzu-ch’an finally to solve the problem.89
In any case, the essential point was that sacrifices to Po-yu’s spirit
could be successful only if they were carried out by his legitimate
descendant, Liang Chih. Otherwise, they would be what Hu T’u calls
“wasted” , or, in the parlance of ritual texts, “licentious.” The
32 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Record of Rites (Li-chi ) states, “Sacrificing to a [spirit] to whom

one ought not sacrifice is called ‘licentious worship.’ There is no for-
tune in licentious worship” .90
Yin , “licentious,” is the same word that Confucius used in his char-
acterization of “The Kuan-ing Ospreys”: “There is joy without licen-
tiousness.” The basic meaning of the character is “downpour,” but it
is commonly used in place of its homophone, yin , meaning “exces-
sive sexual activity,” or “promiscuity.”91 It is an explicit and shocking
word, and it may be a little surprising that the Record of Rites uses it so
freely to describe a ritual transgression.
The sexual sense of yin is exemplified in the salacious story of
Lady Hsia , the daughter of Lord Mu of Cheng and widow of
Yü-shu , a grand master of the state of Ch’en .92

93

Lord Ling of Ch’en [r. 613–599 B.C.], K’ung Ning, and I Hang-fu had
congress with Lady Hsia. They all used her intimate clothes94 for their
undergarments, and jested about it at court. Hsieh Yeh said, “The
Lord and his chamberlains are proclaiming their licentiousness; will
this not have an effect on the people? Moreover, the rumor [of this
affair] will not be good. Lord, will you not put [her bedclothes]
away!”95 Lord [Ling] said, “I will reform myself.” Lord [Ling] in-
formed the two gentlemen. The two gentlemen requested permission
to kill him, and Lord [Ling] did not forbid it. Thus they killed Hsieh
Yeh.96

This indecent affair soon became even more outrageous and

finally roused the anger of Lady Hsia’s son.

97

Lord Ling of Ch’en was drinking wine at the Hsia household with
K’ung Ning and I Hang-fu. Lord [Ling] addressed Hang-fu, saying,
“[Hsia] Cheng-shu [Lady Hsia’s son] resembles you.” He responded,
“He also resembles you, my lord.” Cheng-shu was distressed at this.
When Lord [Ling] left, he shot him from his stable and killed him.
The two gentlemen fled to Ch’u.98

Evidently Lord Ling and I Hang-fu were jesting over who might be
the natural father of Lady Hsia’s son.99
Imagery of Copulation 33

King Chuang of Ch’u (r. 613–591 B.C.), meanwhile, seizes

upon the opportunity as a pretext to attack Ch’en.

100

In the winter [of the next year], the Viscount of Ch’u used the dis-
order caused by the Hsia house in Ch’en as a reason to attack Ch’en.
He addressed the people of Ch’en: “Do not move! I will punish the
Shao-hsi household [i.e., the house of Hsia].” Then he entered Ch’en
and killed Hsia Cheng-shu, tearing him apart with chariots at the Chest-
nut Gate. Following this, he made Ch’en a district [of his kingdom].101

A minister subsequently convinces the Viscount to restore Ch’en,

because annexing its territory would make a mockery of his original
justification, which was that he was merely punishing a regicide.102
The Viscount agrees but later wishes to take Lady Hsia into his
harem. Once again, he is dissuaded, for there could be no reason
why he would want the woman who was the cause of all this turmoil
except for sexual gratification. After all, Lady Hsia could hardly have
a worse reputation. She had been intimate with the late Marquis of
Ch’en and his two favorites. She was the reason for her son’s death,
as well as that of the Marquis (and she is even accused elsewhere of
having caused the death of more than one husband, too).103 To har-
bor such a wanton woman can only be yin.

104

When Ch’u punished the Hsia household of Ch’en, King Chuang

wished to take Lady Hsia. Wu-ch’en, Duke of Shen, said, “You cannot.
When you called out the various rulers [i.e., to attack Ch’en], my lord,
it was to punish a crime. Now if you take Lady Hsia, it is because you
covet her sex. Coveting sex is licentious, and licentiousness is a great
malfeasance.”105

These are the powerfully erotic connotations of the word yin.

When ancient readers came across the term “licentious worship,”
therefore, they would have recalled cases like that of Lady Hsia and
her indiscriminate fornications. Worshipping alien gods is akin to
whoring. Just as copulating with the wrong woman is decried as a vio-
lation of the ancestral hall, so sacrificing to the wrong god is under-
stood as spiritual adultery.106
34 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

The literary use of copulation as a metaphor for the relation between

lord and vassal, already apparent in the Odes in such pieces as “The
Yellow Birds,” comes to form the dominant theme in the longest
poem of the Lyrics of Ch’u, “Encountering Sorrow” (“Li-sao” ).
The work is attributed to Ch’ü Yüan , a loyal officer of King Huai
of Ch’u (r. 328–299 B.C.) who is said to have fallen into dis-
favor as a result of slander.107 “Encountering Sorrow” is framed as
an autobiography from the time of the speaker’s birth down to an
“envoi” (luan ) that he apparently intones just before drowning
himself in a river. Whether the author really was Ch’ü Yüan, and
whether a figure by that name ever really existed, are questions that
remain at present unanswerable.108
The speaker’s downfall begins soon after the opening of the poem.
He remonstrates too often with his lord.
The days and months passed quickly, not
tarrying.
Springs and autumns succeeded each other.
I considered the wilting and falling of the
grasses and leaves,
and I feared the slow dusking of my
Beautiful One.
He does not cherish what is fertile and
discard weeds.
109
Why will you not amend this habit?
...
110
But the Fragrance did not examine my
innermost feelings.
111
Instead, he trusted slanderers and began to
simmer with rage.112
...
The thronging ladies were jealous of my
moth-eyebrows.
They spread a rumor saying that I was
licentious with my favors.

At this point, the commentator Wang I (fl. ca. A.D. 120)

remarks that the women are a metaphor for ministers.

113

This is to say that the thronging women are jealous of the beautiful
and good person with the moth-eyebrows, so they destroy her by slan-
dering her. They say that she is beautiful but licentious and cannot be
Imagery of Copulation 35

trusted. They are like thronging ministers envious of [one who is]
loyal and upright; this is to say that they themselves are licentious and
perverse and cannot be employed.

The imagery is so unambiguous that few readers are inclined to dis-

agree with this interpretation. Wang I might also have pointed out
that the poet is treating his lord like a god. We remember the “fra-
grance,” the motif by which the poem “The Eastern August Mag-
nificent One” expresses the hierogamic union between the enchant-
ress and the spirit that she has attracted. Here, in “Encountering
Sorrow,” the fragrance is an appellation of the ruler who has lost
faith in his minister. The poet is speaking as though he were a
shamaness whose deity has ceased to favor her.114
The poem continues, describing the relationship between lord
and minister by using language and images pertaining to the union
of male and female. The speaker flies through the air, courting god-
desses and noble daughters but failing each time. Having lost his
mate, his Beautiful One, he tries over and over to find another con-
sort. The genders are interchangeable. The vassal may be cast either
as the male suitor or as the female concubine. The lord may likewise
be portrayed either as coveted female or as capricious male.

I break off a ch’iung-branch in order to attach

it to my girdle.
Before the luxuriant flowers have fallen,
I will see a girl below whom I can give it to.
I order Feng-lung to ride a cloud,
and find the location of Fu-fei.115
Loosening my girdle-band as my word of
betrothal,
I order Chien-hsiu to be the go-between.
Numerous and confused are the separations
and unions.116
Obstinate and rebellious, she is difficult to move.
In the evenings she returns to sojourn at
Ch’iung-shih.
In the mornings she washes her hair in
Wei-p’an stream.
She guards her beauty with arrogance.
She amuses herself every day with licentious
wanderings.
Though indeed beautiful, she has no propriety.
117
Let us leave her and find someone else.
36 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

At first the poet hopes for a new love affair with the goddess Fu-fei,
but as soon as he learns that she is precisely what his former rivals
have accused him of being—a beautiful woman, but wanton and
untrustworthy—he becomes disenchanted and rejects her.
After more failures, a diviner finally offers some words of encour-
agement.
I command Ling-fen to divine for me.
He said, “It must be that two beauties will
unite!
Whoever is trustworthy and cultivated, one
admires.
Think how expansive and great are the
Nine Continents.
Is it only here that there are women?”
He said, “Endeavor to pass far away and do
not be dubious like a fox.
118
Whoever seeks beauty will pick you.”

Ironically, in the phrase “pass far away” , the diviner Ling-fen

has made a prediction that the speaker does not yet understand. Shih
, “to pass,” “to perish,” is a common word for death. The god Wu-
Hsien subsequently verifies Ling-fen’s prognostication, and the
speaker is encouraged to make a vast journey through the outer
reaches of the universe. But disaster strikes at the last instant.
I rise and ascend the gloriously bright
empyrean.
Suddenly, I come within view of my own
home.
The coistrel is grieved; my horses long for it.
They turn to look back and will not go on.
Envoi:
That is all!
There is no one in the state, none who
know me.
And why should I long for my former city?
Since there is no one adequate to make a
beautiful government with,
119
I will follow P’eng and Hsien to their abode.120

P’eng and Hsien are spirits or divinities whose abode is the other-
world. The brilliant envoi serves to tie the whole poem together on
two levels. At the last moment, the poet fulfills the prophecy of Ling-
Imagery of Copulation 37

fen, “passing far away” into death. And by killing himself, he

actually finds his mate after all, hurling himself into the abode of the
gods. They are the only ones adequate to his devotion.
Moreover, the envoi explains unmistakably that the many appear-
ances of “beauty” in the poem are intended to have moral and
121
political overtones. The speaker’s own beauty lies in the fact that
he alone is capable of effecting “beautiful government” . The
Beautiful One, the appellation by which he first refers to his lord,
reveals himself in the end to be inadequate on moral grounds and
undeserving of the poet’s loyalty. Similarly, Fu-fei, though undeni-
ably beautiful (“Though indeed beautiful . . .” ), also turns out
to be an inappropriate match because of her promiscuous “wander-
ings” . There are two levels of beauty, just as there are two levels of
copulation. The poem may refer to the beauty of the body or the
spiritual beauty of “loyalty and uprightness” . In the same way, it
may portray copulation in a carnal sense, or in the metaphorical
sense of joining ruler and subject. Even in the notion of wandering,
the poet forges a similar dualism. His own wandering is the conse-
quence of his lifelong quest to find a proper mate, ending finally in
his suicide and union with the spirit world. The debased wandering
of Fu-fei, however, is merely an opportunity for her to flaunt her
divine hair and fulfill her earthly desires.122
This theme of beauty in its competing literal and allegorical
senses is also apparent in a characteristic passage from the “inner
chapters” (nei-p’ien ) of the Chuang-tzu , the philosophical
work named after the thinker Chuang Chou (fl. fourth century
B.C.).123

124

125

Lord Ai of Lu (r. 494–468 B.C.) asked Confucius, saying, “In Wei there
is an ugly man named Ai-t’ai T’o. When men live with him, they cher-
ish him and cannot leave him. When women see him, they beg their
parents, saying, ‘Rather than become another man’s wife, I would
38 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

prefer to be that man’s concubine.’ There were more than ten

women like that, and they did not cease. There was no one who ever
heard him take the lead;126 he would always simply be in harmony with
other people. He had no lordly position with which to save people
from death; he did not have amassed riches with which to satiate peo-
ple’s stomachs.127 He also terrified the world with his ugliness. He
always went along and never took the lead. His knowledge did not
extend to the four directions. And yet male and female combined
before him. He must have been different from other people. We sum-
moned him and observed him. Indeed, he terrified the world with his
ugliness. When he lived with Us, within the space of one month We
took an interest in his personality. Within the period of one year, We
trusted him. The state had no prime minister, so We handed over the
state to him. After a while he responded, indistinctly, as though
declining. We were disgraced! In the end We gave him the state, but
before long, he left Us and went. We were grieved by this, as though
We had had a loss, as though there were no one with whom We could
enjoy the state. What kind of a man was this?”128
Confucius then explains. Ai-t’ai T’o is someone whose inner
power (te ) is not apparent from his external form. However, it is
one’s inner power that attracts others, not one’s physical beauty. If
the inner power remains amorphous and flexible, the rest of the
world will take note of it. “Inner power is the cultivation of com-
pleted harmony. If one’s inner power is not formed, things cannot
depart from one” .129 Un-
formed inner power takes the same shape as the unformed tao.
The figure of Ai-t’ai T’o could only have come from the Chuang-
tzu. He embodies ideals, such as rejecting official life and “not taking
the lead” , that are typical of that text more than any other.130
Nevertheless, it is clear how this story expands on themes that are
familiar from “Encountering Sorrow.” Ai-t’ai T’o is unbelievably ugly,
and yet the women in Wei wish for nothing more than to be available
for his sexual convenience. This is because his “inner power,” like
the “beauty” of the virtuous minister in the Lyrics of Ch’u, proves more
attractive than the physical beauty of less talented rivals. The Lord of
Lu is even persuaded to hand over his state to Ai-t’ai T’o, and when
the lord is abandoned by his new minister, he seems to feel as though
his consort has perished.
In light of this story and “Encountering Sorrow,” with their highly
charged themes of beauty and copulation, other poems in the Lyrics
of Ch’u must also be read with an awareness of their multiple mean-
Imagery of Copulation 39

ings. Consider “The Lesser Administrator of Fate” , an erotic

poem that avoids explicit political references until the very end.
The autumn orchid and the mi-wu
grow in a carpet at the bottom of the hall.
The green leaves and white branches
have a fragrance that wafts and invades me.
[“The people naturally have beautiful
children.
Iris, why are you sad and bitter?”]131
The autumn orchids are blue,
with green leaves and purple stems.
The hall is filled with beauties.
Unexpectedly, his eyes fall entirely on me.
He enters me without a word and exits
without a farewell.
He rides back on the wind, his banners
supported by the clouds.
No sorrow is more sorrowful than that of
parting for the living.
No joy is more joyous than having someone
new with whom to know each other.132
With a lotus robe and a melilotus belt
Quickly he comes and suddenly he departs.
In the evening he will lodge in the precincts
of Ti.
“Lord, whom do you await at the edge of the
clouds?
I will wander with you to the Nine Rivers.
The rushing wind arrives and the water
raises waves.
I will bathe with you in Hsien’s pool.
I will dry your hair on the bank of the sun.”
I gaze at the Beautiful One, but he has not
come.
Near the wild wind, I pour out my song.
With a peacock’s canopy and a kingfisher’s
pennant,
He ascends the Nine Heavens and strokes
the Broom Star.
Drawing up his long sword, he brings
together young and old.
133
“Only you, Iris, are fit to be the ruler of the
people.”
40 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

On the one hand, given the obvious affinities of this poem to “The
Eastern August Magnificent One,” one can readily take it as an ode
to a god or spirit. The phrase fang fei-fei , “the fragrance wafts,”
appears in both poems, as does the “long sword” —and, above
all, the idea of copulating with the sweet-smelling lord. However, the
final line recalls “Encountering Sorrow” in particular and reminds us
that the Fragrant One can also be understood as a ruler of men. He
is called Iris in “The Lesser Administrator of Fate,” and Fragrant
One in “Encountering Sorrow,” but the image is largely the
same.134 The final phrase, “ruler of the people” , moreover,
affirms the worldly and political dimensions of the poem. If we envi-
sion the poet of “Encountering Sorrow” reciting the lines of “The
Lesser Administrator of Fate,” then we can easily imagine him de-
lighting in the privileges that his lord showers on him, portraying
them as the sexual favors that Iris bestows on his enchanted lover. It
is only to be expected then, that the poet describes Iris in language
fit for a god. For the premier metaphor in both liturgical poems like
“The Eastern August Magnificent One” and political-satirical poems
like “Encountering Sorrow” is that of copulation with a superior
being.
In this respect, “Encountering Sorrow” and “The Lesser Adminis-
trator of Fate” are typical of their cultural context. By the third and
fourth centuries B.C., it had become commonplace to liken the
ruler’s ministers to his women, as is evident from writings of various
genres.135 The “Wen-yen” commentary to the Canon of Changes
(I-ching ), for example, draws the following analogy under the
hexagram k’un (six broken lines, or pure yin ).
136

Although yin possesses beauty, it contains [its beauty] in order to fol-

low in the affairs of the king. It does not dare complete [its beauty on
its own]. It is the Way of Earth, the Way of the wife, the Way of the
minister.

This attitude is now familiar. The Way of the minister is the Way
of the wife because both minister and wife are feminine roles com-
plementing the masculine ruler. Similarly, the political philosopher
Shen Pu-hai (fl. 354–340 B.C.)137 points out that the sagacious
ruler must treat his wives and ministers with the same degree of
circumspection.
Imagery of Copulation 41

138

When one wife acts on her own responsibility with regard to her hus-
band, the throng of wives all become disorderly. When one minister
monopolizes the lord, the flock of ministers all become deceptive.
Thus a jealous wife can break a family without difficulty; a disorderly
minister can break the state without difficulty. Therefore the enlight-
ened lord makes his ministers advance together like wheel spokes to
a hub; none of them are able to monopolize the ruler.

The later essayist Han Fei (d. 233 B.C.) is so comfortable with
this manner of thinking that he does not even distinguish between
the ruler’s women and his ministers. They are all “tigers,” lurking in
the crevices and awaiting the right moment to rise up against him.

139

If you do not secure your gates, tigers will come into being. If you are
not careful about your affairs and do not suppress your emotions, ban-
dits will arise. They slay their rulers, taking their place, with none of
them failing to participate; thus they are called tigers. They dwell by
their ruler’s side; they are treacherous140 ministers, hearing of their
ruler’s errors;141 thus they are called bandits. Disperse their cliques;
gather the rest [onto your side]; shut their gates; and snatch away
their support. Then there will be no tigers in the state. Make your
greatness immeasurable, your depth unfathomable; make “forms and
names” match;142 investigate and test standards; execute those who act
on their own. Then there will be no bandits in the state.143

But as Han Fei writes elsewhere, it is not only treacherous ministers

who are bandits.

144

145

Moreover, whether he is the ruler of [a state with] myriad chariots, or

the lord of [a fiefdom] with a thousand chariots, among his consorts,
42 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

wives, and the son whom he has deemed appropriate to be his heir
apparent, there will be some who wish for the early death of their
lord. How do we know that this is so? Wives do not have the affection
of bone and flesh [i.e., they are not related to their husbands by
blood]. If he loves them, they are intimate with him; if he does not
love them, they are distant. There is a saying: “If the mother is
favored, the son is embraced.” But its opposite is that if the mother is
despised, the son is set loose. When the husband is fifty years old, his
fondness for sex has not dissolved; when the wife is thirty years old,
her beauty and sex have decayed. If a wife of decaying beauty serves a
husband who is fond of sex, then she will be distant and base [in his
eyes], and her son will not be likely to be [his father’s] successor. This
is why consorts and wives hope for their lord’s death. If only the
mother is made Queen Dowager and her son the next ruler, then
none of her commands are not carried out, nothing that she prohibits
not caused to cease. Her sexual joy will not be less than with her for-
mer lord, and she can manipulate [a state of] myriad chariots without
suspicion. These are the uses of poisonings and assassinations.146
Han Fei follows the lead of Shen Pu-hai and the authors of the
Lyrics of Ch’u but extends their imagery to the extreme. In this pas-
sage, he has reduced all political questions to a simple calculus of
sex. Whichever consort is favored sexually will prosper and see her
son anointed as heir, whereupon her opportunity for “sexual joy”
is only increased. “Beauty” is, once again, the most impor-
tant characteristic for ambitious parties at court, but by “beauty,”
Han Fei means the beauty of the flesh. The woman who is the most
beautiful copulates the most; the woman who copulates the most is
the most powerful. There is no room for morality or virtue in Han
Fei’s worldview, because rulers are more interested in enjoying their
women than in questions of ethics and good government. His opin-
ion of palace women is abysmal—they are all merely whores—but,
implicitly, his appraisal of the rulers is even worse. They are the lech-
erous sons of lascivious mothers, who, once on the throne, merely
perpetuate the cycle of sexual intrigue by devoting their days and
nights to carousing with the next generation of consorts.
This connection between sexual activity and political power came
to inform the conception of sexuality that prevailed during the early
imperial period. This topic will be the focus of chapter 3. For now,
let us observe that the common word for any kind of action by an
emperor with regard to one of his inferiors is the same as the word
used to describe sexual intercourse with a woman. The word is yü ,
Imagery of Copulation 43

“to drive,” as in “to drive a chariot.”147 In its sexual sense, yü appears

even in ritual texts. The Record of Rites, for example, tells us that “even
if a concubine is aging, if she is not yet fully fifty years old, one must
drive her once every five days”
.148 Similarly, that same text notes elsewhere that the ancient kings
kept eighty-one yü-ch’i in their seraglios.149 Yü-ch’i is the lowest
rank in the palace hierarchy, and though it is usually understood
in the sense of “serving lady” (or the like), literally the title means
“drive-wife,” that is, a woman available for copulation.150 But the term
yü is also frequently encountered in the sense of “imperial,” as in yü-
fu , “imperial robes,” or yü-chu , “imperial commentary.”
The connection is explained by Ts’ai Yung (A.D. 132–192).

151

What the Son of Heaven causes to advance is called yü. Yü means

“to be advanced.” Whatever clothing he adds to his body, or drink
and food he brings into his mouth, or consorts and concubines he
receives in his bedchamber, are all called yü.

Every sexual act is thus in some sense a political act, just as every
political act is in some sense a sexual act. This is not to say that the
people of classical China necessarily thought of the emperor’s bed-
chamber every time they referred to the imperial chariot or vest-
ments. But it is revealing that the word for driving horses is borrowed
without further ado to express both the emperor’s control of his
people and a man’s coition with a woman.

Finally, the rich imagery of the Lyrics of Ch’u highlight one other cru-
cial aspect of the metaphor of copulation in ancient China. Another
famous poem in that anthology, “Wandering into the Distance”
(“Yüan-yu” ), takes up much of the same imagery as “Encoun-
tering Sorrow” but without the heavy political overtones. “Wander-
ing into the Distance” focuses instead on the aesthetic of ascension
and astral flight.
Grieved by the distresses and difficulties of
the times and mores,
I wish to rise lightly and wander into the
distance.
But my abilities are exiguous and meager,
and I have nothing to rely on.
44 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

152
How could I employ a carriage and float up?
...
I marvel at how Fu Yüeh became a star in a
constellation.
I admire Han Chung for having attained the
One.153
Their bodies began to fade as they became
immersed in the distance.
They left the throng of humanity and
became hidden and lost.
They complied with the transformations of
matter and then rose up high,
with the sudden fleeing of a spirit and the
strangeness of a ghost.
At times they are seen vaguely and
distantly.154
155
Their essence is brilliant as they come and go.
The poem then continues in a manner reminiscent of “Encoun-
tering Sorrow.” The speaker is distressed at the passage of time. He
engages in certain practices intended to forestall death and meets a
shaman or diviner, who gives him words of encouragement. There-
upon he begins his celestial journey.
I hear this supremely precious [advice] and
then go ahead.
Oh, suddenly I begin to go.
I come upon feathered people at Cinnabar
Hill.
156
I stay in the old home of immortality.

As he passes from place to place, visiting gods and fantastic sites,

more and more beings join his train.
The Earl of Wind charges before us in the van,
removing the vapor and dust to make it clear
and cool.
Phoenixes form our flank, bearing banners.
157
We happen upon Ju-shou in the Western
Empyrean.
The speaker and his escort continue to ascend, passing out of the
realm of geography into the world of Heaven—and then beyond
Heaven too, into the primordial place describable only in the vaguest
of abstractions.
Imagery of Copulation 45

We pass through the Four Wildernesses.

We flow around the Six Deserts.
We arrive up to the Crack of Lightning.158
We gaze down at the Great Gully.
Below, it is majestic, and there is no Earth.
Above, it is vast, and there is no Heaven.
I look, but quickly there is nothing to be seen.
In the agitated flurry, there is nothing to be
heard.
We transcend Non-Action and arrive at Clarity.
159
I am a neighbor of the Magnificent Beginning.
And with the “Magnificent Beginning” , the poem ends. The
speaker has attained the immortality that he has been seeking from
the very beginning.
It has been pointed out that “Wandering into the Distance” shares
certain basic features with shamanic incantations that have been
preserved in ethnographic literature.160 The idea of ascending the
heavens with the aid of friendly beasts, so striking in “Wandering into
the Distance,” is by all accounts a fundamental characteristic of
shamanism.161 Moreover, the portrayal of the ascension as occurring
in stages is a richly attested shamanic motif. In “Wandering into the
Distance,” the speaker rises from level to level, ever higher, recount-
ing the sights and sounds that he experiences along the way. Simi-
larly, an Altaic shaman, after a successful entreaty to the Celestial
Bird, cries out,
I have ascended one step.
Aikhai! Aikhai!
I have reached one celestial region.
Šagarbata!
I have climbed up to the summit of the tapty!
Šagarbata!
I have raised myself up to the full moon!
Šagarbata!
Then he recites the following as he rises up another level.
I have crossed the second stage;
I have ascended the second step.
. . . the third . . . [etc.]162
This comparison between “Wandering into the Distance” and the
oration of an Altaic shaman is not intended to suggest that the
authors of Lyrics of Ch’u were necessarily shamans. On the contrary,
46 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

it is important to remember that the speaker of “Wandering into the

Distance” ends his poem in the misty regions of the outer universe,
without ever having had any intention of returning from his voyage
to earth. Real shamans, on the other hand, must always come back to
their communities after completing their spirit journeys, because
they serve as the crucial link between the terrestrial and the celestial
spheres.163 The Lyrics of Ch’u merely apply shamanic motifs to literary
effect.
The shamanic dimensions in these poems help explain why sexual
activity is recommended in many ancient texts as an exercise con-
ducive to one’s health. For the speaker of “Wandering into the Dis-
tance,” rising up to Heaven like a shaman is the sign that one has
become a hsien , or someone who has attained immortality. Simi-
larly, a recently excavated sex manual called Joining Yin and Yang (Ho
yin-yang ) depicts the act of coition in the form of a “wander-
ing” across the geography of the human body, progressing in stages
from arousal, through foreplay, to orgasm and cosmic harmony.

164

The recipe for whenever you will be conjoining Yin and Yang:
Grip the hands, and emerge at the Yang side of the wrists;
Stroke the elbow chambers;
Press the side of the underarms;
Ascend the stove trivet;
Press the neck zone;
Stroke the receiving canister;
Cover the encircling ring;
Imagery of Copulation 47

Descend the broken basin;

Cross the sweet-liquor ford;
Skim the Spurting Sea;
Ascend Constancy Mountain;
Enter the dark gate;
Ride the coital muscle;
Suck the essence and spirit upward.
Then you can have enduring vision and exist in unison with heaven
and earth.165

Florid phrases like the “Spurting Sea” and “Constancy

Mountain” are technical names for parts of the female body.
Some are better understood than others; as we have seen, the “receiv-
ing canister” (or “receiving basket”) is a name for the vagina
that appears even in the Odes.166 The reader of this manual (which is
evidently intended solely for men) is told that he can “exist in unison
with heaven and earth” precisely because he has sucked “the essence
and spirit upward.” Sex with women constitutes a form of nourish-
ment for men because they can draw in the woman’s yin essence
while driving the “coital muscle” . In that respect, copulation
serves as a form of food, once again echoing a theme prevalent in
the Odes. Moreover, the understanding of coitus as a form of carnal
wandering—from places like the “stove trivet” to the “encircling ring”
—recalls the hierogamy of poems like “The Lesser Administrator of
Fate.” “Lord,” says the speaker in that piece, “whom do you await at
the edge of the clouds? / I will wander with you to the Nine Rivers.”
By wandering with her lord or god, the enchantress draws him near
and copulates with him, just as the practitioner of Joining Yin and
Yang wanders across the body of his mate, visiting the sites along the
way to the “receiving basket.” The female body is thus conceived as a
universe of its own, a place where one can wander like a shaman tra-
versing the sky.
This conception of sex is the Yangist answer to figures like Han
Fei.167 Both parties see sex as an avenue to power, but for those with
no interest in politics, power means neither dominating the court
nor seeing one’s son installed as Heir-Apparent, but bodily health
and, if possible, immortality. Health and immortality, furthermore,
entail rising up to Heaven like a shaman or a hsien unfettered by the
impediments of mundane life. For those who followed the prescrip-
tions of Joining Yin and Yang, copulation was godly; for when one is
copulating, one is emulating the immortals.
2

Women and Sex Roles

It has become something of a scholarly commonplace to criticize

traditional Chinese thought—and especially traditional Confucian
thought—for its repressive and deprecating stereotypes of women.1
Indeed, there appears to be no shortage of textual justification for
this point of view. We have already seen the different descriptions in
the Odes of the treatment of infant boys and girls: the boys cry lustily
as they play with their toy scepters, whereas the girls instead receive
little pieces of clay in order to establish their subordinate status.2
Similarly, other poems in the Odes depict vividly the chaos that must
ensue when women have too much influence over political affairs.
Consider the oft-cited example of “I See on High” (“Chan-yang” ).3
People had land and fields
but you possess them.
4
People had followers
but you seize them.
This one is properly without guilt
but you arrest him.
That one is properly with guilt
but you set him loose.

A clever man completes a city;

a clever woman overturns a city.
Alas, that clever woman!
She is a hsiao-bird;5 she is an owl.
Women have long tongues.
They are the foundation of cruelty.

48
Women and Sex Roles 49

Disorder does not descend from Heaven.

It is born of woman.
There is no one to instruct or admonish [the king]
because those who attend him are always women.6

They exhaust others; they are jealous and fickle.

At first they slander; in the end they turn their
backs [on authority].
Will you say it is not so extreme?
Oh, how they are wicked!
They are like merchants who make a threefold profit.
The noble man knows this.
There is no public service for women.
They stay with their silkworms and weaving.

(Mao 264: “Chan-yang”)

These stanzas are evidently addressed to a ruler whose domain is
in complete disorder. The innocent are arrested, the guilty set free,
and the people deprived of their land and livelihood. As we go on to
read, all the problems stem from the fact that the ruler surrounds
himself with women. The word ju in the first stanza can be inter-
preted in at least two ways. One the one hand, it can easily mean
“you” (in the sense of ju )—that is, the addressee who dispossesses
the people. However, there is no reason the character cannot also be
read nü, “woman.” For ultimately it is the women who, having left
their proper place behind the loom, begin to meddle with affairs of
state and steal the wealth of the people. The ambiguity of the char-
acter may even represent a subtle accusation that the real rulers
of the land are the king’s destructive women.
What women is the poem referring to? It is never clear whether
the designation is singular or plural, one woman or many. There is a
brief reference to a certain “clever woman” who brings down a
clever man’s work, but then the poem lapses into contexts in which
the female sex is clearly intended generally: “Women have long
tongues” ; “There is no public service for women” ;
and so on.
Later commentators have attempted to take this poem as the work
of one Earl of Fan , criticizing his lord, the King Yu of Chou
(r. 781–771 B.C.), and the king’s concubine, Pao Ssu (or
Ssu of Pao).7 Pao Ssu was a petulant girl of supposedly miraculous
birth who manipulated the benighted King Yu, finally persuading
50 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

him to set aside his rightful queen and designate her own son as heir
apparent. But this fateful stratagem proved shortsighted, for Pao Ssu
was imprisoned when the Marquis of Shen , the queen’s father,
killed King Yu and set in his place the queen’s son, who is known to
history as King P’ing (r. 770–720 B.C.). Many of the later tradi-
tions surrounding Pao Ssu are manifestly romanticized. We are told,
for example, that there was a system of alarm beacons that the king
would use to summon his vassals to battle; King Yu would repeatedly
light these beacons in vain because it amused Pao Ssu to see the feu-
dal lords rushing to the rescue but finding no enemy. Unfortunately,
the King tried this trick so often that, by the time of the climactic
battle with the Marquis of Shen, none of the king’s allies heeded
the alarm beacons, and so he was overpowered quickly.8 This story
is, in other words, the ancient Chinese counterpart of our “Little Boy
Who Cried ‘Wolf!’”
In spite of these suspicious details, however, there may have been
some kernel of truth to the story, which must originally have been
the tale of a fierce succession dispute. The Marquis of Shen wished
to see his grandson crowned as King of Chou; the king himself had
other ideas. But with the increasing weakness of the Chou throne
in the eighth century, it turned out that the Marquis of Shen had
enough military might to realize his ambition. The affair served as a
harbinger of times to come. From this point on, real administrative
power in Chou China would lie with feudal lords in the mold of the
Marquis of Shen.9 So if the Earl of Fan really did write “I See on
High,” we can appreciate the momentous concerns of the poem.
King Yu was endangering the political order by doting on that “clever
woman” who wished only to “overturn a city” . According to the
author, it is dangerous for the ruler to surround himself with female
attendants because women are not naturally suited to affairs of gov-
ernment. They are “jealous and fickle” and are properly left at
home to tend to sericulture.
The Earl of Fan’s point would be not that all women are inher-
ently wicked—only those who, like Pao Ssu, scheme to alter the line
of succession and thereby bring on catastrophes that they cannot
have thought through. And of course King Yu himself is ultimately to
blame for everything; for it is he who has failed to keep his women
in their appropriate place. I believe an interpretation along these
lines is warranted for several reasons. Most important, other passages
in the Odes and other canonical works do not represent women as
Women and Sex Roles 51

uniformly wicked and conspiratorial. On the contrary, as we shall

see, the nature of men and women and their proper sex roles is
acknowledged in these texts to be one of the most difficult problems
in philosophy.
Moreover, Pao Ssu is mentioned by name elsewhere in the Odes,
so we know that her legacy was indeed prominent in the authors’
minds.
The sorrow of my heart
is as though someone tied it.
This ruler now—
how can he be so cruel?
The flames, as they rise—
will someone extinguish them?
The majestic capital of Chou—
Pao Ssu destroyed it.

(Mao 192: “Cheng-yüeh” )

Several rhetorical features of this stanza invite the reader to com-

pare it to “I See on High.” Most noticeably, the reference at the end
to “the majestic capital of Chou” recalls the “city” that
the clever man completed and the clever woman overturned. Fur-
thermore, the ruler here is described as li , “cruel,” evoking the
line, “They are/She is the foundation of cruelty” in “I See
on High.” Finally, it is not farfetched to observe the structural simi-
larity of the rhetorical question, hu-jan li i , “How can he be
so cruel?” and the exclamation i hu-wei t’e , “Oh, how they
are wicked!” which appears in “I See on High.” So we cannot simply
dismiss the assertion of the commentators that “I See on High” refers
specifically to King Yu and his concubine. It is a very plausible read-
ing in the context of the Odes. And they were certainly right, in any
case, that “I See on High” has to do with destructive women who are
granted undue influence over royal affairs and does not necessarily
promote the idea that all women are wicked and destructive by
nature.
Furthermore, the poem appears in a section of the Odes that
includes a number of poems contrasting the prosperous and blessed
reigns of virtuous rulers with the harsh and blighted reigns of rulers
who neglect their Mandate . A common figure in the poems is the
ruler who does not tend to the “king’s business” but indulges
himself in women and drink.
52 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Does he not exert himself, he who is humane?10

Are the four quarters not instructed by him?
Sensing his virtuous conduct,
the four regions obey him.
With grandiloquent counsel he confirms his
Mandate.
With farsighted plans and timely announcements
he is reverently cautious about his awesome
deportment.
He is a pattern for the people.

The one of today

is aroused and seduced by disorder in government.
He overturns his own power.
He abandons and dissipates himself in wine.
You devote yourself only to dissipated pleasures.
You do not ponder your lineage.
Why do you not apply yourself to seeking the [Way
of the] former kings
so that you could hold fast to their enlightened
law?

(Mao 256: “I” )

These two stanzas illustrate the difference between a ruler who

cultivates his “power” (te ) and one who “overturns” it. The
“power” is the quality that a ruler obtains through his pious obe-
dience to Heaven and tireless efforts to effect virtuous government
on earth.11 “The one of today” , whom later commentators
identify as King Li of Chou (r. 857/853–842/828),12 turns his
back on the ancient practice of his ancestors (“You do not ponder
your lineage” ) and spends all his energy in dissolute plea-
sures. The poem delineates two paths that a ruler can follow. He can
dedicate himself to “enlightened law” and thereby cause his
subjects in all quarters of the realm to submit of their own will, thus
confirming his Mandate. This path, however, is the more difficult of
the two; the ruler must be prepared to “exert himself” . Or the
ruler can simply waste his days in debauchery, like King Yu with his
concubine. Words like “seduced” and “pleasures” merely hint
at the sexual nature of the king’s excesses. Unlike “I See on High,”
the present poem does not mention the destructive women directly.
For the proper object of blame is unquestionably the ruler himself.
Women and Sex Roles 53

These poems from the Odes highlight some of the problems in

assessing references to women in classical Chinese texts. The bipolar
discourse of virtuous government versus immoderate licentiousness
is so basic to the political consciousness of the literature that the
mere mention of women at the royal level is often intended to evoke
a king who has failed to consider his priorities. But it would be a mis-
take to take the manifold, and indeed stereotyped, images of “long-
tongued” women as an authorial attitude that can be extended to
cover all women. After all, the Odes contain at least as many refer-
ences to virtuous women whose moral perfection contributes to
the flourishing of the age. A favorite heroine is the mother of King
Wen , the founder of the Chou dynasty.
Jen, the second princess of Chih,13
from that Yin-Shang,
came to marry in Chou.
Oh, she became his wife in the capital.
And she, with King Chi,
acted only with virtue.14
T’ai Jen became pregnant
and bore this King Wen.

This King Wen

was circumspect and reverent.
Brilliantly he served [the god] Ti Above.
Thereupon he caused many blessings to arrive.
His power was never refractory.
Thus he received the surrounding states.

(Mao 236: “Ta Ming” )

T’ai Jen was the second princess of Chih, a state within the realm
of the Yin or Shang overlord. She married King Chi of Chou and
gave him a son, the future King Wen. The phrase nai chi wang Chi
, “and she, with King Chi,” emphasizes that her own virtuous
conduct contributed to the brilliant success of her husband and son.
Similarly, another poem in the sequence praises King Wen’s mother
for her relationship to her mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
Ah, reverent was T’ai Jen,
the mother of King Wen!
Ah, loving was she to Chiang of Chou,
the woman of the royal chamber!
54 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

T’ai Ssu inherited her excellent reputation.

Thus her sons were numerous.

(Mao 240: “Ssu chai” )

Chiang of Chou is T’ai Chiang, the mother of King Chi. Thus the
poem lauds T’ai Jen for treating her mother-in-law with respect,
which has always been a principal duty of a wife in traditional China.
T’ai Ssu was King Wen’s wife; she is also praised in the collection for
her womanly virtues.15 In the word tse (“thus”), the poem takes
pains to point out that T’ai Ssu was able to bear her many sons and
continue the Chou line precisely because she followed in the exalted
footsteps of her own mother-in-law. Thus T’ai Jen played a pivotal
role in the history of the Chou lineage: she honored her mother-in-
law, as was appropriate, and then influenced her daughter-in-law to
carry on the noble tradition of the Chou wives. These poems assert
that the women of Chou played a critical role alongside their hus-
bands in the establishment of the dynasty. T’ai Jen and T’ai Ssu are
hardly “long-tongued” vixens like Pao Ssu who conspire to disrupt
the royal line. They are the exact opposite: chaste and industrious
women who lay the foundations for the splendid accomplishments of
their husbands and descendants.16
To be sure, such poems seem to allow for female virtue within very
narrow boundaries. Women earn recognition only when they excel
at their allotted sex roles of wife and mother. Female paragons such
as T’ai Jen and T’ai Ssu are singled out precisely because they prove
helpful to their husbands and sons. Nowhere in the Odes do we find
women praised for artistic or intellectual accomplishments, and even
their moral attainments are never explained in any detail. Of T’ai
Jen we know only that she shared in her husband’s virtue, honored
her mother-in-law, and impressed her daughter-in-law with her con-
duct. Of T’ai Ssu we know even less: she learned from her mother-in-
law’s example and bore many talented sons. It is with this back-
ground in mind that scholars often impugn Confucian education for
concentrating solely on training females to “meet the demands of
motherhood and household management.”17
Even this assessment, however, does not tell the entire story. It is
important to remember that the fulfillment of one’s social role rep-
resents one of the most estimable human accomplishments in the
context of Confucian philosophy. This is no less true of men than it
Women and Sex Roles 55

is of women.18 Confucius himself, for example, is said in the Applica-

tion of Equilibrium (Chung-yung ) to have declared:

19

There are four [elements of] the Way of the noble man of which I
have not been able to accomplish one. I have not been able to serve
my father as I require of my son. I have not been able to serve my lord
as I require of my servant. I have not been able to serve my elder
brother as I require of my younger brother. I have not been able to
undertake first for my friends what I require of them.20

Since the Application of Equilibrium is a relatively late work, these

cannot be taken as the genuine words of Confucius, but the duty
to behave toward others as one would want them to behave toward
oneself represents one of the cornerstones of the Confucian tradi-
tion. This is precisely what Confucius meant by shu (reciprocity)
in the Analects.21 So by acting like model wives and mothers, women
such as T’ai Jen and T’ai Ssu actually discharged their ethical duties
more successfully than Confucius himself, who considered himself
imperfect as son, brother, subject, and friend. Let us keep in mind
also that Confucius considers the moral obligations of those of lower
social status more difficult than those of their superiors. It is in his
behavior as son, subject, and younger brother—and not as father,
lord, and elder brother—that Confucius finds reason to chastise him-
self. How much more difficult would he have found the job of wife
and daughter-in-law, at the very bottom of the domestic hierarchy?
Knowing his own failings despite his relatively privileged position,
Confucius can only have admired T’ai Jen and T’ai Ssu’s virtue all the
more; therefore we must take care not to underestimate the magni-
tude of these heroines’ achievements in the minds of classical readers.
And it is indisputable that Confucius placed women at the very
bottom of the domestic hierarchy, as in the following infamous
comment.
22

The Master said: Only women and petty men are difficult to nourish.
If you are familiar with them, they become insubordinate; if you are
distant from them, they complain.23
56 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Like “I See on High,” this quote from Confucius is frequently

cited in the recent literature as the quintessential expression of the
Master’s sexism.24 He compares women to “petty men” , or the
antithesis of the Confucian moral ideal of the “noble man” (chün-tzu
). The charge that they are “difficult to nourish” is more
severe than is commonly recognized. It does not mean simply that
women and petty men are difficult to handle. “Nourishing” fre-
quently has a philosophical or pedagogical component in Confucian
parlance (as when Mencius speaks of “nourishing the mind” ,
25
for example); so Confucius may in fact be questioning women’s
ability to grow in an intellectual sense. The consequences of this pas-
sage are considerable. Self-cultivation is the foundation of Confucian
ethics, and if Confucius means to say that women are physiologically
unable to learn and improve themselves, then he has effectively
excluded them from the Confucian project. If Confucius believes
that women cannot participate in moral discourse, it is unclear how
he distinguishes them from animals. From the point of view of the
later thinker Mencius, “petty men” is what we call all those who fail
to cultivate their minds, thereby obscuring the slight difference that
exists between humans and animals.26 Where women belong in this
scheme is problematic.27
Commentators have sometimes tried to soften the impact of Con-
fucius’ utterance in a number of ways. One of the oldest methods
seems to have been to read the phrase nü-tzu yü hsiao-jen
as nothing more than a reference to male and female servants.28 But
there are many other expressions that Confucius might have used
had he so intended his saying; it is difficult to ignore the usual con-
notations of hsiao-jen as men who are morally, and not socially, infe-
rior. Another recent attempt to “rehabilitate” the quote takes in
as an alternate form of ju , “you” (we encountered this usage
above, in the context of “I See on High”); thus “Only your children
and petty men are difficult to nourish.”29 The obvious problem with
this reading—aside from the fact that this is not how Confucius’
statement was ever understood—is that it is a complete mystery
whose “children” Confucius would be talking about. Finally, chapter
17 of the Analects, where this statement occurs, is part of a section at
the end of the book that scholars have long suspected might be
spurious. One suggestion places the chapter around 270 B.C., or
more than two centuries after Confucius’ death.30 So Confucius
might never have said such problematic things about women after all.
Women and Sex Roles 57

Two points about this passage are not often observed. First, Con-
fucius says that women are difficult to nourish, not that they cannot be
nourished, and the Confucian mode of self-cultivation is not exactly
easy for men, either. Later thinkers, such as Hsün-tzu, would go on
to emphasize just how difficult it is for anyone to become a “noble
man.”31 Furthermore, Confucius made other, more important state-
ments about women. Elsewhere in the Analects, he points out that an
exceptional woman can be just as talented as an exceptional man:32

33

Shun had five ministers and the world was ordered. King Wu [of
Chou, r. 1049/1045–1043 B.C.]34 said: I have ten ministers who make
order. Confucius said: Is it not so that talent is rare? The era after35
T’ang and Yü [i.e., the sages Yao and Shun] flourished to this
extent. There was a woman among them, so there were no more than
nine men.36
The early commentator Huang K’an (A.D. 488–545) fastened
onto the significance of this passage. He understands the “woman
among them” as Wen-mu , “The Refined Mother” (probably T’ai
Ssu),37 and says,

38

Moreover, when he clearly says, “there was a woman,” this is to make

clear that the flourishing of the Chou was not due only to the men’s
talent; the abilities of the women also assisted in the transformation
of their government.
Whether or not Huang K’an is right that “woman” refers specifically
to T’ai Ssu, his general conclusion, which is in line with the admiring
view of T’ai Ssu that we have seen in the Odes, cannot be far removed
from Confucius’ intended lesson. The main thrust of the passage is
that talent is exceedingly rare and potent. The offhanded comment
that one of King Wu’s ministers was a woman is made to show that
there were not even ten capable men serving the dynasty at the time,
and yet it was an era of unparalleled moral excellence. But Confu-
cius’ argument rests on an idea that is even more revolutionary,
namely, the unspoken assumption that a woman could take her
place alongside the most capable men in the world.
This extraordinary woman, moreover, is singled out not for her
virtuous behavior as wife or mother but as one who contributed to
58 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

the flourishing of an entire era. If indeed Confucius was thinking of

T’ai Ssu, it is doubtless the case that he would have considered her
virtuous behavior as wife and mother to have been an essential part
of that contribution. But it is a form of virtuous behavior that is taken
seriously for its power to effect moral government. A model wife and
mother is not simply a woman who silently obeys her husband and
gently nurtures her son, but one who participates in bringing about
the kind of universal moral transformation that the Confucian tradi-
tion upholds as the ultimate purpose of humanity.
Thus Confucius may have considered women “difficult to nour-
ish,” but he emphatically did not believe that they were incapable of
moral self-cultivation. On the contrary, he placed the most cultivated
women, rare though they were, on a level no lower than that of the
most cultivated men. These points come out especially clearly in the
following saying, also attributed to Confucius:
39

A girl’s knowledge is not like that of a woman; a boy’s knowledge is

not like that of a man. The wisdom of the woman of the Kung-fu clan
is like that of a man!40 She desired to make clear her son’s estimable
virtue.

This passage is from the Discourses of the States (Kuo-yü ), a

collection closely related to the Tso-chuan and dating from approxi-
mately 300 B.C.41 Given the source, we might be reluctant to treat this
as a genuine statement from the mouth of the Master, but it is still
representative of the Confucian tradition in its earliest stages, and
the idea that it articulates is not inconsistent with what we have heard
from Confucius in the Analects. The “woman of the Kung-fu clan”
is Lady Ching , who was the mother of Kung-fu Ch’u
(better known as Kung-fu Wen-po ), a high official in the
state of Lu . She is praised by Confucius or one of his disciples in
the Discourses of the States on no fewer than six occasions.42 In this pas-
sage, Confucius has heard the instruction that she has given her
son’s concubines after his death. She has told them not to weep or
grieve demonstratively for her son but to “follow the rites and be
silent” , lest it be said of him that he was fond of household
pleasures.43
Perhaps Lady Ching and Confucius both made too much of this
affair—they may strike us as excessively concerned with appearances
—but the episode is valuable for our purposes because of the light
Women and Sex Roles 59

that it sheds on early Confucian views of women. In the prefatory

comment “a girl’s knowledge is not like that of a woman”
, Confucius implies that a girl can grow intellectually as she ma-
tures. The statement confirms again that women are not barred by
the tradition from the lifelong journey of self-cultivation. Further-
more, Confucius asserts that the wisdom of Kung-fu Wen-po’s mother
is like that of a man, showing once again that he thinks women can
be as wise as men. Granted, it is only an exceptional woman who
earns such praise; but it is no less true that Confucius is characteris-
tically interested only in exceptional people, never the run-of-the-
mill. He does not mince words when criticizing men whom he con-
siders mediocre and unconscientious.44
Lady Ching’s concerns about her son’s reputation highlight
another crucial theme in early discussions of women.

45

I have heard: If a man loves the inner, women die for him. If he loves
the outer, men die for him.46 Now my son has died young; I would
hate for others to hear of him on account of his love of the inner.
This distinction between “the inner” (nei ) and “the outer” (wai
) informed much of the traditional Chinese discourse concerning
the difference between women and men.47 In this particular passage,
it seems clear enough what Kung-fu Wen-po’s mother means: “the
inner” refers to the women in his household, “the outer” to the busi-
ness of governmental administration that her son undertook outside
his home. But the precise contours of this dichotomy are difficult to
reconstruct. In effect, the terms nei and wai come to refer to women
and men, respectively, but the reasoning behind these associations is
complex and indeed varies from text to text as well as from period to
period.48
In this sense, nei seems to have originally denoted the interior
area of a domicile, where the women of the household had their
apartments. Consequently, it often means “harem.” Thus, for exam-
ple, the “Minor Official of the Interior” is listed in the Rites of
Chou (Chou-li ) as the one who “handles the commands of the
royal queens” .49 Similarly, i-nei , “to exchange inte-
riors,” appears as a euphemism for wife swapping among elite men.

50
60 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Ch’ing Feng51 of Ch’i loved hunting and was fond of drink. He gave
over the government to [his son] Ch’ing She,52 and then moved with
his harem and valuables to Lu-p’u Pi’s house. They exchanged inte-
riors and drank wine.53
Given these connotations, we can empathize with Mother Kung-fu’s
wish that her son not be remembered for his “love of the interior.”
Ch’ing Feng was just the kind of wastrel from whose image she was
trying to distance her family name.54
As a term that referred to women in their role as consorts to men,
nei came to be used generally for anything and everything that
was considered appropriate for women, especially in contrast to wai,
which was considered appropriate for men. Thus “Males do not
speak of nei; females do not speak of wai” .55 But
this distribution of the terms according to gender is precisely where
the ambiguities arise, because not everyone agreed as to what is
appropriate—or inappropriate—for women. Most later writers rou-
tinely took wai to refer to politics, as, for example, when the Han
official Yang Chen (d. A.D. 124) presented to the emperor sev-
eral august precedents establishing that “women ought not partici-
pate in government affairs” .56 This under-
standing of the difference between nei and wai appears to conform
to that of Kung-fu Wen-po’s mother, who wants her son’s memory to
be honored for his political accomplishments. Any other reputation
would not befit his manhood.
These nuances of nei and wai suggest that for a man to be “fond
of the inner” does not simply constitute a moral failing; it is funda-
mentally unmanly. Nei is the province of women, and a man who
spends too much time in the interior apartments is a man who is
devoted to womanly pursuits.57 The potential consequences of this
view are manifold. Most immediately, there is the inescapable impli-
cation that excessive sexual desire—like that of Ch’ing Feng, who
went everywhere with his harem and abdicated his responsibilities
as a politician—is somehow essential to women and effeminate in
men.58 That is to say, it is unseemly in either sex, but it is more basic
to women’s nature, because they are creatures of the “interior.” For
we find precisely this opinion expressed without reservation in cer-
tain passages in the classics that approach outright misogyny.
The Tso-chuan, for example, records an event dated to 636 B.C.
King Hsiang of Chou (r. 651–619 B.C.), grateful to a nation
Women and Sex Roles 61

known as the Ti for military assistance, proposed to take one of

their women as his queen. His minister objected.

59

Fu Ch’en remonstrated, saying: You cannot. I have heard: “When

the one who rewards has become weary, the one who [is rewarded for
his] actions is still not satisfied.” The Ti are covetous and greedy, yet
Your Majesty begins [to appease them]. Female te is without limit; the
complaints of women are without end. The Ti will surely become a
vexation.60

In this “remonstrance,” Fu Ch’en avails himself of three conve-

nient tropes: rewarding a subordinate can be dangerous for an over-
lord; the Ti are covetous and greedy; and women are creatures of
limitless sexual desire—for this is what he means by “female te” ,
as we shall see presently. This speech is not a shining example of
ancient Chinese rhetoric. By the first argument, a ruler should never
reward anyone, because the vague warning that one who is rewarded
will never be satisfied can be applied to any circumstance whatsoever.
Similarly, in denigrating the Ti for their greed and covetousness, Fu
Ch’en is merely expressing a vulgar form of cultural bigotry; in fact,
the Chou king’s Chinese vassals were hardly less eager to expand
their wealth at their lord’s expense.
And the final plank in his argument is the least effective of all.
What is the relevance of his conviction that women’s desires are
limitless and their complaints ceaseless? Does Fu Ch’en mean to
suggest that the king should not marry at all for that reason? Fu
Ch’en’s use of this theme may belie the fact that he has not even con-
vinced himself; for if he truly believes that all women are nothing
more than vexatious containers of unbridled sexual energy, he
should have reconciled himself long ago to the necessary evil of
marrying women for the sake of procreation. There is no forensic
reason to bring up the issue now; he could just as well complain
about any other disappointing but immutable fact of life. Perhaps he
means to suggest that Ti women are even more licentious than nor-
mal women, but he does not make the point explicitly. It is more
likely that he is simply repeating a readily available stereotype that he
hopes will dissuade the King, if only momentarily, from entertaining
thoughts of marriage.
62 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

What is “female te”? The phrase is used revealingly in a diagnosis

performed by one Physician Ho . Lord P’ing of Chin (r.
557–532 B.C.) is suffering from a certain malady, which the learned
doctor identifies immediately as ku , or the disease that arises when
one “keeps males at a distance and brings females close” .
The disease is incurable. When later asked to elaborate, the doctor
remarks that the only way to mitigate the ravages of ku is to surround
oneself with “male te” and “diminish female te at night” . In
practical terms, this means surrounding oneself with male advisors
and not sleeping so frequently with women.61 So we might translate
“female te” as “female potency,” the innate sexual power of females
that can enfeeble a man if he copulates with them excessively.62
This view of women as sexually insatiable beings became wide-
spread in later periods of Chinese history.63 We have already seen
Han Fei’s discussion of palace women, which is based on the pre-
supposition that they are interested in nothing other than satisfying
their lust. The logical conclusion of this trend came in the eleventh
century, when Ou-yang Hsiu (1007–1070) declared that
“females are nothing more than sex” .64 But such passages
are purely chauvinistic, because the more reflective thinkers of the
ancient period admitted frankly that sexual desire was a basic prob-
lem in men as well.
For example, “female potency” is sometimes used even by women
to refer to sexual pleasure.

65

Ch’ung-erh [i.e., the future Lord Wen of Chin , r. 635–627

B.C.] said: Human life is peaceful and pleasant; what else is there to
know? I am resolved to die here [i.e., in exile in Ch’i]; I cannot go.
The girl of Ch’i [i.e., his wife, the daughter of Lord Huan of Ch’i
, r. 685–643 B.C.] said: You are the Noble Son of a state. When
you came here in straitened circumstances, your numerous warriors
took you as their destiny. You do not hasten to return to your state
and reward your toiling vassals, but cherish female potency. I am
ashamed on your account.

In this little lecture, the future Lord Wen is upbraided by his saga-
cious wife for neglecting the serious, manly business of claiming his
rightful place as ruler of Chin, and enjoying instead the “peace and
Women and Sex Roles 63

pleasure” of his wife’s sex. But it is Ch’ung-erh, and not his

wife, who is to blame for frittering away his life. When the girl of Ch’i
refers to “female potency,” then, she means not voracious sexual
appetite on her part but her natural sexual allure, which her hus-
band has been enjoying in excess. She is “ashamed” on his ac-
count precisely because she does not wish to be known unjustly as a
sexually destructive woman who sapped her husband’s vital energy
and prevented him from establishing his name. Her husband has
been harming his reputation all by himself.
This very anecdote may have been the background to a famous
saying of Confucius that appears twice in the Analects.
66

The Master said: I have yet to see anyone who loves virtue as much as
sex.67

Here Confucius is decisively using the term te in the ethical sense

that we have seen anticipated in the Odes, as the moral power that
one attains through virtuous conduct. Simply put, the problem is
one of conflicting te. Everyone is naturally enticed by the pleasures of
sexual potency but all must learn to rein in these desires and strive
for the moral potency that is the hallmark of a cultivated person.
This theme of transcending one’s sexual appetite in order to lead
a moral life is basic to early Confucianism. Consider, for example,
this question posed by Mencius.
68

If you could get a wife by passing over the wall of the house to your
east and dragging off [your neighbor’s] virgin child, but could not get
a wife if you did not drag her off, would you drag her off?69

The question is never answered. Mencius’ interlocutor is supposed

to answer forthwith that he would rather forgo the pleasures of a wife
than drag off his neighbor’s virgin daughter. The context is a discus-
sion of ritual (li ). Mencius intends to make the point that we must
learn to subdue our orectic nature lest we come to violate the rituals
in the process of satisfying ourselves.70 The idea and manner of fram-
ing the issue are thoroughly Confucian. Not long after Mencius,
Hsün-tzu would build famously on the principle of using rituals to
curtail our desires and would make it one of the cornerstones of his
ethical philosophy.71
64 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

It is understandable, then, that some early Confucians considered

the separation of the sexes to be the germ of all morality. Consider
the orthodox commentary to “The Kuan-ing Ospreys.”

72

The royal consort takes delight in her lord’s virtue. There is nothing
in which she does not accord with him, and she is not licentious about
her sex. Her caution is firm and her seclusion deep, like the kuan-ing
ospreys that have separation among themselves. Then she can trans-
form the world. When husband and wife have separation, father and
son are intimate; when father and son are intimate, lord and vassal are
respectful; when lord and vassal are respectful, the court is upright;
when the court is upright, the royal transformation is complete.73

The above interpretation starts from the belief that male and
female ospreys naturally congregate in different places. This is what
is meant by the ospreys’ separation. A cautious and secluded queen
imitates the ospreys in observing the separation of male and female
and thereby lays the foundations for the completion of the “royal
transformation” , or establishment of perfect morality through-
out the world. The lengthy argument by sorites, leading from the sep-
aration of husband and wife all the way to the achievement of utopia
on earth, is understandable only in the context of the Confucian
belief that human morality entails the suppression of our animalistic
desires, of which lust is simply taken to be the cardinal example.74
Once we have learned to regulate our sex drives, the process of self-
transformation has already begun.75
Once again, the morally persuasive power of the virtuous female
is singled out in this program for special praise. The basis of this atti-
tude, therefore, lies not in any demeaning view of women, despite
what is commonly alleged. But the difficulty of this view is that it does
not conceive of any form of morally acceptable sexual activity other
than for the express purpose of producing offspring. All nonprocre-
ative sex is corrupting and enervating. The highest gift that a man
can receive from Heaven is a girl who might give him sons. This we
read explicitly in the Odes.76 But the sexual pleasures of sexual love,
as we have seen, are continually feared rather than explored.77
Given such forthright admissions of the possibility of moral weak-
ness in men, why do some texts insist on portraying women as sexual
Women and Sex Roles 65

miscreants? I suspect that many of the fulminations against women

represent carelessly articulated animadversions that are really aimed
at dissolute men. We have seen in “I See on High,” for example, that
the underlying issue was probably not a universally conceived evil in
women, nor even the destructive power of Pao Ssu, but the irre-
sponsibility of King Yu himself for allowing the situation to deterio-
rate as it did. Consider also the following.
78

The people of Ch’i sent some female musicians. Chi Huan-tzu [i.e.,
Chi-sun Ssu , d. 492 B.C.] received them, and for three days
court was not held. Confucius left.79
Obviously, Confucius did not leave his native state of Lu because
there were female musicians in the land; he would be sure to find
female musicians wherever he chose to go. Confucius left because
the ruling parties in Lu suspended court for three days for no better
reason than to gratify their desires. They chose pleasure and idleness
over statecraft and deliberation—or nei over wai.

Aside from the danger that the commonplace distinction between

nei and wai could evoke unreflective generalizations about men and
women, there is the additional problem that the terms are not used
consistently.
We remember Kung-fu Wen-po’s mother, who urged her son’s
concubines not to make a grand show of mourning for his death, lest
he go down in history as a man who was more devoted to the femi-
nine pleasures of domestic life than the masculine pursuit of service
to the state. Elsewhere, she expands on the notions of nei and wai
along similar lines.

80

Kung-fu Wen-po’s mother went to the Chi clan. K’ang-tzu [i.e., her
great-nephew Chi-sun Fei , d. 468 B.C.] was in the courtyard.
He spoke to her; she did not respond to him. He followed her to the
door of her bedroom; she did not respond to him, and entered.
K’ang-tzu left the courtyard and entered [her apartment] to see her,
66 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

saying: “I have not heard your command; have I offended you?” She
said: “You have not heard it? The Son of Heaven and the feudal lords
tend to the affairs of the people in the outer court; they tend to the
affairs of the spirits in the inner court. From the chamberlains down,
they tend to official duties in the outer court; they tend to affairs of
the household in the inner court. Within the doors of her bedroom
is where a woman conducts her business. This is the same for supe-
riors and inferiors. The outer court is where you should take the
lord’s official duties as your business; the inner court is where you
should regulate the governance of the Chi clan. These are all matters
on which I dare not speak.”

Chi K’ang-tzu was an important official in the state of Lu who is

mentioned on a number of occasions in the Analects.81 In this pas-
sage, his actions betray his ignorance of the difference between the
“inner court” and the “outer court” . The former is the
locus of the house and hearth, the latter that of the ruler’s delibera-
tions on matters of state. Lady Ching’s handling of the incident
seems to suggest that Chi K’ang-tzu was out of place by barging into
a woman’s bedroom, because this is the inner area of the house
where women “conduct their business” .82 She also seems to
imply that it was wrong of him to expect advice from her; because
her place belongs properly to the inner court, she dares not speak of
matters that do not pertain to her.
Her lecture, however, raises more questions than it answers. First,
her conclusion implies that Chi K’ang-tzu should be in charge of
both the inner court and the outer court. The duties belong to dif-
ferent categories, but as the head of his clan and a premier official at
court, he is expected to regulate both courts. Therefore, when Lady
Ching says that “these are all matters on which I dare not speak”
, she cannot mean that she dares not speak on wai
because she belongs to the world of nei as a woman; she must mean
that she dares not speak on either nei or wai, because her great-
nephew is her superior in both realms. But this does not make much
sense either. The fact that her great-nephew is her superior is no rea-
son why she might not still advise him. Indeed, we find her elsewhere
continually advising Chi K’ang-tzu, and not solely on affairs pertain-
ing to the inner court.

83
Women and Sex Roles 67

Chi K’ang-tzu asked Kung-fu Wen-po’s mother, saying: “Do you have
something else to say to me?” She replied: “I have been able to
become old and nothing more; what would I have to say to you?”
K’ang-tzu said: “Though that is the case, I wish to hear from you.” She
replied: “I have heard my former mother-in-law say: ‘If a noble man is
able to toil, his posterity will continue.’”
On another occasion, she instructs her son in subjects that can only
be considered wai:

84

Therefore the Son of Heaven salutes the sun in the morning in his
five-colored robes. With the Three Dukes and Nine Chamberlains, he
studies and knows the potency of Earth. At midday he considers the
government and participates in the governmental affairs of the many
officials. The Grand Masters direct the troops, regional representa-
tives, and ministers; they set in order all the affairs of the people. [The
Son of Heaven] sacrifices to the moon in the evening in his three-
colored robes. With the Grand Scribe and Director of Records, he
investigates and reveres the laws of Heaven. When the sun has set, he
oversees the Nine Concubines; he commands them to clean and pre-
sent the millet vessels for the ti and chiao sacrifices. Only then does
he rest.85
How do we reconcile Lady Ching’s earlier unwillingness to advise
Chi K’ang-tzu with these other passages, in which she not only proves
eager to instruct, but also apparently transcends the boundaries
between nei and wai by discoursing at length on the Son of Heaven’s
administrative and religious duties? I do not believe there are any
answers that account for the widely varied usage that we have en-
countered. For it is never clear in any early text how the authors con-
ceive of the difference between nei and wai, and consequently what
they consider to be appropriate subjects for women to discuss. There is
no shortage of references to women who give wise political counsel or
who influence the government of the world through their behavior.
In the course of a philosophical discussion in the Mencius, for
example, we read,
86

The wives of Hua Chou and Ch’i Liang were good at weeping for their
husbands and changed the customs of the state. What one possesses
on the inside, one must formulate on the outside.87
68 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

The extant records include several accounts of the story alluded to

here. Hua Chou (or Hua Hsüan ) and Ch’i Liang (or Ch’i Chih
) were soldiers in the army of Ch’i who refused to accept a bribe
from the Viscount of Chü and were killed by his forces as a con-
sequence of their loyalty. According to the Tso-chuan, Marquis
Chuang of Ch’i (r. 553–548 B.C.)88 then met the wife of Ch’i
Liang in the suburbs and sent someone to offer his condolences; she
protested that the marquis should have sent his condolences to her
in her house.89 The commentaries explain that it is improper to offer
condolences outside for anyone other than commoners and the
lowest ministers.90 Ch’i Liang’s widow apparently believed that her
deceased husband deserved more formal rituals of commemoration
from his thoughtless ruler. In the statement that the wives of Hua
Chou and Ch’i Liang “changed the customs of the state” , we
are evidently given to understand that the Marquis of Ch’i learned a
lesson about valuing loyal soldiers more highly.91
Weeping for one’s late husband, as we know from the instructions
of Kung-fu Wen-po’s mother, is a characteristically nei form of behav-
ior. We remember that Lady Ching warned her son’s concubines not
to mourn excessively after his death, lest their grief reflect poorly
on Wen-po’s reputation as a statesman. In this story, however, the
mourning of Ch’i Liang’s widow is not taken as a sign that her hus-
band was excessively fond of domestic pleasures. On the contrary,
this is a story of a woman whose skillful and pointed demonstrations
of nei behavior succeed in transforming the wai world over which she
is not expected to have any influence. For this accomplishment, she
is recorded as a moral heroine and a subtle instructress for the age.
But readers of texts that incorporate the stories of Kung-fu Wen-po’s
mother and Ch’i Liang’s wife are likely to find the messages con-
flicting.92 Is a widow supposed to cry for her dead husband or not?
There are no universally valid answers. Part of the solution comes in
the statement that “what one possesses on the inside, one must for-
mulate on the outside” . If, in crying, a widow might
impart a moral lesson to an observer, then there is nothing wrong
with making her nei sentiments known to the world outside. On the
other hand, if a concubine seems to convey nothing more than that
she will miss her master’s sexual favors, then it is unseemly for her
to make a spectacle. This difficult idea, in bridging the distinction
between nei and wai, opens the way for women to the outside world.
If people’s inner sentiments are necessarily reflected in their outer
Women and Sex Roles 69

demeanor, then everyone who has an inner life, whether male or

female, must be a participant in the space of wai.
Other passages show that women can have an effect on wai by
transcending the conventional requirements of nei behavior. Con-
sider the wife of Hsi Fu-chi .

93

When [Ch’ung-erh, who was famous for his outlandish ribs] arrived at
Ts’ao, Lord Kung of Ts’ao [r. 652–618 B.C.] asked about his linked
ribs and wanted to see his nakedness. While [Ch’ung-erh] was bath-
ing, [Lord Kung] observed him through the curtain. The wife of Hsi
Fu-chi said: “When I observe the followers of the Noble Son of Chin
[i.e., Ch’ung-erh], they are all adequate to being the prime minister
of a state. If he is advised by them, he will certainly return to his state.
When he returns to his state, he will certainly fulfill his ambition with
the feudal lords. When he fulfills his ambition with the feudal lords,
he will punish those who are without ritual. Ts’ao will be at the head
of the list.”94

This wife’s behavior does not conform to nei in any respect what-
soever. She speaks entirely on the basis of her observations and
knowledge of the political world, which are evidently extensive. And
unlike that of many wise women in these stories (such as Ch’ung-
erh’s wife from Ch’i, discussed above), the rare knowledge of Hsi Fu-
chi’s wife does not derive from the fact that she is a mother or wife
of one of the men in question. The Lord of Ts’ao is her lord, Ch’ung-
erh a stranger in her country. Yet this woman proves herself well
versed in protocols of ritual, as well as an incisive judge of human
talent. Her prognostication in this passage, as we might expect, is
verified years later, when Ch’ung-erh, now having taken his rightful
place as Lord of Chin, decides to attack Ts’ao as part of a larger cam-
paign against Ch’u.95 As far as the action is concerned, it is irrelevant
that this character is female. Indeed, she is placed in a role hardly
different from that of an exemplary male sage, minister, or general.96
Why, then, do the sources paint such an inconsistent picture of nei
and wai, of appropriate areas of concern for males and females?
What end is served by this paradigmatic dualism when it is clear from
so many passages that the distinctions are blurry at best and often
thoroughly irrelevant? The early Confucian tradition never resolved
70 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

these potential contradictions, precisely because its view of women

was too sophisticated for it to make very much use of the simple
rubrics of “inner” and “outer.” Confucian thinkers insisted on the
moral autonomy of all human beings regardless of sex, and when this
commitment forced them to break down the traditional categories of
nei and wai, they were not reluctant to do so. Therefore, it is not sur-
prising that they were criticized bitterly in their own time for the
extraordinary respect with which they regarded women.97

There are at least three reasons why Confucianism has been re-
peatedly assailed as “sexist,”98 even though the sources we have sur-
veyed typically allow for women to participate meaningfully in the
Confucian project, and they reserve places in the pantheon of moral
paragons for heroines as well as heroes. First, the tradition does not
argue for the social equality of women—it argues only for their moral
equality. It is taken as a matter of course, for example, that women
should follow their husbands.99 But ancient China was not a civiliza-
tion that identified social equality as a special value. Men, too, were
allotted hierarchical social roles that they were required to fulfill
whether it pleased them or not, all the way up to the ruler, who, in
theory at least, could not escape his obligations to Heaven and the
spirits. It is therefore misleading to say, as has one eminent scholar,
that “from Confucius down, Confucianists have always considered
women inferior.”100 This is certainly not the case if we mean “infe-
rior” in an aretaic sense. As we have seen, Confucians did not con-
sider virtuous women inferior to immoral men, just as they did not
consider an upright minister inferior to a wicked overlord.
The second reason why Confucianism is frequently accused of sex-
ism has to do with later manifestations of sexism and misogyny per-
petrated in the name of the tradition. It is in imperial times that we
see the proliferation of those sanctimonious manuals that outline
“appropriate” behavior for women—serve wine and food in silence,
obey thy husband and mother-in-law unquestioningly, and so on—
without attributing to women the same moral and intellectual capac-
ities that we find them exhibiting in the original Confucian canon.
Examples of this arid genre suffer from the twofold inadequacy that
they trivialize the value and abilities of women as well as the rich dis-
cussions of women found in the Confucian classics. As we shall see in
chapter 3, it was possible for women themselves to compose such
works.101
Women and Sex Roles 71

Finally, and most important, texts from the Confucian tradition

(such as “I See on High”) are sometimes compared simplistically
with certain vaguely uplifting passages from the Lao-tzu that
marvel at the “Mysterious Female.”

102

The Spirit of the Valley never dies; it is called “Mysterious Female.”

The Gate of the Mysterious Female is the root of Heaven and Earth.
Gossamer, it seems to exist; it is not exhausted by use.103

And similarly,
104

A great state is a low-lying flow. It is the Confluence of the World, the

Female of the World. The Female constantly overcomes the Male
through quietude. She lies low in her quietude.105

These passages exemplify the characteristic image of the soft,

yielding Female, which the Lao-tzu contrasts with the image of the
rigid and competitive Male. The Lao-tzu focuses here on the Female’s
traditional position of inferiority and surprises the reader by identi-
fying this very inferiority as the foundation for the Female’s success.
It has been rightly pointed out that the Spirit of the Valley and
the low-lying Female are probably intended as a calculated attack
on Confucian rhetoric, which typically describes the process of self-
cultivation as a journey higher and higher.106
However, it is important to temper these paeans to the Female
with a few observations. The main point here is that the sage must
recognize the value of the Female as well as that of the Male, not that
the Female is inherently superior to the Male. The text stresses the
Female only because it is more likely to be ignored than the Male.
Thus we read,
107

Know the Male; maintain the Female; become the ravine of the world.
When you are the ravine of the world, constant power will not desert
you; you will return to being an infant.108
It is only by knowing the Male and maintaining the Female that one
can reach the pure state of being “the ravine of the world” .
The deepest secret is not how to be Female rather than Male—but
how to be both.109
72 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Similarly, we must take care not to misread these appreciative ref-

erences to the Female as an indication that the author of the Lao-tzu
especially appreciated women.110 The Female and the Male are illus-
trative motifs designed to shed light on the complementary aspects
of the universe. They need not refer to actual females or males. The
text itself was probably aimed exclusively at men, or more precisely,
at the ruler of men. This explains why the passages dealing with the
Female and her “quietude” are intertwined with a sustained polit-
ical discourse. “A great state is a low-lying flow” : a lord
can transform his domain into a great state if he learns how to
embody the characteristics of the Male and Female as the circum-
stances warrant.
Later political writers of the so-called “Huang-Lao” school
adopted wholesale the Lao-tzu’s rhetoric of Female and Male, but it
is always evident in their work that the intended audience is a male
ruler and that the salubrious Female element is to be understood
as nothing more than a convenient abstraction. The essay on the
“Female and Male Modes” , for example, consistently favors
the Female.

[ ]
111

The Emperor collected and calculated the constancy of auspicious-

ness and inauspiciousness, in order to distinguish the Female and
Male Modes. He divided the provinces of misfortune and fortune. To
be stubborn, proud, haughty, and arrogant—this is called the Male
Mode; to be [lacuna] reverent and frugal—this is called the Female
Mode. . . . Whenever people are fond of using the Male Mode, this
is called obstructing life. A great person will be destroyed; a small
person will be doomed. . . . Whenever people are fond of using the
Female Mode, this is called receiving favor. A rich person will prosper;
a poor person will be nourished.112

Nevertheless, these same texts make clear that “using the Female
Mode” does not by any means entail sharing power with women.

113

When there are two rulers, [the state] loses its brilliance. Male and
female contend for power and there are disorderly troops in the state;
Women and Sex Roles 73

this is called a doomed state. . . . When there are two rulers, male and
female divide power; this is called a great seduction. Within the state
there are armies. A strong state will be broken; a middling state will
be doomed; a small state will be destroyed.114
“When there are two rulers” refers to a situation that is vividly
described by Han Fei.
115

The queen and other wives are disorderly in their licentiousness. The
ruler’s mother accumulates uncleanliness. Nei and wai are confused
and interconnected. Males and females are not separated. This is
called having two rulers.116
Despite all the imagery of the Female Mode and the Spirit of
the Valley, therefore, we must not be misled into thinking that the
writers who popularized this idiom were feminists or had views of
women that were any more charitable than those of the Confucians.
In fact, the opposite is more likely. This last passage, by describing a
situation of political chaos as one in which the women in the palace
give full vent to their carnal desires, points us toward another crucial
issue in ancient discussions of sexuality: order and disorder of a polit-
ical nature are frequently associated with order and disorder of a
sexual nature. We shall return to this topic in chapter 3.

The entire spectrum of views of women examined in this chapter

share one important conviction: that the natural differences between
males and females constitute one of the most difficult problems in
all philosophy and, more specifically, that moral and political excel-
lence are attainable only after the relations of the sexes have been
properly ordered. Confucius and his followers believed that the
Chou rulers brought about an ideal society, and it is no coincidence
that the discussions of Chou greatness continually stress the virtue of
founders’ wives and mothers. Like the chaste queen in the Confu-
cian interpretation of “The Kuan-ing Ospreys,” these women con-
tributed to their husbands’ success by separating male and female,
thereby eliminating licentiousness; and this single achievement laid
the foundations for everything else, all the way down to the “royal
transformation.” No Confucian ever gives a practicable definition of
nei and wai—of the inner and the outer spaces of human interaction
—that can account for the various uses to which these terms are
put. In the end, this is because nei and wai are acknowledged as the
74 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

two most elemental, and therefore problematic, concepts that one

can master. One who knows how to organize nei and wai has already
taken the first and most difficult step toward sagehood.
The political thinkers who took their inspiration from the Lao-tzu
did not formulate the problem in the same way but still agreed that
mastering the Female and the Male was a precondition for effecting
a well-ordered government. Their model ruler had to learn how to
appreciate the Female and the Male as ideal types and also how to
rule human females and males. Like the Confucians, these writers
also placed great store in the value of “separating male and female,”
or assigning appropriate tasks to males and females. But the fre-
quency with which writers of all persuasions invoked the phrase, and
the rarity with which they explained it clearly, betrays the extent to
which they struggled for a solution to the basic problem. There was
a natural consensus that males and females are different, and an
equally natural interest in articulating the essence and consequences
of the difference. At that point, there ceased to be any consensus.
3

Sex, Politics, and Ritualization

in the Early Empire

The career of the historian Ssu-ma Ch’ien (145?–86? B.C.)

took a fateful turn in 99 B.C. His contemporary Li Ling (d. 74
B.C.) was a general who had had great success in fighting the Hsiung-
nu , a nomadic empire on the steppes that had been plaguing
China’s northwestern frontier for more than a century. After having
penetrated deep into Central Asia, Li Ling was unexpectedly de-
feated by the enemy, whereupon he surrendered to the “barbarian”
nomads—the supreme disgrace for a Chinese general.1 When Em-
peror Wu (r. 140–187 B.C.) asked Ssu-ma Ch’ien for his opinion
of this affair, the historian praised Li Ling by pointing out that the
defeated general had been outnumbered by the enemy and had
fought bravely; he added that Li Ling was not entirely to blame,
because his “relief troops never arrived” . This comment
was incautious, because the emperor understood Ssu-ma’s lecture as
a veiled attack on Li Ling’s superior, Li Kuang-li (d. 90 B.C.),
who happened to be a brother of one of the emperor’s consorts.2
The historian was promptly thrown into prison and convicted of
“libel against the Emperor” (wu-shang ), a capital crime. At this
point, he expected to die. For reasons that have never been ade-
quately explained, the penalty was subsequently commuted to cas-
tration, and Ssu-ma Ch’ien lived on for more than a decade as a
eunuch, during which time he completed his magisterial history
of ancient China, known to posterity as the Records of the Historian
(Shih-chi ).3

75
76 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

This is one of the most famous stories in the entire Chinese tra-
dition. Generations of readers have lauded Ssu-ma Ch’ien for his
forthrightness before the emperor and for the courage with which
he bore his unjust punishment, persevering to complete his master-
piece. The story is often interpreted as proof that Ssu-ma Ch’ien was
willing to sacrifice his life for the truth—he saw that everyone at
court was criticizing Li Ling unfairly and insisted on setting matters
straight. This image of Ssu-ma Ch’ien reinforces his position as the
model court historian, for that official has been expected since an-
cient times to value his obligation to pass on a reliable record more
highly than his own personal well-being.4
It is rarely asked, however, why Ssu-ma Ch’ien was castrated. The
few relevant legal texts that are extant all imply strongly that castra-
tion (in contrast to execution) was a very rare punishment in Ssu-ma
Ch’ien’s time. Moreover, it is far from clear how the punishment fits
Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s alleged crime—and Han legal theorists consciously
followed Hsün-tzu (i.e., Hsün K’uang , ca. 310–ca. 210 B.C.)
in asserting that punishments should always fit the crime.5 “Libel
against the Emperor” was considered to be a very serious polit-
ical crime for which the natural punishment—like that for treachery
in the West—was execution.6 Castration, on the other hand, was tra-
ditionally reserved specifically for sex crimes. The Great Commentary
to the Exalted Documents (Shang-shu ta-chuan , attributed to Fu
Sheng , fl. third–second centuries B.C.), for example, states that
castration (kung ) is the punishment for “those men and women
who have intercourse without morality” .7 One of the
oldest explanations of kung comes in the Comprehensive Discussions in
the White Tiger Hall (Po-hu t’ung ),8 which explain that kung is
the punishment for yin , i.e., “licentiousness” or “promiscuity.”
9

When a woman is licentious, she is to be seized and held inside a

room, and not allowed to leave. When a man is licentious, his genitals
are to be cut off.10

Not even the emperor himself ever accused Ssu-ma Ch’ien of for-
nication or licentiousness, so how could a punishment of castration
be justified? According to one popular answer that goes back at least
to Ma Tuan-lin (1254–1325), castration was routinely substi-
tuted for the death penalty when the court was willing to show mercy,
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 77

because, by all accounts, castration was seen as the worst punishment

short of execution.11 Contemporary documents, however, suggest
that the normal substitute in such cases was for the convict to be
shaved and collared, and sentenced to a term of hard labor.12 It is
hard to escape the thought that Ssu-ma Ch’ien was punished as
though he had committed a sex crime—that the court must have
perceived his crime, in other words, to have had some underlying
sexual dimension.
Part of the solution to this puzzle can be found in the story of
Empress Dowager Lü (d. 180 B.C.)—the wife of Liu Pang
(247–195 B.C.), the founder of the Han dynasty—and her son,
Emperor Hsiao-hui (r. 194–188 B.C.). Empress Dowager Lü
was the bitter rival of Lady Ch’i , a concubine whom her hus-
band had taken soon after having embarked on his meteoric rise
from commoner to Emperor of China. Each consort had a son who
was a potential successor to the throne. Empress Dowager Lü had a
“humane and weak” boy who was to become the future Emperor
Hui; Lady Ch’i, a boy named Ju-i whom the emperor consid-
ered to be more like himself. Liu Pang wished to designate Ju-i his
heir apparent, but several influential officials interceded and per-
suaded him to keep that dignity in the hands of Empress Dowager
Lü’s gentle son.
When Liu Pang died in 195 B.C., Empress Dowager Lü got her
wish and saw her son crowned emperor. Her resentment of Lady
Ch’i was so great, however, that she had her rival imprisoned and her
rival’s son poisoned, even though neither still posed a threat to her
plans. Then she took care of Lady Ch’i once and for all.

13

The Empress Dowager then cut off Lady Ch’i’s hands and feet,
removed her eyes, burned her ears, gave her a potion to make her
mute, and caused her to live in a pigsty,14 calling her Human Swine.
When she had lived there for several days, she summoned Hsiao-hui
to observe the Human Swine. Hsiao-hui saw her, and asked; then he
was given to know that this was Lady Ch’i. Then he cried greatly,
whereupon he became sick; for more than a year, he could not get up.
He sent someone to plead with his mother, saying: “This is not the
78 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

action of a human being. I am the Empress Dowager’s son, but to the

end I will not be able to rule the world.” From this point on, Hsiao-
hui drank daily and indulged in licentious pleasures. He paid no
attention to government; that is why he was sickly.15

The poor Emperor’s reaction to seeing his father’s consort bru-

tally mistreated was so severe that he was unable to continue ruling.
He withdrew from court and left all political affairs to his inhuman
mother. (We remember that he was first introduced to us as “humane
and weak” .) How, then, did he spend his days if he would not
“rule the world” ? He “drank daily and indulged in licentious
pleasures” . He was affirming that excessive sexual activity
is the opposite of maintaining order and government.16
The idea is not entirely new to us. We remember, for example, the
connection between sexual activity and political machination forged
by Han Fei in his essay on the sybaritic palace women (chapter 1).
The woman who copulated the most, that thinker argued, naturally
gained the most power and therefore constituted the most serious
threat to the ruler’s absolute authority. After the unification of China
and the founding of the empire under the First Emperor of Ch’in
(r. 221–210 B.C.), it became even more critical for the ruler
to take into account Han Fei’s manner of thinking, for now every
subject in the empire was a potential usurper. With so much more to
lose than any ruler before him, the First Emperor took the momen-
tous step of having a code of proper sexual conduct inscribed in
stone atop the famous Mount Kuei-chi .17 The text begins with a
description of the world before unification:
The six kings concentrated on rebellion.
They were rapacious, violent, haughty, and fierce.
They led their hosts, thinking themselves mighty.
Cruel and oppressive, they acted on their own
authority.
They relied on their strength and were arrogant.
Repeatedly they mobilized their troops.
They made clandestine contact and sent emissaries
among each other.
They formed a Vertical Alliance against us.18
They carried out brutish plans.
Within the state, they prettified their conspiracies.
Outside the state, they came and encroached upon
our borders.
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 79

The First Emperor then explains that, for all their deceitful tac-
tics, his competitors still could not avoid succumbing to his virtuous
might. He has rid the land of those cruel brigands—and more
important still, he has unified the world and ushered in an era of
unprecedented peace and purity.

Ultimately they brought disaster [on themselves].

With the might of morality I chastised them.
I annihilated the cruel and unruly.
The disorderly brigands were destroyed.
My sage virtue is broad and thorough.
Within the six directions
I cover a fertile region that is without limits.
I, the Emperor, have united the cosmos.
I hear myriad affairs together.
Near and far, I have made everything pure.
I revolve, setting in order the throng of things.
I investigate and verify the reality of affairs.
Everything bears its proper name.
I am connected to noble and base.
Good and bad are arranged before me.
There are no hidden matters.

At this point, the First Emperor takes up the issue of sexual rela-
tions between his subjects, insisting that he will tolerate no immo-
rality in this regard, either.

Those who conceal their transgressions19 while

proclaiming their own morality
are [widows] who have a son and still remarry.
They rebel against the dead and are not chaste.
I separate and divide the inner and outer [i.e., males’
and females’ quarters].
I prohibit and stop licentiousness and dissipation.
Men and women will be pure and faithful.
If a husband becomes a sojourning boar [i.e., an
adulterer],20
one can kill him with impunity.
This is the path to making men maintain morality.
If a wife absconds and marries [someone else],
her sons will not be allowed to consider her as their
mother.21
22
Everyone will be made modest and pure.23
80 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

The logic behind this bombastic inscription is consistent and clear.

Everything follows from the basic axiom that unity and harmony are
the prime ideals of the empire. The most telling crime committed
by the six vanquished kings is that they “acted on their own author-
ity” . Obviously, in a unified empire that revolves around an all-
powerful ruler, acting on one’s own authority cannot be tolerated.
Six different kings will have six different agendas, six different moral
philosophies, six different worldviews. The consequence can be only
“chaos” , or the opposite of “unity” . The private interests of the
six kings are incompatible with a universal morality, and so the ideal
of harmony demands their pacification.
In the last section of the inscription, the First Emperor discloses
his belief that his subjects’ most consequential moral and political
acts are their sexual acts. He makes no specific prescriptions beyond
the vague warning that they “maintain morality” and be “modest
and pure” . In accordance with the same principle of unity,
the First Emperor condemns clandestine sexual relations among the
populace. Husbands and wives must be faithful to each other, for the
integrity of the glorious new era depends on the sexual morality of
the emperor’s subjects. It is important to note that in this regard the
First Emperor’s sexual code is not sexist; men and women must both
be chaste.24 The only difference is that widowed mothers have an
explicit obligation to remain faithful to their deceased husbands,
while the emperor makes no similar demand of widowers, whether
childless or not. As we shall see, later formulations of ideal sexual
relations would be far less equitable in the requirements that they
placed on men and women.25
The inscription on Mount Kuei-chi also helps to elucidate Ssu-ma
Ch’ien’s seemingly inappropriate punishment. By praising a disgraced
general and disputing the official assessment of an embarrassing
defeat, the candid historian was doing exactly what the First Emperor
had called “acting on one’s own authority” and hence rebelling.
Unwittingly or not, Ssu-ma Ch’ien was threatening the unassailable
“unity” of the empire by putting forward an alternative explanation
of historical events. From the point of view of the emperor, such divi-
sive talk might have the same consequences as sexual licentiousness—
and for that crime, Ssu-ma Ch’ien got exactly what he deserved, in
accordance with such codes as the Great Commentary to the Exalted
Documents. His licentiousness was intellectual rather than carnal.
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 81

Example after example from his great book shows that Ssu-ma
Ch’ien himself accepted the basic equivalence of sexual misconduct
and political rebellion.26 In other words, if Ssu-ma Ch’ien had jeop-
ardized the security of the empire, he could not have argued that cas-
tration was unjust in his case, because, as we shall see, he was also
committed to the same manner of thinking by which his punishment
is comprehensible in the first place. This is why he never once pro-
tests his punishment; his only possible defense is that his words are
true, even if the present generation is unwilling or incapable of rec-
ognizing them as such.

27

Now, even if I wanted to carve [a name] for myself, excusing myself

with elegant phrases, I would have no reward. I would not be believed
by the vulgar, and would only be seeking further disgrace. What is
important is that right and wrong be settled after the day of death.28

So Ssu-ma Ch’ien is content to take the patient route and let us

decide through his work who the real villains were. He takes us all
the way back to the founding of the empire and endeavors to show
that the very figures responsible for having “united the cosmos”
had a record of sexual conduct that was far from unblemished—just
as the “united cosmos” itself lacked both unity and purity.
Some of the most revealing material is found in his biography of
Lü Pu-wei (d. 235 B.C.), a merchant who lived in the eco-
nomic center of Han-tan , the capital of the state of Chao in
central China. There he met by chance with Tzu-ch’u , a young
son of the Heir Apparent of Ch’in who had been sent to Chao as a
hostage. Tzu-ch’u’s father had a favorite wife named Lady Hua-yang
, who was herself childless. The crafty merchant Lü Pu-wei
calculated that it would be worth his while to cultivate this lady’s
friendship with manifold gifts; ultimately he convinced her to ask her
mighty husband to designate young Tzu-ch’u as his principal heir.
The plan worked seamlessly, and although it cost Mr. Lü a prodi-
gious amount of money, he eventually found himself as the bene-
factor of the principal heir of the Heir Apparent of Ch’in, the most
powerful kingdom in the world.29 This is when he struck the one
obstacle in his course that would eventually lead to his downfall.
82 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

30

Lü Pu-wei had taken from among the various ladies of Han-tan one
who was surpassingly lovely and skilled at dancing. He lived with her
and came to know that she was with child. Tzu-ch’u visited Pu-wei to
drink with him; he saw her and was pleased by her. Then he arose and
made a toast to Lü’s long life, and requested her. Lü Pu-wei was furi-
ous, but he remembered that in this enterprise, wishing to fish up
something marvelous, he had already ruined his family on behalf
of Tzu-ch’u. So he presented his lady to [Tzu-ch’u]. The lady con-
cealed the fact that she was with child. When her term was up,31 she
gave birth to the boy Cheng. Tzu-ch’u then established the lady as his
consort.32

The child was born in 259 B.C. In 250 B.C., Tzu-ch’u finally as-
cended the throne, ruling as King Chuang-hsiang until his
death in 248 B.C.—whereupon he was succeeded by Cheng, the boy
he thought was his son. The lad went on to become the First Emperor
of Ch’in, and Lü Pu-wei, his natural father, reaped the rewards of his
investment by being installed as the prime minister of the state.
But the story does not end here. The First Emperor’s mother—Lü
Pu-wei’s former consort—was simply too licentious.

33

The First Emperor34 was growing into manhood, but the Queen
Dowager’s licentiousness was ceaseless. Lü Pu-wei feared that if this
became known, misfortune would reach him. So he privately found
a man with a large penis named Lao Ai and made him his retainer.
At times he would indulge in song and music, making Lao Ai walk
around with his penis stuck through a wheel of t’ung -wood.35 He had
the Queen Dowager hear of this, in order to entice her. When the
Queen Dowager heard, as expected, she wanted to have him in pri-
vate. Lü Pu-wei then presented Lao Ai and conspired to have some-
one accuse him of a crime for which he should be castrated. Pu-wei
then addressed the Queen Dowager secretly, saying: “If you permit
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 83

this trumped-up castration, then you can have him in your apart-
ment.” The Queen Dowager then secretly gave rich gifts to the official
in charge of castrations, instructing him to pluck out [Lao Ai’s] beard
up to the eyebrows,36 making him a “eunuch” so that he could serve
the Queen Dowager. The Queen Dowager had congress with him in
private and loved him very much. She became pregnant by him, and
fearing that someone would come to know of it, she produced a sham
divination saying that she should avoid [an inauspicious] period; she
moved her palace and lived in Yung. Lao Ai often visited her; she
rewarded him with very rich gifts, and all the affairs [in the house]
were decided by Lao Ai.37

But they were all found out.

38

In the ninth year of the First Emperor [i.e., 238 B.C.], someone re-
ported that Lao Ai was not really a eunuch; that he often privately
fomented chaos with the Queen Dowager; that she had given birth to
two sons; and that they had concealed everything. He had conspired
with the Queen Dowager, saying: “Once the king is dead, we will make
one of these sons his successor.” Therefore the King of Ch’in handed
this [matter] down to his officials to investigate; they grasped the truth
of the situation, and the affair was linked to the Prime Minister, Lü
Pu-wei. In the ninth month, [the king] exterminated Lao Ai’s clan to
the third degree of relation, killed the two boys that the Queen Dowa-
ger had borne, and banished the Queen Dowager to Yung. All of Lao
Ai’s henchmen had their families’ wealth confiscated and were ban-
ished to Shu.39

Ultimately Lü Pu-wei, too—in spite of the great service that he had

rendered the king and his family—was asked to commit suicide.
This story appealed to Confucians, for they considered the First
Emperor to have been one of the arch-enemies of civilization, and
they could point to this scurrilous tale as proof that he was a bastard
with no legitimate right to rule. That his mother is depicted as a per-
fect strumpet only added to their glee.40 Pan Ku (A.D. 32–92),
for example, a historian about whom we shall have more to say pres-
ently, referred to the First Emperor unceremoniously as Lü Cheng,
after his natural father, Lü Pu-wei.41 Scholars have long argued, how-
ever, that the tale is doubtful and may even have been interpolated
84 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

by someone other than Ssu-ma Ch’ien.42 After all, the First Emperor’s
own Shih-chi biography says nothing of his disputed parentage and
asserts that his surname was Chao .43
There is another reason to doubt the veracity of the account—one
that is rarely pointed out: the name of the man with the prodigious
penis, Lao Ai, is hardly believable.44 Lao means “lustful”; it might
have been a surname in ancient times, but as far as I know, it is not
so used in another context.45 Ai , furthermore, was defined in clas-
sical times as “when a person misbehaves” ;46 it is probably
a graphic component in the word for “poison” (tu ).47 The name
“Lao Ai,” in other words, means “lustful misdeed.” Who would bear
the name “Ai”?48 The character begs to be taken allegorically. In a
Western morality play, this villain with his wondrous priapism might
have been called Carnal Concupiscence. Moreover, the name was
synonymous for centuries with copulation and male genitalia. Within
seventy years of Lü Pu-wei’s demise, the famous statesman Chia I
(201–169 B.C.) asserted, “The mother of the First Emperor of
Ch’in fornicated with Lao Ai; he was executed, so the world reviled
fornicators by calling them ‘Lao Ai’”
.49 Similarly, there is evidence that in later colloquial
language, wags would call anything big a “Lao Ai” (by an obvious
process of antonomasia).50 He was imagined by Lü Pu-wei, by Ssu-ma
Ch’ien, and by all posterity as a personified phallus.
His most striking attribute is called ta-yin in the text, and it
is significant that this phrase can mean both “great sex-organ” and
“great conspiracy.” Indeed, Ssu-ma Ch’ien hints at this essential iden-
tity by repeatedly using the term yin in both senses.51 We are first
introduced to Lü Pu-wei’s new servant as ta-yin jen Lao Ai ,
which, at first glance, is readily understood as “Lao Ai, a man with a
great penis.” On rereading the story, however, we can see how easily
this might be taken to mean, “Lao Ai, a great conspirator.” Later,
when Lü Pu-wei tells his former lover of the sham castration that
he has arranged, we read that he yin-wei , or “conspiratorially
addressed her”—which thus carries the additional meaning, “ad-
dressed her with respect to a penis.” The very next sentence says that
the Dowager yin hou-ssu (“clandestinely gave rich gifts”) to the
Officer of Castration, which, given the context, implies that she was
not ashamed to offer her sex to him as well. “Rich gifts” is precisely
the term used soon afterward to describe her lavish treatment of Lao
Ai.
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 85

Considering, then, that Ssu-ma Ch’ien, the supposed author of

the story, really was castrated—and that it was for behavior that, as
in the case of Lao Ai, subverted the foundations of the empire—we
should recognize that the suggestive symbolism is entirely intentional.
Lao Ai’s abnormal genitals, in addition to his very name, function as
an image for his outrageous sexual conduct; and his sexual trans-
gressions, in turn, are inseparable from his seditious activities. By
conspiring to replace the legitimate heir with one of his two bastard
sons, Lao Ai represents a basic threat to the transmission of the impe-
rial bloodline and hence the purity of the “united cosmos.” Licen-
tiousness is shown here to be dangerous for the same reason as in the
Tso Commentary and Canon of Odes: it confuses the issue of patrimony.
The only difference is that, under the new empire, the stakes are
incomparably greater. When the emperor’s subjects fornicate with
each other, no one knows who is whose father, and this luridly
instructive story demonstrates that even the emperor himself may be
illegitimate and thoroughly unworthy of “setting in order the throng
of things” . Whether or not we believe the story of Lü Pu-
wei, we can agree that the challenges to any palace ruler that it
reflects are by no means insubstantial. The First Emperor himself
could imagine only too readily the social and political consequences
of rampant licentiousness. That is precisely why he tried so hard to
regulate the sexual mores in his empire.52

The same emperor who had Ssu-ma Ch’ien castrated is notable for
having accused many of his own relatives of horrific sex crimes.
The wave of indictments began in 128 B.C., when the affair of Liu
Ting-kuo , Prince of Yen (r. 151–128 B.C.), came to light.
The prince had apparently fornicated with his father’s concubine,
producing a son. He also took his younger brother’s wife as his own
concubine and fornicated with three of her daughters. One of his
subjects, fearing for his life, reported his lord’s actions to the throne,
but the prince had him arrested and killed, in order to keep him
quiet. The brothers of the deceased then sent another epistle to
the throne, detailing Liu Ting-kuo’s actions. The emperor launched
an investigation. Once the facts were known, the ministers recom-
mended execution, and Liu Ting-kuo committed suicide.53
The relevant texts take pains to make clear that the Prince of
Yen was convicted for his abominable sexual acts, and not for having
murdered an inconvenient subordinate. “Ting-kuo has acted like a
86 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

beast; he has thrown human relationships into disorder and opposed

the Way of Heaven. He ought to be executed”
. “He has thrown human relationships into disorder”
must refer to his incestuous orgies and not to his brutal methods of
silencing opposition.54
The following year, Chu-fu Yen (d. 127 B.C.) accused Liu
Tz’u-ch’ang , Prince of Ch’i (r. 131–127 B.C.), of similar trans-
gressions. Chu-fu Yen was a rags-to-riches councilor who had attained
much fame through his part in bringing down Liu Ting-kuo. This
official sent a messenger to inform the Prince of Ch’i that he knew
all about His Lordship’s incestuous liaison with his elder sister. The
prince thought he would never be able to escape conviction and
committed suicide so as not to be compared with the late Prince
of Yen.55 That same year, yet a third imperial kinsman, Liu P’eng-tsu
, originally Prince of Kuang-ch’uan and subsequently
Prince of Chao (r. 155–193 B.C.), feared that he would meet the
same fate as his cousins the Princes of Yen and Ch’i. So he accused
Chu-fu Yen of various “conspiracies” of his own. Chu-fu and his
entire clan were executed before the year was out.56
Modern readers are likely to be puzzled by these events. Why was
Liu P’eng-tsu, a cousin of the emperor, so afraid of the upstart Chu-
fu Yen that he had to have him framed? Why did the authorities call-
ing for Liu Ting-kuo’s execution focus on his incestuous relation-
ships, neglecting to mention the crime that we today would consider
far more serious, namely murder? And, above all, why were so many
of the emperor’s cousins accused of sexual perversions? The actions
of Liu P’eng-tsu, who was never indicted, imply that he too had some
kind of sexual deviance to hide—and we know from the sources that
indeed he did.57
The answers to these questions have to do with the political his-
tory of the Han dynasty. When Liu Pang founded the dynasty, he
installed many of his kinsmen as feudal vassals, following the promi-
nent model of the legendary Sage-Kings Wen and Wu of Chou. Such
feudal arrangements, as historians have made clear, are typically the
result of power bargains. They occur when a conqueror, though nat-
urally unwilling to share his newfound might, finds himself unable
to administer his new empire by himself—whereas his kinsmen and
capable followers have acquired considerable power of their own. An
agreement is reached whereby the lord cedes certain lands (fiefs) to
his vassals, granting them limited autonomy in exchange for vows of
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 87

loyalty and service. Over the course of subsequent generations, the

situation degenerates into a primal tug-of-war. The lord tries to limit
as much as possible his vassals’ rights over their fiefs—or, if he is in
a position to do so, he aims to eliminate them entirely—while the
vassals try to exact ever-greater concessions from their lord. Under-
standably, the vassals’ right to pass their fief on to the next genera-
tion is often a major bone of contention.58
Emperor Wu’s father, Emperor Ching (r. 156–141 B.C.), had
taken significant steps in his lifetime to undermine the power of the
feudal landholders. Emperor Wu continued this trend by reducing
the size of several principalities, often confiscating fiefs outright on
the slightest pretext.59 He initially favored Chu-fu Yen precisely be-
cause of the latter’s policy of divide et impera:

60

[Chu-fu] Yen persuaded the Emperor, saying: “In ancient times, the
land of the feudal lords did not exceed one hundred li, and it was easy
to control their strength. Now some of the feudal lords have con-
nected several tens of cities, so that their territory [covers] a thousand
li. If they are neglected, they will become haughty and extravagant,
and may easily become licentious and disorderly. If they are treated
strictly, they will rely on their strength and ally with one another in
order to oppose the capital. If you slice or pare their territory by pass-
ing laws, this will give rise to germs of opposition against such regula-
tions, as in the case of Ch’ao Ts’o [d. 154 B.C.] of former days.61 Now
some of the feudal lords have ten or more sons and younger brothers,
but only one legitimate heir succeeds to the title. The others, though
they are of the same flesh and bone, do not have a single foot of ter-
ritory. Thus the Way of humanity and filiality is not promulgated. I
urge Your Majesty to order the feudal lords to extend your grace to
their sons and younger brothers by enfeoffing them with land. They
will all rejoice, having attained what they desire—while the Emperor,
through a virtuous undertaking, will really be dividing their realms.
Without your doing violence to them, they will decline and weaken.62

In other words, the emperor’s clansmen represent precisely the

same threat as the old Six Kings in the First Emperor’s inscription at
88 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Kuei-chi. They are “licentious and disorderly” ; they form private

alliances and defy the power of the center. The Prince of Chao knew
what was as stake: Chu-fu Yen was assaulting his fief, his dignity, and
his livelihood and had to be stopped immediately. Chu-fu and the
emperor were not content simply to let their shrewd policies gradu-
ally take effect. Rather, they tried to hasten the inevitable outcome by
accusing princes right and left of sexual misdeeds. So it was immate-
rial whether Prince So-and-so actually copulated with his sister or his
father’s widow. The point was that by accusing them of heinous sex
crimes, Chu-fu Yen was really branding them as political rebels in the
mold of Lao Ai. And the princes knew full well that they had no
defense against such charges, for their very existence was licentious
in the political sense; as landed princes with territorial power, they
threatened the integrity of the centralized empire. Their only options
were to commit suicide or to fight back by accusing their accuser of
licentious acts more dangerous than their own.
The life of Liu Chien , Prince of Chiang-tu (r. 127–121
B.C.), illustrates further the interrelated themes of sexual misconduct
and political rebellion.

63

When [the Princes of] Huai-nan and Heng-shan were planning rebel-
lion,64 [Liu] Chien heard much about it. He considered that his fief
was close to Huai-nan, and feared that if [the rebellion] were to erupt
one day, he would be involved. So he secretly manufactured weapons,
and sometimes would wear on his belt the general’s seal that his father
had been granted; he would set out carrying the Emperor’s banner.
When Prince I [i.e., Chien’s father, r. 153–128 B.C.] had died but was
not yet buried, Chien sent an emissary at night to fetch Lady Nao,
his father’s favorite harem-girl who delighted him as well. He forni-
cated with her in the mourning lodge. When the affair of Huai-nan
erupted [i.e., 122 B.C.], the investigation into partisans and accom-
plices pointed toward Chien, Prince of Chiang-tu. Chien was afraid,
and sent an emissary bearing much gold and money in an attempt
to avoid imprisonment. . . . Chien also fornicated with all his sisters.
Once the matter was heard, the officials of Han requested that Chien
be arrested and tried. The Emperor could not bear this, and sent a
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 89

great minister to interrogate the Prince. The Prince confessed his

crimes, whereupon he committed suicide.65

Here is a case of a man who is undone by his own anxiety and stu-
pidity. If he genuinely fears being implicated in a rebellion, the worst
thing he can do is stockpile weapons and ride around with a flag
reserved for the Son of Heaven. His attempt to bribe his way out of
trouble only confirms his guilt. He can hardly fit more closely the
profile of a guilty party.
It is remarkable how the account of Liu Chien’s sexual transgres-
sions is completely intermeshed with that of his very shortsighted acts
of treason. The comment that he committed incest with all his sisters
is inserted almost parenthetically. Like most of his disgraced cousins,
this prince fornicated with his stepmother as well; the added remark
that he fornicated with her in the “mourning lodge” reminds us
of the poem “The Banks of the Ju” and its searing image of the illicit
liaison in the ancestral hall (see chapter 1 in this book). This one act
embodies well Liu Chien’s folly. Copulating with his widowed step-
mother would not have been so egregious—after all, countless other
members of his class were doing it; it was a gesture signifying that a
son had succeeded his father66—but only Liu Chien took the further
step of revolting everyone by doing the deed in the precinct reserved
for expressions of filial grief.
Once the figure of Liu Chien was confirmed as the model of a
scheming and licentious feudal lord, later writers could elaborate on
his crimes however they wished. His biography in the History of the
Han, for example, includes many racy details of his debauchery not
related by Ssu-ma Ch’ien.

67

An Eighth-Rank Lady 68 of his seraglio once made a mistake; he uncer-

emoniously ordered her to strip and stand beating a drum. Some [of
his women] he would set atop a tree, forcing them to stay there for
thirty days before giving them clothes. Some he would have shaved
and collared, and made to pound grain with a lead pestle;69 if they did
not reach their quota, he would simply flog them. On others he would
set loose wild wolves to bite them to death; Chien would watch this
and laugh greatly. Some he would lock up, denying them food and
90 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

causing them to starve to death. In all he killed thirty-five innocent

people. Chien wanted to make someone copulate with animals and
bear a child; he forced a woman of his seraglio to strip and get on all
fours,70 and copulate with rams and dogs.

This final misdeed is Liu Chien’s crowning sin. There were many
sadists in the imperial family—the sons of Emperor Ching were espe-
cially prominent in this regard71—and murdering thirty-five innocent
people actually places Liu Chien fairly low on the list of the dynasty’s
greatest butchers. Fornicating with his sisters and stepmother was
also, as we have seen, not extraordinary among his peers. But bestial-
ity lies in a different category altogether. I know of no other reliable
reference to it in the early literature,72 and it is likely that classical
readers would have taken it to be the single most immoral act that a
human being could perform, because Liu Chien’s desire to produce
issue from a sexual union between human and animal assailed the
very basis of moral philosophy as laid down by such august thinkers
as Mencius (Meng K’o , 371–289 B.C.?) and Hsün-tzu.
The difference between humans and beasts, Mencius argued, is
that humans have a heart (or “mind”); the gentleman preserves it,
whereas the common people abandon it.73 He goes on to show that
the heart is crucial to humanity because it is the seat of our inborn
morality.

74

To show that all human beings have a compassionate heart, suppose

someone suddenly saw a child about to go into a well. Everyone [in
such a situation] would have a frightened, commiserating heart, not
in order to ingratiate themselves with the child’s parents, not because
they want praise from their neighbors and friends, and not because
they hate the sound.75 From this we see: Who does not have a com-
miserating heart is not a human. Who does not have a heart of shame
is not a human. Who does not have a heart of deference is not a
human. Who does not have a heart of right and wrong is not a human.
The heart of commiseration is the beginning of humanity. The heart
of shame is the beginning of righteousness. The heart of deference is
the beginning of ritual. The heart of right and wrong is the beginning
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 91

of wisdom. Humans have these Four Beginnings as we have our four

limbs.76

The later philosopher Hsün-tzu—who was even more influential

in Han times than Mencius—agreed that the difference between hu-
mans and animals had to do with the moral capacity of each species,
though he diverged from Mencius in other respects. Hsün-tzu explic-
itly rejected Mencius’ notion of the inborn goodness of humanity,
and so he based his ethical system not on such ideas as the Four
Beginnings but on the essential tendency of human beings to
make distinctions.

77

What is it that makes humans human? I say: their making of distinc-

tions. Desiring food when hungry, desiring warmth when cold, desir-
ing rest when toiling, loving profit and hating harm—these are what
humans have from birth; they are what is so without any development;
they are what was alike in Yü and Chieh [a legendary Sage and a
prodigal last king, respectively]. Birds and beasts have parents and
children, but not the relationship of father and son. They have males
and females, but not the separation between men and women. Thus
there is nothing greater than making distinctions in the Way of Man.
There are no greater distinctions than social distinctions; there are no
greater social distinctions than the rituals.78

It was apparently conventional in Hsün-tzu’s time to think of

animals as beings with completely unrestrained sex drives; we have
already seen lascivious humans referred to as “sows” or “boars” in this
vein.79 Zoologists today may dispute some of Hsün-tzu’s assertions—
we know now that animals observe very complex rituals governing
the relations between males and females, for example—but his rea-
soning is clear. The essential attribute of humanity is to make dis-
tinctions, as between father and son, male and female, etc. This, he
asserts, is a feature that no other living species shares. It is the Way of
Man, and because the Way is always right, the human tendency to
make distinctions is the bedrock of all morality.80
Given this philosophical background, we can appreciate just how
abominable Liu Chien’s acts are meant to seem. Instead of abiding
by the natural and appropriate distinctions set down by Heaven, Liu
92 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Chien does all he can to obscure them. And what kind of heart, in the
Mencian sense, could have been possessed by the poor monster that
Liu Chien was hoping to create? We sense that the benighted Liu
Chien, in his zeal to gratify his diabolical curiosity, is meddling with
ethical and spiritual issues that he cannot begin to comprehend—
like an ancient counterpart of our Dr. Frankenstein.
Here is a character who foments “disorder” in the most literal
terms. He is the antithesis of morality as his world constructed it. Sex-
ual relations had to be orderly and regulated, because sexual aber-
rations—like all aberrations—threatened the fragile unity of the new
empire, and so were tantamount to rebellion. This was the early
imperial sex ideology; it is one of the outstanding features of the Han
intellectual world.
To be sure, there had been precursors to this political conception
of sexual misconduct long before the Han dynasty, stretching back
all the way to the primordial world of myth itself.81 One of the several
fascinating Chinese flood myths, for example, deals with the figure
of Kung Kung , the debauched marplot who harmed the world
by disrupting the natural courses of the rivers.

82

When Heaven and Earth were completed and [material] gathered to

make highlands, the creatures83 returned to the bottom. Riverbeds
were dredged, so as to guide [the flow of] their ch’i. Slopes and
embankments [were raised] around the marshy lowlands, so as to pre-
serve their beauty. Therefore the gathered [earth] did not erode or
cause mudslides, and the creatures had a place to return to. The ch’i
[of the rivers] did not become heavy and blocked, but also did not
disperse and encroach on [dry land]. Thus the people obtained
wealth during their lives, and had a place to be buried when they
died. This being the case, there were no concerns over untimely
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 93

death, infant mortality,84 pestilence, or disease; nor worries over

hunger, cold, shortages, or deficiencies. Thus superiors and inferiors
were able to be secure with one another, in order to anticipate the
unexpected; this was all that the ancient Sage-Kings were cautious
about. Long ago Kung Kung abandoned this Way, and took joy in dis-
solute pleasures, losing himself in licentiousness. He wanted to block
up the Hundred Rivers, destroying the highlands and filling up the
lowlands, in order to harm the world. August Heaven did not bestow
fortune upon him, and the common people did not help him; disas-
ter and chaos flourished together, and Kung Kung was exterminated.
In the time of the possessor of Yü [i.e., Shun , a legendary Sage-
King], there was Kun, Earl of Ch’ung, who spread abroad his licen-
tious heart and followed in Kung Kung’s transgressions; Yao [the Sage-
King whom Shun served] put him to death on Mount Yü. His scion,
Earl Yü, studied his forebears’ denial of standards; he regulated and
corrected [the world], instituting measures. He caused things to be in
the image of Heaven and Earth, and categories to match the Hun-
dred Patterns, so that everything accorded with the people and took
the flocks of living things as its measure. [Kung] Kung’s descendants,
the Officers of the Four Peaks,85 assisted him. Making the highlands
high and the lowlands low, they dredged the rivers, clearing a path for
the blockage; and the water, thus preserved, became fertile with crea-
tures. They piled up the several mountains, making them lofty; they
opened the several rivers, so that they flowed unimpeded; they con-
structed slopes and dikes around the several marshes; they fertilized
the several wetlands, making them fecund; they cleared the several
plains, making them vast; they made the several headlands habitable;
and they connected the Four Seas. Thus Heaven did not suffer from
yin, and there was no diffusion of yang on Earth.86 There was no stop-
page of ch’i in the waters, no disastrous raging of fire; spirits did not
walk about idly, and people did not have licentious hearts; there was
no inversion of the sequence of seasons, no creatures harmful to the
living.87
Thus it seems that at the very beginning of time, “licentiousness”
and “dissolute pleasures” were already contrasted with the
orderly government that preserves—and gains its strength from—
the regular forces of nature. The fact that the names of both sins are
based on aquatic images (overflow and dissipation) only strengthens
their association with the flooding waters.88 Kung Kung and Kun are
beings who disrupt the flow of the rivers, so that “disaster and chaos
flourished together” ; significantly, we are told point-blank
that both are licentious. After Yü and the Officer of the Four Peaks
94 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

succeed in reestablishing the proper condition of the world, we are

again told specifically that “people did not have licentious hearts”
.89
Nevertheless, although the perceived connections between licen-
tiousness and disorder of a cosmic or political nature may be as ven-
erable as the myth of Kung Kung and the waters, preimperial rulers
did not by any means share the obsessive concern with regulating
sexual conduct that marks the reigns of the Ch’in and Han em-
perors. This point is borne out especially well in a revealing section
of a preimperial Ch’in legal handbook. The text discusses the fitting
punishment for a woman who has fornicated (chien ) with two sep-
arate men, who subsequently injure each other in a fight over her.
The conclusion is that she is not to be sentenced at all (whereas the
men, of course, would be penalized for fighting).90 The logical infer-
ence is that “fornication” itself was not categorically punishable by
law. For readers inured to the Draconian measures of Emperors
Ching, Wu, and the like, such legal restraint is stunning. Whoever
was responsible for compiling the Ch’in law code evidently did not
consider “fornication” to constitute a threat to public order of the
magnitude that the First Emperor and his successors envisioned.
Preimperial sexual mores, as best reconstructed by the available
sources, square with this permissive attitude. Remarriage was not at
all uncommon among women of all social classes,91 and cheng ,
or incest with one’s father’s widow (an offense punishable by death
in the Han),92 seems to have been downright popular among the
ancient elite—perhaps because a man’s wives were seen as property
that his son could freely inherit.93 Similarly, a court jester from the
fourth century B.C. recounts in almost pornographic terms com-
munal drinking parties where men and women would choose their
partners and lie together intertwined on the same mat. At the end of
the night, the jester tells us, the hostess sees off all the other guests,
so that she can untie her silk blouse and let him inhale her fertile
odor. (The rest is left to the reader’s blazing imagination.)94 Finally,
although ancient rulers were certainly criticized for their sexual
excesses, many are depicted with sexual appetites that are almost
endearing. King Chuang of Ch’u, for example—the same lord who
wanted to make the infamous Lady Hsia his concubine (see chapter
1 in the present book)—might have considered it an act of diplo-
macy to embrace a courtesan from Ch’in in his left hand and a girl
from Yüeh in his right.95
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 95

The stark contrast between the totalitarian regimentation of sex-

ual life in the early imperial era and the relatively carefree attitude
of the period that immediately preceded it has been observed for
centuries,96 and most scholars rightly place the critical transition
in the Ch’in dynasty, with the First Emperor’s attempts to forge a
“unified cosmos.”97 This means that the conception of sexuality artic-
ulated by Ssu-ma Ch’ien and others was a phenomenon peculiar to
imperial times and hence must be seen as part of a larger endeavor
to limit personal freedom in the new world order. Most other basic
freedoms easily enumerated by those who live in a free society—free-
dom of speech, freedom of movement, and so on—were assaulted
along with sexual freedoms for precisely the same reason: they all
jeopardized the imperial ideal of unity. Of course, it had always
been dangerous to express one’s mind openly in ancient China, but
there is far less evidence in earlier times of such organized and far-
reaching efforts to control human behavior. The few outstanding
cases of reforms aimed at social control—such as those of Kung-sun
Yang (d. 338 B.C.) in the state of Ch’in98—were greeted with
profound resentment and distrust at all levels. In many respects,
then, the Chinese Empire was one of the first totalitarian states in
human history, and its view of sexual activity was, like that of all total-
itarian states, fearful and intolerant.99

The great achievement of the early Han dynasts was to make this
repressive ideology palatable to the very people whom it was designed
to control. After all, part of the dynasty’s strategy of legitimation was
to depict the fallen Ch’in dynasty as paradigmatic of the inevitable
failure of brutally repressive policies. The scholar Chia I, for exam-
ple, composed a profoundly influential essay on the demise of Ch’in,
citing in particular the government’s blatant disregard for the peo-
ple’s welfare.100 Though probably intended simply as a warning to
the emperor not to follow the “mistakes of Ch’in” , this work in
effect provided policymakers with a matchless source of propaganda,
which the Emperors Wen (r. 180–157 B.C.) and Ching exploited
to the fullest by reducing taxes, announcing several general amnes-
ties, and abolishing all mutilating punishments, thus portraying their
own rule as one of pure benevolence and restraint.101 Capital pun-
ishment, however—like the practice of exterminating a criminal’s
family (mieh-tsu ) when circumstances were thought to warrant
it—was never abolished, and we have seen some examples of how
96 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

skillfully emperors used execution and the mere threat of execution

to do away with people who were politically inconvenient. This was a
sanitized and vastly more sophisticated form of social control than
anything the Ch’in had produced.
The Han sex ideology also proved persuasive to intellectuals be-
cause it forged a link between sexual licentiousness and moral trans-
gression. According to the preimperial Ch’in code, as we have seen,
“fornication” was not a crime; indeed, in keeping with the latitu-
dinarian mores of the time, it was hardly seen as blameworthy. The
Han government, on the other hand, by actively prosecuting high-
profile cases of “acting like a beast” (ch’in-shou hsing , the stan-
dard category for sex crimes), managed to bring about an environ-
ment in which citizens themselves demanded tougher measures and
more comprehensive legislation aimed at sex offenders. Like com-
parable sentiments today, such calls typically focused on offenders
who molested victims across generational boundaries, particularly
those who committed incest. The difference is that the demon of our
legal system is the father (or stepfather) who forces himself on his
daughter (or stepdaughter), whereas the classic profile of a Chinese
sex offender was a son (or stepson) who “treated his mother as a
wife” .
A famous instance of the ever-increasing complaints about the
inadequacy of the law code dates to around 45 B.C.

102

A woman of Mei-yang accused her stepson of unfiliality, saying: “My

son often treats me as a wife; he flogs me out of jealousy.” Tsun [i.e.,
Wang Tsun , the local magistrate] heard this and sent officials to
arrest and interrogate him; he confessed. Tsun said: “There are no
laws in the code about cohabiting with one’s mother.103 This is some-
thing that the Sages could not bear to write about; it was what the
canons called an ‘unprecedented case.’”104 Tsun then went out and
sat down at the head of the courthouse. He took the unfilial son and
hung him from a tree, ordering five cavalrymen to draw their bows
and shoot and kill him, so that the people would be terrified.
Wang Tsun’s actions were to be a harbinger of intellectual atti-
tudes in the future. First, and most obviously, he considers the crime
to be abhorrent. He asserts that even the Sage-Kings could not bear
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 97

to write about such topics as incest with one’s stepmother, and he

sees the “unfilial son” as such a menace to society that he
makes an example of him in order that the populace would be “terri-
fied” . Wang Tsun thus figures as a precursor of rising popular
outrage against crime in general and sex crimes in particular. He
goes further in his condemnation than the imperial administration
itself. (The Magistracy of Mei-yang was a thoroughly trivial position
in the grand hierarchy of the Han bureaucracy, and it is nowhere
stated that Wang Tsun is acting on orders from above.) We are told
that he acts of his own accord and out of a profound sense of indig-
nation and disgust. Like countless intellectuals after him, Wang Tsun
complains that the laws are deficient as they stand because they do
not deal effectively with moral violations as grievous as “unfiliality.”
Wang Tsun is an activist politician. As his own little speech makes
clear, he does not execute the criminal on the authority of his
administrative post, because the law does not grant him expressly the
power to do what he thinks is right. He is acting on a sense of moral
authority, as a concerned official who is trying to make the law more
perfect.
Finally—and this is critical—Wang Tsun asserts unmistakably that
he derives his moral authority from the “canons” (or “classics,” ching
), the infallible body of traditions handed down by the Sages. Wang
Tsun believes in a time when Sages ruled on the basis of their sage
wisdom, rather than their official position; when incest and similar
“unprecedented cases” elicited the righteous indignation that they
ought to elicit; when “unfilial sons” were dealt with as they ought to
be dealt with. He believes that the world has decayed since this
golden age and that it needs to be brought in line with the will of the
Sages—which is to say, in concrete terms, that the laws and statutes
should be scrapped and replaced by the classics. The humble Magis-
trate of Mei-yang, in three pithy clauses, identifies himself as a fer-
vent Confucian revolutionary.105
Most of Wang Tsun’s concerns are echoed more than a century
later by Pan Ku in his “Treatise on Punishments and Laws” (“Hsing-
fa chih” ). This later writer makes an additional point: by elim-
inating mutilation, the Han government has in effect left a gaping
hole in the gamut of punishments available to magistrates charged
with carrying out the law. Too many people are executed for lack of
a more suitable sentence, whereas too many violent criminals receive
the comparatively light sentence of being shaved and collared.
98 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

[; ]106

107

The original intent of the abolition of mutilating punishments was

to keep the people intact, but now after passing the degree of “shav-
ing and collaring,” one turns right to the death penalty. To trap peo-
ple into the death penalty is to lose the original grace [of the aboli-
tion]. Therefore there are ten thousand killed every year; this is
brought about by the heaviness of punishments. But when we come
to robbing by “breaking and entering,” injuring people in order to
vent anger, licentiousness between male and female, officials who are
treacherous and conspiratorial—evils like this—the penalty of being
shaved and collared is insufficient to punish them. Thus tens of thou-
sands are punished every year, but the people are not awed, let alone
have a sense of shame; this arises because of the lightness of punish-
ments. Thus officials who are known vulgarly as “capable” publicly
execute robbers in order to appear mighty; those who specialize in
killing are thought to live up to their duties, whereas those who
respect the law cannot bring about order. One cannot count the cases
where disordering the “names” [i.e., legal categories] has harmed the
legal system. Therefore the meshes [of the law] are fine, but treach-
ery is not stopped; punishments are manifold, but the people are ever
more impertinent. . . . Let us erase the laws and statutes and fix new
ones, composing two hundred sections to correspond to the death
penalty. For the remaining ranks of crimes—for which [the punish-
ments] in ancient times were nonlethal, but now involve death—for
all these, [the convict] can appeal for mutilation. As for people who
injure others; robbers; officials who receive bribes or abuse the law;
men and women who engage in licentious disorder—for all such
[cases], we will revert to the ancient punishment. This will make up
3,000 sections.108
Pan Ku’s proposals in this “Treatise” are far more elaborate than
anything in Wang Tsun’s terse speech at Mei-yang, but we can see
how the two men approached similar problems with similar attitudes.
Like Wang Tsun, Pan Ku believes that the legal code needs to be
completely rewritten, and like his forebear, he believes that following
the practices of “ancient times” is the secret to a harmonious
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 99

and moral society. For crimes such as robbery and licentiousness, to

“revert to the ancient punishment” means reinstating penal
mutilation. But Pan Ku’s “ancient times” are nothing more than an
idealized Never-never-land. We have seen how fornicators were dealt
with by the ancients; they certainly were not routinely castrated, if
they were punished at all. Traditional moralists like Pan Ku were in
fact inventing their own traditional morality.109
Pan Ku’s sister, Pan Chao (A.D. 48–116?), is perhaps the
most extraordinary “traditional” moralist of the entire dynasty. She
wrote a celebrated essay called “Admonitions for Women” (“Nü-chieh”
) with the express intent of instructing girls in “the rituals of
women” . Pan Chao believed that girls needed to be taught how
to serve their “husband and ruler” and lamented the fact that
most families felt they had to educate only their boys.110 “Admoni-
tions for Women” starts from the initial supposition that males are
naturally superior to females and provides straightforward behav-
ioral guidelines for women that may allow them to fulfill their pre-
destined roles as helpmates to their husbands.111
112

Sew and weave with focused mind; do not be fond of games and
laughter; keep pure and orderly the wine and food, in order to serve
them to guests. These are called womanly achievements.113

Pan Chao goes through her catalog of “admonitions” with the

tacit premise that she is merely encapsulating the age-old “rituals for
women” in a form that women can understand. That is to say, she
presents her work as though it were a summary of traditional moral
precepts, and not in any respect an invention of her own. However,
her essay includes recommendations that would have been shocking
to the founders of the very tradition that she believes she is trans-
mitting faithfully.

114

When your mother-in-law says “No!” and she is correct, then follow
her command, since it is firmly right; when your mother-in-law says
“Yes!” and she is wrong, then obey her order as though it were right.
Do not oppose what she says is right and wrong or fight over what
she says is straight and crooked. This is what is called bending and
obeying.115
100 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

It is a truism of Chinese sociology that the often tense relationship

between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law is one of the pillars sup-
porting the entire familial structure.116 On the face of it, Pan Chao
is merely delineating in clear-cut terms just what is expected of a
daughter-in-law—namely, complete and unquestioning obedience.
The young wife must do as her mother-in-law says, whether she thinks
it is right or wrong, because she herself is in no position to challenge
her elder’s standards. Pan Chao chooses to focus here on the figure
of the mother-in-law, but we can readily extend the analogy to cover
all social superiors, whom a woman must obey without demurrer. In
effect, this passage sets down Pan Chao’s understanding of what she
calls “service” (shih ).117
However, unquestioning obedience, especially in cases in which
one’s superior is wrong, is never extolled as a virtue in early Confucian
texts.118 Confucius himself, for example, took a famous position on
this issue.
119

The Master said: “In serving your father and mother, remonstrate
slightly. If you see that they do not comply with your will, you should
still be reverent and not disobedient. Struggle and do not complain.”120

This utterance is vague in several respects. Commentators have

continually assumed that Confucius has a male audience in mind,
but in this passage, he does not necessarily exclude women. And if
he does mean here to address women as well as men, then he has
to disagree with Pan Chao, since he seems to posit that to “remon-
strate slightly” is a moral duty for everyone. Moreover, just what
does Confucius mean by “struggle” (lao )? Does struggling entail
trying to show one’s parents their mistakes, even while maintaining
a reverent and obedient posture? Can “father and mother” , fur-
thermore, be extended to include in-laws? These are contentious
issues in the commentarial literature. But however we choose to
interpret the details, Confucius does not generally recommend obey-
ing wrongful commands as though they were right. On the contrary,
the Confucian brand of service is not fawning obedience but a
higher form of loyalty that involves criticizing one’s parents or ruler
with their best interests in mind.121
The early literature contains countless examples of this principle
in action—the vast majority of which, to be sure, involve the right-
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 101

eous dissent of men rather than women. Nevertheless, the canons so

esteemed by the Pan family also include instances in which such
heroic remonstrance is placed in the mouths of female characters.
Two poems from the Odes illustrate this point. Consider the fol-
lowing stanzas.
Since you did not approve it,
I cannot turn back.
I regard you as incorrect.
My thoughts will not be kept at a distance.
Since you did not approve it,
I cannot return across the streams.
I regard you as incorrect.
My thoughts will not be kept secret.

I will ascend that steep hill

and gather its meng-herbs.
As a girl, I am given to emotions,
but each one has its principles.
The people of Hsü are mistaken about this.
The mob is immature and rabid.

(Mao 54: “Tsai ch’ih” )

Evidently, this is the lament of a woman who thinks she ought to

travel somewhere but is forbidden to do so by the “people of Hsü”
. The phrase “turn back” implies that she is a wife or widow
wishing to return to her family; in other words, the “people of Hsü”
122

are her husband’s family. Repeatedly, she insists that they are “incor-
rect” and “mistaken” . These are certainly not the words of
a woman who is content to obey blindly the dictates of her social
superiors—whom, indeed, she considers to be moral inferiors. The
Tso-chuan tells us that the poem was recited by the wife of the lord of
Hsü. She was a daughter of the noble house of Wei who wished to
visit her homeland after it had been sacked by a non-Chinese group
known as the Ti in 660 B.C.123 Subsequent commentators suggest
that she actually composed this poem, which they all agree is intended
as a woman’s eloquent criticism of ignorant in-laws who succeeded in
quashing her noble ambition.124
“The Cypress Boat” is even more crushing to Pan Chao’s position.
This lyric is narrated by a young widow who complains to her parents
that she will not marry another man.
102 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

It floats, that cypress boat,

in the middle of the river.
He had two locks of hair over his forehead.
In truth, he was my only mate.
Till death I swear that there will be no other.
Oh, mother! Oh, Heaven!
You do not consider other people!

(Mao 45: “Po-chou” )

We must not rule out the possibility that the speaker of this poem,
too, is addressing her mother-in-law rather than her natural mother,
for it was common for a young widow in later imperial times to be
married off as quickly as possible by her in-laws. Not only did she
represent an extra mouth to feed, but she also had legal claims on
her deceased husband’s property that could be removed only if she
could be induced to remarry.125 For this earlier period, however,
these considerations may not be relevant, and the voice of “The
Cypress Boat” may well be addressing her own parents. Regardless,
the significant point is that she is criticizing her elders for attempt-
ing to thwart her will, threatening darkly to commit suicide rather
than betray her dead lover.126
Part of the reason why “The Cypress Boat” was canonized surely
lies in its affirmation of a widow’s chastity, an ideal that apparently
has always been admired in Chinese culture. Nevertheless, we have
seen that widows who refused to remarry by no means represented
the rule in ancient times, and the desire of a widow’s parents that she
find another husband was not to be ignored flippantly. In her own
day and age, the speaker of “The Cypress Boat” would have been
seen as an Antigone, as an obstreperously pious young woman who
is so faithful to her own moral standards that she is willing to defy her
legal guardians even unto death. This is not a meek little girl who is
“bending and obeying” in the mold of Pan Chao. This is a spir-
ited and self-confident woman whose radical opinions are socially
disruptive and indeed morally precarious. And yet she is singled out
as a heroine.
Pan Chao was by far the most educated woman of her day, and
perhaps the most educated woman in Chinese history. She trained
many important male scholars, including Ma Jung (A.D. 79–
166), one of the titans of the Confucian tradition. And her greatest
achievement may well have been one which posterity has insuffi-
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 103

ciently noted, namely, her contribution to the extant History of the

Han.127 In spite of her undeniable scholarly accomplishments, how-
ever, her understanding of the classics as revealed by her “Admoni-
tions to Women” is shallow. In repudiating the tradition of upright
expostulation, she has debased the complex Confucian ethical sys-
tem and transmogrified it into nothing more than a justification for
the exploitation of females by males and of younger generations by
elder generations. To purvey the view that women should know their
place, serve wine in silence, and never contradict their husbands
and in-laws as though it were taken straight from the classics—when
in fact the classics present a view of humanity that is incomparably
richer and more problematic—must qualify as a thorough falsifica-
tion. The “traditional” morality that Pan Chao espouses is really a
moralizing invention. But we have seen that Pan Chao is not unique
among Later Han classicists in this respect.

In Pan Chao’s time, “The Cypress Boat” had lost much of its original
impact. The critical issue—the remarriage of widows—had already
long been defused as an object of controversy. It was now unremark-
able for widows to remain “chaste” for the rest of their lives, and
in the coming decades widows who took second husbands would face
greater and greater stigma.128 To Pan Chao herself, the question was
not even open to discussion. “According to the rituals,” she asserts,
“husbands have the right to marry again, but there is no provision for
women to be matched twice” .129
During the previous two and a half centuries of Han rule, how-
ever, countless widows of all social classes remarried in peace, some
as many as five or six times. Clearly, there was no law against it.130 The
noted jurist Tung Chung-shu (ca. 179–ca. 104 B.C.) found
that widows without children could remarry freely—and if he meant
to imply that widows with children could not, this aspect of his deci-
sion was never enforced.131 Ch’ao Ts’o, ever the enterprising official,
even went so far as to propose selling widows to men garrisoned
along the frontier.132 How can we reconcile this relatively tolerant
attitude in the early Han period with Pan Chao’s uncompromising
rejection of remarriage for widows in the second half of the dynasty?
A closer look at the evolution of Han marriage practices suggests
that this change over time from sexual permissiveness to sexual reg-
imentation is not an isolated historical problem. No one seems to
have complained, for example, when Emperor Hui made his own
104 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

niece his empress in 192 B.C. In A.D. 200, however, the historian Hsün
Yüeh (A.D. 148–209) decried Emperor Hui’s action as a viola-
tion of ritual and the Way.133 The nature of the wedding banquet
also seems to have undergone a decisive shift over the course of the
dynasty. At first, wedding banquets were rowdy and sexually inte-
grated to the point of deteriorating into hymeneal orgies as the wine
flowed and flowed.134 But already by the time of Emperor Ai
(r. 6 B.C.–A.D. 2), a bureaucrat who drank wine by a widow’s gate was
dismissed from office for having “thrown into disorder the separa-
tion of the sexes” , when he should have known “that
there are regulations pertaining to drinking wine and gorging one-
self at banquets” .135 If these unspecified “regula-
tions” had been in force in earlier times, most families celebrating a
wedding would have been carted off to prison forthwith.
Thus the picture of early Han marital customs that emerges from
the sources fails utterly to conform to the idealized standards set
down by later thinkers. If, as Pan Chao asserts, the rites prohibited
women from remarrying, few people in the Former Han seemed to
know or care. These same ritual codes prescribe in great detail the
procedures necessary for a proper marriage, namely the so-called
Six Rituals that commentators have never tired of elucidating.
It was assumed for centuries that Han marriages followed the Six Rit-
uals scrupulously, simply because they are mandated by such extant
codes as the Ceremonies and Rites (I-li ) and Record of Rites.136 But it
has now been demonstrated conclusively that most of these rituals
were practiced only in the rarest of circumstances, and even then
only by ambitious ideologues who wished to make a point of their
extraordinary rectitude. For some of these rites, we do not have any
documentation that society was aware of their existence.137
The spuriousness of the ritual codes is revealed further in their
prescriptions regarding the proper time of the year for weddings.
The Po-hu t’ung, for example, says,
138

Why must marriages take place in the spring? The spring is the time
when Heaven and Earth meet and have congress, when the myriad
things begin to live, when yin and yang meet and touch.139
This arrangement fits neatly with Five Phases (wu-hsing )
thought, which views spring as the season of vitality and thus the
natural time for weddings. But earlier texts indicate that the proper
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 105

season for weddings was thought in preimperial times to be winter.

Indeed, the very next sentence in the Po-hu t’ung shows that the
author or authors have gotten everything mixed up: “The Odes say:
‘If a man brings home a wife, it is while the ice has not yet melted’”
. This is a genuine reference to the Odes
(Mao 34: “P’ao yu k’u-yeh” ), but it does not seem to sub-
stantiate the argument of the text. If anything, it implies that mar-
riages should take place while there is still ice on the ground—hardly
a description of springtime. The discrepancy is amplified by a pas-
sage from Hsün-tzu: “When the frost descends, one welcomes the
bride; when the ice melts, [weddings] cease. Every ten days they
copulate once” .140 This statement
can be interpreted only to mean that weddings must take place dur-
ing the winter. Therefore, either there were at least two accepted
views in ancient times concerning the proper season for weddings
(viz. winter or spring)141—or the authors of Po-hu t’ung misunder-
stood the Odes because they accepted it as a matter of course that
marriages should be held in the spring. In either case, their com-
mand of the classics is revealed to be shaky at best.142
Similarly, several ritual codes require the use of a wild goose (yen
/ ) in five of the six marriage rituals,143 and it is not far-fetched to
see in this stipulation an even more profound misreading of the
very same poem that Po-hu t’ung cites as justification that weddings
should take place in the spring. The poem is “The Gourds Have
Bitter Leaves.”

The gourds have bitter leaves.

The ford has a deep crossing.
Where it is deep, they cross with their clothes on.
Where it is shallow, they cross by lifting their
clothes.

Overflowing, the ford is swollen!

Resoundingly, the female pheasant calls!
The ford, though swollen, will not wet my axle.
The female pheasant calls to seek her male.

Harmoniously, harmoniously cry the wild geese.

The morning sun begins to rise.
If a man brings home a wife,
it is while the ice has not yet melted.
106 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

He beckons, he beckons, the ferryman.

Others cross, but I do not.
I am waiting for my friend.

(Mao 34: “P’ao yu k’u-yeh”)

This is one of the most beautiful poems in the entire collection,

and like its own image of the pregnant ford , it is full of sug-
gestive symbolism that can be interpreted in many different ways.
One interpretation that is absolutely not warranted, however, is
to link the image of the wild goose with marital bliss. As we have
noted in chapter 1, the wild goose is an emblem that appears in early
Chinese literature of various genres, and consistently in circum-
stances marked by an unwanted separation between lovers.144 Thus
the arousal of the wild goose symbolizes, if anything, the exact oppo-
site of marital concord. The image fits this poem especially well. The
speaker—presumably female but possibly male—is waiting for her
“friend” and therefore refuses to cross the ford with the others.
This is what she means when she says that the ford, though swollen,
will not wet her axle. The other images, such as the beckoning ferry-
man and the female pheasant calling for her mate, also convey frus-
trated attempts at union. So the literary purpose of juxtaposing the
desolate image of the wild goose with the cheery remarks about the
right time to find a wife is to dramatize the speaker’s own longing for
her friend. The reference to marriage may even explain why she
is waiting for him by the ford: she has been hoping that he would
take her home before the spring thaw. We are given to know by the
swelling of the ford that she has waited in vain.145
There is good evidence, furthermore, that the earliest readers
understood “The Gourds Have Bitter Leaves” in a similar spirit, as in
the following passage from the Confucian Analects.

146

The Master was playing chimes in Wei. Someone carrying a basket

passed by Confucius’ gate and said: “There is heart in the way he
strikes the chimes!” Then he said: “It is vulgar, this sound of pebbles
clanging! If there is no one who knows you, then just be by yourself.
‘Where it is deep, they cross with their clothes on. Where it is shallow,
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 107

they cross by lifting their clothes.’” The Master said: “Indeed! There
is no refuting that!”147

This is a very difficult passage. Commentators have debated its

meaning for centuries (and there may also be some intractable prob-
lems of textual corruption).148 Still, the basic elements are clear. The
person “carrying a basket” is able to discern the emotions that Con-
fucius expresses through his music (“There is heart” , etc.).
Confucius is evidently distraught that he has not found anyone who
knows him , that is, one who understands his philosophical out-
look and lofty intentions. Then the critic cites a passage from “The
Gourds Have Bitter Leaves,” aptly enough, since he implies thereby
that Confucius’ anguish is comparable to that of the unwed girl by
the riverbank. Probably he means to say that Confucius should sim-
ply cross his ford without worrying about who might accompany
him.149
Therefore, given the very pointed imagery of “The Gourds Have
Bitter Leaves” and its interpretation by thinkers of Confucius’ age, it
is surprising that ritual codices should incorporate the presentation
of wild geese during the ceremonies of courtship and marriage.
There is no evidence whatsoever, either in bronze inscriptions or
other ancient documents, that wild geese were ever so used by the
ancients or that they were even conceived as symbolic of marital
union. On the contrary, every other appearance of wild geese in
the Odes occurs in a context of marital separation, sometimes even
widowhood.
How then is it possible that the Po-hu t’ung finds it necessary to
present a litany of answers to the question: Why is it appropriate to
use wild geese when we get married? They fly north and south at the
right time of year; they follow the sun as the wife follows her hus-
band; etc.150 This is all too creative. The only plausible scenario is
that the authors of Po-hu t’ung misunderstood the “harmoniously call-
ing wild geese” of “The Gourds Have Bitter Leaves” as a sym-
bol intended to prefigure the man who wants to bring home a wife
before the ice has melted. In a sense, they were right: the wild geese
are intended to prefigure the image of marriage in the same stanza.
But the device is bitterly ironic, as we have seen. It appears as though
the Po-hu t’ung has wrenched the figure of the wild geese from its
traditional sense in the context of the Odes. If the misconception that
108 The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

ancient marriages involved the use of geese can in fact be traced to

a naive reading of this particular line in the Odes, then this must
count as a decisive blow to the credibility of ritual texts like the Po-hu
t’ung (as well as the Ceremonies and Rites, a book that is usually con-
sidered to be much older).151
It is true that ritual codes in the genre of Po-hu t’ung contain hun-
dreds, if not thousands, of genuine citations from ancient texts and
that their interpretations of the classics are not always created ex
nihilo. In chapter 1, for example, we saw that according to the Tso-
chuan, Tzu-ch’an quoted from a “treatise” that said: “In buying a
consort, if you do not know her surname, divine it”
; this statement appears verbatim in the Record of Rites.152 This
kind of correspondence between passages in the Record of Rites and
certifiably preimperial texts is not at all uncommon, and it shows that
there is much material in the Rites that is genuinely ancient.
But the fact that the famous ritual texts from Han times do not
square with early imperial practice—let alone preimperial practice—
compels us to conclude that they were compiled by the same tradi-
tional moralists who wanted to rewrite all the law codes on the basis
of their own anachronistic understanding of the classics. The literati
who handed down these ritual codes did so in the earnest hope
of rejuvenating the crumbling dynasty with a dose of old-fashioned
morality. Their project proved so successful in shaping posterity’s
conception of ancient history that scholars have long turned as a
matter of course to the venerable Record of Rites and Po-hu t’ung for
information about the distant past—when these are really the imposed
products of a later age.153 For the student of Chinese history, the
problem with the late Han ritualists and their old-fashioned morality
is that, like most everything else defended the world over as “old-
fashioned values,” none of it had much to do with the values upheld
by real people in olden times.154 In spite of the many classical quota-
tions and allusions with which they have larded their works, the over-
all picture of ancient ritual life presented by these authors is funda-
mentally distorted. For a more accurate view of Han-dynasty conjugal
relations, we must try to cast aside the false perceptions perpetuated
by the ritual codes.

The two influential intellectual movements examined in this chapter

share a conviction that sexual activity must be regulated. This was the
hallmark of Han thinking on sexual relations. For the architects of
Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Empire 109

the early imperial sex ideology, sexual activity was inseparable from
political expression and therefore was subject to stringent regulation.
Licentiousness was taken seriously as a malfeasance with national ram-
ifications, and political figures who threatened the delicate “unity”
that had only recently been forged—figures such as Liu Ting-kuo,
Liu Chien, and Ssu-ma Ch’ien—were dealt with precisely as though
they had committed sex crimes.
The reform-minded traditionalists, for their part, looked back to
ancient times for moral guidance. The law codes set down by the
founders of the dynasty were now thought to be ineffective, because
they had not solved all of society’s problems. The writings of the Pan
family furnish an illustrative example of this mode of thought. It is
not possible today, two thousand years later, to speculate as to the
gravity of the social problems that these traditionalists sought to ad-
dress; suffice it to say that they saw all around them widespread moral
decay stemming from insufficient education, frequently manifesting
itself in sexual misconduct. Their solution was to combat these insid-
ious forces with the might of the ink brush and to compose ritual
prescriptions designed to bring about a more orderly civilization.
From the point of view of saving the dynasty, the traditionalist
movement produced few concrete results. The Han collapsed when
it was ready, giving way to a protracted era of political division. One
segment of the intellectual world carried on where the Han ritualists
had left off, furthering the basic Chinese myth of a prehistoric utopia
governed by Sage-Kings who transmitted their teachings in the form
of the received canons. But others rejected completely everything
that the repressive Han had stood for, advocating instead such revo-
lutionary notions as individual autonomy, sexual freedom, and a basic
right to privacy. The tensions between the two poles of this tumul-
tuous new world form the subject of the epilogue.
Epilogue

Privacy and Other Revolutionary

Notions at the End of the Han

The last century of Han rule saw a dismal succession of ineffectual

emperors and a national bureaucracy paralyzed by factionalism and
resentful of what it perceived as the inappropriate rise in the power of
palace eunuchs. This bleak period in China’s political history, which
has been well documented elsewhere,1 witnessed protracted strug-
gles among the three prepotent and mutually antagonistic political
groups: the scholar-officials; the eunuchs; and the great clans, who
pretended to support the imperial structure by providing the emper-
ors with their consorts but whose real goal was complete autonomy.
The general sense that the world was coming apart induced
many writers to suggest what was wrong, who was at fault, and what
might be done about it. Students at the Imperial Academy, for exam-
ple, demonstrated repeatedly against the undue influence of the
eunuchs, provoking the arrest of more than a thousand protesters in
a crackdown in A.D. 176.2 Other observers, such as Wang Fu (ca.
A.D. 82–167),3 denounced the spendthrift elite, who devoted their
resources and energies to luxury and extravagance rather than to the
traditional literati aspirations of education and government service.4
And in line with the understanding, discussed in the previous chap-
ter, that sexual practices were a reflection of political conditions,
moralistic criticism often took the form of allegations of sexual laxity.
Chung-ch’ang T’ung (179–219), for example, fulminated
against the wine and debauchery common at wedding banquets.5 He
was convinced that the malaise of his times was a direct consequence
of pervasive moral decay. In a world where the mightiest personages

111
112 Epilogue

are interested only in gratifying their senses, Chung-ch’ang T’ung

argues, one can expect only political and social fragmentation.
It is noteworthy that most of the complaints about the erosion of
sexual mores were aimed specifically at well-bred women. Wang Fu,
for example, notes with regret that most women no longer stay at
home with their sericulture and weaving but “begin to study sorcery
and incantation, serving spirits with drumming and dancing”
.6 A “Music Bureau” ballad (yüeh-fu ) from the time
captures the popular theme.
7
The good wife goes out to welcome the guests,
her countenance contented and cheerful.
Bending at the waist, she repeatedly pays her
respects by kneeling,
and asks the guests whether [their trip] was
pleasant.
She invites the guests up to the north hall;
she seats the guests on a ch’ü-shu carpet.
Each one has a different goblet for light and dark
wine.
Over the wine there are flowery ladles.8
She pours the wine and hands it to the guests.
The guests say that the hostess should have one.
She declines for a moment, then bows again—
after which she takes a cup.
Before the chatting and laughing are finished,
she looks to the left, and orders imperiously into
the kitchen,
hurriedly commanding them to prepare some
coarse rice.
“Make sure you don’t delay!”
Letting ritual lapse, she sees the guests out.
Gracefully she hurries across the courtyard.
In seeing the guests off, she does not go far;
her foot does not cross the gate pivot.
In obtaining a wife, if you get one like this,
even a Chiang of Ch’i would not be her equal.
A vigorous wife who maintains the home
9
exceeds [the value of] one husband.10

In this clever ballad, the “good wife” does her best to con-
form to the standard ideals of uxorial behavior but misses the mark
tellingly. The word ch’u (goes out) sets the tone for the entire
Epilogue 113

poem. It was hardly proper for a good wife to go out to welcome her
guests; on the contrary, she was supposed to remain within the gates
of the home at all times, secluded and unseen.11 But this wife is too
“cheerful” and “vigorous” to be so scrupulous about her mod-
esty. Indeed, she revels in chatter and drink and has evidently taken
great pains to prepare the goblets of light and dark wine. When the
guests insist that she drink with them, she declines, but only for the
sake of appearances; after a perfunctory little bow, she drains a cup.
Then, in the midst of the merriment and laughter, she realizes that
she has forgotten to tend to the food and quickly orders her kitchen
servants to prepare some “coarse rice” —the easiest meal to
make. She has obviously taken far less care with the food than with
the wine. She continues “letting ritual lapse” when she sees the
guests off; though she does not go so far as to leave the compound,
she wanders out as far as she can, all the way to the gate pivot. The
narrator concludes by comparing this wife farcically to a Chiang of
Ch’i (that is, a daughter of the noble house of Ch’i), recalling
the famous usage in the Odes.12
For all of the wife’s revealing gaffes, one of the most significant
aspects of the poem lies in what is not mentioned. Where is her hus-
band? Why should a “good wife” be entertaining a cohort of inebri-
ated “guests” inside her home—and all alone? The final line, sheng
i ta chang-fu (“exceeds [the value of] one husband”),
while pretending to be so laudatory, can also be read as an accusa-
tory innuendo. She “exceeds” one husband—that is, she prefers
to receive more than one man at a time. After all, her behavior does
not differ appreciably from that of a madam.
Wang Fu, Chung-ch’ang T’ung, and others like them (including,
perhaps, the author of this ballad) may have been certain that moral
deterioration was the cause of the ongoing disintegration of the
Han. But their social criticism, however stinging (and abundant),
was of no use in curing the ailing dynasty. When the end finally came
in A.D. 220, most people were already expecting it, but no one knew
for sure what would replace the empire.
What followed was a series of short-lived dynasties and political
disjunction that lasted almost four hundred years. A thorough ac-
count of this tumultuous era—known as the Six Dynasties —is
beyond the scope of the present study (and there are a large number
of first-rate works devoted to the subject). But the attitudes toward
sexuality expressed in this period are so fascinating, and complement
114 Epilogue

so strikingly the earlier material examined above, that it is worth-

while, by way of closing, to outline the competing views of sex that
took shape as China was looking forward to a new world order.

The end of the Han did not bring about an end to moralism, and
some writers of the Six Dynasties excoriated licentious women with
a fervor that greatly exceeded anything produced by Wang Fu or
Chung-ch’ang T’ung. Ko Hung (283–343), for example, is often
cited as the most outspoken voice.

13

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 cir-
cle 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 trav-
els. 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 detest-
able and hateful. Sometimes they stay overnight at other homes; some-
times they brave the night and return. They wander and play at Bud-
dhist monasteries; they watch fishermen and farmers;14 they ascend
peaks and draw near to the rivers; they leave their districts for cele-
brations 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. . . . Among the vulgar,
there is a way of playing with a woman. In a crowd, in front of her rel-
atives, she is asked revolting things, and rebuked if she answers slowly,
in a manner so base and vile that I cannot bear to discuss it. Some-
times she is forcibly chastised with a flogger; sometimes her feet are
bound and she is suspended upside-down.15
It is important to keep in mind that Ko Hung cannot be consid-
ered prudish by any contemporary standard. Elsewhere, he takes
pains to point out that complete abstinence from sexual pleasure is
actually dangerous to one’s emotional and physical health.16 He sub-
Epilogue 115

scribed to the standard view of sexual intercourse as an exchange of

ch’i (as described in the preface in this volume) and conceded that
if one knew the proper methods, then the more one copulated, the
greater the resulting salutary benefits. Why then, did he criticize so
bitterly the women who gallivanted coquettishly through the streets
of the city? Ko Hung’s complaint is that these women (and the men
who play their sadomasochistic “truth or dare” games with them) are
hardly interested in studying the arcane and respectable art of sexual
macrobiotics; they are merely giving in to their lustful impulses. Even
more important, their pleasure outings come at an intolerable price:
they cause women to abandon their proper place behind the loom
in the inner quarters. The august categories of nei and wai—for what-
ever they were really worth in ancient times—were being brazenly
assailed, even deliberately defied. For Ko Hung, the “vulgar” cus-
toms represent a catastrophic social breakdown.17
In this respect, however, Ko Hung was no longer in step with the
times. For the most characteristic attitudes of the period held that it
was not necessarily reprehensible for men and women to challenge
the received norms of behavior. It was fashionable to ask, with Juan
Chi (210–263), “Were the rituals established for people of our
kind?” ?18 Never before, and certainly not during the
Han dynasty, could such a question have been posed. The view that
the ancient rituals need not apply to our everyday lives was revolu-
tionary, and this dismantling of traditional morality gradually
became acceptable and even commonplace. How this momentous
change in outlook came about is worth some reflection.
The new custodians of mainstream values were scions of the mano-
rial gentry,19 the great families that came to dominate local admin-
istration during the period of imperial weakness in the third and
fourth centuries.20 The last thing these aristocrats wanted to see was
a resurgence of imperial power, and they devoted their energies to
consolidating their own autonomy and undermining, as much as
possible, the effectiveness of the national government.21 The gentry
were consequently faced with two competing and irreconcilable
commitments in their role as members of the bureaucratic elite: ser-
vice to the empire as government officials, and resistance to it as ter-
ritorial aristocrats.22 Their political ideal was the utopia described in
the “Record of Peach-Blossom Spring” , by T’ao Ch’ien
(365–427),23 where an arcadian community lives undisturbed for
centuries, at peace with themselves and each other, entirely oblivious
116 Epilogue

to the rise and fall of dynasties in the world beyond the grotto.24 In
the intellectual sphere, the gentry’s struggle for local hegemony
manifested itself as a revolt against the tired and rigid doctrines of
the Han. As the Han ideologues propounded their uniform behav-
ioral standards in an effort to forge a unified empire centered on a
single leader, the new aristocratic elite of the post-Han era, in resist-
ing imperialist demands on their loyalty, sought to undo what they
perceived as the excessive regimentation of daily life.25
One favorite target of attack was the empty formalism of the ritu-
als. According to Shu Hsi (fl. 281), for example, in an ideal soci-
ety wives addressed their husbands by the familiar appellation ch’ing
, “you” (that is, instead of using some honorific phrase), and sons
called their fathers by their personal names.26 When Wang An-feng
(i.e., Wang Jung , 234–305) reprimanded his wife for
calling him ch’ing and thereby “being disrespectful according to the
rites” , she replied disarmingly,
27

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”?28
He never complained about it again.
The unspoken point in the above exchange, which is typical of
the age, is that the rituals are dispensable when they begin to impede
the expression of genuine feeling or when they interfere with deep
relationships between individuals. The idea was especially well artic-
ulated by the aforementioned Juan Chi, who was one of the most
celebrated examples of a so-called “urban hermit” , or a delib-
erate nonconformist who intended to make serious moral statements
with studied idiosyncrasies.29 Famously, Juan Chi attended parties
while mourning his mother but wept excessively at the funeral of a
girl that he did not even know.30 His more conservative contempo-
raries wrongly deduced from his outrageous violations of the rites
that he did not care for his deceased mother. In private, we are told,
he cried out, expectorated several sheng of blood, and lay ill for a
long time.31 He considered the open disregard of propriety as the
surest sign of sincere devotion.32
But as iconoclastic as Juan Chi tried to be, his ideas soon became
normal among intellectuals. Later thinkers, such as Kuo Hsiang
(d. 312), found an enduring articulation of the same notion—that
ritualism merely impedes the expression of true emotions—in the
Epilogue 117

ancient Chuang-tzu.33 Even the august classics were not immune to

reassessment. Allegedly, the wife of Hsieh An (320–385) declared
that “The Kuan-ing Ospreys”—which, as we have seen, was repeatedly
invoked as justification for regulating sexual contact between the
sexes—adopted a biased and limited point of view because it was
written by a man. If a woman had written the poem, she suggested,
the conventional notions of proper behavior might be completely
different.34
The interrelated themes of nonconformism, objection to mori-
bund ritualism, and affirmation of personal autonomy come
together clearly in an anecdote about Liu Ling (d. after 265),
who, like Juan Chi and Wang Jung, was a member of the notorious
group known as the Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove
.35

36

Liu Ling always indulged in wine and let himself be uninhibited.

Sometimes he would take his clothes off and stay in his house stark
naked. When people saw this, they criticized him. Ling said: “I take
Heaven and Earth as my pillars and roof, and the rooms of my house
as my trousers. Gentlemen, what are you doing by entering my
trousers?”37

The story must be understood in the context of Juan Chi’s state-

ment that the so-called noble men (chün-tzu ) who devote their
lives solely to following the rituals are like annoying lice that inhabit
one’s trousers.38 As Richard B. Mather has pointed out, Liu Ling’s
joke must be read as a protest “against the invasion of his personal
privacy.”39 Simply put, he is declaring his right, within the confines of
his home, to do anything he wants, however eccentric it may be.40
Gone are the days when the emperor in his palace can dictate uni-
versal norms, and those hidebound conventionalists who expound
the shopworn ideologies of Han times are merely trespassing in other
people’s personal space.41
It is a brilliant and cutting retort, and it is also a thoroughly
aristocratic retort. Never, in imperial times, was “privacy” (ssu )
conceived as a praiseworthy notion: “privacy” merely denoted those
troublesome areas where imperial control (kung ) was not fully
established.42 Liu Ling’s comment and indeed his provocative behav-
ior represent a calculated declaration of his rights and privileges as a
118 Epilogue

member of the unfettered aristocratic class. Later figures (such as

the scandalous Uninhibited Eight ) would take up Liu’s man-
date as justification for free love, nudism, drug taking, and similar
affirmations of personal freedom that cannot be unfamiliar to any-
one living at the beginning of the twenty-first century.43

Religious Taoism offered another set of alternatives to the bankrupt

ideology of the Han. Part of the appeal of the sect of the Celestial
Masters , for example, must have been that they offered a supe-
rior celestial bureaucracy—and at times also a superior terrestrial
one—while the Han bureaucracy was in the midst of ineluctable dis-
integration.44 Moreover, by emphasizing the spiritual equality of men
and women, the movement attracted devotees who were unsatisfied
with the old sexual hierarchy of male dominance and female sub-
servience. Female acolytes could avoid the obligation to marry hus-
bands 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.45 The Taoist rebellions of the 180s are generally recog-
nized as the final spark that brought about the end of the Empire,46
and the religion went on to be a primary influence in shaping the
intellectual consciousness of the Six Dynasties.
The Celestial Masters countered the prospect of sexual licen-
tiousness by instituting highly ritualized sexual ceremonies, re-
corded in the so-called yellow writings (huang-shu ), which were
designed to place sexual activity within a sacrosanct cosmological
framework. Like Ko Hung and the authors of the sex manuals, the
Celestial Masters conceived of sexual intercourse as an exchange of
yin and yang ch’i. Unlike these contemporaries, however, members of
the Celestial Master sect did not practice the “union of ch’i” (ho-ch’i
) for the purpose of stealing their partners’ vital essences and
thereby extending the measure of their own life spans. Rather, they
sought a genuine union of ch’i, a ritualized invocation of the diverse
cosmological forces.47
As it is prescribed in a surviving scripture, the ritual was to be
carried out under the supervision of a master and only after a long
sequence of preparatory steps: bathing, fasting, burning incense,
saluting the officiating master, and invoking the gods.48 The cere-
mony then continued through dozens of steps—which must have
lasted several hours—involving massage, meditation, and recitation
of liturgies. At times the man and woman linked hands, combining
their fingers in numerologically significant positions; at times they
Epilogue 119

rubbed specific parts of each other’s body, with their hands or even
with their feet. Kristofer Schipper remarks,
The ritual was performed in a perfectly symmetrical manner. Each
prayer, each gesture by the man found its symmetrical counterpart in
a gesture and prayer by the woman. There was no such thing as one
active and one passive partner. The text of the ritual, as it has come
down to us in a version from the early Middle Ages (fourth century
A.D.),49 is very beautiful and the execution of the ritual must have
been an extraordinary event. The union of ch’i . . . must have required
that the participants have perfect mastery of their bodies.50

The avowed purpose of the “union of ch’i” was to serve as a “rite

of passage” (kuo-tu )—and not to gratify the participants’ carnal
desires.51 On the contrary, the Celestial Masters militated against
lubricity and established Commandants of Fornication (chien-ling
), officials whose duty was to fight against sin (which was
understood as the cause of disease) by spiritual means.52 Ironically,
however, these sex rites were frequently cited by those who accused
Taoism of lewdness. Some of the most effective charges came from
Buddhists,53 and eventually even Taoist patriarchs tried to distance
themselves and their religion from the infamous “yellow writings.”54
Nevertheless, in the minds of many, Taoism would henceforth always
be associated with secretive and questionable sex practices. In a
sense, this was only fitting. As we have seen repeatedly, sexual activ-
ity was continually conceived in ancient China as an index of politi-
cal activity, and it was appropriate that the Taoist church, which pre-
sented itself from the beginning as an institution with an alternative
worldview to compete with the ideology of the empire, should incor-
porate alternative sexual norms as well.

The general spirit of the age is conveyed effectively in another famous

ballad, known informally as “The Peacock Flies Southeast”
. The preface to the poem explains the story.

55

In the middle years of the Chien-an reign period at the end of the
Han [i.e., ca. 204–212], the wife, née Liu, of Chiao Chung-ch’ing, a
minor functionary in the government offices at Lu-chiang, was sent
away by Chung-ch’ing’s mother. [Liu] swore that she would not
remarry, but her family forced her, so she drowned herself. When
120 Epilogue

Chung-ch’ing heard of this, he also hanged himself from a tree in the

courtyard. At the time, one who was pained by this [event] wrote the
following poem.56

The poem proper then begins, recounting in bathetic language

how Chung-ch’ing’s wife, despite her industry and modesty, is cast
out cruelly by her mother-in-law, who pays no heed to Chung-
ch’ing’s simpering protestations. Chung-ch’ing hardly knows what to
say when he faces his wife.
He started to speak to his newlywed wife;
stammering and coughing, he could not speak.
“It’s not that I am throwing you out,
but Mommy is pressuring me.
You just go back to your family temporarily,
and meanwhile I will report to the Bureau.
Before long, it will be right for me to return,
and when I return, I will certainly take you back.
Set aside your worries about this.
Be sure not to oppose what I say.”
The newlywed wife said to the government clerk:
“Do not keep repeating the same balderdash.
Long ago, at the beginning of spring,
I left my family and came to your honorable gates.
Respectfully serving and obeying Mother-in-law,
I was attentive and did not dare focus on myself.
Day and night I worked and produced assiduously.
Alone,57 I am wound around in bitterness.
My words were without transgression;
I fulfilled my obligations with great kindness.
But I am sent away nevertheless.
58
Why do you speak of my coming back here?”59

The miserable girl then lists her worthless possessions, adding,

“They are insufficient for your next wife,
but I will leave them to wait for her as a hand-me-
down present.60
After this, there will be no cause for us to meet.
Over time, we will be consoled—
61
And may we never forget each other.”62

Chung-ch’ing’s former wife is soon betrothed by her family to a

new husband—the son of the county magistrate, no less. And Chung-
ch’ing’s mother, sensing her son’s misery, finds a new bride for him
Epilogue 121

as well. But the girl cannot bear to marry another man—to her, that
would be to betray her husband—and so, as we have been warned,
she drowns herself in a lake. When Chung-ch’ing hears the news, he
“paces back and forth under a tree in the courtyard” but
then finally musters the courage to hang himself from the southeast
branch.
One might dismiss this poem as a lugubrious, if not downright
maudlin, sentiment piece, were it not for the astonishingly pointed
conclusion. The narrator suddenly addresses us directly (people of
later generations ): “Be advised, and be careful not to forget!”
.63 What exactly are we being advised not to forget—that
Chung-ch’ing brought about not only his own death but also that of
his beloved, by obeying his mother ? And that his mother lost her son by
failing to appreciate his love of a girl with whom he shared no blood
relation? These are absolutely revolutionary ideas, thoroughly
incompatible with the old ethic of deference to one’s elders and loy-
alty to the clan. Chung-ch’ing is not eulogized in this poem as a “filial
son” who is willing to make the greatest sacrifices in order to please
his mother. Rather, he is portrayed as emasculated and puerile, irres-
olute even in his last moments beneath the tree in the courtyard.
Within the framework of a conventional love story, the poem con-
structs a devastating indictment of the old moral and social order.
Men who prostrate themselves before the sterile ideals of “ritual” ,
“deference” , and “filial piety” , while suppressing their genuine
feelings, are not to be admired but to be pitied, if not condemned.
If you love someone, the poem tells us, and your family stands in the
way, the more difficult and praiseworthy course of action is not to
overcome your heart but to overcome your family.64
The author of the poem may have hoped that Chung-ch’ing’s
death would spell the end of traditional morality and that forever
after young men and women would be free to choose their lovers, to
reject their parents’ callous admonitions, to chart their own course
of life. Of course, this was not to be. The very popularity of the theme
of tragic love reveals only how pervasive such frustration must
have been among real audiences. The literature of the day may
have pointed out that it was a painful experience—perhaps even
an unnecessary experience—to be forced to marry someone other
than one’s true love, but most men and women still found them-
selves in arranged marriages and continued in their turn to arrange
marriages for their own children. Moreover, as Six Dynasties China
122 Epilogue

moved on, inexorably, to the prospect of reunification under a new

empire, the allure of nonconformism and antiritualism began to
wear thin. Already the hopeful dynasts in the north were legislating
intricate marriage codes, in the familiar belief that a kingdom where
sex was regulated was a kingdom where subjects were submissive and
united. When the Six Dynasties came to a close, the foundational
Chinese attitudes toward love, sex, and marriage had been set in
place.
Notes

Introduction
1. See, e.g., Catharine A. MacKinnon, “Does Sexuality Have a History?”
Michigan Quarterly Review 30 (1991), reprinted in Discourses of Sexuality: From Aris-
totle to AIDS, ed. Domna C. Stanton, Ratio: Institute for the Humanities (Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992), 117–136; David M. Halperin, “Is
There a History of Sexuality?” History and Theory 28.3 (1989), reprinted in Phi-
losophy and Sex, ed. Robert B. Baker et al., 3d ed. (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus,
1998), 413–431; and Robert Padgug, “Sexual Matters: On Conceptualizing Sex-
uality in History,” Radical History Review 20 (1979), reprinted in Baker et al.,
432–448.
2. Yin-ch’üeh-shan Han-mu chu-chien cheng-li hsiao-tsu
, Sun Pin Ping-fa (Peking: Wen-wu, 1975), 115 f.
3. See, e.g., Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, trans. Robert Hurley
(New York: Random House, Vintage Books, 1978–1986), vol. 1, 105 f.
4. See, e.g., Bruce S. Thornton, Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality (Boul-
der, Colo.: Westview, 1997), 99–120, 201 ff.; Sue Blundell, Women in Ancient Greece
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995), 103; and esp. K. J. Dover, Greek
Homosexuality (repr., New York: MJF, 1989), 100–109. For a recent criticism of
phallocentrism and the primacy of the distinction between penetrator and pen-
etrated, see James N. Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions
of Classical Athens (New York: Harper Collins, 1997), 168 ff.
Even those ancient Greek works (intended for men) that discuss the relative
merits of sex with women and sex with boys should not be misunderstood as
comparisons between the relative merits of heterosexuality and homosexuality.
See esp. David M. Halperin, “Historicizing the Sexual Body: Sexual Preferences
and Erotic Identities in the Pseudo-Lucianic Erôtes,” in Stanton, 236–261. The
originality of constructionism, however, is sometimes overstated. For example,
Margaret Mead, Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (New York: Mor-
row, 1935), 304 ff., discussed the cultural roots of homosexual attitudes more

123
124 Notes to Pages 3–5

than six decades ago. Cf. also Bronislaw Malinowski, Sex and Repression in Savage
Society, Meridian Books M15 (1927; repr., Cleveland: World Book Co., 1955),
161–238.
5. On the Jesuits in general and Matteo Ricci in particular, see, e.g., Howard
L. Goodman and Anthony Grafton, “Ricci, the Chinese, and the Toolkits of Tex-
tualists,” Asia Major, 3d ser., 3.2 (1990), 95–148, which is an extensive review of
Jacques Gernet, China and the Christian Impact: A Conflict of Cultures, trans. Janet
Lloyd (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985); and Jonathan D. Spence,
The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (New York: Penguin, Elisabeth Sifton Books,
1984).
6. For the life and work of James Legge, see, e.g., Lindsay Ride, “Biographi-
cal Note,” in James Legge, The Chinese Classics (n.d.; repr., Taipei: SMC, 1991),
vol. 1, 1–25.
7. Arthur Waley, trans., The Book of Songs: The Ancient Chinese Classic of Poetry,
ed. Joseph R. Allen (New York: Grove, 1996).
8. Perhaps the most infamous example of the same approach is found in the
work of A. E. J. B. Terrien de Lacouperie (d. 1894), who endeavored to prove
that Chinese civilization was ultimately derived from that of Mesopotamia. See
his Western Origin of the Early Chinese Civilisation from 2,300 B.C. to 200 A.D.; or, Chap-
ters on the Elements Derived from the Old Civilisations of West Asia in the Formation of
the Ancient Chinese Culture (London: Asher, 1894). Terrien de Lacouperie’s book
has been roundly derided not only for its Orientalist approach but also for its
implication that China is a “secondary” rather than a “primary” civilization. For
an early example of such criticism, see Edward Harper Parker, Ancient China Sim-
plified (London: Chapman and Hall, 1908), 186–193.
9. Cf. esp. Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Random House, Vintage
Books, 1978), 3 ff. See also Eric Hobsbawm, “The Curious History of Europe,” in
On History (London: Little, Brown and Co., Abacus, 1998), 288.
10. For the reminiscences of two scholars who undertook scholarly work
on sex before most of the academy was prepared for it, see Robert B. Baker,
“ ‘Pricks’ and ‘Chicks’: A Plea for ‘Persons,’ ” in Baker et al., 297 ff.; and Vern L.
Bullough, “Sex in History: A Redux,” in Desire and Discipline: Sex and Sexuality in
the Premodern West, ed. Jacqueline Murray and Konrad Eisenbichler (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1996), 3–22.
11. See, e.g., Matthew H. Sommer, Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China,
Law, Society, and Culture in China (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press,
2000); Gail Hershatter, Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth-
Century Shanghai (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997);
Frank Dikötter, Sex, Culture, and Modernity in China: Medical Science and the Con-
struction of Sexual Identities in the Early Republican Period (Honolulu: University of
Hawai‘i Press, 1995); Keith McMahon, Misers, Shrews, and Polygamists: Sexuality
and Male-Female Relations in Eighteenth-Century Chinese Fiction (Durham, N.C.:
Duke University Press, 1995); Tonglin Lu, ed., Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-
Century Chinese Literature and Society, SUNY Series in Feminist Criticism and The-
ory (Albany, N.Y., 1993); Dian Murray, “The Practice of Homosexuality among
the Pirates of Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century China,” Inter-
Notes to Page 5 125

national Journal of Maritime History 4.1 (1992), 121–130; M. J. Meijer, Murder and
Adultery in Late Imperial China: A Study of Law and Morality, Sinica Leidensia 25
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1991) and “Homosexual Offenses in Ch’ing Law,” T’oung Pao
71 (1985), 109–133; Vivien Ng, “Homosexuality and the State in Late Imperial
China,” in Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, ed. Martin
Duberman et al. (New York: Meridian, 1989), 76–89; “Ideology and Sexuality:
Rape Laws in Qing China,” Journal of Asian Studies 46.1 (1987), 57–70; and Char-
lotte Furth, “Androgynous Males and Deficient Females: Biology and Gender
Boundaries in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century China,” Late Imperial China
9.2 (1988), 1–31.
The above list is intended to be representative rather than exhaustive. Here
one may also mention Eric Chou, The Dragon and the Phoenix: The Book of Chinese
Love and Sex (New York: Arbor House, 1971; repr., New York: Bantam, 1972),
which, though not written in a scholarly style, contains some original insights.
12. 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: E. J. Brill, 1961; repr., New
York: Barnes and Noble, 1996).
13. See, e.g., Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1956–), vol. 2, 147.
14. See esp. Charlotte Furth, “Rethinking van Gulik: Sexuality and Repro-
duction in Traditional Chinese Medicine,” in Engendering China: Women, Culture,
and the State, ed. Christina K. Gilmartin et al., Harvard Contemporary China
Series 10 (Cambridge, 1994), 125–146; and Douglas Wile, Art of the Bedchamber:
The Chinese Sexual Yoga Classics, Including Women’s Solo Meditation Texts (Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1992), 57 f.
15. Van Gulik, xiii passim. Compare also Janwillem van de Wetering, Robert
van Gulik: Ein Leben mit Richter Di, trans. Klaus Schomburg (Zurich: Diogenes,
1990), 82 f. Following van Gulik’s lead, Reay Tannahill, Sex in History, rev. ed.
(n.p.: Scarborough House, 1992), 177, comments on the absence in traditional
China of “practices that could be described as sadistic or masochistic.” Tannahill
goes on to blame “Confucianism” and “neo-Confucianism” for overpowering the
“mild and indulgent philosophy of Taoism” in sexual matters (see, e.g., 183,
198).
16. See Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, with Especial Reference
to the Antipathic Sexual Instinct: A Medico-Forensic Study, trans. Franklin S. Klaf
(New York: Stein and Day, 1965; repr., New York: Arcade, 1998), esp. 52–143.
On the terms “sadism” and “masochism” and their invention by Krafft-Ebing,
see, e.g., Vern L. Bullough et al., “Sadism, Masochism, and History, or when Is
Behaviour Sado-masochistic?” in Sexual Knowledge, Sexual Science: The History of
Attitudes to Sexuality, ed. Roy Porter and Mikuláš Teich (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1994), 47 f. See also Renate Hauser’s article, “Krafft-Ebing’s
psychological understanding of sexual behaviour,” in the same volume, 210–
227.
17. The standard essay on this subject is Arnold I. Davidson, “Closing Up
the Corpses: Diseases of Sexuality and the Emergence of the Psychiatric Style
of Reasoning,” in Meaning and Method: Essays in Honor of Hilary Putnam, ed.
126 Notes to Pages 5–6

George Boolos (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 295–325. See

also Timothy Taylor, The Prehistory of Sex: Four Million Years of Human Sexual Cul-
ture (New York: Bantam, 1996), 73 f.; and Foucault, vol. 1, 37 ff.
18. Van Gulik, e.g., 155 ff.
19. Julia Kristeva, About Chinese Women, trans. Anita Barrows (New York:
Urizen, 1977), 62 ff.
20. See, e.g., Tu Yung-ming et al., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih
(Peking: Chung-kuo hua-ch’iao, 1998), vol. 1, 340 ff.; Donald Harper, Early
Chinese Medical Literature: The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts, The Sir Henry
Wellcome Asian Series (London: Kegan Paul International, 1998), 135 ff.; Wile,
5 ff.; Li Ling , Chung-kuo fang-shu k’ao (Peking: Jen-min, 1993),
356–402; Kristofer Schipper, The Taoist Body, trans. Karen C. Duval (Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993), 147 ff.; Li Ling and Keith
McMahon, “The Content and Terminology of the Mawangdui Texts on the Arts
of the Bedchamber,” Early China 17 (1992), 179–181; van Gulik, 35 ff.; Needham,
vol. 2, 146 ff.; and esp. Henri Maspero, “Les procédés de ‘nourrir le principe vital’
dans la religion taoïste ancienne,” Journal Asiatique 229 (1937), reprinted in Le
Taoïsme et les religions chinoises, Bibliothèque des histoires (Paris: Gallimard, 1971),
553–577. (The translation of Frank A. Kierman, Jr., Taoism and Chinese Religion
[Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981], was not available to me at
the time of this writing.) Cf. also Henri Maspero, “Essai sur le Taoïsme aux pre-
miers siècles de l’ère chrétienne,” in Mélanges posthumes sur les religions et l’histoire
de la Chine, Publications du Musée Guimet; Bibliothèque de diffusion 57–59
(Paris: Civilisations du Sud, 1950), vol. 2, 114–115 (;Le Taoïsme, 379). Some tra-
ditions speak of huan-ching pu-nao (“recycling the semen to nourish the
brain”), which reflects the belief that injaculated semen will circulate all the way
to the brain. There is a fascinating parallel to this practice in Tantric Buddhism;
thus Bernard Faure, The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality, Buddhisms:
A Princeton University Press Series (Princeton, N.J., 1998), 50, describes “ ‘coitus
reservatus’ with a female partner (mudr4)”: “The trick is to stir the seminal
essence without losing it through ejaculation, so that it may ascend through the
central artery into the seat of Great Bliss located in the brain.” This is not to sug-
gest, of course, that the view of copulation (and of the role of the female part-
ner) in Tantric Buddhism is comparable to that of the Chinese sex manuals. See
esp. Miranda Shaw, Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism, Mythos
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994), 140–178.
Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih (The Black Dynastic Histories, cited above) is the intriguing
title of a new collection of twenty-four expository histories (amounting to more
than four thousand large pages) covering such “black” topics as prostitution,
footbinding, crime, and sex. The quality of the various essays is uneven, but
the references are generally accurate, and the collection succeeds in bringing
together a massive amount of information on subjects that the editors call the
“blind spots of scholarship” (in their epilogue, vol. 6, 4473). For the
sake of concision, I shall cite this work henceforth as merely Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih.
21. See esp. “Yü-fang pi-chüeh” , as cited in Tamba Yasuyori
(fl. A.D. 982–984), Ishimp7 (Peking: Jen-min wei-sheng, 1955), 28.636,
which adds that the Queen Mother of the West became a divinity by cop-
Notes to Pages 6–7 127

ulating with many young boys. The text is quoted without comment in van Gulik,
158 f., and is translated in Wile, 102–108, as well as Howard S. Levy and Akira
Ishihara, The Tao of Sex: The Essence of Medical Prescriptions (Ishimp7), 3d ed. (Lower
Lake, Calif.: Integral, 1989), 27.
22. As in the excavated text “T’ien-hsia chih-tao t’an” ; text in Ma
Chi-hsing , Ma-wang-tui ku i-shu k’ao-shih (Ch’ang-sha:
Hu-nan k’o-hsüeh chi-shu, 1992), 1072. For a different view, see Sandra A.
Wawrytko, “Prudery and Prurience: Historical Roots of the Confucian Conun-
drum concerning Women, Sexuality, and Power,” in The Sage and the Second Sex:
Confucianism, Ethics, and Gender, ed. Chenyang Li (Chicago: Open Court, 2000),
177, who argues that in “T’ien-hsia chih-tao t’an,” “women are not perceived as
sources of energy to be exploited, but rather as equal partners in the ensuing
benefits of intercourse.”
23. Cf. esp. Schipper, The Taoist Body, 148 f., and “Science, magie, et mystique
du corps: Notes sur le taoïsme et la sexualité,” in Jeux des nuages et de la pluie, ed.
M. Beurdeley (Frieburg: Office du Livre, 1969), 23 ff.
It should be pointed out that van Gulik seems originally not to have held
such an idealistic view of sexual relations in ancient China. Indeed, he first
termed the idea of ch’i exchange “sexual vampirism” and was promptly criticized
by Joseph Needham, who wrote in a letter to van Gulik: “on the contrary Taoism
had on the whole influenced favourably the development of sexual relations,
and enhanced the position of Chinese women in general” (quoted in van Gulik,
xiii; see also Needham, vol. 2, 146 n). Van Gulik yielded. Needham was already
a renowned scholar, van Gulik a professional diplomat who collected art and
wrote books in his spare time. Cf. van de Wetering, 82. But Needham’s view, as
we shall see (chapter 2), is based largely on a misreading of certain passages in
the Lao-tzu.
24. One of the oldest references appears in the “Wu-ch’eng” chapter of
the I Chou-shu : “a beautiful boy undoes an older man” ; text in
Chu Yu-tseng (fl. 1846), I Chou-shu chi-hsün chiao-shih
(Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts’ung-shu ), 2.6.13. (Chu Yu-tseng identifies the
“beautiful boy” as a catamite .) Han Fei , in his essay “Pa-chien” ,
also lists “lovely lads” as one category of the bedfellows enjoyed by a ruler;
text in Ch’en Ch’i-yu , Han Fei-tzu chi-shih , Chung-kuo ssu-
hsiang ming-chu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1958; repr., Taipei: Shih-chieh, 1991),
2.9.151, with commentary by Chiang Ch’ao-po (fl. 1845), 154 n. 4. For
other early references, see, e.g., Liu Ta-lin , Chung-kuo ku-tai hsing wen-hua
(Yin-ch’uan: Ning-hsia jen-min, 1993), vol. 1, 164–169. See also
Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 127–131; Bret Hinsch, Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The
Male Homosexual Tradition in China (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Cal-
ifornia Press, 1990); and Fang-fu Ruan and Yung-mei Tsai, “Male Homosexuality
in the Traditional Chinese Literature,” Journal of Homosexuality 14.3–4 (1987),
21–33. (Liu Ta-lin’s more recent work, Chung-kuo li-tai fang-nei k’ao
, 3 vols. [Peking: Chung-i ku-chi, 1998], was not available to me at the time
of this writing.)
25. Consider the term tui-shih (“eating each other”), a euphemism for
lesbian love. See, e.g., “Wai-ch’i chuan” , Han-shu (Peking: Chung-
128 Notes to Pages 7–9

hua, 1962), 97B.3990; and esp. the commentary by Ying Shao (d. before
A.D. 204): “When palace ladies act towards each other as man and wife, it is
called tui-shih” (3992 n. 2). Cf. also Hinsch, Passions of
the Cut Sleeve, 174; and C. Martin Wilbur, Slavery in China during the Former Han
Dynasty, Anthropological Series, Field Museum of Natural History 34 (Chicago,
1943), 431 n. 10. In later times, tui-shih came to denote an artificial marriage
between a eunuch and a palace maid (presumably because the eunuch was not
considered a genuine male). See Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 5, 3440; and Jennifer
W. Jay, “Another Side of Chinese Eunuch History: Castration, Marriage, Adop-
tion, and Burial,” Canadian Journal of History 28.3 (1993), 467.

1. Imagery of Copulation
1. All translations in this book are my own, except where otherwise indi-
cated. For texts other than the Odes, references are provided to standard pub-
lished translations for purposes of comparison. The most reliable complete
translation of the Odes is probably Bernhard Karlgren, trans., The Book of Odes
(Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1950).
2. Poems in the Shih-ching are cited by their number in the Mao Odes, that is,
the collection as transmitted by Mao Heng and Mao Ch’ang (both fl.
200 B.C.?). For the Chinese text of the Odes, I follow Ch’ü Wan-li , Shih-
ching shih-i , 2 vols., Hsien-tai kuo-min chi-pen chih-shih ts’ung-shu (Taipei:
Chung-kuo wen-hua, 1952–1953).
3. Wen I-to (1899–1946), “Shuo yü” , in Wen I-to ch’üan-chi
(Peking: San-lien, 1982), 117–138. See also Edward L. Shaughnessy, “How the
Poetess Came to Burn the Royal Chamber,” in Before Confucius: Studies in the
Creation of the Chinese Classics, SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
(Albany, N.Y., 1997), 224 f. I Chung-t’ien , Chung-kuo te nan-jen ho nü-jen
, I Chung-t’ien suei-pi-t’i hsüeh-shu chu-tso, Chung-kuo wen-
hua hsi-lieh 2 (Shanghai: Wen-i, 2000), 93, suggests that fish attained this sym-
bolic significance because they were thought to resemble vulvae. Evidently not
recognizing the various emblems in the poem “Hou-jen,” Marcel Granet, Fêtes et
chansons anciennes de la Chine (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1919), 45, considers it to be
“certainement déformée et d’interprétation difficile” (“certainly garbled and
difficult to interpret”).
Fish seem to have served a similar emblematic function in ancient Egyptian
love poetry. In one fragment, for example, a seductive woman holds a red fish
in her hands. (Compare the bream with the reddened tail in Mao 10, discussed
below.) See Lise Manniche, Sexual Life in Ancient Egypt (London: Kegan Paul
International, 1987), 88.
4. Cf., e.g., Shaughnessy, Before Confucius, 229 f., who cites several examples.
See also Ch’ien Chung-shu , Kuan-chui pien , 2d ed. (Peking: Chung-
hua, 1986), vol. 1, 73–74.
Excessive love of food, incidentally, was seen in the same light as sexual
incontinence in ancient Greece as well. “Eating, drinking, and rutting,” for
example, was the fitting motto of the apolaustic King Sardanapalus. See, e.g.,
James N. Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical
Athens (New York: Harper Collins, 1997), 165 f., 180.
Notes to Pages 9–10 129

5. See the commentaries of Cheng Hsüan (A.D. 127–200) and K’ung

Ying-ta (574–648) in Mao-Shih cheng-i , in Juan Yüan
(1764–1849), Shih-san ching chu-shu fu chiao-k’an chi (1817;
repr., Peking: Chung-hua, 1980), 7A.377b.
6. This sentence is from the “Minor Preface” to the poem (Mao-Shih
cheng-i 4C.342b) and constitutes what is sometimes called the “Upper Preface,”
which is attributed to Confucius’ disciple Tzu-hsia (i.e., Pu Shang ,
b. 507 B.C.) and is accepted by most scholars as older than the Maos. For the dis-
tinction between the “Upper Preface” and the “Lower Preface,” see Steven Van
Zoeren, Poetry and Personality: Reading, Exegesis, and Hermeneutics in Traditional
China (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1991), 92 ff.; and Jeffrey Riegel,
“Eros, Introversion, and the Beginnings of Shijing Commentary,” Harvard Journal
of Asiatic Studies 57.1 (1997), 147 n. 14. For more on the commentarial history
of the text, see, e.g., Lin Yeh-lien , Chung-kuo li-tai Shih-ching hsüeh
, Chung-kuo wen-hsüeh yen-chiu ts’ung-k’an (Taipei: Hsüeh-sheng,
1993).
7. Mao-Shih cheng-i, 4C.342b (“Chài” is a place-name). The event is retold
in the Tso-chuan ; text in Yang Po-chün , Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu
, 2d ed., Chung-kuo ku-tien ming-chu i-chu ts’ung-shu (Peking: Chung-
hua, 1990), vol. 1, 132 (Huan 11;701 B.C.). See also “Cheng shih-chia”
, Shih-chi (Peking: Chung-hua, 1959), 42.1761 f. Note that in other clas-
sical texts, Chung is praised for his pragmatic decision; if he had not acceded to
Sung’s wishes, it is asserted, his lord and state would have been destroyed. See
Ch’un-ch’iu Kung-yang chuan chu-shu (Shih-san ching chu-shu),
5.2220a (Huan 11;701 B.C.). Cf., e.g., Mark Edward Lewis, Writing and Author-
ity in Early China, SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture (Albany, N.Y.,
1999), 143, where the name of the minister is read as “Chi Chung.”
8. See, for example, the opinions of Yen Ts’an (fl. 1248) and Wang
Hung-hsü (1645–1723) in Wang’s Shih-ching chuan-shuo hui-tsuan
(1868; repr., Taipei: Chung-ting wen-hua, 1967), 5.41b f. Cf. also Wei
Chiung-jo , Tu-Feng chih-hsin chi (Hsi-an: Shensi jen-min,
1987), 272; and Hsieh Chin-ch’ing , Shih-ching chih nü-hsing te yen-chiu
, 3d ed., Kuo-hsüeh hsiao ts’ung-shu (Shanghai: Shang-wu, 1934),
62, who suggests that “this poem can only be considered to be about a little lost
love” . Generally, Hsieh believes that the minor
prefaces fail to comprehend the “real meaning” of the Odes (cf., e.g., 10 f.).
For more on the commentarial history of “Chiao-t’ung,” see, e.g., Ch’ien Chung-
shu, vol. 1, 108–111.
9. A History of Chinese Literature (New York: Grove, 1923), 13. Around the
same time, scholars in China were voicing similar criticisms of the commentar-
ial tradition to the Odes. For two typical examples, see Ku Chieh-kang
(1893–1980), “Yeh yu ssu chün” , in Ku-shih pien , ed. Ku Chieh-
kang (repr., Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1982), vol. 3, 439–443; and Hu Shih (1891–
1962), “T’an-t’an Shih-ching” , in Ku-shih pien, vol. 3, 576–587. A repre-
sentative sample of similar opinions is presented in Pauline Yu, The Reading of
Imagery in the Chinese Poetic Tradition (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1987), 45 f. For an influential argument to the contrary, see, in addition to Yu,
130 Notes to Pages 10–11

Ch’ü Wan-li, “Lun ‘Kuo-feng’ fei min-chien ko-yao te pen-lai mien-mu”

, Ku yüan-chang Hu Shih hsien-sheng chi-nien lun-wen chi
, Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 34
(1963), 477–504.
10. Zhang Longxi, “The Letter or the Spirit: The Song of Songs, Allegoresis,
and the Book of Poetry,” Comparative Literature 39.3 (1987), 213.
11. Analects 2.2; text in Ch’eng Shu-te (1877–1944), Lun-yü chi-shih
, ed. Ch’eng Chün-ying and Chiang Chien-yüan , Hsin-
pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1990), 3.65.
12. Following the commentary of Han Yü (768–824) and Li Ao
(772–841). See also Ch’eng Shu-te’s comments (an ).
13. Compare the translation in D. C. Lau, Confucius: The Analects (New York:
Penguin, 1979), 63. Tu Yung-ming et al., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih
(Peking: Chung-kuo hua-ch’iao, 1998) [cited henceforth as Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih;
see note 20 in the introduction of the present volume], vol. 1, 21, insofar as I
understand the argument, seems to suggest that by saying ssu wu hsieh ,
Confucius means that there is nothing perverted about healthy sexual love.
14. See, e.g., Pauline Yu, 48 f.; Donald Holzman, “Confucius and Ancient
Chinese Literary Criticism,” in Chinese Approaches to Literature from Confucius to
Liang Ch’i-ch’ao, ed. Adele Austin Rickett (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1978), 21–41; Yau-woon Ma, “Confucius as a Literary Critic: A Comparison
with the Early Greeks,” in Jao Tsung-i chiao-shou nan-yu tseng-pieh lun-wen chi
(Hong Kong, 1970), 20 ff.; Zau Sinmay, “Confucius on
Poetry,” T’ien Hsia Monthly 7.2 (1938), 137–150; and Ku Chieh-kang, “Shih-ching
tsai Ch’un-ch’iu Chan-kuo chien te ti-wei” , in Ku, Ku-
shih pien, vol. 3, 345–352, for reviews of Confucius’ statements regarding the
Odes. Cf. also Christoph Harbsmeier, “Eroticism in Early Chinese Poetry: Sundry
Comparative Notes,” in Das andere China: Festschrift für Wolfgang Bauer zum 65.
Geburtstag, ed. Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 62 (Wies-
baden: Harrassowitz, 1995), 333 ff., for another view of Confucius’ response to
eroticism in the Odes.
15. Cheng Hsüan’s gloss on ts’u is that it means no more than “go” (hsing
). Hence the traditional understanding of the couplet: “Ah, without diverging,
may these horses walk ahead!” But as Ch’ü Wan-li points out, ts’u was frequently
interchanged with ch’ieh , “become manifold.” For an overview of exegesis on
the poem “Chiung,” see Haun Saussy, The Problem of a Chinese Aesthetic, Meridian:
Crossing Aesthetics (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1993), 67–73.
16. There are a few notable exceptions to this consensus in the commentar-
ial tradition. Yü Yüeh (1821–1907) suggests that Confucius used ssu exactly
as in the Odes; thus “Ah, may there be no digression” (Lun-yü chi-shih 3.65).
Cheng Hao (fl. 1933), on the other hand, provides a long and tenuous
philological argument designed to show that hsieh here is not to be taken in
its normal sense, but that it should be read hsü (which he takes to mean hsü
, “may the horses not jade”). In other words, Confucius means only that we
should not let our energies flag. Compare also Bernhard Karlgren’s narrow
objection to “all forced speculations” in “Glosses on the Ta ya and Sung Odes,”
Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 18 (1946), 174: “The whole ode is
Notes to Pages 11–14 131

nothing but a praise of the prince’s fine horses.” Karlgren’s three collections of
Shih-ching glosses have been reprinted together as Glosses on the Book of Odes
(Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1964).
17. See his Mao-Shih chuan-chien t’ung-shih (Huang-Ch’ing ching-
chieh hsü-pien ), 2.4a f.
18. Analects 3.20, Lun-yü chi-shih 6.198.
19. Compare the translation in Lau, Analects, 70.
20. Compare the statement in Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 3, 1145 (Hsiang
28;545 B.C.), in which the speaker takes it as a matter of course that one may
bypass the ostensible sense of the Odes in order to extract a particular meaning
from them: “In reciting my ode, I have broken the stanzas, taking what I seek
from them” . Cf. Lewis, Writing and Authority, 158. See
also Mencius 5A.4: “One who interprets the Odes does not take the words to dis-
tort the lyric, or the lyric to distort [the poet’s] intention. To engage this inten-
tion with one’s own faculties—that is to comprehend it”
. Text in Chiao Hsün (1763–1820),
Meng-tzu cheng-i , ed. Shen Wen-cho , Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-
ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1987), 18.638.
21. Note that the guest is lucky (chia ) because he confers luck on the
speaker (as in a “lucky penny”), not because he is lucky himself.
22. For more on the poetic technique of hsing, see Ch’en Shih-hsiang, “The
Shih Ching: Its Generic Significance in Chinese Literary History and Poetics,”
Ch’ing-chu Li Fang-kuei hsien-sheng liu-shih-wu sui lun-wen chi
, Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 39 (1969), 371–413,
reprinted in Studies in Chinese Literary Genres, ed. Cyril Birch (Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 1974), 8–41; and Ying-hsiung Chou, “The
Linguistic and Mythical Structure of Hsing as a Combinational Model,” in
Chinese-Western Comparative Literature Theory and Strategy, ed. John J. Deeney
(Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1980), 51–78.
23. See Donald Harper, “The Sexual Arts of Ancient China as Described in
a Manuscript of the Second Century B.C.,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 47.2
(1987), 570 ff.; and Edward L. Shaughnessy, “Marriage, Divorce, and Revolution:
Reading between the Lines of the Book of Changes,” Journal of Asian Studies 51.3
(1992), reprinted in Before Confucius, 17 f.
24. Cf., e.g., K. C. Chang, “Shang Shamans,” in The Power of Culture: Studies
in Chinese Cultural History, ed. Willard J. Peterson et al. (Hong Kong: Chinese
University Press, 1994), 19 f., and Art, Myth, and Ritual: The Path to Political Author-
ity in Ancient China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983), 54 f.; and, most
recently, David N. Keightley, “Shamanism, Death, and the Ancestors: Religious
Mediation in Neolithic and Shang China (ca. 5000–1000 B.C.),” Asiatische Stu-
dien/Etudes Asiatiques 52.3 (1998), 808 ff., whose purpose is to challenge the sug-
gestion that the hosting ceremony was shamanistic. (Keightley refers to his more
extensive study of pin in an unpublished paper that was not available to me.)
According to the Shuo-wen chieh-tzu , the great dictionary by Hsü
Shen (ca. A.D. 55–ca. 149), the basic meaning of pin is “union with the
otherworld” ; it is unclear whether this union is intended to have a sexual
connotation. Text in Chiang Jen-chieh , Shuo-wen chieh-tzu chi-chu ,
132 Notes to Page 14

ed. Liu Jui (Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1996), 7B.1539, where pin is cited by the
older form of the graph, .
25. Cf. Shirakawa Shizuka , Shiky7 (Tokyo: Ch57 K7ronsha,
1970), 190.
The following discussion, incidentally, addresses only cases in which the
hierogamous union is desired and cherished by the human participant. A
recently discovered apotropaic text from the third century B.C., however, sheds
light on the possibility of undesired or forcible cohabitation with spirits: “When
a ghost continually follows someone’s daughter and cohabits with her, saying,
‘The son of Ti Above has descended to frolic’—if you wish to expel it, bathe
yourself in the excrement of a dog and beat [the ghost] with reeds; then it will
die”
(the character chi may also be interpreted as hsi ; thus “tie it with reeds”);
text in “Chieh-chiu” , Shui-hu-ti Ch’in-mu chu-chien (Peking:
Wen-wu, 1990), 215; and Liu Lo-hsien , Shui-hu-ti Ch’in-chien Jih-shu
yen-chiu , Ta-lu ti-ch’ü po-shih lun-wen ts’ung-k’an 76 (Tai-
pei: Wen-chin, 1994), 231. (The 1990 version of Shui-hu-ti Ch’in-mu chu-chien is
the most recent appearance of a title that has been used more than once
since the 1970s.) Compare the translation in Donald Harper, “Spellbinding,” in
Religions of China in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Princeton Readings in Reli-
gions (Princeton, N.J., 1996), 249; and the discussion in “Warring States, Qin,
and Han Manuscripts Related to Natural Philosophy and the Occult,” in New
Sources of Early Chinese History: An Introduction to the Reading of Inscriptions and
Manuscripts, ed. Edward L. Shaughnessy, Early China Special Monograph Series
3 (Berkeley, Calif., 1997), 245 f. Compare also the item immediately following in
the text: “When a ghost continually tells one, ‘Give me your daughter,’ it cannot
be answered. This is a spirit from above descending to take a wife. Beat it with
reeds; then it will die. If you do not defend against it, it will come five times and
the girl will die”
. (Once again, chi may also be interpreted as hsi.)
For more on “Chieh-chiu,” see Donald Harper, “A Chinese Demonography of
the Third Century B.C.,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 45.2 (1985), 459–498.
Harper calls the text simply “Chieh,” which he translates as “Spellbinding.”
26. For more on this subject, see, e.g., John S. Major, “Characteristics of Late
Chu Religion,” in Defining Chu: Image and Reality in Ancient China, ed. Constance
A. Cook and John S. Major (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1999), 136;
Gopal Sukhu, “Monkeys, Shamans, Emperors, and Poets: The Chuci and Images
of Chu during the Han Dynasty,” in Cook and Major, esp. 157–165; Wai-yee Li,
Enchantment and Disenchantment: Love and Illusion in Chinese Literature (Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), 1–10; Hsiao Ping , Ch’u-tz’u te wen-
hua p’o-i , Chung-kuo wen-hua te jen-lei-hsüeh p’o-i (Hu-pei: Hu-
pei jen-min, 1991), esp. 234 ff.; David Hawkes, The Songs of the South: An Ancient
Chinese Anthology of Poems by Qu Yuan and Other Poets (New York: Penguin, 1985),
42 ff.; Edward H. Schafer, The Divine Woman: Dragon Ladies and Rain Maidens in
T’ang Literature (San Francisco: North Point, 1980), 48–53; David Hawkes, “The
Quest of the Goddess,” Asia Major, n.s., 13 (1967), 71–94; Hoshikawa Kiyotaka
Notes to Page 14 133

, Soji no kenky5 (Tokyo: Y7tokusha, 1963), 227–255; and

Arthur Waley, Chiu Ko—The Nine Songs: A Study of Shamanism in Ancient China
(London: Allen and Unwin, 1955).
27. See, e.g., Li Ling, “An Archaeological Study of Taiyi (Grand One) Wor-
ship,” trans. Donald Harper, Early Medieval China 2 (1995–1996), 22; Hsü Chih-
hsiao , Ch’u-tz’u tsung-lun , Ts’ang-hai ts’ung-k’an (Taipei: Tung-
ta, 1994), 105 ff.; and Yang Ts’ai-hua , Ch’ü Yüan chi-ch’i tz’u-fu hsin-chieh
(Wu-han: Wu-han Ta-hsüeh, 1994), 222 f. The excavated
manuscript “T’ai-i sheng shui” , discovered at Kuo-tien , may refer
to this god. For the text, see Ching-men Shih Po-wu-kuan , Kuo-tien
Ch’u-mu chu-chien (Peking: Wen-wu, 1998), 125–126; see also Li
Ling, “Tu Kuo-tien Ch’u-chien ‘T’ai-i sheng shui’ ” , Tao-
chia wen-hua yen-chiu 17 (1999), 316–331. Sun Xiaochun and Jacob
Kistemaker, The Chinese Sky during the Han: Constellating Stars and Society, Sinica
Leidensia 38 (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 50, have identified T’ai-i with the star 8 Dra.
28. Note the chiasmus.
29. “Chiu-ko” ; text in Hung Hsing-tsu (1090–1155), Ch’u-tz’u
chang-chü pu-chu , in Ch’u-tz’u chu pa-chung , Chung-kuo wen-
hsüeh ming-chu (Taipei: Shih-chieh, 1990), 2.33 f. Some scholars recommend
the more modern edition by Chiang Liang-fu (b. 1901), Ch’ü Yüan fu
chiao-chu (Peking: Jen-min wen-hsüeh, 1957), but I find that I con-
tinually disagree with his judgments. Moreover, Chiang does not reproduce
all the comments by Wang I and Hung Hsing-tsu. My translation of this poem
relies throughout on the glosses in Geoffrey R. Waters, Three Elegies of Ch’u: An
Introduction to the Traditional Interpretation of the Ch’u Tz’u (Madison: University
of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 44–82. Compare the translation in Hawkes, Songs of
the South, 102.
30. Scholars disagree as to whether the “Chiu-ko” were real liturgies or
merely literary works in liturgical style. See the well-annotated discussion in
Lewis, Writing and Authority, 184 f. For our purposes, however, the difference is
not crucial, because it is clear that the “Chiu-ko” use hierogamic imagery to lit-
erary effect, whether or not they were genuine invocations in their own right.
Moreover, it is remarkable how well the names of gods in “Chiu-ko” square with
those invoked in recently discovered divinatory material from the ancient state
of Ch’u. See, e.g., Li Ling, “The Formulaic Structure of Chu Divinatory Bamboo
Slips,” Early China 15 (1990), 71–86.
31. See Chiang Liang-fu, Ch’u-tz’u t’ung-ku (K’un-ming: Yün-nan
jen-min, 2000), vol. 1, 212 f.; Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 3, 1752; Hoshikawa, 325 ff.;
M. Kaltenmark, “Ling-pao: note sur un terme du Taoïsme religieux,” Mélanges
publiés par l’Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises 2 (1960), 559–588; Wang Shu-nu
, Chung-kuo ch’ang-chi shih , Chiu-chi hsin-k’an (Shanghai:
Sheng-huo, 1934; repr., Ch’ang-sha: Yüeh-lu, 1998), 14; and Henri Maspero,
China in Antiquity, trans. Frank A. Kierman, Jr. ([Amherst]: University of Massa-
chusetts Press, 1978), 116 ff. See also the dissenting opinion of Wu Chou ,
Chung-kuo chi-nü sheng-huo shih (Ch’ang-sha: Hu-nan wen-i,
1990), 32–42. I Chung-t’ien, 215 ff., suggests that the terms ch’ang and ch’ang-
134 Notes to Pages 14–16

chi (which now both mean “prostitute”) may have originally denoted a
singer or performer (ch’ang-chi ) in a shamanic ritual.
32. This story is included in the commentary of Yen Shih-ku (581–
645) to “Wu-ti chi” , Han-shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1962), 6.190 n. 2,
where it is attributed to the Huai-nan-tzu . It is not to be found in the
received version of that text, however. See Anne Birrell, Chinese Mythology: An
Introduction (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 122 f., for a dis-
cussion of this passage and the question of its authenticity. For a discussion
of the myth and its implications, see Paul Rakita Goldin, “Reflections on Irra-
tionalism in Chinese Aesthetics,” Monumenta Serica 44 (1996), 184; Edward H.
Schafer, Pacing the Void: T’ang Approaches to the Stars (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1977), 237 ff.; Bernhard Karlgren, “Legends and
Cults of Ancient China,” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 18 (1946),
310; and Marcel Granet, Danses et légendes de la Chine ancienne, Bibliothèque de
philosophie contemporaine, Travaux de l’Année sociologique (Paris: Félix
Alcan, 1926), vol. 2, 549 ff., and “Remarques sur le Taoïsme Ancien,” Asia Major,
1st ser., 2.1 (1925), 149. See also Wolfram Eberhard’s review of Karlgren in
Artibus Asiae 9 (1946), 360.
33. In the Ch’u-tz’u, Yü’s relations with the woman from T’u-shan are also
portrayed in terms of eating: “How did he obtain the girl from T’u-shan and
have intercourse with her at T’ai-sang? He encouraged her to unite with him as
his mate, and her body gave him an heir. How did they come to lust after
extraordinary tastes and satiate themselves with a breakfast of joy?”
[; ] ? Text in
“T’ien-wen” , Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 3.56 f. Compare the translation in
Hawkes, Songs of the South, 129. Wang I and others note that some editions omit
pu (thus t’ung-wei, “the same tastes,” instead of pu-t’ung wei, “extraordinary
tastes”); Hawkes follows this variant, although it must count as the simpler, and
hence less likely, reading.
34. According to Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 2, 535 (Wen 4;623 B.C.),
“T’ung-kung” was recited (fu ; see n. 47, below) on the occasion of a visit to
Lu by Ning Wu-tzu of Wei (whom Confucius mentions in Analects
5.21). Wu-tzu goes on to explain that in ancient times, the king would give vas-
sals who had attacked his enemy one red-lacquered bow and one hundred red-
lacquered arrows. Probably on the basis of this speech, the “Minor Preface”
interprets “T’ung-kung” as “the Son of Heaven rewarding the several meritori-
ous vassals” , Mao-Shih cheng-i 10A.421c. See also Ch’un-ch’iu
Tso-chuan chu, vol. 3, 960 (Hsiang 8;565 B.C.). But for evidence supporting the
interpretation of “T’ung-kung” as a hierogamic invocation, consider, for exam-
ple, the “ornamented bows” of Mao 246 (“Hsing-wei” ), which are used
in a ritual cultivating the ancestral spirits.
35. Bernhard Karlgren, “Some Fecundity Symbols in Ancient China,” Bul-
letin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 2 (1930), 1–66, suggests that the
ancestral cult was originally combined with a phallic fertility cult. See also Sieg-
fried Englert, Materialien zur Stellung der Frau und zur Sexualität im vormodernen
und modernen China, Heidelberger Schriften zur Ostasienkunde 1 (Frankfurt:
Notes to Pages 16–20 135

Haag und Herchen, 1980), 2; and Eduard Erkes, “Some Remarks on Karlgren’s
‘Fecundity Symbols in Ancient China,’ ” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiq-
uities 3 (1931), 63–68.
36. For more on this topic, see, e.g., Wang Kuo-wei (1877–1927),
Sung-Yüan hsi-ch’ü k’ao (1912), in Wang Kuan-t’ang hsien-sheng ch’üan-
chi (Taipei: Wen-hua, 1968), vol. 14, 5977 ff.; C. H. Wang, “The
Lord Impersonator: Kung-shih and the First Stage of Chinese Drama,” in The
Chinese Text: Studies in Comparative Literature, ed. Ying-hsiung Chou (Hong Kong:
Chinese University Press, 1986), reprinted in Wang’s From Ritual to Allegory: Seven
Essays in Early Chinese Poetry (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1988), 42–51;
and Maspero, China in Antiquity, 130 f.
37. For the kung-chu (“officiating priest”), see, e.g., “Shao-lao k’uei-shih
li” , I-li chu-shu (Shih-san ching chu-shu), 48.1202c.; John
Steele, The I-li, or Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial, Probsthain’s Oriental Series 8–9
(London, 1917), vol. 2, 172, translates the term there as “official liturgist.” Cf.
also Bernhard Karlgren, “Glosses on the Siao ya Odes,” Bulletin of the Museum of
Far Eastern Antiquities 16 (1944), 135.
38. Ch’ien Chung-shu, vol. 1, 156–158, suggests that shen-pao refers to a
dancing invocator (like a ling-pao ).
39. According to Cheng Hsüan (Mao-Shih cheng-i 1A.273b), who is later fol-
lowed by most orthodox commentators, the phrase yao-t’iao indicates the
lady’s chastity and virtue. He does not take the “fine girl” to be a goddess. In
later usage, yao-t’iao comes to mean “sluttish”; see, e.g., “Lieh-nü chuan” ,
Hou-Han shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1965), 84.2790.
40. See Riegel, “Eros,” 149 ff.; Mark Laurent Asselin, “The Lu-School Read-
ing of ‘Guanju’ as Preserved in an Eastern Han fu,” Journal of the American Ori-
ental Society 117.3 (1997), 427–443; and Pauline Yu, 47 ff., for an overview of
exegesis on “The Kuan-ing Ospreys.”
41. This is the “Upper Preface,” Mao-Shih cheng-i 6A.361c.
42. Following the Mao commentary for chiao-chiao. The phrase will be dis-
cussed in greater detail in the text. Karlgren, The Book of Odes, 84, renders it as
“crosswise.” Waley, The Book of Songs, 103, takes it onomatopoetically (“ ‘Kio’
sings the oriole”), an interpretation that is also discussed in Bernhard Karlgren,
“Glosses on the Kuo feng Odes,” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities
14 (1942), 215.
43. Reconstructions of rhyming words are adapted from William H. Baxter,
A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology, Trends in Linguistics 64 (Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter, 1992), 634.
44. Recently, Yuri Pines, “Intellectual Change in the Chunqiu Period: The
Reliability of the Speeches in the Zuo Zhuan as Sources of Chunqiu Intellectual
History,” Early China 22 (1997), 77–132, has presented trenchant evidence to
suggest that despite its relatively late date of compilation, the Tso-chuan is far
more reliable than previously thought as a source of Springs and Autumns his-
tory. For the purposes of this book, all material in the Tso-chuan is considered to
date from ca. 300 B.C. at the latest, with the possibility that some of it may indeed
be centuries older than that.
136 Notes to Page 20

45. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 2, 546 f. (Wen 6;621 B.C.). The story is
retold in “Ch’in pen-chi” , Shih-chi 5.194, with the one variant that the sur-
name of the three brothers is given there as “Tzu-yü” . The Shih-chi also says
explicitly that the poem was composed (tso ) for this occasion; the Tso-chuan
only implies this.
46. On the “citizens” (kuo-jen ), or the denizens of the capital precinct,
see Cho-yun Hsu, “The Spring and Autumn Period,” in The Cambridge History of
Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C., ed. Michael Loewe and
Edward L. Shaughnessy (Cambridge, 1999), 549; Yang K’uan , Chan-kuo shih
, 3d ed. (Shanghai: Jen-min, 1998), 151 ff.; Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 6,
4035 ff.; T’ien Ch’ang-wu and Tsang Chih-fei , Chou Ch’in she-hui
chieh-kou yen-chiu , Chou Ch’in Han T’ang yen-chiu shu-hsi
(Hsi-an: Hsi-pei Ta-hsüeh, 1996), 38–53; Chao Shih-ch’ao , Chou-tai kuo-
yeh kuan-hsi yen-chiu (Taipei: Wen-chin, 1993); Mark Edward
Lewis, Sanctioned Violence in Early China, SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and
Culture (Albany, N.Y., 1990), 48 ff.; T’ung Shu-yeh , Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan
yen-chiu (Shanghai: Jen-min, 1980), 132–146, 366–367, and
371–372; Kaizuka Shigeki , “Ch5goku kodai toshi ni okeru minkai no
seido” , in Kaizuka Shigeki chosaku sh5
(Tokyo: Ch57 K7ronsha, 1978), vol. 2, 95–118; and Masubuchi Tatsuo ,
“Shunj5 Sengoku jidai no shakai to kokka” , in
Iwanami k7za sekai rekishi (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1970), vol. 4,
139–179. The kuo and the kuo-jen are distinguished from the yeh (the area
beyond the city wall) and its inhabitants, the yeh-jen.
47. The term fu does not necessarily mean “compose” in this context
(although it certainly may); Chang Su-ch’ing , Tso-chuan ch’eng-Shih yen-chiu
, Kuo-li T’ai-wan Ta-hsüeh wen-shih ts’ung-k’an 89 (Taipei, 1991),
esp. 51–65, demonstrates that a rendering such as “recite” is usually more appro-
priate. See also K’ung Ying-ta’s commentary to Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan cheng-i (Shih-
san ching chu-shu), 3.1724a (Yin 3;720 B.C.); as well as Tseng Ch’in-liang
, Tso-chuan yin-Shih fu-Shih chih Shih-chiao yen-chiu ,
Wen-shih-che ta-hsi 61 (Taipei: Wen-chin, 1993); and Nakajima Chiaki
, Fu no seiritsu to tenkai (Matsuyama: Kan’yoshi, 1963), 1–94.
48. Compare the translation in Legge, vol. 5, 244.
49. Cf., e.g., Yeh Shan (i.e., C. H. Wang), “Shih-ching ‘Kuo-feng’ te ts’ao-
mu ho shih te piao-hsien chi-ch’iao” , Hsien-tai
wen-hsüeh 33 (1967), reprinted in Chung-kuo ku-tien wen-hsüeh yen-chiu
ts’ung-k’an: Shih-ko chih pu , ed. K’o Ch’ing-
ming and Lin Ming-te (Taipei: Chü-liu), vol. 1, 20. For a general
study of the poetic uses of rhyme in the Odes, see Haun Saussy, “Repetition,
Rhyme, and Exchange in the Book of Odes,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 57.2
(1997), 519–542.
50. Cf. esp. Chai Hsiang-chün , “ ‘Huang-niao’ chih hsing-i”
, Hsi-pei Ta-hsüeh hsüeh-pao 1984.4, reprinted in Shih-ching hsin-
chieh (Cheng-chou: Chung-chou ku-chi, 1993), 378–381; and C. H. Wang,
The Bell and the Drum: Shih Ching as Formulaic Poetry in an Oral Tradition (Berke-
Notes to Pages 20–27 137

ley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974), 115. Granet, Danses et
légendes, vol. 1, 220 n, notes that the yellow bird is an “emblème du mariage”
(symbol of marriage), but he does not comment further.
51. Compare also such poems as Mao 40 (“Pei-men” ) and Mao 169 (“Ti-
tu” ), in which the language of a woman longing for her lover is interwoven
with the plaint of a soldier or minister burdened by “the king’s affairs” .
52. Shaughnessy, Before Confucius, 21 f.
53. See, e.g., Pauline Yu, 66.
54. For the dates, see Edward L. Shaughnessy, Sources of Western Zhou History:
Inscribed Bronze Vessels (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,
1991), 241 f.
55. See Mao-Shih cheng-i 8C.399b.
56. See, e.g., Edward L. Shaughnessy, “The Duke of Zhou’s Retirement in
the East and the Beginnings of the Minister-Monarch Debate in Chinese Poli-
tical Philosophy,” Early China 18 (1973), 41–72, reprinted in Before Confucius,
101–136.
57. The wa is explained by Mao and Cheng Hsüan as a loom: Mao-Shih
cheng-i 11B.438a.
58. Cf., e.g., I Chung-t’ien, 57 f.; and Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 17, 665.
59. The reduplicative t’o-t’o (or tui-tui) is usually taken as an attribute
(“gently,” etc.); see the commentaries of Mao and Cheng Hsüan, Mao-Shih cheng-
i 1E.293a. Cf. also Karlgren, “Glosses on the Kuo feng Odes,” 105. But there are
numerous instances where reduplicatives function as verbs, and there is no rea-
son why t’o cannot carry its basic sense of “undress” here.
60. Granet, Fêtes et chansons, 125 n. 10, notes astutely that the maiden’s shui
(kerchief) plays a crucial role in the rituals of marriage. It is kept intact from
the day of her birth and is finally torn on the wedding night. Thus the kerchief
functions here as a metaphor for the girl’s maidenhead. See also Hu Shih, “Lun
‘Yeh yu ssu chün’ shu” , Ku-shih pien, vol. 3, 442, and the extended
discussion of the term in the articles immediately following.
61. Shaughnessy, Before Confucius, 232 ff.
62. See, e.g., Ch’en Ping-liang , “Shuo ‘Ju-fen’: Chien-lun Shih-ching
chung yu-kuan lien-ai ho hun-yin te shih”
, Chung-wai wen-hsüeh 7.12 (1979), 138–155.
63. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 1, 146 f. (Huan 16;696 B.C.). The story is
retold in “Wei K’ang-shu shih-chia” , Shih-chi 37.1593.
64. Following the commentary of Yang Po-chün.
65. Compare the translations in Burton Watson, trans., The Tso chuan: Selec-
tions from China’s Oldest Narrative History, Translations from the Oriental Classics
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), 13 f.; and Legge, vol. 5, 66 f.
66. Traditional commentators take three important poems in the Odes, Mao
34 (“P’ao yu k’u-yeh” ), Mao 43 (“Hsin-t’ai” ), and Mao 44 (“Erh-
tzu ch’eng chou” ), as allusions to this affair. Donald Holzman, “The
Place of Filial Piety in Ancient China,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 118.2
(1998), 189 f., rightly observes that Chi-tzu’s extreme filial devotion “may seem
irrational” to modern readers.
138 Notes to Pages 27–29

67. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 4, 1597 (Ting 14;497 B.C.).

68. Her reputation was such that Confucius himself felt obligated to justify
himself for having had an interview with her (Analects 6.26). See Siegfried
Englert and Roderich Ptak, “Nan-tzu, or Why Heaven Did Not Crush Confucius,”
Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.4 (1986), 679–686, for a review of the
sources pertaining to Nan-tzu. See also Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 123 f., 351.
69. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 4, 1597 (Ting 14;497 B.C.).
70. Compare the translations in Watson, Tso chuan, 195 f.; and Legge, vol. 5,
788.
71. An abbreviated version of the story—omitting Nan-tzu’s incest—appears
in “Wei K’ang-shu shih-chia,” Shih-chi 37.1598 f.
72. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 2, 853 (Ch’eng 11;580 B.C.). Cf. Li
Meng-ts’un and Li Shang-shih , Chin-kuo shih , San-Chin
wen-hua yen-chiu ts’ung-shu (T’ai-yüan: Shan-hsi ku-chi, 1999), 440; and Hei Erh-
shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 19.
73. Compare the translation in Legge, vol. 5, 376.
74. On Tzu-ch’an in general, see, e.g., V. A. Rubin, “Tzu-ch’an and the City-
State of Ancient China,” T’oung Pao 52 (1965), 8–34. For a similar opinion, see
the speech by Shu-chan (i.e., Cheng Chan , fl. 677–637 B.C., who was
the younger brother of Lord Wen of Cheng, r. 672–628 B.C.) in Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-
chuan chu, vol. 1, 408 (Hsi 23;637 B.C.): “When men and women have the
same surname, their offspring do not prosper” ; and the
parallel in “Cheng Wen-kung pu-li Ch’ung-erh” , Kuo-yü
(Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1978; repr., Taipei: Li-jen, 1981), 10.349. “Cheng shih-chia,”
Shih-chi 42.1765, recounts the same episode in brief. Cf. also I Chung-t’ien, 105;
Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 15; and Sheng I , Chung-kuo hun-su wen-hua
, Yü nei-wai min-su hsüeh ts’ung-k’an (Shanghai: Wen-i, 1994), 18,
382, though the last work misquotes both the Tso-chuan and Kuo-yü passages.
(Regardless of its minor errors, Sheng’s book is now the first study to which one
should turn for a discussion of marriage in ancient China.)
75. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 4, 1220 f. (Chao 1;541 B.C.).
76. This injunction appears verbatim in “Ch’ü-li shang” , Li-chi cheng-
i (Shih-san ching chu-shu), 2.1241a, and “Fang-chi” , Li-chi cheng-i
51.1622b; compare the commentary of Ku Yen-wu (1613–1682) to “Ch’ü-
li shang” in Sun Hsi-tan (1736–1784), Li-chi chi-chieh , ed. Shen
Hsiao-huan and Wang Hsing-hsien , Shih-san ching Ch’ing-jen
chu-shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1989), 2.1A.46 f.; as the well as the commentary of
Chu Pin (1753–1843) in his Li-chi hsün-tsuan , ed. Jao Ch’in-nung
, Shih-san ching Ch’ing-jen chu-shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1996), 1.23 f. See
also Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 4, 2607. Compare the translations in S. Couvreur,
S.J., Li Ki ou Mémoires sur les bienséances et les cérémonies, 2d ed. (Ho Kien Fou: Mis-
sion Catholique, 1913), vol. 1, 31; and Richard Wilhelm, Li Gi: Das Buch der Riten,
Sitten, und Bräuche, 2d ed., Diederichs Gelbe Reihe 31 (Munich, 1994), 314. It is
of course impossible to know whether Tzu-ch’an is quoting from the “Ch’ü-li”
(or “Fang-chi”) or whether the received version of that text borrows this passage
from an older source, to which Tzu-ch’an refers here. The same quotation is
attributed to the “Ch’ü-li” in the “Chia-ch’ü” chapter of the Po-hu t’ung
Notes to Pages 29–31 139

; see Ch’en Li (1809–1869), Po-hu t’ung shu-cheng , ed. Wu Tse-yü

, Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1994), 10.477. Com-
pare the translation in Tjan Tjoe Som, Po Hu T’ung: The Comprehensive Discussions
in the White Tiger Hall, Sinica Leidensia 6 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1949), vol. 1, 255.
Chao I (1727–1814) points out, however, that the prohibition against
marrying a woman with the same surname was often violated during the Springs
and Autumns period. See “T’ung-hsing wei hun” , in Kai-yü ts’ung-k’ao
(1790), 31.2b f.; cf. also Sheng I, 382 ff.; Liu Tseng-kuei , “Shih-
lun Han-tai hun-yin kuan-hsi chung te li-fa kuan-nien”
, in Chung-kuo fu-nü shih lun-chi hsü-chi , ed. Pao Chia-
lin (Taipei: Tao-hsiang, 1991), 23 n. 23; and T’ung Shu-yeh, 212.
77. Compare the translation in Legge, vol. 5, 580.
78. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 4, 1324 (Chao 11;531 B.C.).
79. Compare the translation in Legge, vol. 5, 634.
80. Cf. Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 364. For a review of these and similar
accounts in the Tso-chuan, see, e.g., Yuvoon Chen, “Zur Frage der Ausschweifung
in der Ch’un-ch’iu Periode (771–480 v.Chr.),” Oriens Extremus 19 (1972), 23–26;
and 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: E. J. Brill, 1961; repr., New
York: Barnes and Noble, 1996), 30 ff. For a more general discussion of ritual-
ism in the Tso-chuan, see Burton Watson, Early Chinese Literature (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1962), 44 ff.
81. See, e.g., Terry F. Kleeman, “Licentious Cults and Bloody Victuals:
Sacrifice, Reciprocity, and Violence in Traditional China,” Asia Major, 3d ser.,
7.1 (1994): 185–211; and Rolf A. Stein, “Religious Taoism and Popular Religion
from the Second to Seventh Centuries,” in Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Reli-
gion, ed. Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
Press, 1979), 57. For an overview of Han-dynasty usage of the term, see Mu-chou
Poo, In Search of Personal Welfare: A View of Ancient Chinese Religion, SUNY Series in
Chinese Philosophy and Culture (Albany, N.Y., 1998), 185–192.
82. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 1, 334 (Hsi 10;650 B.C.). A parallel ver-
sion of the story appears in “Chin shih-chia” , Shih-chi 39.1651.
83. Compare the translations in Watson, Tso chuan, 28 f.; and Legge, vol. 5,
157.
84. See the commentary of K’ung Ying-ta, as summarized by Yang Po-chün.
K’ung was evidently relying on the testimony of Fu Ch’ien (ca. 125–ca. 95
B.C.), cited in the commentary to “Chin shih-chia,” Shih-chi 39.1651 n. 2.
85. It is curious, however, that a mere mortal is more informed regarding
the procedures of worship than Shen-sheng’s own spirit, whose plan, further-
more, has ostensibly been approved by Ti, the highest god. Cf. Watson, Tso
chuan, 28; and Maspero, China in Antiquity, 97.
86. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 4, 1291 f. (Chao 7;535 B.C.).
87. Compare the translation in Legge, vol. 5, 618.
88. Cf., e.g., Granet, Danses et légendes, vol. 1, 224 n. 2; and Maspero, China in
Antiquity, 167 f. On vengeful ghosts in general, see, e.g., Poo, In Search of Personal
Welfare, 53 ff.; “The Completion of an Ideal World: The Human Ghost in Early-
Medieval China,” Asia Major, 3d ser., 10.1–2 (1997), 71–73; Alvin P. Cohen,
140 Notes to Pages 31–32

“Avenging Ghosts and Moral Judgement in Ancient China: Three Examples

from the Shih-chi,” in Legend, Lore, and Religions in China: Essays in Honor of Wol-
fram Eberhard on His Seventieth Birthday, ed. Sarah Allan and Alvin P. Cohen (San
Francisco: Chinese Materials Center, 1979), 97–108.
89. Note that Tzu-ch’an and Liang Hsiao (Po-yu) were cousins. They shared
a common ancestor in Lord Mu of Cheng (r. 627–605 B.C.).
90. “Ch’ü-li hsia” , Li-chi cheng-i 5.1268c; compare the translation in
Couvreur, vol. 1, 100 (this section is not translated by Richard Wilhelm). See also
“Chiao-ssu chih” , Han-shu 25A.1194: “For each [kind of worship], there
are codes and rituals, and there is a prohibition against licentious worship”
. Cf. Stein, “Religious Taoism,” 77 f. The idea is also echoed in
Analects 2.24, Lun-yü chi-shih 132: “If it is not one’s ghost [i.e., one’s familial
spirit], and one sacrifices to it—this is toadying” ; in his
commentary ad loc., Cheng Hsüan refers to such sacrifices by the same phrase,
“licentious worship.” See Wang Su , T’ang hsieh-pen Lun-yü Cheng-shih chu chi-
ch’i yen-chiu (Peking: Wen-wu, 1991), 14.
91. See the entry for yin in Shuo-wen chieh-tzu chi-chu 11A.2348 f., with the
commentaries of Ch’en Ch’i-yüan (d. 1689) and Chu Chün-sheng
(1788–1858). Cf. also the entry for yin , 12B.2655, and the commentary of
Wang Yün (1784–1854). The “Hsiao Erh-ya” chapter of the K’ung-
ts’ung-tzu preserves both senses of yin in its two definitions: mo (“to
sink”) and nan-nü pu i li chiao (“intercourse without ritual between
males and females”); text in Ch’eng Jung (1447–1520), Han-Wei ts’ung-shu
(1592; repr., Ch’ang-ch’un: Chi-lin Ta-hsüeh, 1992), A.11.339c and
340a, respectively. See also Yoav Ariel, K’ung-ts’ung-tzu: A Study and Translation
of Chapters 15–23 with a Reconstruction of the Hsiao Erh-ya Dictionary, Sinica Lei-
densia 35 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996), 152.
92. Chü of Chiao (i.e., Wu Chü, fl. 545–540 B.C.), the grandfather of
the famous Wu Tzu-hsü (d. 484 B.C.), recounts briefly the circumstances of
Yü-shu’s marriage to Lady Hsia in “Ts’ai Sheng-tzu lun Ch’u ts’ai Chin yung”
, Kuo-yü, 17.539; compare the commentary by Wei Chao
(A.D. 204–273). See Lisa Raphals, Sharing the Light: Representations of Women and
Virtue in Early China, SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture (Albany,
N.Y., 1998), 66–68, for the traditions concerning Lady Hsia. Cf. also Hei Erh-shih-
ssu shih, vol. 1, 111, 352 f., 643 f.
I estimate Wu Chü’s floruit based on the fact that he had audiences with
Kings K’ang (r. 559–545 B.C.) and Ling (r. 540–529 B.C.) of Ch’u. Ssu-ma
Ch’ien (145?–86? B.C.) asserts that he became “noteworthy by serving
King Chuang [r. 613–591 B.C.] with upright remonstrance” ,
“Wu Tzu-hsü lieh-chuan” , Shih-chi 66.2171. However, as Yü Yu-ting
(1527–1584) and others have pointed out, Ssu-ma has mistaken Wu Chü for his
father, Wu Ts’an . See Takigawa Kametar7 (b. 1865), Shiki kaich5
k7sh7 (Tokyo: T7h7 Bunka Gakuin, 1932–1934; repr., Taipei:
Hung-shih, 1986), 66.2.
93. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 2, 701 f. (Hsüan 9;600 B.C.).
94. Following the commentary of Tu Yü.
95. Following the commentary of Tu Yü.
Notes to Pages 32–35 141

96. Compare the translation in Legge, vol. 5, 305.

97. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 2, 707 f. (Hsüan 10;599 B.C.).
98. Compare the translation in Legge, vol. 5, 308.
99. It was evidently common in ancient China to impugn a man’s legitimacy
by observing that he looked like someone other than his supposed father. For
another example, see, e.g., Ch’un-ch’iu Ku-liang chuan chu-shu 3.2375a (Huan
6;706 B.C.): “In the ninth month, on ting-mao day, the [Marquis’s] son T’ung
was born. There was some doubt [as to his legitimacy]; thus there is a record of
it. At the time, it was said, ‘He resembles [t’ung] another man’ ”
.
100. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 2, 713 f. (Hsüan 11;598 B.C.).
101. Compare the translation in Legge, vol. 5, 310.
102. The story is retold, with few significant differences, in “Ch’en Ch’i shih-
chia” , Shih-chi 36.1579 f.
103. See, e.g., Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 2, 804 (Ch’eng 2;589 B.C.);
and esp. vol. 4, 1492 (Chao 28;514 B.C.), where she is accused of having “killed
three husbands, one lord, one son, and destroyed one country and two officers”
. By the lord is meant Lord Ling; the
son, Hsia Cheng-shu; the country, Ch’en; and the two officers, K’ung Ning and
I Hang-fu.
104. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 2, 803 (Ch’eng 2;589 B.C.).
105. Compare the translation in Legge, vol. 5, 347.
106. This is also why it is said of Chòu , the prodigal last king of the Shang
dynasty, that the most abominable consequence of his lewd sexual games was
that he ended up neglecting the sacrifices. Cf., e.g., Lewis, Sanctioned Violence, 33,
and the classical texts he cites on 260 n. 77.
107. For a discussion of Ch’ü Yüan’s dates, see, e.g., Hawkes, Songs of the
South, 51 ff., and Maspero, China in Antiquity, 483 n. 2.
108. The following discussion is an expansion of Paul Rakita Goldin, “Read-
ing Po Chü-i,” T’ang Studies 12 (1994), 64 ff.
109. Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 1.4.
110. Note that this line contains two telltale features of relatively late gram-
mar: the use of chih as an indicator of the possessive after a personal pronoun
(yü ); and the use of ch’ing in the sense of “passion,” “emotion.” Both uses
are rare in compositions from before the third century B.C.
111. Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 1.5.
112. Following the commentary of Kung Ching-han (1747–1803), in
Yu Kuo-en (1899–1978), Li-sao tsuan-i , ed. Chin K’ai-ch’eng
et al., Ch’u-tz’u chu-shu ch’ang-pien (Peking: Chung-hua, 1980), 69. See
also Yu’s comments (70), as well as Chiang Liang-fu, Ch’u-tz’u t’ung-ku, vol. 4, 91.
113. Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 1.9.
114. Cf. also Laurence A. Schneider, A Madman of Ch’u: The Chinese Myth of
Loyalty and Dissent (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,
1980), 32 f. and 217 nn. 26–27.
115. On this goddess, see, e.g., Wolfgang Münke, Die klassische chinesische
Mythologie (Stuttgart: Ernst Klett, 1976), 100 ff.; and Granet, Danses et légendes, vol.
2, 481, 513.
142 Notes to Pages 35–38

116. Commentators disagree over the meaning of this verse. See Li-sao tsuan-
i, 309 ff.
117. Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 1.17 f.
118. Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 1.20.
119. Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 1.27.
120. For the various possibilities of the phrase p’eng-hsien , see, e.g.,
Hawkes, Songs of the South, 84 ff.; Hoshikawa, 295–313; and Lin Keng ,
“P’eng-hsien shih shei?” (1948), in Shih-jen Ch’ü Yüan chi-ch’i tso-p’in
yen-chiu , Chung-kuo ku-tai wen-hsüeh yen-chiu ts’ung-
k’an (Shanghai, 1952), 63–73. See also Li-sao tsuan-i, 499 ff. Compare Hawkes’
translation of the entire poem (Songs of the South, 68–95), with notes on such
figures as Fu-fei and Chien-hsiu.
121. Cf., e.g., Hsü Chih-hsiao, 183 ff.; and Chu Pi-lien , “ ‘Li-sao’ san
ch’iu-nü chieh” , in Chu’s Ch’u-tz’u lun-kao (Shanghai: San-
lien, 1993), 123–133. Yu Kuo-en, Tu-Sao lun-wei ch’u-chi , Jen-jen
wen-k’u 441–442 (Taipei: Shang-wu, 1967), 117 ff., reads “beauty” as a metaphor
for the idea of resisting the might of the state of Ch’in.
122. Pauline Yu, 89 ff., points out that there is a parallel dynamic in the many
fragrances that arise in the poem. The observation that fragrant flowers are used
in “Encountering Sorrow” as a metaphor for virtue goes back to Wang I. See also
Chou Chien-chung , “ ‘Li-sao’ hsiang-ts’ao lun” , in Ch’u-tz’u
lun-kao (Cheng-chou: Chung-chou ku-chi, 1994), 116–139. For the idea of
“fragrant virtue” , see also “Lü-hsing” , Shang-shu cheng-i
(Shih-san ching chu-shu), 19.247c; cf. also Thomas H. C. Lee, “The Idea of Social
Justice in Ancient China,” in Social Justice in the Ancient World, ed. K. D. Irani and
Morris Silver, Contributions in Political Science 354: Global Perspectives in His-
tory and Politics (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1995), 128.
123. For other connections between the Chuang-tzu and the Ch’u-tz’u, see,
e.g., Isabelle Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion, trans. Phyllis Brooks (Stanford,
Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997), 35; Paul Demiéville, “Enigmes taoïstes,”
in Silver Jubilee Volume of the Zimbun-Kagaku-Kenkyusyo (Kyoto, 1954), 54–60,
reprinted in Choix d’études sinologiques (1921–1970) (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1973),
141–147; and Marcel Granet, La pensée chinoise, L’évolution de l’humanité:
Synthèse collective 25b (Paris: Albin Michel, 1950), 549 f.
124. Following the commentary of Hsi T’ung (fl. 1916), in Wang
Shu-min , Chuang-tzu chiao-ch’üan , 2d ed., Chung-yang Yen-chiu-
yüan Li-shih Yü-yen Yen-chiu-so chuan-k’an 88 (Taipei, 1994), vol. 1, 189 n. 14.
125. “Te-ch’ung fu” ; text in Kuo Ch’ing-fan (1844–1896),
Chuang-tzu chi-shih , ed. Wang Hsiao-yü , Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-
ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1961), 2C.5.206.
126. Following the commentary of Ch’eng Hsüan-ying (fl. 630–660);
ch’ang here is to be taken in the sense of ch’ang .
127. Following the commentaries of Ch’eng Hsüan-ying and others.
128. Compare the translation in Victor H. Mair, trans., Wandering on the Way:
Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu (New York: Bantam, 1994), 46 f. Mair
calls Ai-t’ai T’o “Nag the Hump.”
Notes to Pages 38–41 143

129. “Te-ch’ung fu,” Chuang-tzu chi-shih 2C.5.214 f. Compare the translation

in Mair, Wandering on the Way, 48.
130. On the philosophy of the Chuang-tzu in general, see, e.g., A. C. Graham,
Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China (La Salle, Ill.: Open
Court, 1989), 170–211.
131. These two lines are not easy to construe, and Hawkes (Songs of the South,
121), considering them to be interpolations, omits them.
132. Admittedly, the translation of this line is ungrammatical, but it is very
difficult to render the phrase hsin hsiang chih idiomatically.
133. “Chiu-ko,” Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 2.42 f.
134. Cf. Chiang Liang-fu, Ch’u-tz’u t’ung-ku, vol. 3, 409 ff.; and Yu Kuo-en,
Li-sao tsuan-i, 70. Hung Hsing-tsu suggested that ch’üan and sun actually
denote the same plant; see Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 1.5.
135. Cf., e.g., Lewis, Sanctioned Violence, 73 ff. The trope is especially well
attested in the Chan-kuo ts’e . J. I. Crump, Intrigues: Studies of the Chan-kuo
Ts’e (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1964), 86 f., discusses two related
episodes in that collection, in which the minister Ch’en Chen convinces
King Hui-wen of Ch’in (r. 337–311 B.C.) of his loyalty by continually
comparing himself to a faithful woman. See “Chang I yu wu Ch’en Chen yü
Ch’in-wang” and “Ch’en Chen ch’ü Ch’u chih Ch’in”
, in Chan-kuo ts’e (Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1978; repr., Taipei: Li-jen, 1990),
3.127–132. See also Crump’s translation of the two anecdotes in Chan-kuo ts’e,
rev. ed., Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies 77 (Ann Arbor, 1996), secs.
54 and 55.
For this reason, we must take care in assessing ancient passages that describe
in sexual terms a ruler’s relationship with a male inferior. These should not
necessarily be understood as instances of homosexuality (as discussed in the
introduction of this book), because it was conventional to conceive of a ruler’s
relationship with any of his ministers in sexual terms. The standard term ch’ung
, for example, meaning “to favor,” could be applied indiscriminately to cases
where the ruler “favors” an inferior in a sexual or nonsexual sense. See, e.g.,
Hinsch, Passions of the Cut Sleeve, 21.
136. Chou-I cheng-i (Shih-san ching chu-shu), 1.19a. Compare also
Mencius 3B.2, Meng-tzu cheng-i 12.417: “To take compliance as one’s rule is the
Way of the wife” . See especially the commentary of
Chiao Hsün on p. 419.
137. The seminal work on Shen Pu-hai is Herrlee G. Creel, Shen Pu-hai: A
Chinese Political Philosopher of the Fourth Century B.C. (Chicago: University of Chi-
cago Press, 1974). Cf. also Léon Vandermeersch, La formation du légisme: Recherche
sur la constitution d’une philosophie politique caractéristique de la Chine ancienne, Pub-
lications de l’Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient 56 (Paris, 1965), 41 ff.
138. Creel, Shen Pu-hai, 343 f., fragment 1(1); the source text is Wei Cheng
(580–643), Ch’ün-shu chih-yao (Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts’ung-shu), 36.629.
The first two sentences (up to p’o-kuo ) also appear in Ma Tsung (d.
823), I-lin (Ssu-pu pei-yao ), 2.10b, with minor variations. Compare
Creel’s translation.
144 Notes to Pages 41–43

139. “Chu-tao” , Han Fei-tzu chi-shih 1.5.68.

140. The word is chien , which, tellingly, can mean either “to fornicate” or
“to conspire” (typically against a ruler). In this respect, chien parallels our
word “skulduggery” (or “skulduddery”), which today generally means “trickery”
or “deceit” but which originally was a euphemistic alteration of “adultery” and
denoted illicit sexual intercourse.
141. Commentators are troubled by this phrase, as it does not entirely make
sense. T’ao Hung-ch’ing (1859–1918) suggests that wei chien-ch’en
(“they are treacherous ministers”) is excrescent and is probably the remnant of
an ancient commentary. For wen ch’i chu chih t’e (“hearing of their
ruler’s errors”), T’ao suggests hsien ch’i chu chih t’e (“spying out their ruler’s
errors”), although the meaning is still not materially different. Ku Kuang-ch’i
(1776–1835) proposes that ch’en in wei chien-ch’en might be a graphic error
for i . Although he is right that this change would make the sentence read
more fluidly (“They practice treachery by spying out/hearing their ruler’s
errors”), there is no text-critical reason for such an emendation. Thus I prefer
to leave the original as it stands.
142. On the technique of matching “forms and names” , see, e.g., John
Makeham, “The Legalist Concept of Hsing-ming: An Example of the Contribu-
tion of Archeological Evidence to the Re-Interpretation of Transmitted Texts,”
Monumenta Serica 39 (1990–1991): 87–114; and Herrlee G. Creel, “The Meaning
of Hsing-ming,” in Studia Serica Bernhard Karlgren Dedicata, ed. Søren Egerod and
Else Glahn (Copenhagen, 1959), 199–211, reprinted in What Is Taoism? and
Other Studies in Chinese Cultural History, Midway Reprint (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1970), 79–91.
143. Compare the translation in Burton Watson, trans., Basic Writings of Han
Fei Tzu, in Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, Hsün Tzu, and Han Fei Tzu, Records of Civi-
lization: Sources and Studies 74 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963),
18.
144. Omitting excrescent ssu , with Ku Kuang-ch’i.
145. “Pei-nei” , Han Fei-tzu chi-shih 5.17.289. In a massive study of the
compilation of the Han Fei-tzu, Cheng Liang-shu , Han Fei chih chu-shu
chi ssu-hsiang , Chung-kuo che-hsüeh ts’ung-shu 35 (Taipei:
Hsüeh-sheng, 1993), 26–37 and 183–195, concludes that both the “Chu-tao” and
“Pei-nei” chapters were written by Han Fei toward the end of his life.
146. Compare the translation in Watson, Han Fei Tzu, 85.
147. Cf. Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 414 n. 3, and “Sexual Arts,”
579; and Li and McMahon, 161.
148. “Nei-tse” , Li-chi cheng-i 28.1468c; compare the translations in Couv-
reur, vol. 1, 661, and Richard Wilhelm, 326. The rule is repeated in “Chia-ch’ü,”
Po-hu t’ung shu-cheng 10.492. Cf. also Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 329 f.; Englert, 2;
Tjan, vol. 1, 262 and 360 nn. 593 ff.; van Gulik, 60 and 78; and Marcel Granet, La
polygynie sororale et le sororat dans la Chine féodale: Etude sur les formes anciennes
de la polygamie chinoise (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1920), reprinted in Études socio-
logiques sur la Chine, Bibliothèque de sociologie contemporaine (Paris: Presses
Universitaires de France, 1953), 26.
Notes to Pages 43–44 145

Compare also the statement in the “Ta-lüeh” chapter of the Hsün-tzu

: “When the frost descends, one welcomes the bride; when the ice breaks,
[weddings] cease. Every ten days there is one driving”
; text in Wang Hsien-ch’ien (1842–1918), Hsün-tzu chi-chieh
, ed. Shen Hsiao-huan and Wang Hsing-hsien, Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng
(Peking: Chung-hua, 1988), 19.27.496. My interpretation of this passage follows
the commentary of Wang Yin-chih (1766–1834): Hsün-tzu means to say
that marriages must take place during the winter. As we shall see in chapter 3,
this statement goes against received wisdom and has, for that reason, long been
misunderstood. See, e.g., Mao 34 (“P’ao yu k’u-yeh”): “If a man brings home a
wife, it is while the ice has not yet melted” , and the com-
mentaries by Cheng Hsüan and K’ung Ying-ta, Mao-Shih cheng-i 2B.303b f. Some
modern scholars (e.g., Sheng I, 255) read kuei-ch’i as “go back with the
wife,” and they see this poem as evidence of uxorilocal marriage.
Thus, despite the translation by, e.g., John Knoblock, Xunzi: A Translation
and Study of the Complete Works (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press,
1988–1994), vol. 3, 217, the phrase sha-chih in this passage from Hsün-tzu
does not refer to executions and means no more than “finish.” For other exam-
ples of this usage of sha, see, e.g., Morohashi Tetsuji , Dai Kan-Wa jiten
, rev. ed. (Tokyo: Daish5kan, 1986), entry 16638, vol. 6, 776, row 2,
under the definition .
149. “Hun-i” , Li-chi cheng-i 61.1681c. Couvreur, vol. 2, 648, misses the
substance of the title by translating yü-ch’i as “autres femmes de l’empereur . . .
du cinquième rang” (“other women of the Emperor . . . of the fifth rank”).
Granet, Etudes sociologiques, 25, calls them simply “femmes de palais” (palace
women). Robert Joe Cutter and William Gordon Crowell, Empresses and Consorts:
Selections from Chen Shou’s Records of the Three States with Pei Songzhi’s Commen-
tary (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1999), 28, translate yü-ch’i as “royal
wives” (taking yü in the sense of “imperial” or “royal,” which is also possible).
The yü-ch’i are known as nü-yü in the Chou-li . See, e.g., “Nü-yü,” Chou-
li chu-shu (Shih-san ching chu-shu), 8.689c; and the commentary of Sun Hsi-tan,
Li-chi chi-chieh 58.44.1422. Cf. also Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 666; and Ch’en Ku-
yüan , Chung-kuo hun-yin shih , Chiu-chi hsin-k’an (1936; repr.,
Ch’ang-sha: Yüeh-lu, 1998), 40. (Ch’en’s book is bound together with that of
Wang Shu-nu into one volume.)
150. According to the “schedule of driving the flock of consorts”
put forward by Cheng Hsüan, the Emperor is to copulate with nine nü-yü
daily for the first and last nine days of each month; see his commentary to “Chiu-
p’in” , Chou-li chu-shu 8.687b. Sheng I, 324, notes soberly that such an effort
is hardly possible.
151. Tu-tuan (Han-Wei ts’ung-shu), A.180c.
152. Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 5.96.
153. See Hawkes, Songs of the South, 199 f., for the apotheosis of the ancient
diviner Fu Yüeh and the third-century medicine man Han Chung. “Attaining the
One” is a basic idea in late Warring States thought. See, e.g., Schipper, The
Taoist Body, 130–159, for an overview of the concept and its later development.
146 Notes to Pages 44–45

154. Following the commentary of Hung Hsing-tsu.

155. Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 5.97.
156. Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 5.98 f.
157. Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 5.100.
158. For the phrase lieh-ch’üeh (which is the same as lieh-ch’üeh ), I
follow the commentaries of Wang I and Hung Hsing-tsu (the latter also cites
the opinion of Ying Shao). See also Chiang Liang-fu, Ch’u-tz’u t’ung-ku, vol. 1,
152.
159. Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 5.103. Compare Hawkes’ translation of the
entire poem in Songs of the South, 193–203. Kuo Mo-jo (1892–1978), Ch’ü
Yüan yen-chiu , 2d rev. ed. (Shanghai: Hsin wen-i, 1952), 42, suggested
that “Yüan-yu” was actually the first draft of Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju’s (ca.
179–117 B.C.) “Ta-jen fu” , which appears in “Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju lieh-
chuan,” Shih-chi 117.3056–3062. Cf. also Hawkes, Songs of the South, 191 ff., who
concurs that whether or not Kuo Mo-jo is right about the specifics, “Yüan-yu” is
clearly later than Ch’ü Yüan and is “obviously influenced” (39) by “Li-sao.” It is
not entirely clear why both scholars are so sure that “Yüan-yu” is a much later
work. Perhaps their reason lies in that poem’s reference to the tao (Ch’u-tz’u
chang-chü pu-chu 5.98), for Hawkes suggests that there is too much evidence of
Han Taoism in “Yüan-yu” for it to be a genuine Warring States piece. Similarly,
Hoshikawa, 439, writes that “Yüan-yu” contains “Lao-Chuang” ideas (by
which he means the Taoism of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu) and hence cannot be the
work of Ch’ü Yüan. But scholars are no longer so comfortable in talking about
Taoism (not to mention Lao-Chuang) in this early period. See esp. Nathan Sivin,
“On the Word ‘Taoist’ as a Source of Perplexity: With Special Reference to the
Relations of Science and Religion in Traditional China,” History of Religion 17
(1978), 303–330; and Michel Strickmann, “On the Alchemy of T’ao Hung-
ching,” in Welch and Seidel, 164 ff. Furthermore, the author of “Li-sao” too—
whether Ch’ü Yüan or not—was certainly active long after it had become possi-
ble to speak of the tao in its extended senses. (One piece of evidence that seems
to argue in favor of a Han date for “Yüan-yu” is the reference to a figure named
Han Chung at Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu 5.97. If, as is often surmised, this
Han Chung is the same as the Han Chung who appears in “Ch’in Shih-
huang pen-chi” , Shih-chi 6.252 and 258, then “Yüan-yu” cannot pos-
sibly be a preimperial document.) In any case, Kuo Mo-jo and Hawkes are right
to point out that the “Li-sao,” “Yüan-yu,” and “Ta-jen fu” have many things in
common. Cf. also Paul W. Kroll, “On ‘Far Roaming,’ ” Journal of the American Ori-
ental Society 116.4 (1996), 654; Yang Ts’ai-hua, 304 f.; and Fukunaga Mitsuji
, “ ‘Taijin fu’ no shis7teki keifu: Jifu no bungaku to R7-S7 no tetsugaku
, T7h7 gakuh7 41 (1970),
100 ff.
160. Cf. Goldin, “Reflections,” 186.
161. Cf., e.g., Roger Walsh, The Spirit of Shamanism (Los Angeles: Tarcher,
1990), 120 ff.
162. Translated from Mircea Eliade, Le chamanisme et les techniques archaïques
de l’extase, 2d ed. (Paris: Payot, 1974), 164. Willard Trask’s translation, Shaman-
Notes to Pages 45–48 147

ism and the Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, Bollingen Series 76 (New York: Pan-
theon, 1964), is based on the first edition of this study and is now out of date.
163. For a sociological account of shamanism, see, e.g., I. M. Lewis, Ecstatic
Religion: An Anthropological Study of Spirit Possession and Shamanism, Pelican Anthro-
pology (New York: Penguin, 1971). See also Åke Hultkrantz, “A Definition of
Shamanism,” Temenos 9 (1973), 25–37.
164. Text in Kuo-chia Wen-wu-chü Ku-wen-hsien Yen-chiu-Shih
, Ma-wang-tui Han-mu po-shu (Peking: Wen-wu,
1985), vol. 4, 155. The text is emended in accordance with Harper, Early Chinese
Medical Literature, 412 ff.; and “Sexual Arts,” 567. Compare also the annotation in
Ma Chi-hsing , Ma-wang-tui ku i-shu k’ao-shih (Ch’ang-
sha: Hu-nan k’o-hsüeh chi-shu, 1992), 977 ff.; as well as Wei Ch’i-p’eng
and Hu Hsiang-hua , Ma-wang-tui Han-mu i-shu chiao-shih
, Erh-shih shih-chi ch’u-t’u Chung-kuo ku i-shu chi-ch’eng (Ch’eng-tu:
Ch’eng-tu ch’u-pan-she, 1992), vol. 2, 130 f.
165. Trans. Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 412 ff. Compare also the
translations in Douglas Wile, Art of the Bedchamber: The Chinese Sexual Yoga Clas-
sics, Including Women’s Solo Meditation Texts (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1992), 78; and Harper, “Sexual Arts,” 566.
166. Li and McMahon, 167 f., however, interpret the “receiving canister” in
this context as a reference to the shoulders.
167. “Yangism” is the term used to denote the philosophy of those who fol-
lowed a shadowy figure named Yang Chu . What Yang Chu actually taught
(if he even existed) is not clear, but the position attributed to him and his group
emphasizes the well-being of the body over all other concerns, especially wealth
and political power. For example, the “Fan-lun” chapter of the Huai-nan-
tzu states, “Keeping one’s nature whole and protecting one’s purity, not tying
down one’s form with [material] objects—this is what Master Yang proposed”
. Text in Liu Wen-tien , Huai-nan
Hung-lieh chi-chieh , ed. Feng I and Ch’iao Hua , Hsin-
pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1989), 13.436. Cf. also Graham,
Disputers of the Tao, 53–64.

2. Women and Sex Roles

1. See, e.g., Julia Ching, Mysticism and Kingship in China: The Heart of Chinese
Wisdom, Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions 11 (Cambridge, 1997), 94–
97; and Richard W. Guisso, “Thunder over the Lake: The Five Classics and the
Perception of Woman in Early China,” in Women in China: Current Directions in
Historical Scholarship, ed. Richard W. Guisso and Stanley Johannesen, Historical
Reflections/Réflexions Historiques: Directions 3 (Youngstown, N.Y.: Philo Press,
1981), 59 f. Recently, Lisa Raphals, Sharing the Light: Representations of Women and
Virtue in Early China (SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture, Albany,
N.Y., 1998), 259, has questioned such “widely held assumptions about women in
traditional China.” However, most of her arguments rely on the Lieh-nü chuan
, which, as she concedes (105–112), is a spurious text from mid-Han times
at the very earliest, and so she fails to reexamine such scholarly clichés on the
148 Notes to Pages 48–49

basis of genuine preimperial material. (Raphals redresses some of these prob-

lems in her more recent essay, “Gendered Virtue Reconsidered: Notes from
the Warring States and Han,” in Chenyang Li, ed., The Sage and the Second Sex:
Confucianism, Ethics, and Gender [Chicago: Open Court, 2000], 223–247.) In this
chapter, there appear only accounts from the most ancient texts, though later
versions of some stories will be mentioned in the notes.
2. Cf. also Siegfried Englert, Materialien zur Stellung der Frau und zur Sexualität
im vormodernen und modernen China, Heidelberger Schriften zur Ostasienkunde l
(Frankfurt: Haag und Herchen, 1980), 32 f.
3. This poem has become the standard source that contemporary scholars
recite as an example of ancient Chinese misogyny. See, e.g., Henry Rosemont,
Jr., “Classical Confucian and Contemporary Feminist Perspectives on the Self:
Some Parallels and Their Implications,” in Culture and Self: Philosophical and Reli-
gious Perspectives, East and West, ed. Douglas Allen (Boulder, Colo.: Westview,
1997), 65; Alison H. Black, “Gender and Cosmology in Chinese Correlative
Thinking,” in Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols, ed. Caroline Walker
Bynum et al. (Boston: Beacon, 1986), 171; and 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: E. J. Brill, 1961; repr., New York: Barnes and Noble, 1996), 29.
4. This line highlights the two meanings of the term jen : “people” in gen-
eral and “elite people” in particular. Thus jen yu min-jen: “The elite people had
people [as followers].” The jen who are disenfranchised in this stanza are to be
understood, therefore, as members of the feudal aristocracy. See, e.g., A. C.
Graham, Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China (La Salle, Ill.:
Open Court, 1989), 19, for the various meanings of jen.
5. The hsiao is an unfilial bird that eats its mother before it can fly. See,
e.g., text in Chiang Jen-chieh , Shuo-wen chieh-tzu chi-chu , ed. Liu Jui
(Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1996), 6A.1266; and the commentary of Meng K’ang
(fl. ca. A.D. 225–250) to “Chiao-ssu chih,” Han-shu (Peking: Chung-
hua, 1962), 25A.1219 n. 4. On owls in general, see Marcel Granet, Danses et légen-
des de la Chine ancienne, Bibliothèque de philosophie contemporaine, Travaux de
l’Année sociologique (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1926), vol. 2, 515–548.
6. Following the commentary of Cheng Hsüan, Mao-Shih cheng-i 18E.578a.
Legge and Karlgren (as well as Raphals, Sharing the Light, 64) both take ssu
(which should be taken as though it were written shih , “attend”) to mean
“eunuchs”; thus they all construe the couplet to mean that women and eunuchs
cannot be taught or instructed (or that they cannot teach or instruct). Simi-
larly, Shih-shan Henry Tsai, The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty, SUNY Series in
Chinese Local Studies (Albany, N.Y., 1996), 12, translates ssu as “those without
balls.” However, I suspect that the “eunuchs” represent something of an
anachronism. Moreover, Cheng Hsüan’s interpretation has the added advan-
tage that it easily accounts for the word shih , “constantly,” whereas other
readings force it into the sense of shih , “are [women and eunuchs].” Karl-
gren, “Glosses on the Ta Ya and Sung Odes,” in Glosses on the Book of Odes (Stock-
holm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1964), 139 and 141 f., misrepresents
Cheng Hsüan’s explanation of ssu. On the other hand, the phrase ssu-jen ,
“attendant,” appears in Mao 200 (“Hsiang-po” ), Mao-Shih cheng-i 12C.456c,
Notes to Pages 49–52 149

and here the commentaries all agree that the person in question is a eunuch.
Cf. Tu Yung-ming et al., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih (Peking:
Chung-kuo hua-ch’iao, 1998), vol. 5, 3223, 3236 f., 3243 f. [this work cited here-
after as Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih; see note 20 in the introduction of the present
volume].
7. Thus the “Minor Preface,” Mao-Shih cheng-i 18E.577b. See also the com-
mentaries of Cheng Hsüan and K’ung Ying-ta, and cf. Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1,
643. Pao was a minor state vanquished by Chou. Ssu is usually explained as
Pao Ssu’s surname but can also mean “elder sister.”
8. See, e.g., “Shih Su lun Hsien-kung fa Li-Jung sheng erh pu-chi”
, Kuo-yü (Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1978; repr., Taipei: Li-jen,
1981), 7.255; “Shih Po wei Huan-kung lun hsing-shuai” , Kuo-
yü 16.519; “Chou pen-chi” , Shih-chi (Peking: Chung-hua, 1959),
4.147 ff.; and “Cheng shih-chia,” Shih-chi 42.1757 ff. Pao Ssu is also the subject of
a biography in Lieh-nü chuan; text in “Chou Yu Pao Ssu” , in Wang
Chao-yüan (fl. 1879–1884), Lieh-nü chuan pu-chu (Kuo-hsüeh
chi-pen ts’ung-shu), 7.127–129. See also Jianfei Kralle, with Roderich Ptak and
Dennis Schilling, “Böse Brut: Bao Si [ ] und das Ende von König You [
],” Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft 149.1 (1999), 145–172;
Edward L. Shaughnessy, “Western Zhou History,” in The Cambridge History of
Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C., ed. Michael Loewe and
Edward L. Shaughnessy (Cambridge, 1999), 349 f.; Raphals, Sharing the Light,
64 ff.; Wolfgang Münke, Die klassische chinesische Mythologie (Stuttgart: Ernst Klett,
1976), 255–257; Herrlee G. Creel, The Origins of Statecraft in China (Chicago: Uni-
versity of Chicago Press, 1970), 438 f.; and Granet, Danses et légendes, vol. 2, 558 f.
9. See, e.g., Wang Lei-sheng , “P’ing-wang tung-ch’ien yüan-yin
hsin-lun—Chou P’ing-wang tung-ch’ien shou-pi yü Ch’in, Chin, Cheng chu-hou
shuo” — , Jen-wen tsa-chih
1998.1, 86–90, for an overview of relations between King P’ing and the
most powerful feudal lords.
10. Wu is usually explained as an “empty particle” , but Karlgren,
“Glosses on the Ta Ya and Sung Odes,” 101, suggests persuasively that its func-
tion is to turn a clause into an “oratorical question.” Following Cheng Hsüan,
Mao-Shih cheng-i 18A.554c, most commentators take ching to mean simply
“strong” , but I prefer to retain its basic sense of “struggle” or “compete.”
11. See David S. Nivison’s pathbreaking study of the notion of te in early
Chinese thought: “ ‘Virtue’ in Bone and Bronze,” in The Ways of Confucianism:
Investigations in Chinese Philosophy, ed. Bryan W. Van Norden (Chicago: Open
Court, 1996), 17–30. Cf. also Vassili Kryukov, “Symbols of Power and Commu-
nication in Pre-Confucian China (on the Anthropology of De): Preliminary
Assumptions,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 58 (1995),
314–332.
12. Thus the “Minor Preface,” Mao-Shih cheng-i 18A.554b. For the dates of
King Li’s reign, see Shaughnessy, “Western Zhou History,” 342 ff., and Sources of
Western Zhou History: Inscribed Bronze Vessels (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University
of California Press, 1991), 272–286. He seems to have acceded in 857 B.C. and
started to rule in his own name in 853. He was exiled in 842 and died in 828.
150 Notes to Pages 53–55

13. Chen Zhi, “A New Reading of ‘Yen-yen,’ ” T’oung Pao 85.1–3 (1999), 18 f.,
argues that this “Chung-shih Jen” refers not to T’ai Jen but to the wife of
the Duke of Chou. However, the rest of the stanza, and especially the line nai chi
wang Chi (“and she, with King Chi”), is hard to reconcile with this
novel suggestion. In any case, it is clear that at least part of this poem deals with
T’ai Jen.
14. Because of the possible sexual dimensions of the term te (discussed
later in this chapter), this line is sometimes understood as a reference to sexual
intercourse between King Wen’s parents. See, e.g., Pertti Nikkilä, Early Confu-
cianism and Inherited Thought in the Light of Some Key Terms of the Confucian Analects,
Studia Orientalia 53 (1982), 181.
15. As in Mao 236 (“Ta Ming”).
16. The three “mothers of Chou” have their own biographical section in the
Lieh-nü chuan: “Chou-shih san-mu” , Lieh-nü chuan pu-chu 1.6–7. Cf. Hei
Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 646. Consider also the figure of Mencius’ mother, one of
the most venerated women in Confucian lore. See, e.g., Han-Shih wai-chuan
(Ssu-pu ts’ung-k’an ), 9.1a, 8b f.; and “Tsou Meng K’o mu”
, Lieh-nü chuan pu-chu 1.15–18; see also Raphals, Sharing the Light, 33–35. The
traditional image of Mencius’ virtuous mother is in line with the appreciative
view of the wives and mothers of Chou.
17. Dorothy Ko, Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-
Century China (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1994), 53. Cf. also
Guisso, 48; and Julia Kristeva, About Chinese Women, trans. Anita Barrows (New
York: Urizen, 1977), 76, who states that according to Confucianism, a woman
either “leaves the bedchamber to be acknowledged—but only as genetrix—the
mother of the father’s sons; or she gains access to the social order (as poet,
dancer, singer) but behind the door of the bedchamber, an unacknowledgeable
sexual partner.” In other words, the only morally acceptable role for women is
that of wife and mother.
18. This point is made forcefully in the context of a discussion of Confu-
cianism and feminist philosophy in Rosemont, “Classical Confucian and Con-
temporary Feminist Perspectives,” 71 ff. See also Chenyang Li, “The Confucian
Concept of Jen and the Feminist Ethics of Care: A Comparative Study,” Hypatia
9.1 (1994), reprinted in idem, The Sage and the Second Sex, 24.
19. “Chung-yung,” Li-chi cheng-i 52.1627a f.
20. Compare the translations in S. Couvreur, S.J., Li Ki ou Mémoires sur les
bienséances et les cérémonies, 2d ed. (Ho Kien Fou: Mission Catholique, 1913), vol.
2, 437, and Richard Wilhelm, Li Gi: Das Buch der Riten, Sitten, und Bräuche, 2d ed.,
Diederichs Gelbe Reihe 31 (Munich, 1994), 30.
21. E.g., Analects 5.12, text in Ch’eng Shu-te (1877–1944), Lun-yü chi-
shih , ed. Ch’eng Chün-ying and Chiang Chien-yüan ,
Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1990), 9.316; and Analects
15.24, Lun-yü chi-shih 32.1106. For more on shu, see, e.g., Herbert Fingarette,
“Following the ‘One Thread’ of the Analects,” in Studies in Classical Chinese
Thought, ed. Henry Rosemont, Jr., and Benjamin I. Schwartz, Journal of the Amer-
ican Academy of Religion 47.3, Thematic Issue S (1979), 373–405. Fingarette’s
essay is discussed in Philip J. Ivanhoe, “Reweaving the ‘One Thread’ in the
Notes to Pages 55–56 151

Analects,” Philosophy East and West 40.1 (1990), 17–33; see also See Yee Chan,
“Disputes on the One Thread of Chung-Shu,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 26.2
(1999), 165–186; and David S. Nivison, “Golden Rule Arguments in Chinese
Moral Philosophy,” in Ways of Confucianism, 66.
22. Analects 17.25, Lun-yü chi-shih 35.1244.
23. Compare the translation in Lau, Analects, 148.
24. See, e.g., Bettina L. Knapp, Images of Chinese Women: A Westerner’s View
(Troy, N.Y.: Whitston, 1992), 2; Daniel L. Overmyer, “Women in Chinese Reli-
gions: Submission, Struggle, Transcendence,” in From Benares to Beijing: Essays on
Buddhism and Chinese Religion in Honour of Prof. Jan Yün-hua, ed. Koichi Shino-
hara and Gregory Schopen (Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic, 1991), 93; Black, 171; and
Kristeva, 75 (with an idiosyncratic translation). David L. Hall and Roger T.
Ames, Thinking from the Han: Self, Truth, and Transcendence in Chinese and Western
Culture (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998), 88, adduce the quote
without comment. Chenyang Li, 83, sees Confucius’ remark as an example of
“social prejudice” and not “an inevitable consequence of his general philosophy.”
25. Mencius 7B.35, text in Chiao Hsün (1763–1820), Meng-tzu cheng-i
, ed. Shen Wen-cho , Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking:
Chung-hua, 1987), 29.1017. Compare also the famous usage in Mencius 2A.2,
Meng-tzu cheng-i 6.199: “I am good at nourishing my flood-like ch’i”
.
26. See, e.g., Mencius 4B.19, Meng-tzu cheng-i 16.567; and Mencius 4B.28, Meng-
tzu cheng-i 17.595.
27. In this connection, scholars sometimes cite Hsün-tzu’s famous statement
that a mother is not fit to educate her own children. See, e.g., Raphals, Sharing
the Light, 21; and Anne Behnke Kinney, “Dyed Silk: Han Notions of the Moral
Development of Children,” in Kinney, ed., Chinese Views of Childhood (Honolulu:
University of Hawai‘i Press, 1995), 27. However, the passage in question should
not be misread as a blanket indictment of women’s abilities. The context, which
Raphals and Kinney both ignore, is an explanation of why the mourning period
for a deceased lord should last three years. The text (“Li-lun” , in Wang
Hsien-ch’ien (1842–1918), Hsün-tzu chi-chieh , ed. Shen Hsiao-huan
and Wang Hsing-hsien, Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1988),
13.19.374) says,

The Odes say: “The kind and courteous noble man is the father and
mother of the people” [Mao 251: “Chiung-cho” ]. The term “noble
man” surely has the meaning of acting as the people’s father and mother.
A father can beget [a child] but cannot nourish it; a mother can feed it
but cannot instruct and admonish it. One who is a lord not only can feed
it but also can instruct and admonish it. And [the mourning period for a
lord] is finished after just three years!
Thus Hsün-tzu means to say not that women are generally incapable of teaching
their children but that any parent who does not live up to the author’s concept
152 Notes to Pages 56–57

of the chün-tzu cannot go beyond simply begetting and feeding his or her chil-
dren to “nourish” or “instruct and admonish” them. Hsün-tzu is imply-
ing, furthermore, that the mourning period of three years is appropriate for a
moral chün-tzu, and not just any lord.
A more difficult case (which neither Raphals nor Kinney cite) is Mencius 3B.2,
Meng-tzu cheng-i 12.415 ff., where Mencius compares the conduct of a “great
man” to “the way of maids and women” , which he explains dis-
paragingly as nothing more than “compliance” . Mencius’ argument is that
morality requires one to disagree with one’s superiors when they are wrong, and
that women cannot reach this level of excellence because they merely obey their
husbands in all matters. (Cf. chapter 1, n. 136, in this volume.)
28. This is the position attributed to “the standard interpreters” by Arthur
Waley, trans., The Analects of Confucius (New York: Random House, Vintage
Books, 1938), 217 n. 1. Waley is probably thinking of Chu Hsi (1130–1200),
who writes that hsiao-jen refers to p’u-li hsia-jen (by which he means
male servants), and nü-tzu to ch’ieh (which can mean either “concubines” or
“handmaidens”). See his commentary to Lun-yü chi-shih 35.1244.
29. E. Bruce Brooks and A. Taeko Brooks, The Original Analects: Sayings of
Confucius and His Successors, Translations from the Asian Classics (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1998), 166, report this reading without attribution.
30. Thus Brooks and Brooks, e.g., 240. The idea that the Analects are made
up of separate strata goes back several centuries. See, e.g., John Makeham, “The
Formation of Lunyu as a Book,” Monumenta Serica 44 (1996), esp. 6 ff.
31. See, e.g., “Hsing o” , Hsün-tzu chi-chieh 17.23.442 ff., where he dis-
cusses the aphorism that “a person in the street can become Yü”
, but only with difficulty.
32. This example and those that follow should qualify as what Hall and
Ames, 88, have called the “promotion [of] females to the status of honorary males”
(emphasis in original), which they go on to associate with characteristically
Western forms of sexism. They assert that in China, by contrast (where sexism,
in their parlance, is “correlative”), it is not considered a constructive goal for
females to take on male “gender traits.” However, Hall and Ames do not con-
sider the passages discussed here, which throw into question their generalizing
distinction between sexism in China and in the West.
33. Analects 8.20, Lun-yü chi-shih 16.552–556.
34. For the dates, see Shaughnessy, Sources of Western Zhou History, 241.
35. Following the commentary of Liu Pao-nan (1791–1855). Most
earlier commentators take chi to mean the time during which Yao and Shun
had contact with each other.
36. Compare the translation in D. C. Lau, Confucius: The Analects (New York:
Penguin, 1979), 95.
37. In an earlier version of this chapter (“The View of Women in Early Con-
fucianism,” in The Sage and the Second Sex: Confucianism, Ethics, and Gender, in
Chenyang Li, 140), I mistakenly took “Wen-mu” to mean “King Wen’s mother.”
For the problem of the identity of “Wen-mu,” see Lun-yü chi-shih 16.555. Cf.
Raphals, “Gendered Virtue Reconsidered,” 239 n. 11.
38. Lun-yü chi-shih 16.558.
Notes to Pages 58–59 153

39. “Kung-fu Wen-po tsu ch’i mu chieh ch’i ch’ieh” ,

Kuo-yü 5.211.
40. Commentators disagree over the significance of the final fu in this
sentence. Wei Chao takes it to mean “husband” or “man” (as in the translation
here); Sung Hsiang (996–1066), on the other hand, interprets it as merely
an exclamatory particle. See Tung Tseng-ling , Kuo-yü cheng-i
(n.p.: Chang-shih shih-hsün t’ang, 1880; repr., [Ch’eng-tu:] Pa-shu, 1985),
5.31a f. On fu as a final particle, see, e.g., Edwin G. Pulleyblank, Outline of Classi-
cal Chinese Grammar (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1995), 17 and 145; A. C. Graham,
“The Final Particle Fwu ,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 17.1
(1955), 120–132; as well as the excellent new Ku-tai Han-yü hsü-tz’u tz’u-tien
(Peking: Shang-wu, 2000), 158 f.
41. On the textual history of the Kuo-yü, see, e.g., Chang I-jen et al., “Kuo-yü,”
in Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, ed. Michael Loewe, Early China Spe-
cial Monograph Series 2 (Berkeley, Calif., 1993), 263–268; William G. Boltz,
“Notes on the Textual Relationships between the Kuo Yü and the Tso Chuan,”
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 53 (1990), 491–502; Chang I-jen
, “Lun Kuo-yü yü Tso-chuan te kuan-hsi” , Bulletin of
the Institute of History and Philology 33 (1962), reprinted in Chang I-jen, Kuo-yü
Tso-chuan lun-chi , Tung-sheng hsüeh-jen chuan-k’an 2 (Taipei:
Tung-sheng, 1980), 19–108, and “Ts’ung wen-fa, yü-hui te ch’a-i cheng Kuo-yü
Tso-chuan erh-shu fei i-jen so-tso”
, Ku yüan-chang Hu Shih hsien-sheng chi-nien lun-wen chi, Bulletin of the Institute of
History and Philology 34 (1962), reprinted in Kuo-yü Tso-chuan lun-chi, 109–162;
and Bernhard Karlgren, The Authenticity and Nature of the Tso Chuan (Göteborg,
Sweden: Elanders, 1926).
42. See, in addition to the above, “Kung-fu Wen-po chih mu tui Chi K’ang-
tzu wen” , Kuo-yü 5.202; “Kung-fu Wen-po chih mu lun
lao-i” , Kuo-yü 5.208; “Kung-fu Wen-po chih mu pieh yü
nan-nü chih li” , Kuo-yü 5.209; “Kung-fu Wen-po
chih mu yü shih Wen-po” , Kuo-yü 5.210 (where she is
praised by “Music-Master Hai” ); and “K’ung Ch’iu wei Kung-fu Wen-po
chih mu chih li” , Kuo-yü 5.212. She is also the subject
of a biography in the Lieh-nü chuan; see “Lu Chi Ching-chiang” , Lieh-
nü chuan pu-chu 1.10–14. Cf. also Raphals, Sharing the Light, 92–98.
43. For other classical versions of this anecdote, see (in addition to Lieh-nü
chuan): Han-Shih wai-chuan 1.6b–7a; “P’ing-yüan chün Yü Ch’ing lieh-chuan”
, Shih-chi 76.2373; “Ch’in kung Chao yü Ch’ang-p’ing”
, Chan-kuo ts’e (Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1978; repr., Taipei: Li-jen, 1990),
20.692 f.; “T’an-kung hsia” , Li-chi cheng-i 9.1304b; and “Chi-i” ,
K’ung-ts’ung-tzu (Han-Wei ts’ung-shu) (1592; repr., Ch’ang-ch’un:
Chi-lin Ta-hsüeh, 1992), A.3.333a.
44. See, e.g., Analects 6.12, 9.23, and especially 14.43.
45. “Kung-fu Wen-po tsu ch’i mu chieh ch’i ch’ieh,” Kuo-yü 5.211.
46. Ssu-chih is sometimes taken in this passage to mean the opposite,
i.e., that he will die for women or for men. Grammatically, this reading is
unjustifiable. Moreover, the parallel account in Chan-kuo ts’e says that sixteen of
154 Notes to Pages 59–60

his women committed suicide on his account after his passing; see “Ch’in kung
Chao yü Ch’ang-p’ing,” Chan-kuo ts’e 20.692.
47. For more on nei and wai, see, e.g., Raphals, Sharing the Light, 195–234; Tu
Yung-ming et al., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih (Peking: Chung-kuo
hua-ch’iao, 1998), vol. 1, 18, 29, 660 [cited henceforth as Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih; see
note 20 in the introduction]; and Black, 169 and 191 n. 11. Ancient Greek ide-
ology maintained a similar distinction between hypaithria erga ex7 (“work outside
in the open air”) for men and ta endon (“things within”) for women. See, e.g.,
Sue Blundell, Women in Ancient Greece (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1995), 135–138; Elaine Fantham et al., Women in the Classical World: Image and
Text (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 71; Lesley Dean-Jones, “The Cul-
tural Construct of the Female Body in Classical Greek Science,” in Women’s His-
tory and Ancient History, ed. Sarah B. Pomeroy (Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1991), 112 f.; Anne Carson, “Putting Her in Her Place: Woman,
Dirt, and Desire,” in Before Sexuality: The Construction of Erotic Experience in the
Ancient Greek World, ed. David M. Halperin et al. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 1990), 156 ff.; R. Padel, “Women: Model for Possession by Greek
Daemons,” in Images of Women in Antiquity, ed. Averil Cameron and Amélie Kuhrt
(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1983), 3–19; and Hans Licht, Sexual Life
in Ancient Greece, trans. J. H. Freese, ed. Lawrence H. Dawson (repr., New York:
Dorset, 1993), 28 ff.
48. The excavated sex manual “T’ien-hsia chih-tao t’an,” for example, offers
its own creative understanding of the nei/wai distinction: males should be stim-
ulated sexually on the outside and females on the inside. In other words, the
male is the penetrator and the female the penetrated. For the text and com-
mentary, see Ma Chi-hsing, , Ma-wang-tui ku i-shu k’ao-shih
(Ch’ang-sha: Hu-nan k’o-hsüeh chi-shu, 1992), 1071.
49. “Nei hsiao-ch’en,” Chou-li chu-shu (Shih-san ching chu-shu), 7.686b. Com-
pare the translation in Édouard Biot, Le Tcheou-li ou Rites des Tcheou (Paris:
Imprimerie Nationale, 1851), vol. 1, 148. The nei hsiao-ch’en is often taken to be
a eunuch; see, e.g., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 5, 3236.
50. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, , 2d ed., Chung-kuo ku-tien ming-
chu i-chu ts’ung-shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1990), vol. 3, 1145 (Hsiang 28;545
B.C.). Cf. Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 111. Incidentally, this is not the only refer-
ence to wife swapping in the Tso-chuan; see also Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 4,
1491 (Chao 28;514 B.C.).
51. Chou Fa-kao , Chou Ch’in ming-tzu chieh-ku hui-shih
, Chung-hua ts’ung-shu (Taipei, 1958), 48, recommends the pronunciation
“Ch’ing Pang” (as though the second character were ).
52. This is clearly what the context demands and what the commentators all
suggest. One might speculate that the original text read yü Ch’ing She she cheng
, which would mean exactly that “he gave over the government to
Ch’ing She” and that the second she was at some point mistakenly deleted.
53. Compare the translation in Legge, vol. 5, 541.
54. He was also a political opportunist and a murderer. See the relevant
entries in Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 3, 1099 (Hsiang 25;548 B.C.) and
1137 f. (Hsiang 27;546 B.C.).
Notes to Pages 60–62 155

55. “Nei-tse,” Li-chi cheng-i 27.1462c; see the commentary of Sun Hsi-tan
(1736–1784), Li-chi chi-chieh , ed. Shen Hsiao-huan and Wang
Hsing-hsien , Shih-san ching Ch’ing-jen chu-shu (Peking: Chung-hua,
1989), 27.735 f. Compare also the “T’uan” commentary to hexagram 37 (chia-
jen ) in the I-ching: “The correct position for females is inside; the correct
position for males is outside” ; text in Chou-I cheng-i
(Shih-san ching chu-shu) 4.50a.
56. “Yang Chen lieh-chuan,” Hou-Han shu (Peking: Chung-hua,
1965), 54.1761. Cf. also van Gulik, 86 f., although the translation there silently
omits whole sections of the original.
57. Cf. Mark Edward Lewis, Sanctioned Violence in Early China, SUNY Series in
Chinese Philosophy and Culture (Albany, N.Y., 1990), 73 ff.
58. For similar attitudes in ancient Greece, see, e.g., James N. Davidson,
Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens (New York:
Harper Collins, 1997), 165 f.
59. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 1, 425 (Hsi 24;636 B.C.). See also the par-
allel account in “Fu Ch’en chien Hsiang-wang i Ti fa Cheng chi i Ti-nü wei hou”
, Kuo-yü 2.48 ff., where Fu Ch’en constructs a
different argument: marriage is an affair that can bring about fortune or disas-
ter, and by marrying an alien, the king is courting disaster. Cf. Hei Erh-shih-ssu
shih, vol. 1, 326.
60. Compare the translation in Legge, vol. 5, 192.
61. “I Ho shih P’ing-kung chi” , Kuo-yü 14.473–474. See also
the parallel account in Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 4, 1221 ff. (Chao 1;541
B.C.). The doctor goes on to explain that ku is derived from “worms,” namely, the
larvae that infest grain and fly away as insects. Eating food contaminated by such
worms can be fatal. Compare also the usage in Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 1,
241 (Chuang 28;666 B.C.), where one Tzu-yüan desires to “expend
himself” with the widow of King Wen of Ch’u (r. 689–677), his
deceased brother. The several meanings of the term are explained in the com-
mentaries to the I-ching entry for the hexagram by the same name, Chou-I cheng-
i 3.35b f.; as well as the commentaries to the entry in Chiang Jen-chieh ,
Shuo-wen chieh-tzu chi-chu , ed. Liu Jui (Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1996),
13B.2836. For one of the oldest uses, see Chang Ping-ch’üan , Hsiao-t’un
ti-erh pen: Yin-hsü wen-tzu ping-pien (Taipei, 1957–
1972), 415.5. The excavated text “Wu-shih-erh ping-fang” contains a
section dealing with remedies for ku; see Ma Chi-hsing, 631–635. Cf. further Hei
Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 3, 1722 f.; Donald Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature:
The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts, The Sir Henry Wellcome Asian Series (Lon-
don: Kegan Paul International, 1998), 300 n. 5; Kidder Smith, Jr., “Zhouyi Div-
ination from Accounts in the Zuozhuan,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 49.2
(1989), 444 f.; Paul L-M. Serruys, “Towards a Grammar of the Language of the
Shang Bone Inscriptions,” Proceedings of the International Sinological Conference (Tai-
pei: Academia Sinica, 1982), 349; H. Y. Feng and J. K. Shryock, “The Black Magic
in China Known as Ku,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 55 (1935), 1–30;
and especially J. J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of China (Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1892–1910; repr., Taipei: Southern Materials Center, 1989), vol. 5, 826–869.
156 Notes to Pages 62–64

62. Compare also the usage in “Tu Chou chuan” , Han-shu 60.2668
(in a memorial by Tu Ch’in ). See the commentary of Tung Tseng-liang,
Kuo-yü cheng-i 14.22b f.
63. Once again, ancient China was by no means the only civilization to
express such opinions. For the ancient Greek case, see, e.g., Bruce S. Thornton,
Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1997), 70 ff.;
Blundell, 100 ff.; Fantham et al., 169 ff.; Lesley Dean-Jones, “The Politics of Plea-
sure: Female Sexual Appetite in the Hippocratic Corpus,” in Discourses of Sexual-
ity: From Aristotle to AIDS, ed. Domna C. Stanton, Ratio: Institute for the Human-
ities (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992), 48–77; Carson, 138 f.; and
K. J. Dover, “Classical Greek Attitudes to Sexual Behavior,” Arethusa 6 (1973),
reprinted in Women in the Ancient World: The Arethusa Papers, ed. John Peradotto
and J. P. Sullivan, SUNY Series in Classical Studies (Albany, N.Y., 1984), 149.
64. “Huan-che chuan” , Hsin Wu-tai shih (Peking: Chung-
hua, 1974), 26.406. On the deteriorating position of women in Sung China, see,
e.g., Patricia Buckley Ebrey, The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese
Women in the Sung Period (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
Press, 1993), esp. 267–270; and James T. C. Liu, Ou-yang Hsiu: An Eleventh-Century
Neo-Confucianist (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1967), 23.
65. “Chin shih-chia,” Shih-chi 39.1658. Cf. Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 326.
66. Analects 9.18, Lun-yü chi-shih 18.611; and Analects 15.13, Lun-yü chi-shih
32.1094. Cf. also Analects 1.7, Lun-yü chi-shih 2.30, where we read that an attribute
of a learned person is “to value [moral] worth as readily as sex” .
67. Compare the translation in Lau, Analects, 98 and 134.
68. Mencius 6B.1, Meng-tzu cheng-i 24.809.
69. Compare the translation in Lau, Mencius, 171.
70. Cf. Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 324 ff.; and Jeffrey Riegel, “Eros, Introver-
sion, and the Beginnings of Shijing Commentary,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic
Studies 57.1 (1997): 151.
71. See esp. “Li-lun,” Hsün-tzu chi-chieh 13.19.346–378. For more on this issue,
see, e.g., Paul Rakita Goldin, Rituals of the Way: The Philosophy of Xunzi (Chicago:
Open Court, 1999), 65 ff. “Ta-lüeh,” Hsün-tzu chi-chieh 19.27.511, also addresses
directly the problem of eroticism in the Odes: “There is a tradition about the lust-
fulness of the ‘Airs of the States’: ‘They are replete with desire but do not pass
beyond the [correct] stopping-point’ ”
. According to the commentary of Yang Liang (fl. A.D. 818), this means
that the Odes teach us to rein in our desires even when they are about to over-
flow. Cf. Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 332.
72. Mao-Shih cheng-i (Shih-san ching chu-shu) 1A.273b. For similar statements
in the classics, see, e.g., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 660.
73. Compare the translations in Steven Van Zoeren, Poetry and Personality:
Reading, Exegesis, and Hermeneutics in Traditional China (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford
University Press, 1991), 87; and Pauline Yu, The Reading of Imagery in the Chinese
Poetic Tradition (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987), 50.
74. Riegel, “Eros,” 150 ff., points out that the commentary to “Kuan-chü”
in the recently excavated Wu-hsing p’ien emphasizes the importance of
Notes to Pages 64–67 157

observing ritual “in spite of strong sexual urgings” to the contrary. See the text
in Ma-wang-tui Han-mu po-shu, vol. 1, 24. Cf. also Mark Laurent Asselin, “The Lu-
School Reading of ‘Guanju’ as Preserved in an Eastern Han fu.” Journal of the
American Oriental Society 117.3 (1997): 433.
75. This notion of overcoming one’s sexual desires was so basic to ancient
writers that it led to a novel understanding of the phrase nü-te (or fu-te
), namely “female virtue,” or the virtue that a woman attains in chastity—
which is effectively the opposite of nü-te as it is used in Physician Ho’s diagnosis
(discussed in the text, above). Cf., e.g., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 18. Wei Chao,
for example, misinterprets the doctor’s advice in an amusingly creative way.
He glosses the phrase hsiao ching nü-te (which, in the context, clearly
means “diminish female potency at night,” or stop copulating with women at
night) as follows: “that is to say, at night one should take one’s peace with females
who possess virtue and moderate themselves with ritual, in order to expel one’s
own disease of ku” . Thus Wei
Chao, misreading nü-te as “female virtue,” seems to suggest that the ailing lord
should treat his disease by sleeping next to chaste maidens. See his commentary
to “I Ho shih P’ing-kung chi,” Kuo-yü 14.475 n. 22. Wei Chao was not the most
brilliant of the ancient commentators, and part of the reason for the unusual
difficulty of the Kuo-yü text is that his is the only surviving classical commentary.
76. Mao 247 (“Chi tsui” ). Compare also Mencius 1B.5, Meng-tzu cheng-i
4.139, where Mencius explains to King Hsüan of Ch’i (r. 319–301 B.C.)
that the latter’s fondness for sex is not necessarily blameworthy, as long as
he channels it properly by cherishing his wife and encouraging his subjects to
marry and be fruitful. Cf. Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 325 f.
77. Even contemporary essays in the philosophy of sex have been criticized
for treating the sex act as merely a means to some end (whether it be procre-
ation, interpersonal communication, etc.) and not coming to grips with the con-
sequences of sex for the sake of sexual pleasure. See especially Alan Goldman,
“Plain Sex,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 6.3 (1977), 267–287.
78. Analects 18.4, Lun-yü chi-shih 36.1258.
79. Compare the translation in Lau, Analects, 149.
80. “Kung-fu Wen-po chih mu lun nei-ch’ao yü wai-ch’ao”
, Kuo-yü 5.203–204.
81. For the references, see, e.g., Lau, Analects, 237. He was the son of Chi
Huan-tzu (mentioned above in the text).
82. In Han-Shih wai-chuan 9.8b f., Mencius’ mother criticizes him for enter-
ing his wife’s bedroom unannounced and thus catching her in a compromising
position. (There is a parallel account in “Tsou Meng K’o mu,” Lieh-nü chuan pu-
chu 1.16.) Cf. Eric Henry, “The Social Significance of Nudity in Early China,”
Fashion Theory 3.4 (1999), 481 f.
83. “Kung-fu Wen-po chih mu tui Chi K’ang-tzu chih wen,” Kuo-yü 5.202.
84. “Kung-fu Wen-po chih mu lun lao-i,” Kuo-yü 5.205.
85. The language of this passage is archaic and difficult; I suspect that Lady
Ching might be quoting from a lost ritual codex. For administrative titles, I fol-
low Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford,
158 Notes to Pages 67–69

Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1985). My translation is based largely on the

commentaries of Yü Fan (A.D. 164–233), Wei Chao, and others in Kuo-yü
5.206 f., with one major exception. Wei Chao adduces the following quote from
the “Rites” : “The Son of Heaven salutes the sun in the spring”
. This evidence then leads Wei Chao to the deduction that the Son of Heaven
sacrifices to the moon in the autumn. However, I think this interpretation is
unwarranted here, given that the text clearly describes the ruler’s daily activities
from morning to night. Thus I take chao and hsi in their basic senses of
“morning” and “evening.”
Incidentally, Wei Chao’s quote is not to be found in the received versions of
any of the classical ritual texts but may represent a paraphrase of “Pao-fu” ,
Ta-Tai Li-chi ; text in Wang P’in-chen (eighteenth century), Ta-
Tai Li-chi chieh-ku , ed. Wang Wen-chin , Shih-san ching Ch’ing-jen
chu-shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1983), 3.48.53: “The Son of Heaven salutes the
sun on a spring morning” . See also the commentary of Tung
Tseng-ling, Kuo-yü cheng-i 5.23a. For an insightful early discussion of this issue,
see the memorial by Ho T’ung-chih (449–503) in Hsiao Tzu-hsien
(489–537), Nan-Ch’i shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1972), 9.140 f. (“Li-chih
shang” ). See also the commentary of P’ei Sung-chih (A.D. 372–
451) to Ch’en Shou (233–297), San-kuo chih (Peking: Chung-hua,
1959), 2.77 n. 1 (Wei-shu , “Wen-ti P’i” ); as well as Shen Yüeh
(441–513) et al., Sung-shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1974), 14.348 (“Li-chih i”
); and Wei Cheng (580–643) et al., Sui-shu (Peking: Chung-
hua, 1973), 7.140 (“Li-i chih erh” ).
86. Mencius 6B.6, Meng-tzu cheng-i 24.831.
87. Compare the translation in Lau, Mencius, 175.
88. Albert Richard O’Hara, The Position of Woman in Early China, Catholic
University of America Studies in Sociology 16 (Washington, D.C., 1945), 113,
gives Chuang’s reign dates as 794–731 B.C. He has the wrong Lord Chuang of
Ch’i, of which there were two.
89. See Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 3, 1084 f. (Hsiang 23;550 B.C.). Hua
Chou’s personal name is given here as Huan .
90. See, e.g., the commentaries of Tu Yü and K’ung Ying-ta, Ch’un-ch’iu
Tso-chuan cheng-i (Shih-san ching chu-shu), 35.1978b f. Cf. also Bernt Hankel, Der
Weg in den Sarg: Die ersten Tage des Bestattungsrituals in den konfuzianischen Riten-
klassikern, Münstersche Sinologische Mitteilungen: Beiträge zur Geschichte und
Kultur des alten China 4 (Bad Honnef: Bock und Herchen, 1995), 164 f.
91. For other early accounts of this story, see “T’an-kung hsia,” Li-chi cheng-i
10.1312a f.; “Li-chieh” , Shuo-yüan 4.402c; “Shan-shui” , Shuo-yüan
11.428c; and “Ch’i Ch’i Liang ch’i” , Lieh-nü chuan pu-chu 4.68–469. In
the later versions, the widow’s weeping causes a wall to collapse, which impresses
bystanders. Cf. also Englert, 36 ff.
92. The “T’an-kung,” for example, includes both stories.
93. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 1, 407 (Hsi 23;637 B.C.). See also “Ts’ao
Kung-kung pu-li Ch’ung-erh erh kuan ch’i p’ien-hsieh”
, Kuo-yü 10.346–347 (as well as the commentary of Tung Tseng-ling, Kuo-yü
cheng-i 10.8b f.); “Shang-te” , in Ch’en Ch’i-yu, Lü-shih ch’un-ch’iu chiao-shih
Notes to Pages 69–71 159

(Shanghai: Hsüeh-lin, 1984), 19.1256; “Shih-kuo” , in Han

Fei-tzu chi-shih , Chung-kuo ssu-hsiang ming-chu (Peking: Chung-hua,
1958; repr., Taipei: Shih-chieh, 1991), 3.10.200; “Jen-chien” , in Liu Wen-
tien , Huai-nan Hung-lieh chi-chieh , ed. Feng I and
Ch’iao Hua , Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1989),
18.614; “Chin shih-chia,” Shih-chi 39.1658; and “Ts’ao Hsi-shih ch’i” ,
Lieh-nü chuan pu-chu 3.44. Cf. Raphals, Sharing the Light, 102–104.
94. Compare the translations in Burton Watson, trans., The Tso chuan: Selec-
tions from China’s Oldest Narrative History, Translations from the Oriental Classics
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), 42; and Legge, vol. 5, 187.
95. See, e.g., Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 1, 451 ff. (Hsi 28;632 B.C.). In
the heat of the battle, Lord Wen remembers Hsi Fu-chi and his wife, and orders
that no one enter their dwelling, but his command is disobeyed by his under-
lings, who burn it down.
96. Cf. Raphals, Sharing the Light, 27.
97. See, for example, the castigations of the Mohists in “Fei-Ju hsia” ;
text in Wu Yü-chiang , Mo-tzu chiao-chu , ed. Sun Ch’i-chih
, Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1993), 9.39.436 f.
98. Even supporters of the tradition sometimes consider it sexist; see, e.g.,
Henry Rosemont, Jr., A Chinese Mirror: Moral Reflections on Political Economy and
Society (La Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1991), 74 f.
99. Cf., e.g., Tu Wei-ming, “Probing the ‘Three Bonds’ and ‘Five Relation-
ships’ in Confucian Humanism,” in Confucianism and the Family, ed. Walter H.
Slote and George A. De Vos, SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
(Albany, N.Y., 1998), 123.
100. Wing-tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1963), 47.
101. For some examples, see, e.g., Marina H. Sung, “The Chinese Lieh-nü
Tradition,” in Guisso and Johannesen, 66 ff. The work of Pan Chao is dis-
cussed in chapter 3.
102. Lao-tzu 6; text in Kao Ming , Po-shu Lao-tzu chiao-chu ,
Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1996), 6.247 ff. This is a con-
venient variorum edition of the received Lao-tzu and the Ma-wang-tui versions,
with collected commentary. The quotation here is from the received text.
103. Compare the translation in Victor Mair, Tao Te Ching: The Classic Book of
Integrity and the Way (New York: Bantam, 1990), 65.
104. Lao-tzu 61, Po-shu Lao-tzu chiao-chu 61.121 ff.
105. Compare the translation in Mair, Tao Te Ching, 31.
106. See, e.g., Black, 173 f.; Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956), vol. 2, 59; and Max Kaltenmark,
Lao Tzu and Taoism, trans. Roger Greaves (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University
Press, 1969), 59 f.
107. Lao-tzu 28, Po-shu Lao-tzu chiao-chu 28.369.
108. Compare the translation in Mair, Tao Te Ching, 93.
109. Cf. esp. Chad Hansen, A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought: A Philosophical
Interpretation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 223 ff.; Graham, Disputers
of the Tao, 228 ff.; and Roger T. Ames, “Taoism and the Androgynous Ideal,” in
160 Notes to Pages 71–75

Guisso and Johannesen, 21–45. For a comparable case in Socratic philosophy,

see David M. Halperin, “Why Is Diotima a Woman? Platonic Er7s and the Figu-
ration of Gender,” in Halperin et al., 257–308.
110. Cf. esp. Overmyer, 92.
111. Ma-wang-tui Han-mu po-shu, vol. 1, 70. Not all of the editors’ emenda-
tions seem necessary; thus I retain hsiang , for example, in the sense of “pro-
vinces,” rather than change it to hsiang (which the editors probably under-
stand as “directions”).
112. Compare the translation in Robin D. S. Yates, Five Lost Classics: Tao,
Huang-Lao, and Yin-Yang in Han China, Classics of Ancient China (New York:
Ballantine, 1997), 129. Yates renders chieh as “tally” where I have “mode.” For
more on this other possible sense, see, e.g., Lao Kan, “The Early Use of the Tally
in China,” in Ancient China: Studies in Early Civilization, ed. David T. Roy and
Tsuen-hsuin Tsien (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1978), 97.
113. Ma-wang-tui Han-mu po-shu, vol. 1, 49.
114. Compare the translation in Yates, 67 f.
115. “Wang-cheng” , Han Fei-tzu chi-shih 5.15.269. Yates, 227 n. 72, refers
to this chapter erroneously as .
116. Compare the translation in W. K. Liao, The Complete Works of Han Fei
Tzu: A Classic of Chinese Legalism, Probsthain’s Oriental Series 25 (London,
1939), vol. 1, 139.

3. Sex, Politics, and Ritualization

1. Li Ling’s biography appears in “Li Kuang Su Chien chuan” ,
Han-shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1962), 54.2450–2459. For more on his cam-
paigns, see Michael Loewe, “The Campaigns of Han Wu-ti,” in Chinese Ways in
Warfare, ed. Frank A. Kierman, Jr., and John K. Fairbank, Harvard East Asian
Series 74 (Cambridge, Mass., 1974), 90 f. and 119–122. See also Ts’ui Ming-te
, Li Ling , Li-shih cheng-i jen-wu hsi-lieh 2 (Taipei: Wen-chin, 1994),
esp. 75–82.
2. Cf. Kuo Shuang-ch’eng , Shih-chi jen-wu chuan-chi lun kao
([Cheng-chou]: Chung-chou ku-chi, 1985), 25.
3. Cf., e.g., Stephen W. Durrant, The Cloudy Mirror: Tension and Conflict in the
Writings of Sima Qian, SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture (Albany,
N.Y., 1995), 8 ff.; and Hsiao Li , Ssu-ma Ch’ien p’ing-chuan , Chung-
kuo li-shih jen-wu ts’ung-shu (n.p.: Chi-lin wen-shih, 1986), 48–51. Ssu-ma Ch’ien
tells his version of the story in a famous epistle to Jen An (d. 91 B.C.?), an
imprisoned official who was himself executed for treachery. See “Ssu-ma Ch’ien
chuan,” Han-shu 62.2725 ff. The problems associated with dating this letter are
complex and are discussed in Kuo Shuang-ch’eng, 350–355; Burton Watson, Ssu-
ma Ch’ien: Grand Historian of China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1958),
194–198 (with a translation of the entire letter on pp. 57–67); and Edouard Cha-
vannes, Les Mémoires historiques de Se-ma Ts’ien (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1895–1905),
vol. 1, xlii ff. Incidentally, Li Kuang-li himself fell into disgrace in 90 B.C.; cf.
Michael Loewe, Crisis and Conflict in Han China: 104 B.C. to A.D. 9 (London:
George Allen and Unwin, 1974), 45; and J.J. M. de Groot, The Religious System of
China (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1892–1910; repr., Taipei: Southern Materials Center,
1989), vol. 5, 840 ff.
Notes to Page 76 161

4. Consider, for example, the case of the historian Tung Hu , who

earned the praise of Confucius because he recorded that “Chao Tun [the chief
minister of Chin] assassinated his lord” , even though the actual
assailant was someone else; the point was that Chao Tun did nothing to stop the
crime. The mighty Chao Tun contested Tung Hu’s statement, but the historian
would not be cowed, and the chief minister eventually acknowledged his fault.
See Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu , 2d ed., Chung-kuo ku-tien ming-chu i-chu
ts’ung-shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1990), vol. 2, 662 f. (Hsüan 2;607 B.C.). A similar
theme appears in Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 3, 1099 (Hsiang 25;548 B.C.),
where four successive historians (the first three of whom were executed) write
that Ts’ui Shu (d. 546 B.C.) assassinated his lord, when in fact the culprits
were members of Ts’ui Shu’s bodyguard. Speaking one’s mind truthfully, regard-
less of the consequences, has long been prized in the Chinese tradition as a mark
of a minister’s true loyalty, and Ssu-ma Ch’ien made ample use of this theme in
his biographies of ancient worthies. See, e.g., Paul Rakita Goldin, “Some Com-
monplaces in the Shiji Biographies of Talented Men,” in Studies on the Shiji: A Vol-
ume of Essays on Sima Qian, ed. Michael Puett (forthcoming); and David Schaberg,
“Remonstrance in Eastern Zhou Historiography,” Early China 22 (1997), 133–
179.
5. “Cheng-lun” , in Wang Hsien-ch’ien (1842–1918), Hsün-tzu
chi-chieh , ed. Shen Hsiao-huan and Wang Hsing-hsien, Hsin-pien Chu-tzu
chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1988), 12.18.328: “When punishments match
the gravity of crimes, there is order; when they do not match the gravity of
crimes, there is chaos” ; cf. also J. L. Kroll, “Notes on
Ch’in and Han Law,” in Thought and Law in Qin and Han China: Studies Dedicated
to Anthony Hulsewé on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, ed. W. L. Idema and E.
Zürcher, Sinica Leidensia 24 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990), 64; and A. F. P. Hulsewé,
Remnants of Han Law, vol. 1 (Introductory Studies and an Annotated Translation of
Chapters 22 and 23 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty), Sinica Leidensia 9 (Lei-
den: E. J. Brill, 1955), 347 f. (Note that J. L. Kroll’s name is given erroneously as
“J. K. Kroll” in the table of contents of Thought and Law.)
6. Cf., e.g., Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law, 385 n. 185.
7. “Fu-hsing” ; text in D. C. Lau and Chen Fong Ching, A Concordance
to Shangshudazhuan, ICS Ancient Chinese Texts Concordance Series: Classical
Works 5 (Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1994), 22. The above statement is also
cited by Cheng Hsüan in his commentary to “Ssu-hsing” , Chou-li chu-shu
(Shih-san ching chu-shu), 36.880b. Cf. Matthew H. Sommer, Sex, Law, and Society
in Late Imperial China, Law, Society, and Culture in China (Stanford, Calif.: Stan-
ford University Press, 2000), 33; Tu Yung-ming et al., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih
(Peking: Chung-kuo hua-ch’iao, 1998), vol. 5, 3222, 3672 [this work
cited hereafter as Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih; see note 20 in the introduction of the
present volume]; and Édouard Biot, Le Tcheou-li ou Rites des Tcheou (Paris: Impri-
merie Nationale, 1851), vol. 2, 354 n. 1.
8. Though most other works are cited in the body of the text by their English
translations, Po-hu t’ung will appear by its Chinese name, since Comprehensive Dis-
cussions in the White Tiger Hall is too long and clumsy. The editors of the Ssu-k’u
ch’üan-shu pointed out that the Chinese title is more properly called
Po-hu t’ung-i , but that the abbreviated title Po-hu t’ung is centuries old. See Chi
162 Notes to Pages 76–78

Yün (1724–1805) et al., Ssu-k’u ch’üan-shu tsung-mu t’i-yao (Kuo-

hsüeh chi-pen ts’ung-shu), 23.1468–1469. Cf. also Tjan Tjoe Som, Po Hu T’ung: The
Comprehensive Discussions in the White Tiger Hall, Sinica Leidensia 6 (Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1949), vol. 1, 9 f.
9. “Wu-hsing” , in Ch’en Li (1809–1869), Po-hu t’ung shu-cheng
, ed. Wu Tse-yü , Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua,
1994), 9.441; see also Cheng Hsüan’s explanation of kung in his commentary to
“Ssu-hsing,” Chou-li chu-shu 36.880b (which may actually be older than the Po-hu
t’ung ): “In the case of a man, one severs his genitals; a woman is closed inside a
room” (cf. Biot, vol. 2, 354 n. 1). Why the word
kung (room) should also be used for castration is not clear; Wang Yin-chih sug-
gests ingeniously that kung is a sort of abbreviation for the fuller term kung-ko
(“incarcerating [a woman] or severing [a man’s genitals]”). See his com-
mentary to Po-hu t’ung shu-cheng 9.441. Although the relevant texts all declare,
straightforwardly enough, that the corresponding punishment for women is sim-
ply to be locked inside a room, scholars have speculated for centuries that some
more gruesome punishment was actually inflicted. Cf., e.g., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih,
vol. 5, 3221 f., 3563; and Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law, 127.
10. Compare the translation in Tjan, vol. 2, 604 f.
11. Ma Tuan-lin (1254–1325), Wen-hsien t’ung-k’ao (Shih
T’ung ), 163.1414c.
12. Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law, 127 ff.
13. “Lü T’ai-hou pen-chi” , Shih-chi (Peking: Chung-hua,
1959), 9.397. Cf. also the account in “Wai-ch’i chuan,” Han-shu 97A.3937 f.,
which adds that when Empress Dowager Lü first imprisoned Lady Ch’i, she had
her “shaved, collared, clad in red garments, and ordered her to be a grain-
pounder” . “Grain-pounders” (ch’ung ) were female con-
victs sentenced to pound grain in a penal labor camp. We know from a Ch’in-
dynasty jurist’s manual that ch’ung wore red uniforms and were fettered. See
“Ssu-k’ung” , Shui-hu-ti Ch’in-mu chu-chien (Peking: Wen-wu,
1990), 51; and A. F. P. Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law: An Annotated Translation
of the Ch’in Legal and Administrative Rules of the Third Century B.C. Discovered in Yün-
meng Prefecture, Hu-pei Province, in 1975, Sinica Leidensia 17 (Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1985), A 70. Cf. also Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 5, 3584. It should be pointed out
that this too constituted unusually humiliating treatment for Lady Ch’i, because
it appears to have been extremely rare in Han times for any woman, let alone an
imperial consort, to be shaved and collared even if she was a grain-pounder. Cf.
Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law, 129.
14. Following the suggestion in Ch’ien Chung-shu, vol. 1, 282. Ts’e is usu-
ally translated as “privy” or “latrine.”
15. Compare the translations in Burton Watson, trans., Records of the Grand
Historian: Han Dynasty, rev. ed., Records of Civilization: Sources and Studies 65
(Hong Kong: Columbia University Press, 1993), vol. 1, 269; and T’ung-tsu Ch’ü,
Han Social Structure, ed. Jack L. Dull, Han Dynasty China 1 (Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1972), 259 f.
16. The crucial conclusion to the story, in which the emperor resigns him-
self to a life of dissipation, is generally omitted in recent studies, as in Raphals,
Sharing the Light, 72.
Notes to Pages 78–80 163

17. The pronunciation follows the phonological gloss of Lu Te-ming

(556–627); see his commentary to “Chih-fang shih” , Chou-li chu-shu
33.862a; and Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan cheng-i (Shih-san ching chu-shu), 57.2154b (Ai
1;494 B.C.). The name is commonly pronounced as “K’uai-chi,” however, and
it is possible that this reading is superior. At the first appearance of the name in
the Shih-chi, the text tells us that the hero Yü convened the various lords at
this mountain and that the name means k’uai-chi (“planning meeting” or
“caucus”); see “Hsia pen-chi” , Shih-chi 2.89. As far as I know, none of the
commentaries give a phonological gloss at this point, implying strongly that they
took the name to be a homophone of k’uai-chi. Indeed, the Shih-chi chi-chieh
, by P’ei Yin (fl. A.D. fifth century), cites a text explaining that the
mountain was called precisely because it was the site of Yü’s great con-
vocation. For a review of early references to the mountain, see, e.g., Ku Tsu-yü
(1631–1692), Tu-shih fang-yü chi-yao (repr., Shanghai:
Shanghai shu-tien, 1998), 89.2b f. Yü’s assembly is discussed in Marcel Granet,
Danses et légendes de la Chine ancienne, Bibliothèque de philosophie contem-
poraine, Travaux de l’Année sociologique (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1926), vol. 1,
341–350.
Finally, it is important to keep in mind that the mountain was originally in
the territory of Yüeh , and so the name (perhaps Old Chinese *koops-
kPPy) may, like other bisyllabic names from that region, represent nothing more
than the Chinese approximation of some ancient non-Chinese (possibly Aus-
tronesian) word. For more on the language of Wu and Yüeh, see, e.g., Don-
ald B. Wagner, “The Language of the Ancient Chinese State of Wu,” in The Master
Said: To Study and . . . : To Søren Egerod on the Occasion of His Sixty-seventh Birthday,
ed. Birthe Arendrup et al., East Asian Institute Occasional Papers 6 (Copen-
hagen: University of Copenhagen, 1990), 161–176.
18. On the so-called “Vertical Alliance” of lesser states united against
Ch’in, see, e.g., Yang K’uan, , Chan-kuo shih , 3d ed. (Shanghai: Jen-
min, 1998), 386 ff.; and Henri Maspero, “Le roman historique dans la littérature
chinoise de l’antiquité,” in idem, Mélanges posthumes sur les religions et l’histoire de
la Chine, Publications du Musée Guimet; Bibliothèque de diffusion 57–59 (Paris:
Civilisations du Sud, 1950), vol. 3, 55–62.
19. Following the commentary of Yü Yu-ting and others, Shiki kaich5 k7sh7
6.63.
20. Takigawa Kametar7, Shiki kaich5 k7sh7 6.63, notes that Sung Ch’ao, who
was famous for his incestuous relationship with his sister Nan-tzu, is called a “fine
boar” in Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 4, 1597 (Ting 14;497 B.C.). (The
passage was discussed in chapter 1 of the present volume.) Thus it appears that
humans who could not control their sexual desires were commonly likened to
pigs. See also n. 79, below.
21. Following the commentary of Shen Chia-pen (1840–1913), Shiki
kaich5 k7sh7 6.64.
22. “Ch’in Shih-huang pen-chi,” Shih-chi 6.261 f.
23. Compare the translation in Burton Watson, trans., Records of the Grand
Historian: Qin Dynasty (Hong Kong: Columbia University Press, 1993), 60 f.
24. Cf. Liu Tseng-kuei, , “Shih-lun Han-tai hun-yin kuan-hsi chung te
li-fa kuan-nien” , in Chung-kuo fu-nü shih lun-chi
164 Notes to Pages 80–81

hsü-chi , ed. Pao Chia-lin (Taipei: Tao-hsiang, 1991),

17.
25. For more on the inscription at Kuei-chi, see, e.g., Sheng I, , Chung-
kuo hun-su wen-hua , Yü nei-wai min-su hsüeh ts’ung-k’an (Shang-
hai: Wen-i, 1994), 336; Wu Chou, , Chung-kuo chi-nü sheng-huo shih
(Ch’ang-sha: Hu-nan wen-i, 1990), 8; Jack L. Dull, “Marriage and Divorce
in Han China: A Glimpse at ‘Pre-Confucian’ Society,” in Chinese Family Law and
Social Change in Historical and Comparative Perspective, ed. David C. Buxbaum, Asian
Law Series 3 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1978), 67 f.; and Ch’en Ku-
yüan, , Chung-kuo hun-yin shih , Chiu-chi hsin-k’an (1936; repr.,
Ch’ang-sha: Yüeh-lu, 1998), 119. Miao Wen-yüan , Chan-kuo chih-tu t’ung-
k’ao (Ch’eng-tu: Pa-Shu, 1998), 273, cites a passage from the in-
scription but identifies it mistakenly as from the inscription at Mount T’ai .
One of the most insightful discussions is still that of Ku Yen-wu (Shiki kaich5
k7sh7 6.64), who points out that the First Emperor probably selected Kuei-chi as
the site for this inscription because it lay in the ancient state of Yüeh—for the
most successful monarch of that state, King Kou-chien (r. 496–465
B.C.), is famous for having encouraged his subjects to reproduce in order to
increase his population. See, e.g., “Kou-chien mieh Wu” , Kuo-yü 20.635;
and “Kou-chien fa Wu wai-chuan” , in Chou Sheng-ch’un ,
Wu-Yüeh ch’un-ch’iu chi-chiao hui-k’ao (Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1997),
10.160. Ku Yen-wu then goes on to cite another section that is not found in the
extant Wu-Yüeh ch’un-ch’iu, wherein we are told further that Kou-chien would
transport licentious widows to a mountaintop (“Mount Single-Girl” ) and
let his anxious troops gratify their desires with them (cf. Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih,
vol. 2, 881 f., vol. 4, 2629). As Chou Sheng-ch’un points out (“Wu-Yüeh ch’un-ch’iu
i-wen” , Wu-Yüeh ch’un-ch’iu chi-chiao hui-k’ao, 271), this passage is preserved
in Li Fang (925–996) et al., T’ai-p’ing yü-lan (Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen
ts’ung-shu), 47.1b; see also “Ti-chuan” , Yüeh-chüeh shu (Ssu-pu ts’ung-
k’an), 8.10.11b. In other words, according to Ku Yen-wu (who vigorously
applauds this inscription), the First Emperor was emphasizing that he would no
longer tolerate such behavior. Ku Yen-wu then argues that the rules set down at
Kuei-chi represent one of the many precedents set by Ch’in that were later fol-
lowed by the Han and indeed all subsequent dynasties: “Those Confucians in the
world who say, concerning the Ch’in, that their policies were those of a doomed
state—oh, they have not investigated this very deeply!”
. Cf. also Mu-chou Poo, In Search of Personal Welfare:
A View of Ancient Chinese Religion, SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture
(Albany, 1998), 186 f.; Chou Chen-ho , “Ts’ung ‘Chiu-chou i-su’ tao ‘Liu-
ho t’ung-feng’—Liang-Han feng-su ch’ü-hua te pien-ch’ien”
— , Chung-kuo wen-hua yen-chiu 1997.4, 61
and 65 f.; Ch’ien Mu , Ch’in Han shih (Hong Kong: Hsin-hua, 1957),
16; and Wang Shu-nu, , Chung-kuo ch’ang-chi shih , Chiu-chi
hsin-k’an (Shanghai: Sheng-huo, 1934; repr., Ch’ang-sha: Yüeh-lu, 1998), 26.
26. Some of the more famous examples will come up in the course of the fol-
lowing discussion. Consider also the figure of Queen Dowager Hsüan (d.
after 311 B.C.), who was the mother of King Chao of Ch’in (r. 310–251
Notes to Pages 81–82 165

B.C.) and who is said to have fornicated with the ruler of the I-ch’ü barbar-
ians, before betraying him and thereby engineering a major military victory for
Ch’in over his people (“Hsiung-nu lieh-chuan” , Shih-chi 110.2885).
Elsewhere in the text, King Chao cites this affair when he apologizes to his client
Fan Sui (fl. 266–256 B.C.) for having overlooked him (“Fan Sui Ts’ai Tse
lieh-chuan” , Shih-chi 79.2406). In his ensuing lectures to the king,
Fan Sui begins to focus more and more on the manipulative behavior of the
Queen Dowager, as well as that of her younger brother, Marquis Jang (i.e.,
Wei Jan , fl. 300–271 B.C.), who was Prime Minister of Ch’in. Finally he
accuses them both of plotting to usurp the throne (“Fan Sui Ts’ai Tse lieh-
chuan,” Shih-chi 79.2411 f.). Fan Sui does not mention the Queen Dowager’s sex-
ual misconduct, but in having the king himself refer to her affair with the ruler
of the I-ch’ü, Ssu-ma Ch’ien discloses his own conviction that her various forms
of insubordination count as different manifestations of the same rebellious char-
acter. It may also not be a coincidence that Queen Dowager Hsüan was from the
state of Ch’in; as we shall see, Ssu-ma Ch’ien repeatedly employs the theme of
sexual transgression in order to attack the legitimacy of Ch’in’s rule. Finally, it
is alleged elsewhere and in a completely different context that the same Queen
Dowager carried on a shameful affair with a younger lover after her husband’s
death (see n. 91, below), so her reputation for lechery was probably well known
to Ssu-ma Ch’ien. Wu Shih-tao (1283–1344), for example, in his com-
mentary to “Ch’u wei Yung-shih wu-Yüeh” , Chan-kuo ts’e
(Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1978; repr., Taipei: Li-jen, 1990), 27.970 n.7 (where Queen
Dowager Hsüan declares, in effect, that she enjoyed being mounted by her late
husband), opines that her “words are filthy and vulgar in the extreme”
and that she is a fitting precursor of the First Emperor’s slatternly mother (whose
case is discussed in the text below). Compare J. I. Crump’s remarks in Legends of
the Warring States: Persuasions, Romances, and Stories from Chan-kuo Ts’e, Michigan
Monographs in Chinese Studies 83 (Ann Arbor, 1999), 103.
27. “Ssu-ma Ch’ien chuan,” Han-shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1962), 62.2736.
28. Compare the translation in Watson, Ssu-ma Ch’ien, 67.
29. For a slightly different ancient account of this affair, see “P’u-yang jen Lü
Pu-wei ku yü Han-tan” , Chan-kuo ts’e 7.275–81. See also
Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 6, 4064 ff.
30. “Lü Pu-wei lieh-chuan,” Shih-chi 85.2508.
31. Following the commentary of Liang Yü-sheng (1745–1819), Shiki
kaich5 k7sh7 85.7, who notes astutely that the phrase ta-ch’i (“great period”)
is defined by K’ung Ying-ta as the ten (lunar) months during which a woman
carries a child; see K’ung’s subcommentary to Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan cheng-i
14.1809b (Hsi 17;643 B.C.). (On the ten lunar months of pregnancy, see, e.g.,
Timothy Taylor, The Prehistory of Sex: Four Million Years of Human Sexual Culture
(New York: Bantam, 1996), 159 f.) The phrase ta-ch’i is almost always taken by
other commentators to mean an unusually long confinement (of eleven months
or more). Hence this passage is frequently adduced as evidence that the story of
the First Emperor’s illegitimacy is spurious.
32. Compare the translation in Watson, Records: Qin, 161 f.
33. “Lü Pu-wei lieh-chuan,” Shih-chi 85.2511.
166 Notes to Pages 82–84

34. Ssu-ma Ch’ien uses his future title; at this point Cheng had not yet uni-
fied China and assumed the title of emperor.
35. Literally, “with his penis closing [the hole] of a wheel of t’ung-wood.”
36. Following the commentary of Ts’ui Shih , Shiki kaich5 k7sh7 85.12.
37. Compare the translation in Watson, Records: Qin, 163 f.
38. “Lü Pu-wei chuan,” Shih-chi 85.2512. A parallel account of Lao Ai appears
in “Cheng-chien” , Shuo-yüan (K’ung-ts’ung-tzu Han-Wei ts’ung-
shu [1592; repr., Ch’ang-ch’un: Chi-lin Ta-hsüeh, 1992]), 9.420b f.; see
also “Ch’in Shih-huang pen-chi,” Shih-chi 6.227. Note that in “Ch’in kung Wei
chi,” , Chan-kuo ts’e 25.920, Lü Pu-wei and Lao Ai are presented as arch-
enemies rather than as coconspirators. Some scholars (cf. n. 42, below) cite this
point as reason to disbelieve the Shih-chi, but it is not impossible that Lao Ai, with
the Dowager in his clutches, indeed went on to become Lü Pu-wei’s greatest
rival, after having served him originally as his retainer. Cf. Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih,
vol. 5, 3249 f., 3565, 3579. There is a parallel to the Chan-kuo ts’e version in “Lun-
shih” , K’ung-ts’ung-tzu B.16.344b f. See Yoav Ariel, K’ung-ts’ung-tzu: A Study
and Translation of Chapters 15–23 with a Reconstruction of the Hsiao Erh-ya Dictio-
nary, Sinica Leidensia 35 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996), 50 n. 72.
39. Compare the translation in Watson, Records: Qin, 164; and the bowd-
lerized version in T’ung-tsu Ch’ü, 325 ff. Cf. Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 124, 359.
40. It is noteworthy that the Dowager’s fame is due entirely to her having
copulated with the most powerful men in Ch’in: Lü Pu-wei, Tzu-ch’u, and then
Lao Ai. She thus embodies totally Han Fei’s cynical image of dangerously libidi-
nous palace ladies (see chapter 1 in the present volume). Indeed, many readers
take her to have been an entertainer or prostitute before Lü Pu-wei took her
into his house (thus, e.g., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 2, 881). The support for this
reading comes in the statement that she was the loveliest and most skilled at
dancing among the various chi of Han-tan; chi can mean “courtesan” or
“mistress.” However, I think the sense of “lady” is more typical of Han usage.
41. This appears in a section that is now appended to “Ch’in Shih-huang
pen-chi,” Shih-chi 6.291.
42. Cf., e.g., Hung Chia-i , Lü Pu-wei p’ing-chuan , Chung-
kuo ssu-hsiang chia p’ing-chuan ts’ung-shu 11 (Nan-ching: Nan-ching Ta-hsüeh,
1995), 80 f.; Derk Bodde, Statesman, Patriot, and General in Ancient China: Three
Shih-chi Biographies of the Ch’in Dynasty (255–206 B.C.), American Oriental Series
17 (New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society, 1940), 15 ff.; and “The State
and Empire of Ch’in,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 1 (The Ch’in and Han
Empires, 221 B.C.-A.D. 220), ed. Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe (Cambridge,
1986), 95. Bodde’s arguments are based largely on Ch’ien Mu, Hsien-Ch’in chu-
tzu hsi-nien , 2d ed., Ts’ang-hai ts’ung-k’an (Hong Kong: Hong
Kong University Press, 1956; repr., Taipei: Tung-ta, 1990), secs. 159 and 161.
Ch’ien points out that the account in the Shih-chi biography of Lü Pu-wei differs
materially from that in the Chan-kuo ts’e and other texts (including other por-
tions of the Shih-chi itself), adding that the motif of the pregnant concubine
appears in at least one other well-known tale of royal bastardy and hence may
not be believable. Bodde, “The State and Empire of Ch’in,” also notes that the
period of the Dowager’s confinement is not made clear, but this reflects a mis-
Notes to Page 84 167

understanding of the text that was cleared up long ago by Liang Yü-sheng (see
note 31, above).
43. “Ch’in Shih-huang pen-chi,” Shih-chi 6.223. Ku Yen-wu, Shiki kaich5 k7sh7
6.2, complains that Ssu-ma Ch’ien always conflates the hsing and the shih
(of which the former is determined by blood, the latter by any number of crite-
ria); cf. also Sheng I, 384. Thus the First Emperor took “Chao” as his shih (and
not his hsing), either because he was born in Chao or because the denizens of
Ch’in all took “Chao” as their shih since they considered themselves to be the
descendants of Tsao Fu , the legendary charioteer who was enfeoffed in the
city of Chao. Cf. “Ch’in pen-chi,” Shih-chi 5.175.
44. Cf. Paul Rakita Goldin, “Personal Names in Early China—A Research
Note,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 120.1 (2000), 78 f.
45. Ting Tu (990–1053) et al., Sung-k’o Chi-yün (1037; repr.,
Peking: Chung-hua, 1989), 8.15b, states that lao can be a surname, but I suspect
that the authors specifically have Lao Ai in mind. Some editions of the Shih-chi
give Lao Ai’s surname as Chiu ; see Mizusawa Toshitada , Shiki kaich5
k7sh7 k7ho (Tokyo: Shiki kaich5 k7sh7 k7ho kank7 kai, 1957–
1970; repr., Taipei: Kuang-wen, 1972), 85.7 (;2713 in the repr. ed.). Similarly,
Ch’en Chih , Shih-chi hsin-cheng (T’ien-chin: Jen-min, 1979), 143,
attempts to connect Lao Ai with two figures known from other texts, namely
Prime Minister Chiu and General Chiao/Chiu , on the basis of
the graphic similarity of their names. Ch’en Chih does not acknowledge that
Ch’ien Ta-hsin (1728–1804), Nien-erh shih k’ao-i (Shih-hsüeh
ts’ung-shu ), 1.7b, had the same idea two hundred years ago. Yen Shih-
ku, in his commentary to “Wu-hsing chih” , Han-shu 27B2.1422 n. 3, also
remarks that some people read as “Chiu” ( ; in other words, as though
it were written ). Finally, Lu Ts’ang-yung (ca. A.D. 660–ca. 715), Shiki
kaich5 k7sh7 85.11, asserts that Lao Ai’s name should be written but then
adds that should be pronounced “Lao”! So no one has ever adequately ex-
plained Lao Ai’s surname—or, if it really was originally Chiu , why he should
have used such a unique variant.
46. Chiang Jen-chieh , Shuo-wen chieh-tzu chi-chu , ed. Liu Jui
(Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1996), 12B.2660.
47. Cf. Shuo-wen chieh-tzu chi-chu 12B.2642, and the various commentaries ad
loc. For other connections between poison and sexual transgression, see, e.g.,
chapter 2, n. 60, above.
48. Morohashi Tetsuji , Dai Kan-Wa jiten , rev. ed. (Tokyo:
Daish5kan, 1986), entry 6669.1, vol. 3, 753, quotes the K’ung-ts’ung-tzu as specu-
lating that Lao Ai earned this epithet because of his misbehavior with his penis.
However, I cannot find this statement in any edition, and I suspect that Moro-
hashi has conflated a commentarial remark with the original text. Tuan Yü-ts’ai
(1735–1815), Shuo-wen chieh-tzu Tuan chu (Ssu-pu pei-yao), 12B.21b, was
evidently aware of the uncanny appropriateness of Lao Ai’s name; he writes:
“[‘Misdeed’] is the basic meaning of ai. It is not the case that this character was
created for Lao Ai” .
49. This is related by Hsü Shen in Shuo-wen chieh-tzu chi-chu 12B.2660. Accord-
ing to Ssu-ma Chen (fl. early eighth century), the author of the So-yin
168 Notes to Pages 84–89

commentary to the Shih-chi, Wang Shao (fl. early sixth century) cited
an almost identical remark, also attributing it to Chia I; see his commentary
to “Ch’in Shih-huang pen-chi,” Shih-chi 6.227 n. 1.
50. See, for example, the comments by Chai Hao (1736–1788) in
“Chuang-mao” , T’ung-su pien (Wu-pu-i chai ed., 1751),
34.8a f. The Wu-pu-i chai edition of T’ung-su pien is on deposit in the Rare Book
Room of Harvard-Yenching Library (T9301/1138). The two most common edi-
tions of this work (viz., Han-hai and Ts’ung-shu chi-ch’eng ) are both
incomplete and do not contain this chapter.
51. Yin , “sex organ” or “conspiracy,” is completely unrelated to yin ,
“licentiousness.”
52. Cf. Kuo Hsing-wen , Chung-kuo ch’uan-t’ung hun-yin feng-su
, Chung-kuo feng-su ts’ung-shu (Hsi-an: Shensi jen-min, 1994), 193 ff.
53. “Ching Yen shih-chia” , Shih-chi 51.1997; “Ching Yen Wu chuan”
, Han-shu 35.1903.
54. Cf. Sheng I, 231; and Liu Tseng-kuei, “Han-tai hun-yin kuan-hsi,” 6.
55. Cf. Dull, 69.
56. “P’ing-chin Hou Chu-fu lieh-chuan” , Shih-chi 112.2962;
“Yen Chu Wu-ch’iu Chu-fu Hsü Yen Chung Wang Chia chuan”
, Han-shu 64A.2803 f.
57. See, e.g., “Wu-tsung shih-chia” , Shih-chi 59.2098 f. In addition
to other crimes, the Prince of Chao took the former concubine of his deceased
cousin as his own. This lady, for her part, was notorious for having slept with her
husband’s son.
58. For an insightful, if somewhat dated, account of Chou-dynasty feudalism,
see Herrlee G. Creel, The Origins of Statecraft in China (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1970). The classic study of feudalism in Europe is Marc Bloch,
Feudal Society, trans. L. A. Manyon (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961).
59. On the policies of Emperors Ching and Wu, see, e.g., Lin Chien-ming
, Hsin-pien Ch’in Han shih (Taipei: Wu-nan, 1992), vol. 1, 389 ff.
and 484–493; Michael Loewe, “The Former Han Dynasty,” in Twitchett and
Loewe, vol. 1, 137 ff. and 156 f; T’ung-tsu Ch’ü, 165 ff.; Dull, 69 f.; Tao Tien-yi,
“Vassal Kings and Marquises of the Former Han Dynasty,” Bulletin of the Institute
of History and Philology 46.1 (1974), 170 ff.; and Ch’ien Mu, Ch’in Han shih, 229 ff.
60. “P’ing-chin Hou Chu-fu lieh-chuan,” Shih-chi 112.2961; “Yen Chu Wu-
ch’iu Chu-fu Hsü Yen Chung Wang Chia chuan,” Han-shu 64A.2802.
61. See Ch’ao Ts’o’s biographies in “Yüan Ang Ch’ao Ts’o lieh-chuan”
, Shih-chi 101.2742–2748; and “Yüan Ang Ch’ao Ts’o chuan”
, Han-shu 49.2276–2305.
62. Compare the translation in Watson, Records: Han, vol. 2, 203 f.
63. “Wu-tsung shih-chia,” Shih-chi 59.2096.
64. For an account of these rebellious princes, see, e.g., Benjamin E. Wal-
lacker, “Liu An, Second King of Huai-nan (180?–122 B.C.), Journal of the American
Oriental Society 92 (1972), 36–51.
65. Compare the translation in Watson, Records: Han, vol. 1, 391 f.
66. Cf., e.g., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 19; Kuo Hsing-wen, 70 ff.; Sheng I,
229 ff. and 334 ff.; Stephen Durrant, “Smoothing Edges and Filling Gaps: Tso
Notes to Pages 89–90 169

chuan and the ‘General Reader,’” Journal of the American Oriental Society 112.1
(1992), 40; T’ung Shu-yeh, , Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan yen-chiu
(Shanghai: Jen-min, 1980), 209 ff. and 347 f.; and Liu Te-han , Tung-Chou
fu-nü sheng-huo (Taipei: Hsüeh-sheng, 1976), 52 f. Melvin P.
Thatcher, “Marriages of the Ruling Elite in the Spring and Autumn Period,” in
Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, ed. Rubie S. Watson and Patricia Buck-
ley Ebrey, Studies on China 12 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 1991), 48 n. 2, argues that cheng (i.e., copulating with one’s
father’s wife or concubine) was “regarded as aberrant and unacceptable” in the
Spring and Autumn period, but the texts that he cites as justification all date
from centuries later.
In its characteristic debunking fashion, “Chung-hsiao” , in Ch’en Ch’i-
yu, Han Fei-tzu chi-shih , Chung-kuo ssu-hsiang ming-chu (Peking:
Chung-hua, 1958; repr., Taipei: Shih-chieh, 1991), 20.51.1108, suggests that the
Sage-King Shun “took his mother as a concubine” . Cf. Eduard Erkes,
“Zur Sage von Shun,” T’oung Pao 34.4 (1938–1939), 315 f., who explains this
information as evidence of an ancient practice akin to the levirate, whereby sons
would inherit their widowed mothers. Wolfgang Münke, Die klassische chinesische
Mythologie (Stuttgart: Ernst Klett, 1976), 295 f., argues that ch’ieh in this con-
text does not connote a sexual relationship. The commentary of Hosaka Seis7
(1775–1834), Han Fei-tzu chi-shih 20.51.1113 n. 24, is equivocal; he
glosses ch’ieh as pi (female slave, maid), which also may or may not be the des-
ignation of sexual slave. (On ch’ieh as a general term for a female slave, see also
T’ung Shu-yeh, 312.) Ch’en Ch’i-yu refers to Hosaka as Sh7k7en , one of
his many appellations. The commentary is taken from Hosaka’s Teihon Kampishi
sammon (1809).
67. “Ching shih-san wang chuan” , Han-shu 53.2416. Incidentally,
Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 5, 3699, recounts all of these transgressions, omitting
only the last and most shocking: bestiality.
68. Following the commentary of Yen Shih-ku; cf. also Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih,
vol. 1, 666; and Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China
(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1985), 4385. Pa-tzu was a title in
the harem hierarchy. See, e.g., Robert Joe Cutter and William Gordon Crowell,
Empresses and Consorts: Selections from Chen Shou’s Records of the Three States with
Pei Songzhi’s Commentary (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1999), 13 f.; and
Hans Bielenstein, The Bureaucracy of Han Times, Cambridge Studies in Chinese
History, Literature, and Institutions (Cambridge, 1980), 73.
69. This detail makes the reader think immediately of Empress Dowager Lü
and her treatment of Lady Ch’i (cf. n. 13, above).
70. Following the commentary of Wang Hsien-ch’ien, Han-shu pu-chu
, Erh-shih-ssu shih k’ao-ting ts’ung-shu chuan-chi (1900; repr., Peking: Shu-
mu wen-hsien, 1995), 53.6a.
71. See esp. 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: E. J. Brill, 1961;
repr., New York: Barnes and Noble, 1996), 61 f.
72. Van Gulik, 167, cites a solitary reference from the T’ang dynasty: Li Yin
(fl. ca. 865–870), Hsiao-hsiang lu (Ku-chin shuo-hai ), 5b f.
170 Notes to Pages 90–91

(i.e., the last item in this small collection). Cf. also de Groot, vol. 4, 256 ff. Van
Gulik notes that even this case is different, because the woman involved copu-
lated with a dog of her own free will, whereas the bestiality of Liu Chien’s harem
ladies was coerced (though van Gulik does not appear to take into account the
statement in Hsiao-hsiang lu that the woman yielded to the dog’s advances out of
“fear” ). Liu Ta-lin, , Chung-kuo ku-tai hsing wen-hua
(Yin-ch’uan: Ning-hsia jen-min, 1993), vol. 1, 306 ff., discusses early notices of
bestiality, including that of Li Yin; most appear in Ch’ing-dynasty sources. An
ancient demonography discusses a horror that may be understood as the visita-
tion of a canine incubus who copulates with men’s wives: “When a dog continu-
ally enters someone’s apartment at night, seizing the men and playing with the
women, and cannot be apprehended, this is Spirit-Hound acting as a ghost”
; text in “Chieh-chiu,”
Shui-hu-ti Ch’in-mu chu-chien, 212; and Liu Lo-hsien, , Shui-hu-ti Ch’in-chien
Jih-shu yen-chiu , Ta-lu ti-ch’ü po-shih lun-wen ts’ung-k’an
76 (Taipei: Wen-chin, 1994), 227. Compare the translation in Donald Harper,
“Spellbinding,” in Religions of China in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Princeton
Readings in Religions (Princeton, 1996), 245; and the discussion in Hsü Fu-
ch’ang , “Shui-hu-ti Ch’in-mu Jih-shu chung te kuei-shen hsin-yang”
, in Chang I-jen hsien-sheng ch’i-chih shou-ch’ing lun-wen
chi (Taipei: Hsüeh-sheng, 1999), vol. 2, 899 ff.
There is also an important nexus of myths that link the origins of various
“barbarian” peoples to the sexual union of a woman and an animal (such as
a monkey, snake, dog, or wolf). See esp. de Groot, vol. 4, 253–271; and cf. also
Victor H. Mair, “Canine Conundrums: Dog Ancestor Myths of Origin in Ethnic
Perspective,” Sino-Platonic Papers 87 (1998); Anne Birrell, Chinese Mythology: An
Introduction (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 118–119; and
N. J. Girardot, Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism: The Theme of Chaos (hun-tun),
Hermeneutics: Studies in the History of Religions (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1983), 188 ff. and 320–322.
73. See, e.g., chapter 2, n. 26, in this volume.
74. Mencius 2A.6, Meng-tzu cheng-i 7.233 ff.
75. I. A. Richards, Mencius on the Mind: Experiments in Multiple Definition
(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1932), 19, suggests that the “sound” refers
to “the unpleasant sound of the child thudding down into the well, not the mere
rumour or report of what has happened.” Traditional commentators since at
least Chao Ch’i (d. A.D. 201), however, take it to mean a bad reputation.
See also the commentary of Chiao Hsün ad loc.
76. Compare the translation in D. C. Lau, Mencius (New York: Penguin,
1970), 82 f. For more on this aspect of Mencius’ philosophy, see, e.g., A. C.
Graham, Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China (La Salle, Ill.:
Open Court, 1989), 123–132; and Kwong-loi Shun, Mencius and Early Chinese
Thought (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997), 48 ff.
77. “Fei-hsiang” , Hsün-tzu chi-chieh 3.5.78 f.
78. Compare the translation in John Knoblock, Xunzi: A Translation and Study
of the Complete Works (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1988–1994), vol.
1, 206.
Notes to Pages 91–93 171

79. Compare also the “Li-cheng chiu-pai chieh” chapter of the

Kuan-tzu : “Thus they pursue their desires and behave recklessly; men and
women, not being separated, revert to being animals”
; text in Tai Wang (1783–1863), Kuan-tzu chiao-cheng , in
Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (1935; repr., Peking: Chung-hua, 1954), 21.65.338.
80. For a more extended discussion of these issues in Mencius and Hsün-tzu,
see, e.g., Paul Rakita Goldin, Rituals of the Way: The Philosophy of Xunzi (Chicago:
Open Court, 1999), 1 ff. and 72 ff.
81. Scholars often cite the legends surrounding Chòu , the last King of
Shang, but unfortunately the well-known references to his sexual transgressions
in the Shang-shu (cited in Mark Edward Lewis, Sanctioned Violence in Early China,
SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture [Albany, N.Y., 1999], 260 n. 77)
all appear in spurious chapters. The most explicit account, “Yin pen-chi”
, Shih-chi 3.105 ff., dates, of course, from the Han dynasty. This is where we
read of his carousals at Sha-ch’iu : “He would make a pond of wine and sus-
pend meat to make a forest, causing men and women to chase each other naked
therein, and making an all-night drinking party of it”
. Cf. also Raphals, Sharing the Light, 63; and Granet,
Danses et légendes, vol. 2, 395 n. 1. We should keep in mind, however, that Chòu
is already described as “licentious and dissolute” in the earliest stratum of
the Shang-shu ; see, e.g., “To-shih” , Shang-shu cheng-i (Shih-san ching chu-
shu), 16.220a. The specific crimes of Chòu enumerated there are impiety and
disregard of the plight of his people, but the term yin may imply that there was
some sexual element to his crimes as well.
82. “T’ai-tzu Chin chien Ling-wang yung Ku-shui” , Kuo-
yü 3.102–104. The myth is related in the context of a speech by Crown Prince
Chin (who died before taking the throne; see the commentary of Tung Tseng-
ling, Kuo-yü cheng-i 3.11b) criticizing the plan of his father, King Ling of Chou
(r. 571–545 B.C.), to dam a river that was threatening to flood the royal palace.
The entire speech is translated and analyzed in James A. Hart, “The Speech of
Prince Chin: A Study of Early Chinese Cosmology,” in Explorations in Early Chinese
Cosmology: Papers Presented at the Workshop on Classical Chinese Thought Held at Har-
vard University, August 1976, ed. Henry Rosemont, Jr., Journal of the American Acad-
emy of Religion Thematic Studies 50.2 (Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1984), 35–65.
83. The word wu , though commonly used to mean any kind of “thing,”
seems to refer consistently to living creatures in this passage (as it does elsewhere
in the Kuo-yü); see, e.g., K. C. Chang, Art, Myth, and Ritual: The Path to Political
Authority in Ancient China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983), 63 ff.
The presence of the niu (ox) radical in the graph suggests that something
close to “animal” was indeed the original sense.
84. Following Tu Yü and K’ung Ying-ta, who both gloss hun as the death
of an infant who has not lived three months and consequently has not been
named; see their commentaries to Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan cheng-i 48.2087c (Chao
19;523 B.C.). Wang Nien-sun (1744–1832) and others take the term to
mean mo (demise); see the corresponding section in Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu,
vol. 4, 1402 f. However, the older explanation (which Yang Po-chün does not
reproduce) fits the context more closely. Compare also the commentary in I
172 Notes to Pages 93–94

Chung-t’ien and Hou Nai-hui , Kuo-yü tu-pen , Ku-chi chin-

chu hsin-i ts’ung-shu; Li-shih lei (Taipei: San-min, 1995), 120 n. 8. (Despite the
implication of the title, this is a very serious work with insightful commentary.)
Wei Chao glosses hun as “madness” , which is an acceptable sense, though
it ruins the parallelism of the sentence.
85. See especially the commentary of Tung Tseng-ling, Kuo-yü cheng-i 3.14b;
Takigawa Kametar7 in Shiki kaich5 k7sh7 1.29; as well as Cheng Hsüan’s commen-
taries to “Sung-kao” (Mao 259), Mao-Shih cheng-i (Shih-san ching chu-shu),
18C.565c; and “Wu-ti pen-chi” , Shih-chi 1.21 n. 6 (as quoted by P’ei
Yin). Cf. Karlgren, “Legends and Cults,” 258 f.
86. Commentators since Wei Chao have regularly taken fu-yin in the
sense of “summer frost” (and san-yang as winter heat), because fu can also
refer to a period in midsummer. For this sense of fu, see, e.g., Poo, In Search of
Personal Welfare, 130 f.; and Derk Bodde, Festivals in Classical China (Princeton,
N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1975), 317 ff. But it is not clear to me how this
interpretation can account for the evident parallelism between Heaven and
Earth in this sentence; for how are we to comprehend “There was no summer
frost in Heaven, no winter heat-waves on Earth”? Moreover, it is not obvious that
the phrase san-yang (diffusion of yang), though clearly in parallel position to fu-
yin, must refer specifically to abnormal warmth in winter. Morohashi, entry
13265.232, vol. 5, 529, defines san-yang as “the absence of frost in winter”
, but relies precisely on Wei Chao’s commentary to this passage as
evidence. More likely is the intended contrast between Heaven and yin on the
one hand, and Earth and yang on the other, because Heaven was regarded as the
supreme instantiation of yang, and Earth as that of yin. But see the commentary
of Tung Tseng-ling, Kuo-yü cheng-i 3.15b and 16a.
87. Compare the translation in Hart, 39 f.; and the partial translation in
Anne Birrell, “The Four Flood Myth Traditions of Classical China,” T’oung Pao
83.4–5 (1997), 234 and 248 f. (Hart confuses the graphs yü and yü .)
88. Cf. Birrell, “Flood Myth Traditions,” 234. As we have seen in chapter 2,
the phrase chan-lo also appears tellingly in Mao 256 (“I”), in which rulers
given to “dissolute pleasures” are criticized for offending against Heaven and
thereby bringing about their own ruination.
89. Note that Kung Kung and Kun both appear in several other versions of
the flood myth, and Kun is sometimes portrayed sympathetically as a hero who
simply failed in his task to control the floods. See, e.g., Birrell, Chinese Mythology,
79 ff. and 97 f. For more on Kung Kung as marplot, see esp. William G. Boltz,
“Kung Kung and the Flood: Reverse Euhemerism in the Yao tien,” T’oung Pao
67.3–5 (1981), 141–153. Cf. also Münke, 219–232; Marcel Granet, La pensée chi-
noise, L’évolution de l’humanité: Synthèse collective 25b (Paris: Albin Michel,
1950), 344 ff.; Granet, Danses et légendes, vol. 2, 485 f.; and Bernhard Karlgren,
“Legends and Cults in Ancient China,” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern An-
tiquities 18 (1946), 218 ff.
90. “Fa-lü ta-wen” , Shui-hu-ti Ch’in-mu chu-chien, 134; cf. Hulsewé,
Remnants of Ch’in Law, D 152. The same text, incidentally, affirms that a woman
may leave her husband with impunity if she (or if the relationship) has not yet
been kuan —the meaning of which is unclear. (If she has been kuan, the run-
Notes to Page 94 173

away wife is liable to be “sentenced” .) The editors of Shui-hu-ti Ch’in-mu chu-

chien, 132, surmise that kuan signifies official recognition of the marriage, in
which case one must conclude that the law allowed unmarried men and women
to cohabit freely. Cf. Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, D 145. Another article in
the same text mandates the punishment of a certain woman who leaves her hus-
band, takes another lover, and does not inform her husband for two years. This
passage is also tantalizing, because the text does not say whether or how she
should be punished if she informed her husband immediately. See “Fa-lü ta-
wen,” Shui-hu-ti Ch’in-mu chu-chien, 132; and Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law, D
146. Finally, “Feng-chen shih” , Shui-hu-ti Ch’in-mu chu-chien, 163, contains
the model testimony of a private citizen who has fettered and delivered to the
authorities a man and a woman that he has discovered “fornicating” . Once
again, however, we are not provided with a precise protocol as to what does and
does not constitute punishable fornication. Cf. Miao Wen-yüan, 273; Hulsewé,
Remnants of Ch’in Law, E 25; and Katrina C. D. McLeod and Robin D. S. Yates,
“Forms of Ch’in Law: An Annotated Translation of the Feng-chen shih,” Harvard
Journal of Asiatic Studies 41.1 (1981), 162.
91. The “Sang-fu” section of the I-li , for example, far from con-
demning remarriage, requires that if one’s widowed stepmother remarries, and
one accompanies her to her new husband’s house, then one must wear sack-
cloth for an entire year after her death, in order to show respect for mothers
who love their children to the end. See “Sang-fu,” I-li chu-shu (Shih-san ching chu-
shu), 30.1104c; and the commentary in Hu P’ei-hui (1782–1849), I-li
cheng-i (Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts’ung-shu), 10.22.42 f.
Incidentally, the ancient literature contains not a few ribald stories about
women who have more than one husband or lover during their lifetimes; this
seems to have been a favorite theme for jokes and witticisms. Howard S. Levy,
Chinese Sex Jokes in Traditional Times, Asian Folklore and Social Life Monographs
58, Sino-Japanese Sexology Classics Series 5 (Taipei, 1973), has collected and
translated 456 anecdotes that he calls sex jokes (the vast majority of which date
from the Ming dynasty or later). It is remarkable that virtually all of the ancient
material has to do with adulterous women or women who wish to remarry. See
especially items 30, 51, 185, and 209. Levy does not include the amusing story in
“Ch’in Hsüan t’ai-hou ai Wei Ch’ou-fu” , Chan-kuo ts’e 4.167,
in which the widowed Queen Dowager Hsüan of Ch’in, on her deathbed, is per-
suaded not to have her young lover buried alive with her, lest she thereby enrage
her deceased husband in the afterworld. See also Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1,
123 f., 354. Other notorious women, such as Lady Hsia and Nan-tzu, were dis-
cussed in chapter 1 of the present volume.
92. Cf., e.g., Shen Chia-pen, “Yü hou-mu luan” and “Chia-tzu i mu
wei ch’i” , Han-lü chih-i , in Shen Chi-i hsien-sheng i-shu
(n.d.; repr., Taipei: Wen-hai, 1964), 8.9a f.
93. See n. 66, above.
94. “Ku-chi lieh-chuan” , Shih-chi 126.3199. For the meaning of the
term ku-chi, see, e.g., Ch’ien Chung-shu, vol. 1, 316–317; see also Lai Han-p’ing
, Shih-chi p’ing-shang , San-min ts’ung-k’an 159 (Taipei, 1998),
283.
174 Notes to Page 94

The jester, named “Ch’un-yü the Shaved” , is also noteworthy because

he is one of the most famous early examples of a chui-hsü (excrescent son-
in-law), that is, a husband who is forced on account of indigence to reside with
his wife’s family. Chia I explains the term in “Chia I chuan,” Han-shu 48.2244.
Cf. further Goldin, “Personal Names,” 79; Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 4, 2635, 2648;
Bret Hinsch, “Women, Kinship, and Property as Seen in a Han Dynasty Will,”
T’oung Pao 84.1–3 (1998), 5 ff.; Sheng I, 254 ff.; Hellmut Wilhelm, “Notes on
Chou Fiction,” in Transition and Permanence: Chinese History and Culture, ed. David
C. Buxbaum and Frederick W. Mote (Hong Kong: Cathay, 1972), 265 n. 25;
T’ung-tsu Ch’ü, 252 n. 8; and Ch’en Ku-yüan, 70. This man is usually referred to
as Ch’un-yü K’un (or Shun-yü K’un, a variant that I do not understand), but k’un
is probably an epithet (“shaved,” like a slave). See Sheng I, 258 f.; and David
R. Knechtges, “Riddles as Poetry: The ‘Fu-Chapter’ of the Hsün-tzu,” in Wen-lin:
Studies in the Chinese Humanities, ed. Tse-tsung Chow (Madison: University of Wis-
consin Press, 1968–1989), vol. 2, 22 n. 98. The surname Ch’un-yü was taken from
the name of the capital of the ancient state of Chou ; see Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan
chu I, 108 (Huan 5;707 B.C.). See also the comments by Ying Shao in “Hsing-
shih” (as reconstructed from surviving fragments); text in Wang Li-ch’i
, Feng-su t’ung-i chiao-chu (Taipei: Ming-wen, 1982), 509. (So
“Ch’un-yü K’un” might actually just mean “the shaved man from Ch’un-yü.”)
Granet, Danses et légendes, vol. 1, 17 n. 1, misconstrues the name totally and reads
it as though it were “Shun Yü-k’un.”
A contemporaneous Ch’un-yü K’un appears in several contexts as one of the
world’s leading rhetoricians. See, e.g., Mencius 4A.17, text in Chiao Hsün
(1763–1820), Meng-tzu cheng-i , ed. Shen Wen-cho , Hsin-pien
Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1987), 15.520–522; Mencius 6B.6, Meng-
tzu cheng-i 24.829–838; “Pao-keng” , in Ch’en Ch’i-yu, Lü-shih ch’un-ch’iu
chiao-shih (Shanghai: Hsüeh-lin, 1984), 15.894 f.; “Wei shih-chia” , Shih-chi
44.1847; “Meng-tzu Hsün Ch’ing lieh-chuan” , Shih-chi 74.2347;
Han-Shih wai-chuan (Ssu-pu ts’ung-k’an ), 6.7b–8a; “Fu-en”
, Shuo-yüan 6.410a; “Tsun-hsien” , Shuo-yüan 8.418c; and “Chih-shih” ,
in Huang Hui , Lun-heng chiao-shih (fu Liu P’an-sui chi-chieh) (
), Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1990), 26.79.
1098 f. He is also the subject of several articles in the Chan-kuo ts’e: “Meng-ch’ang
chün tsai Hsüeh” , Chan-kuo ts’e 10.376–377; “Ch’un-yü K’un i-jih erh
hsien ch’i-jen yü Hsüan-wang” , Chan-kuo ts’e 10.388–
389; “Ch’i yü fa Wei” , Chan-kuo ts’e 10.390; “Ch’i yü fa Wei,” Chan-kuo
ts’e 24.865–866; and “Su Tai wei Yen shui Ch’i” , Chan-kuo ts’e
30.1092. Since this Ch’un-yü K’un, like the jester, was in the service of King Wei
of Ch’i (r. 357–320 B.C.), commentators have continually assumed that
“Ch’un-yü K’un” always refers to the same man; see, e.g., the commentaries of
Yen Jo-ch’ü (1636–1704) and Chou Kuang-yeh (1730–1798) to
Meng-tzu cheng-i 15.521; as well as Wilhelm, 252–258; and Ch’ien Mu, Hsien-Ch’in
chu-tzu hsi-nien, sec. 118. However, it is very strange that Ssu-ma Ch’ien should
have included two separate biographies of Ch’un-yü K’un, as though there were
two contemporary personages by the same appellation: “Ku-chi lieh-chuan,”
Shih-chi 126.3197–3199; and “Meng-tzu Hsün Ch’ing lieh-chuan,” Shih-chi 74.2347.
Notes to Pages 94–95 175

The only other person in the Shih-chi who has more than one biography is Tuan-
mu Tz’u (b. 520 B.C.), better known as Tzu-kung . See the commen-
tary of Chao I in Shiki kaich5 k7sh7 67.17.
95. “Wang Liao shih kung-tzu Kuang chuan” , Wu-Yüeh
ch’un-ch’iu chi-chiao hui-k’ao 3.23. It has been demonstrated solidly that rulers of
various states routinely exchanged pleasure women for diplomatic purposes
(and also used them to reward loyal vassals). Cf., e.g., Wu Chou, 5 ff.; and Wang
Shu-nu, 23 f.
We have seen earlier (ch. 2, n. 76) that Mencius did not condemn King
Hsüan of Ch’i for his sexual appetite. Similarly, in “Hsiao-k’uang” , Kuan-tzu
chiao-cheng 8.20.129, the figure of Kuan Chung surprises his lord by declar-
ing that the latter’s love of sex is not a crucial shortcoming.
96. See, e.g., Wang Mao (1151–1213), “Ku-che nan-nü hsiang-chien
wu-hsien” , Yeh-k’o ts’ung-shu , ed. Wang Wen-chin
, Hsüeh-shu pi-chi ts’ung-k’an (Peking: Chung-hua, 1987), 1.4 f., an early
attempt to show that males and females were not embarrassed to see each other
naked in ancient times, as an illustration of how early society was less restrictive
from a sexual point of view. Wang’s specific examples do not always stand up to
scrutiny, but his larger point is valid.
97. See, e.g., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 488 f.; Sheng I, 336; Liu Ta-lin,
Chung-kuo ku-tai hsing wen-hua, vol. 1, 238 f.; Liu Tseng-kuei, “Han-tai hun-yin
kuan-hsi,” 9; and Wu Chou, 8.
98. On the reforms of Kung-sun Yang (i.e., Lord Shang , putative author
of the Shang-chün shu ), see, e.g., T’ien Ch’ang-wu and Tsang Chih-fei
, Chou Ch’in she-hui chieh-kou yen-chiu , Chou Ch’in Han
T’ang yen-chou shu-hsi (Hsi-an: Hsi-pei Ta-hsüeh, 1996), 278 ff.; Lewis, Sanc-
tioned Violence, 61 ff.; Cheng Liang-shu, Shang Yang p’ing-chuan , Chung-
kuo ssu-hsiang chia p’ing-chuan ts’ung-shu 5 (Nan-ching: Nan-ching Ta-hsüeh,
1998), 103–170, and Shang Yang chi-ch’i hsüeh-p’ai (Shanghai: Ku-
chi, 1989), esp. 169–182; Moriya Mitsuo , Ch5goku kodai no kazoku to
kokka (Kyoto: T7y7shi Kenky5kai, 1968), 3–138; and
Yang K’uan, Shang Yang pien-fa (Shanghai: Jen-min, 1955). The popu-
lar opprobrium leading to his demise is described in “Wei Yang wang Wei ju
Ch’in” , Chan-kuo ts’e 3.75 ff.; and “Shang-chün lieh-chuan,” Shih-chi
68.2227–2240.
99. For the illustrative example of Nazi sexual ideology, see Hans Peter
Bleuel, Das saubere Reich (Bern: Scherz, 1972). Compare the more tendentious
account in Magnus Hirschfeld et al., The Sexual History of the World War (New
York: Cadillac, 1946), 270–318. (For its information on sexual life during World
War I, on the other hand, Hirschfeld’s work is an unparalleled classic.) Some
modern Asian regimes have displayed similar attitudes. See, e.g., Sabine Frühstück,
“Managing the Truth of Sex in Imperial Japan,” Journal of Asian Studies 59.2
(2000), 332–358; and M. J. Meijer, Marriage Law and Policy in the Chinese People’s
Republic (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1971).
100. The oldest extant version of this essay is in “Ch’in Shih-huang pen-chi,”
Shih-chi 6.276–284. The work also appears in the Hsin-shu , which is attrib-
uted to Chia I; see the annotated edition in Wang Chou-ming and Hsü
176 Notes to Pages 95–99

Ch’ao , Chia I chi chiao-chu , Hsin-chu ku-tai wen-hsüeh ming-

chia chi (Peking: Jen-min wen-hsüeh, 1996), 1–22.
101. Cf., e.g., Loewe, “The Former Han Dynasty,” 148 ff.; and Ch’ien Mu,
Ch’in Han shih, 61 ff. On the abrogation of mutilation, see the memorial in
“Hsing-fa chih” , Han-shu 23.1099; which is translated with commentary
in Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law, 335 f. Castration was reinstituted as a substi-
tute for the death penalty in such extreme cases as that of Ssu-ma Ch’ien. Cf.,
e.g., Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law, 385 n. 185; and Shen Chia-pen, “Kung” ,
Han-lü chih-i 9.12a f. Oskar Weggel, Chinesische Rechtsgeschichte, Handbuch der
Orientalistik 4.6 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1980), 31, erroneously attributes the aboli-
tion of mutilating punishments to Emperor Wu. On the Han portrayal of the
Ch’in in general, see, e.g., Yü Tsung-fa , Hsien-Ch’in chu-tzu hsüeh-shuo tsai
Ch’in-ti chih fa-chan , Wen-shih-che ta-hsi 133 (Taipei:
Wen-chin, 1998), 9–19.
102. “Chao Yin Han Chang liang-Wang chuan” , Han-shu
76.3227.
103. Following the interpretation in Dull, 70, who argues compellingly that
there really were no such laws in Wang Tsun’s time. But lü wu ch’i-mu chih fa
could also mean something like, “The code does not countenance
the practice of cohabiting with one’s mother.” Note also that Ho Hsiu (A.D.
129–182), in his commentary to Ch’un-ch’iu Kung-yang chuan chu-shu 4.2216c
(Huan 6;706 B.C.), seems to cite a law allowing one to kill with impunity a
son who fornicates with his mother; cf. Kuo Hsing-wen, 74, who mistakenly
attributes the commentary to Hsiang Hsiu (A.D. 221?–300?). (Such errors
are frequent in books published in the People’s Republic of China and are
almost always typographical; Kuo Hsing-wen’s work is otherwise very careful and
learned.)
104. This translation represents a best guess. In fact, the received classics do
not contain the phrase tsao-yü , which is not easily construed in any case.
Chin Cho (Chin dynasty) notes that “this matter of tsao-yü is in the Ou-
yang Shang-shu” , which is a long-lost tradition of the
Shang-shu (see e.g. “I-wen chih” , Han-shu 30.1705).
105. Wang Tsun went on to have an eventful official career. The inclusion of
this episode in his official biography is manifestly intended to show that he was
destined for greatness. He was very much a child of his times; Loewe, Crisis and
Conflict, esp. 92 ff. and 158 ff., traces the rise of this kind of ahistorical tradition-
alism (which he calls Reformism) to this same period.
106. Essentially following the commentary of Meng K’ang. Chuan (usually
meaning “to offer food”) might also be an error for tsuan ; but see, e.g.,
Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law, 416 n. 337, who argues that chuan was origi-
nally written , which is itself a mistake here for the homophone chuan .
107. “Hsing-fa chih,” Han-shu 23.1112.
108. Compare the translation in Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law, 348 f.
109. Thus it may well be asked why Pan Ku was so critical of the usurper
Wang Mang (d. A.D. 23), the most notorious such “traditionalist” in the
entire Han period, when the two men’s intellectual dispositions actually had far
Notes to Pages 99–100 177

more in common than Pan Ku would have cared to admit. One persuasive answer
is that as a historian who believed in Heaven’s Mandate , Pan Ku was com-
pelled to stigmatize Wang Mang for no other reason than that he had failed, and
therefore his praising any of Wang Mang’s opinions was out of the question. See
Hans Bielenstein, “Pan Ku’s Accusations against Wang Mang,” in Chinese Ideas
about Nature and Society: Studies in Honour of Derk Bodde, ed. Charles Le Blanc and
Susan Blader (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1987), 265–270; cf. also
Clyde Bailey Sargent, Wang Mang: A Translation of the Official Account of His Rise
to Power as Given in the History of the Former Han Dynasty (Shanghai, 1947), 11–
24, who does not consider any possible intellectual motive on the part of Pan Ku.
110. “Lieh-nü chuan,” Hou-Han shu 84.2788. “Chia-ch’ü,” Po-hu t’ung shu-
cheng 10.485 f., states explicitly that women must have a teacher so that they can
“learn the way of serving others” . The fact that Pan Chao felt the
need to justify herself thus implies that few people in her world knew or cared
about the prescriptions in the Po-hu t’ung—a conclusion corroborated by other
evidence (discussed further below).
111. Cf., e.g., Pao Chia-lin, “Yin-yang hsüeh-shuo yü fu-nü ti-wei”
, Han-hsüeh yen-chiu 5.2 (1987), reprinted in Chung-kuo fu-nü
shih lun-chi hsü-chi (Taipei: Tao-hsiang, 1991), 42.
112. “Lieh-nü chuan,” Hou-Han shu 84.2789.
113. Compare the translation in Nancy Lee Swann, Pan Chao: Foremost Woman
Scholar of China (New York: Century, 1932), 86.
114. “Lieh-nü chuan,” Hou-Han shu 84.2790.
115. Compare the translation in Swann, 88.
116. Cf., e.g., Fei Xiaotong, From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society,
trans. Gary G. Hamilton and Wang Zheng (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University
of California Press, 1992), 85.
117. Compare the interpretation of this passage in Yu-shih Chen, “The His-
torical Template of Pan Chao’s Nü Chieh,” T’oung Pao 82 (1996), 257, which is
radically different from that offered here.
118. Cf. also Siegfried Englert, Materialien zur Stellung der Frau und zur
Sexualität im vormodernen und modernen China, Heidelberger Schriften zur
Ostasienkunde 1 (Frankfurt: Haag und Herchen, 1980), 51 f., and his criticism
of Joanna F. Handlin, “Lü K’un’s New Audience: The Influence of Women’s Lit-
eracy on Sixteenth-Century Thought,” in Women in Chinese Society, ed. Margery
Wolf and Roxane Witke, Studies in Chinese Society (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford
University Press, 1975), 13–38.
119. Analects 4.17; text in Ch’eng Shu-te (1877–1944), Lun-yü chi-shih
, ed. Ch’eng Chün-ying and Chiang Chien-yüan , Hsin-
pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1990), 8.270.
120. Compare the translation in Lau, Analects, 74.
121. See esp. Analects 14.7, Lun-yü chi-shih 28.958: “in being loyal to someone,
can one fail to instruct?” ? Similarly, in the recently excavated
text, “Lu Mu-kung wen Tzu-ssu” , Lord Mu of Lu (r. 415–383 B.C.)
asks Confucius’ grandson Tzu-ssu (483–402 B.C.) the definition of a “loyal vassal”
and is told, “one who constantly cites his lord’s faults” ; text
178 Notes to Pages 100–103

in Ching-men Shih Po-wu-kuan , Kuo-tien Ch’u-mu chu-chien

(Peking: Wen-wu, 1998), 141. Compare also “Chien-cheng” , Hsiao-
ching chu-shu (Shih-san ching chu-shu), 7.15.2558ab; as well as Mencius
4A.18, Meng-tzu cheng-i 15.522–24, and 4B.30, Meng-tzu cheng-i 17.598–601, where
it is taken for granted that fathers and sons will have serious disagreements over
moral issues that can even lead to estrangement between the two. Therefore it
is asserted in both Mencian passages that fathers and sons do not “consider it a
duty to be good to each other” , that is, to gloss over each other’s mistakes
in the interest of saving their relationship. Cf. Huang Jen-erh , “Kuo-tien
Ch’u-chien ‘Lu Mu-kung wen Tzu-ssu’ k’ao-shih” , in
Chang I-jen hsien-sheng ch’i-chih shou-ch’ing lun-wen chi, vol. 1, 403 f.
122. Compare, e.g., Mao 187: “Huang-niao,” discussed in chapter 1 in the
present volume.
123. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 1, 267 (Min 2;660 B.C.).
124. See, e.g., the “Minor Preface,” Mao-Shih cheng-i 3B.320a. The same inter-
pretation is accepted implicitly in Han-Shih wai-chuan (Ssu-pu ts’ung-
k’an ), 2.2b f.; and “Hsü Mu fu-jen” , in Wang Chao-yüan
(fl. 1879–1884), Lieh-nü chuan pu-chu (Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts’ung-shu),
3.43; cf. James Robert Hightower, trans., Han Shih Wai Chuan: Han Ying’s Illus-
trations of the Didactic Application of the Classic of Songs, Harvard-Yenching Insti-
tute Monograph Series 11 (Cambridge, 1952), 40 f.
125. Cf. Sommer, 172 ff.
126. C. H. Wang, The Bell and the Drum: Shih Ching as Formulaic Poetry in an
Oral Tradition (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974),
110 ff., points out that the “cypress boat” is a hsing in the Odes that consistently
symbolizes a woman oppressed by her kin. He suggests further that the word po
(cypress) may be intended as a play on words with p’o (press, coerce).
127. The best study of Pan Chao is still Swann; see also Bettina L. Knapp,
Images of Chinese Women: A Westerner’s View (Troy, N.Y.: Whitston, 1992), 18–40.
O. B. van der Sprenkel discusses the Han-shu as a family project of the Pan clan
in Pan Piao, Pan Ku, and the Han History, Centre for Oriental Studies Occasional
Paper 3 (Canberra: Australian National University, 1964).
128. As late as the fourth century, however, it was still possible for Fan Ning
to complain of childless widows who do not remarry as symptomatic of a deca-
dent age. See Fang Hsüan-ling (578–648) et al., Chin-shu (Peking:
Chung-hua, 1974), 75.1985 f. Cf. Charles Holcombe, In the Shadow of the Han:
Literati Thought and Society at the Beginning of the Southern Dynasties (Honolulu:
University of Hawai‘i Press, 1994), 54.
129. “Lieh-nü chuan,” Hou-Han shu 84.2790. Because Pan Chao goes on to
compare a woman’s husband to her Heaven, it is possible that she has in mind
the similar passage in “Sang-fu,” I-li chu-shu 30.1106c. (As we have seen in n. 91,
however, that text does not prohibit remarriage.) Other ritual texts also forbid
women from marrying twice; see “Chiao t’e sheng” , Li-chi cheng-i
(Shih-san ching chu-shu), 26.1456b; and “Chia-ch’ü,” Po-hu t’ung shu-cheng
10.467. Cf. Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 483, 661.
130. Cf., e.g., Sheng I, 337 ff.; Liu Tseng-kuei, “Han-tai hun-yin kuan-hsi,”
16 ff.; “Han-tai te hao-men hun-yin” , in Chung-kuo fu-nü shih
Notes to Pages 103–104 179

lun-wen chi , ed. Li Yu-ning and Chang Yü-fa

(Taipei: Shang-wu, 1981), 21 f.; Dull, 65 ff.; Ch’en Tung-yüan , Chung-kuo
fu-nü sheng-huo shih (Shanghai: Shang-wu, 1937), 55; Ch’en Ku-
yüan, 148 ff.; and Tung Chia-tsun , “Ts’ung Han tao Sung kua-fu tsai-chia
hsi-su k’ao” , Chung-shan Ta-hsüeh Wen-shih hsüeh Yen-
chiu-so yüeh-k’an 3.1 (1934), 193–213. For more gen-
eral discussions of the issue of remarriage, see, e.g., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1,
35 f.; Hsieh Pao-fu , Pei-ch’ao hun-sang li-su yen-chiu
(Peking: Shou-tu Shih-fan Ta-hsüeh, 1998), 64–69; and Kuo Hsing-wen, 196 ff.
As is often observed, the “Hsiao-k’uang” (Kuan-tzu chiao-cheng 8.20.124) pro-
poses that women who marry three times should be made into “grain pounders”
. Cf., e.g., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 19; Kung-chuan Hsiao, A History of
Chinese Political Thought, vol. 1 (From the Beginnings to the Sixth Century A.D.), trans.
F. W. Mote, Princeton Library of Asian Translations (Princeton, N.J.: 1979), 350;
and Ch’en Ku-yüan, 151. Significantly, however, the parallel in “Kuan Chung tso
Huan-kung wei cheng” , Kuo-yü 6.235, which is otherwise virtu-
ally identical to the “Hsiao-k’uang,” does not contain this stipulation. Therefore,
the divergent passage in the “Hsiao-k’uang” may be an interpolation from Han
times.
131. Tung Chung-shu, Chüeh-yü ; text in T’ai-p’ing yü-lan 640.8a. Cf.
Sarah A. Queen, From Chronicle to Canon: The Hermeneutics of the Spring and
Autumn, According to Tung Chung-shu, Cambridge Studies in Chinese History,
Literature, and Institutions (Cambridge, 1996), 141 f.; Benjamin E. Wallacker,
“The Spring and Autumn Annals as a Source of Law in Han China,” Journal of
Chinese Studies 2.1 (1985), 65; and Dull, 68.
132. “Yüan Ang Ch’ao Ts’o chuan,” Han-shu 49.2286. Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih,
vol. 4, 2629, cites the event narrated in “Li Kuang Su Chien chuan,” Han-shu
54.2453, in which the aforementioned Li Ling discovers that a group of convict
women have been hiding among his troops (whereupon he beheads them), as
another example of state-sponsored prostitution in the military. But the original
text does not imply that the women were forced into prostitution as part of their
sentence. Moreover, Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih cites the phrase chan-shou san-ch’ien yü
chi (“He cut off more than three thousand heads”) as though this
means that Li Ling executed three thousand prostitutes, but it is clear in the
Han-shu that the three thousand heads belonged to enemy soldiers killed the
next day by his victorious troops. The authors of the Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih are usu-
ally not as careless as this.
133. Han-chi (Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts’ung-shu), 5.41; the marriage is recorded
in “Hui-ti chi” , Han-shu 2.90, and “Wai-ch’i chuan,” Han-shu 97A.3940.
This example is cited by both Kuo Hsing-wen, 86, and Liu Tseng-kuei, “Han-tai
hun-yin kuan-hsi,” 3 ff., but is perhaps not entirely convincing. The union was
orchestrated by Empress Dowager Lü and was part of a series of impious acts
(which also included her treatment of Lady Ch’i, discussed above) condemned
in “Wu-hsing chih,” Han-shu 27A.1330 f. So the lack of any objection to this mar-
riage in the oldest sources may be only a reflection of Empress Dowager Lü’s
reign of terror. Cf. Homer H. Dubs, History of the Former Han Dynasty (Baltimore:
Waverly, 1938–1955), vol. 1, 168 ff. and 181 f. T’ung Shu-yeh, 212, suggests that
180 Notes to Page 104

Emperor Hui’s marriage may be a vestige of an older marital system whereby

such unions were common.
134. The source that is most frequently cited for such statements is Chung-
ch’ang T’ung (A.D. 179–219), Ch’ang-yen ; text in Ch’ün-shu chih-yao
(Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts’ung-shu), 45.791. Cf., e.g., Liu Tseng-kuei, “Han-tai
hun-yin kuan-hsi,” 8; and Dull, 50. Surviving fragments of the Ch’ang-yen are col-
lected in Yen K’o-chün (1762–1843), Ch’üan Shang-ku San-tai Ch’in Han
San-kuo Liu-ch’ao wen (1893; repr., Peking: Chung-
hua, 1958), Ch’üan Hou-Han wen , 88.1a–89.12a (this passage appears
in 89.1a). But Chung-ch’ang T’ung composed this work at the very end of the
Han dynasty, and so his testimony obviously cannot be taken as a reliable
account of early Han society. Moreover, the author was a self-conscious moralist
who saw signs all around him that civilization was coming to an end. Cf. Kuo
Hsing-wen, 273; and esp. Etienne Balazs, “La crise sociale et la philosophie poli-
tique à la fin des Han,” T’oung Pao 39 (1949), trans. as “Political Philosophy and
Social Crisis at the End of the Han Dynasty,” in Chinese Civilization and Bureau-
cracy: Variations on a Theme, trans. H. M. Wright, ed. Arthur F. Wright (New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1964), 213 ff. Nevertheless, Yang Shu-ta ,
Han-tai hun-sang li-su k’ao (Shanghai: Shang-wu, 1933), 22 ff.,
provides ample evidence from primary texts that early Han wedding banquets
were indeed uproarious affairs.
135. “Yu-hsia chuan” , Han-shu 92.3712.
136. “Shih hun-li” , I-li chu-shu 4.961b–63a; and “Hun-i,” Li-chi cheng-i
61.1680b. See also the commentary by Chu Pin (1753–1843) in his Li-chi
hsün-tsuan , ed. Jao Ch’in-nung , Shih-san ching Ch’ing-jen chu-shu
(Peking: Chung-hua, 1996), 44.877 f.
137. Dull, 42 ff. This piece was so far ahead of its time that it implicitly
refuted much of the article immediately following it in the volume, i.e., Tai Yen-
hui, “Divorce in Traditional Chinese Law,” in Buxbaum, 75–106. (Note, on the
other hand, that Mencius 6B.1, Meng-tzu cheng-i 24.805, refers to one of the Six
Rituals, namely ch’in-ying , or “personally welcoming [the bride],” as para-
digmatic of a ritually correct marriage; cf. Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 331.) Dull
goes on to show that divorce procedures in Han times also bear little resem-
blance to the prescriptions found in traditional ritual codes. For other recent
studies of the Six Rituals, see, e.g., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 16 f.; Kuo Chen-
hua , Chung-kuo ku-tai jen-sheng li-su wen-hua , Ch’uan-
t’ung wen-hua yü hsien-tai wen-hua wen-ts’ung (Hsi-an: Shensi jen-min, 1998),
94 ff.; Kuo Hsing-wen, 236–239; Sheng I, 104 ff.; Ma Chih-su , “Wo-kuo
ch’uan-t’ung chieh-hun te p’in-li” , in Li Yu-ning and
Chang Yü-fa, 2 ff.; and Ch’en Ku-yüan, 99 ff. Finally, for an incisive view of differ-
ences between women’s quotidian lives in Han times and the idealized lives laid
out for them in ritual codes, see Michael Nylan, “Golden Spindles and Axes:
Elite Women in the Achaemenid and Han Empires,” in Chenyang Li, ed., The
Sage and the Second Sex: Confucianism, Ethics, and Gender (Chicago: Open Court,
2000), 203 ff.
138. “Chia-ch’ü,” Po-hu t’ung shu-cheng 10.466.
Notes to Pages 104–105 181

139. Compare the translation in Tjan, vol. 1, 250.

140. “Ta-lüeh,” Hsün-tzu chi-chieh 19.27.496. The interpretation of sha-chih
follows the commentary of Wang Yin-chih.
141. Other ritual texts also stipulate that weddings should take place in the
second month of spring; see, e.g., “Mei-shih” , Chou-li chu-shu 14.733b; and
“Hsia hsiao-cheng” , in Wang P’in-chen (eighteenth century), Ta-
Tai Li-chi chieh-ku , ed. Wang Wen-chin , Shih-san ching
Ch’ing-jen chu-shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1983), 2.47.31. (Cf. Biot, vol. 1, 307 n.
6.) I have not found a similar comment in the Li-chi, but it cannot be a coinci-
dence that “Yüeh-ling” , Li-chi cheng-i 15.1361c, calls for sacrifices to the god
of matchmaking precisely in the second month of spring. This passage also
appears verbatim in “Chung-ch’un chi” , Lü-shih ch’un-ch’iu chiao-shih 2.63
(see also the rich commentary at 67 n. 12). Because the Lü-shih ch’un-ch’iu is a
reliable pre-Han text, there appears to be good reason to date both the tradi-
tions of vernal and hibernal marriages to ancient times. Cf. also Kuo Hsing-wen,
176 ff; and Chow Tse-tung, “The Childbirth Myth and Ancient Chinese Medi-
cine: A Study of Aspects of the Wu Tradition,” in Roy and Tsien, 54 f.
142. Commentators have tried to solve this conundrum for almost two mil-
lennia. The fullest exposition of the relevant issues appears in the commen-
tary of Sun I-jang (1848–1908) to the Chou-li; text in “Mei-shih,” Chou-li
cheng-i (Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts’ung-shu), 7.26.68 ff.
Another notorious problem with the received ritual codes has to do with the
appropriate ages for men and women to marry. The rule that men should marry
at the age of thirty sui (i.e., twenty-eight or twenty-nine, by our reckoning) and
women at twenty (or, in some cases, at any time between the ages of fifteen and
twenty), goes back to such texts as “Mei-shih,” Chou-li chu-shu 14.733a; Ch’un-ch’iu
Ku-liang chuan chu-shu (Shih-san ching chu-shu), 11.2408c (Wen
12;615 B.C.); and “Yao-tien” , Shang-shu ta-chuan (Lau and Chen, 2). Simi-
larly, “Chieh-yung shang” , Mo-tzu chiao-chu 6.20.248, complains that men
and women should be married at twenty and fifteen, respectively, but that now
the people “do as they please” [; ] (following the commentary of Sun I-
jang). Consequently, later ritual texts did not fail to incorporate this injunction
as well; see, e.g., “Nei-tse,” Li-chi cheng-i 28.1471b; “Pen-ming” , Ta-Tai Li-chi
chieh-ku 13.80.251; and “Chia-ch’ü, Po-hu t’ung shu-cheng 10.453–457. However,
many classical writers disputed the authenticity of this rule, pointing out numer-
ous counterexamples in the ancient records. One of the oldest such dissenting
voices is that of Wang Ch’ung (A.D. 27–ca. 100); see “Ch’i-shih” , Lun-
heng chiao-shih 18.804. Similarly, “Fan-lun,” in Liu Wen-tien , Huai-nan
Hung-lieh chi-chieh , ed. Feng I and Ch’iao Hua , Hsin-pien
Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1989), 13.424, points out that King
Wen was already a father by the age of fifteen. More orthodox commentators
later began to express doubts as well (though they never cite Wang Ch’ung,
who was not considered a major thinker until recent times): see, e.g., the sub-
commentary of Chia Kung-yen (fl. A.D. 650) to Chou-li chu-shu 14.733a,
citing the opinion of Wang Su (A.D. 195–256); and the commentary of Fan
Ning (A.D. 339–401) to Ch’un-ch’iu Ku-liang chuan chu-shu 11.2408c, citing
182 Notes to Pages 105–107

the opinion of Ch’iao Chou (A.D. 199–270). Once again, the best overview
of commentarial opinions on this issue is Sun I-jang’s commentary to “Mei-shih,”
Chou-li cheng-i 7.26.64 ff. See also Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih, vol. 1, 15, 34 f., 337 f.;
Sheng I, 49 ff.; Englert, 18 ff.; Ch’en Ku-yüan, 80–85; and Liang Chang-chü
(1775–1849), “Chia-li i” , T’ui-an sui-pi (Ssu-pu pei-yao), 9.2a.
For obvious reasons, these authors were all unaware of the recently excavated
text “T’ang Yü chih tao” , which asserts that the “Sages of the past”
were capped at the age of twenty and “possessed families” at thirty;
text in Kuo-tien Ch’u-mu chu-chien, 158.
143. “Shih hun-li,” I-li chu-shu 4.961b ff.; “Chia-ch’ü,” Po-hu t’ung shu-cheng
10.457.
144. Cf. Edward L. Shaughnessy, Before Confucius: Studies in the Creation of the
Chinese Classics, SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture (Albany, N.Y.,
1997), 21 f.; and idem, I Ching: The Classic of Changes, Classics of Ancient China
(New York: Ballantine, 1996), 10 ff. Mao 181 (“Hung-yen” ) is especially illus-
trative; see also Mao 159 (“Chiu-yü”), discussed in chapter 1, above. Finally, com-
pare the appearance of the emblem in Chou-I cheng-i 5.63c, hexagram Chien :
“The wild geese gradually advance to the land. The husband campaigns and
does not return. The wife is pregnant but does not give birth”
.
145. According to Cheng Hsüan, Mao-Shih cheng-i 2B.302c, the deep cross-
ings in the ford indicate a setting in midautumn. But he is more or less forced
into this reading, since he believes that the rites of marriage should begin in the
autumn and culminate in the spring. Cf. also Marcel Granet, Fêtes et chansons
anciennes de la Chine (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1919), 102.
146. Analects 14.39; Lun-yü chi-shih 30.1031–1035.
147. Compare the translation in Lau, Analects, 130.
148. Most notably in the phrase ssu chi erh i i , which is sometimes
taken as an error for ssu i erh i i (“then just stop,” or the like).
149. It is impossible to tell whether Confucius’ final comment is intended
sincerely or sarcastically. For further exegesis on “P’ao yu k’u-yeh” and its use in
this passage from the Analects, see Steven Van Zoeren, Poetry and Personality: Read-
ing, Exegesis, and Hermeneutics in Traditional China (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Uni-
versity Press, 1991), 27 and 36; and Jeffrey K. Riegel, “Poetry and the Legend of
Confucius’s Exile,” in Sinological Studies Dedicated to Edward H. Schafer, ed. Paul W.
Kroll, Journal of the American Oriental Society 106.1 (1986), 15 f.
150. In his commentary to “Chia-ch’ü,” Po-hu t’ung shu-cheng 10.457, Ch’en
Li lists several other early explanations of this sort; see also Sheng I, 105 ff. The
oldest surviving explanation is probably that of Cheng Chung (d. A.D. 83)
in his Hun-li ; text in Ou-yang Hsün (557–641) et al., I-wen lei-chü
(Taipei: Hsin-hsing, 1969), 91.4b. Many early calendrical texts list the
arrival of wild geese as a regular feature of the second or third month of autumn.
See, e.g., “Chi-ch’iu chi” , Lü-shih ch’un-ch’iu chiao-shih 9.467; “Shih-tse”
, Huai-nan Hung-lieh chi-chieh 5.175, 5.177; and “Yüeh-ling,” Li-chi cheng-i
16.1373c, 17.1379a. Given these parallels, it is possible also that the state-
ment hou niao-lai (“we expect the birds to arrive”) in “Chung-ch’iu chi”
Notes to Pages 107–108 183

, Lü-shih ch’un-chiu chiao-shih 8.421, may be a graphic error for hou yen-lai
(“we expect the wild geese to arrive”).
P’eng Ta-i (fl. 1573–1595), “T’ien-wen” , Shan-t’ang ssu-k’ao
(Ying-yin Wen-yüan ko Ssu-k’u ch’üan-shu ), 5.3a, observes
that the wild geese were said to arrive when “the frost descends” ; this is
noteworthy in view of Hsün-tzu’s statement that one should welcome the bride
precisely when the frost descends. Cf. also Sheng I, 106; and Ma Chih-su, 4. The
same calendrical texts also place the “descending of frost” in the second or third
month of autumn: “Chung-ch’iu chi,” Lü-shih ch’un-ch’iu chiao-shih 8.422; “Chi-
ch’iu chi,” Lü-shih ch’un-ch’iu chiao-shih 9.467; “T’ien-wen” , Huai-nan Hung-
lieh chi-chieh 3.106; “Shih-tse,” Huai-nan Hung-lieh chi-chieh 5.178; “Yüeh-ling,” Li-
chi cheng-i 17.1379b. (Similarly, “Yüan-yu,” in Hung Hsing-tsu (1090–
1155), Ch’u-tz’u chang-chü pu-chu , in Chu’u-tz’u chu pa-chung ,
Chung-kuo wen-hsüeh ming-chu [Taipei: Shih-chieh, 1990], 5.97, places the
time of “descending frost” after the “falling of the fragrant herbs” .)
The ritual texts, however, do not make the connection between the arrival of
wild geese and the descent of frost. The point is irrelevant to their purposes,
because they agree that marriages should take place in the spring.
151. Tjan’s careful study of the Po-hu t’ung (esp. vol. 1, 57 ff.) confirms that
its handling of classical texts could be astonishingly sloppy; at times the authors
even confused classical commentaries with the words of the classics themselves.
Furthermore, Chung Wen-cheng (1818–1877), Ku-liang pu-chu
(Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts’ung-shu), 14.369 (Wen 12;615 B.C.), has pointed out another
case of careless reading that most other scholars have missed. “Chia-ch’ü,” Po-hu
t’ung shu-cheng 10.456, quotes the Ku-liang as follows: “At twenty-five a male’s
heart is bound; at fifteen a female may be married. They are stimulated by yin
and yang” . In fact, the Ku-liang contains
no such passage, and Chung Wen-cheng suggests that it must have appeared in
some ancient commentary.
152. Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan chu, vol. 4, 1220 f. (Chao 1;541 B.C.); “Ch’ü-li
shang,” Li-chi cheng-i 2.1241a.
153. On the authenticity of the Po-hu t’ung, see esp. Tjan, vol. 1, 1–66. The
traditional attribution to Pan Ku can hardly be upheld; Tjan points out many
passages in the text that may be as late as post-Han. The Li-chi, similarly, is a mix-
tum compositum that may well have coalesced after the Po-hu t’ung; see Jeffrey K.
Riegel, “Li chi,” in Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographic Guide, ed. Michael Loewe,
Early China Monograph Series 2 (Berkeley, Calif., 1993), 294 f. (Riegel appar-
ently accepts without comment the traditional date of A.D. 79 for the Po-hu
t’ung); and especially Wang Meng-ou , “Tsung-hsü” , Li-chi chiao-cheng
(Taipei: I-wen, 1976), 1–11. Cf. also Kanaya Osamu , Shin Kan
shis7shi kenky5 (Tokyo: Heirakuji, 1960), 338–353, who sees cer-
tain chapters of the Li-chi (including “Hun-i,” “Chiao t’e sheng,” and other chap-
ters considered here) as the work of Han Confucians who attempted to clarify
and expand on late Warring States notions of “ritual” . However, he dates
these works to the early Han period, on the basis of their frequent citations from
pre-Ch’in texts and evident indebtedness to Hsün-tzu.
184 Notes to Pages 108–111

154. For a general discussion of the practice of reinventing history for con-
temporary moral or political purposes, see Eric Hobsbawm, “The Social Func-
tion of the Past: Some Questions,” Past and Present 55 (1972), reprinted as “The
Sense of the Past” in On History (London: Little, Brown and Co., Abacus, 1998),
esp. 18 ff.

Epilogue
1. See, e.g., Lin Chien-ming , Hsin-pien Ch’in Han shih
(Taipei: Wu-nan, 1992), vol. 2, 1247–1320; Cho-yun Hsu, “The Roles of the
Literati and of Regionalism in the Fall of the Han Dynasty,” in The Collapse of
Ancient States and Civilizations, ed. Norman Yoffee and George L. Cowgill (Tuc-
son: University of Arizona Press, 1988), 176–195; Michael Loewe, “The Conduct
of Government and the Issues at Stake (A.D. 57–167),” in The Cambridge History of
China, vol. 1 (The Ch’in and Han Empires, 221 B.C.–A.D. 220), ed. Denis Twitchett
and Michael Loewe (Cambridge, 1986), 291–316; B. J. Mansvelt Beck, “The Fall
of Han,” in Twitchett and Loewe, 317–376; Ch’en Ch’i-yün , “Kuan-yü
Tung-Han shih te chi-ko wen-t’i: ch’ing-i, tang-ku, huang-chin”
, in Yen-yüan lun-hsüeh chi (Peking: Pe-
king University, 1984), reprinted in Han Chin Liu-ch’ao wen-hua, she-hui, chih-tu—
Chung-hua chung-ku ch’ien-ch’i shih yen-chiu —
(Taipei: Hsin wen-feng, 1996), 55–73; Wang Chung-lo , Wei
Chin Nan-pei-ch’ao shih (Shanghai: Jen-min, 1979), vol. 1, 1–29;
T’ung-tsu Ch’ü, Han Social Structure, ed. Jack L. Dull, Han Dynasty China 1 (Seat-
tle: University of Washington Press, 1972), 202–247; and Lü Ssu-mien ,
Ch’in Han shih (n.p.: K’ai-ming, 1947; repr., Hong Kong: T’ai-p’ing,
1962), vol. 1, 296–334.
2. See, e.g., T’ung-tsu Ch’ü, 241 ff. It is not incorrect to trace the origin of
Chinese student movements, which have once again made headlines in recent
years, to these demonstrations more than 1,800 years ago. Protesting, when cir-
cumstances call for it, is regarded as a basic element of students’ identity and
self-consciousness.
3. For the dates, see Liu Wen-ying , Wang Fu p’ing-chuan fu Ts’ui Shih
Chung-ch’ang T’ung p’ing-chuan , Chung-kuo ssu-
hsiang chia p’ing-chuan ts’ung-shu 27 (Nan-ching: Nan-ching Ta-hsüeh, 1993),
2 ff. See also Chin Fa-ken , “Wang Fu sheng-tsu nien-sui te k’ao-cheng chi
Ch’ien-fu lun hsieh-ting shih-chien te t’uei-lun”
, Kung-chu tsung-t’ung Chiang-kung pa-chih chin erh hua-tan Li-shih
Yü-yen Yen-chiu-so ch’eng-li ssu-shih chou-nien chi-nien
, Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 40
(1969), 781–799.
4. See esp. his essay “Fou-ch’ih” ; text in P’eng To , Ch’ien-fu lun
chiao-cheng , Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua,
1985), 3.12.120–142. See also Patricia Ebrey, “The Economic and Social History
of Later Han,” in Twitchett and Loewe, 609 ff.; Ch’en Ch’i-yün, “Confucian,
Legalist, and Taoist Thought in Later Han,” in Twitchett and Loewe, 789–794;
and Etienne Balazs, Chinese Civilization and Bureaucracy: Variations on a Theme,
Notes to Pages 111–113 185

trans. H. M. Wright, ed. Arthur F. Wright (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
Press, 1964), 198–205.
5. For the reference, see chapter 3, n. 134, above. See also Sheng I, 118 f.;
and Michael Loewe, “The Failure of the Confucian Ethic in Later Han Times,”
in China: Dimensionen der Geschichte, ed. Peter Kuhfus (Tübingen, 1991), reprinted
in Michael Loewe, Divination, Mythology, and Monarchy in Han China, University
of Cambridge Oriental Publications 48 (Cambridge, 1994), 266. For more on
Chung-ch’ang T’ung, see, e.g., Horiike Nobuo , Kan Gi shis7shi kenky5
(Tokyo: Meiji, 1988), 402–418; Uchiyama Toshihiko ,
Ch5goku kotai shis7shi ni okeru shizen ninshiki ,
T7y7gaku s7sho 31 (Tokyo: S7bunsha, 1987), 364–393; Kung-chuan Hsiao, A
History of Chinese Political Thought, vol. 1 (From the Beginnings to the Sixth Century
A.D.), trans. F. W. Mote, Princeton Library of Asian Translations (Princeton, N.J.,
1979), 545 ff.; Balazs, 213–225; and Alfred Forke, Geschichte der mittelalterlichen chi-
nesischen Philosophie, Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiet der Auslandskunde 41
(repr., Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, and Co., 1964), 172–175.
6. “Fou-ch’ih,” Ch’ien-fu lun chiao-cheng 3.12.125.
7. The first eight lines of the poem, which describe the speaker’s vantage
point high in the skies, are omitted.
8. This line may be garbled in the original. One edition reads chih for
shang ; the sense is far from transparent in either case.
9. “Lung-hsi hsing” ; text in Hsü Ling (A.D. 507–583), Yü-t’ai hsin-
yung , ed. Wu Chao-i (Kuo-hsüeh chi-pen ts’ung-shu), 1.9–11. See
also Kuo Mao-ch’ien (fl. 1084), Yüeh-fu shih-chi (Peking: Chung-
hua, 1979), 37.542–543. The poem probably dates from the late Eastern Han.
10. Compare the translations in Anne Birrell, Popular Songs and Ballads of
Han China (London: Unwin Hyman, 1988; repr., Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i
Press, 1993), 173–174 (with insightful comments); and New Songs from a Jade Ter-
race: An Anthology of Early Chinese Love Poetry (London: George Allen and Unwin,
1982; repr., New York: Penguin, 1986), 35–36.
11. The locus classicus for this rule (which is related to the idea of nei
and wai, discussed in chapter 2 of the present volume) is Ch’un-ch’iu Tso-chuan
chu , 2d ed., Chung-kuo ku-tien ming-chu i-chu ts’ung-shu (Peking:
Chung-hua, 1990), vol. 1, 399 (Hsi 22;638 B.C.): “When welcoming or seeing
off [guests], a wife does not go out of the gate” . The line is
repeated in the “Chi-miu” chapter of the Pao-p’u-tzu ; text in Yang
Ming-chao , Pao-p’u-tzu wai-p’ien chiao-chien , Hsin-pien Chu-tzu
chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1991), 25.614. In her “Nü-chieh” (“Lieh-nü
chuan,” Hou-Han shu [Peking: Chung-hua, 1965], 84.2790), Pan Chao
expressly forbids women to “watch at the gates” . Compare also the
poem “K’u-hsiang p’ien” , by Fu Hsüan (217–278), Yü-t’ai hsin-yung
2.61: “Pity me, that I am a girl! / My lowliness is hard to convey. / Boys can stand
at the gate” . Similar injunctions are
found in ritual manuals from later dynasties; for the example of the T’ai-kung
chia-chiao , a popular text discovered at Tun-huang , see, e.g., Paul
Demiéville, L’œuvre de Wang le zélateur (Wang Fan-tche) suivie des Instructions domes-
186 Notes to Pages 113–115

tiques de l’Aïeul (T’ai-kong kia-kiao): Poèmes populaires des T’ang (VIIIe–Xe siècles), Bib-
liothèque de l’Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises 26 (Paris, 1982), 694 and
696 (;secs. 10A and 10D).
Incidentally, in ancient Greece—which maintained a concept of inner and
outer sex roles comparable to that of ancient China (cf. chapter 2, n. 47 in the
present volume)—it was also considered shameful for a woman to open the
front door herself or to stand in the doorway and talk to passersby. In one text,
leaning out the door is taken to be a sign that a woman is an adulteress. See
James N. Davidson, Courtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical
Athens (New York: Harper Collins, 1997), 128; cf. also Sue Blundell, Women in
Ancient Greece (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995), 135.
12. Mao 138 (discussed in chapter 1 in the present volume).
13. “Chi-miu,” Pao-p’u-tzu wai-p’ien 25.616–618 and 628.
14. T’ien could also denote hunters.
15. Compare the translation in Jay Sailey, The Master Who Embraces Simplicity:
A Study of the Philosopher Ko Hung, A.D. 283–343, Asian Library Series 9 (San Fran-
cisco: Chinese Materials Center, 1978), 142–143 and 148.
16. See, e.g., “Wei-chih” and “Shih-tai” ; text in Wang Ming ,
Pao-p’u-tzu nei-p’ien chiao-shih , 2d ed., Hsin-pien Chu-tzu chi-ch’eng
(Peking: Chung-hua, 1985), 6.129 and 8.150, respectively.
17. Cf., e.g., Hsü K’ang-sheng , Wei Chin ssu-hsiang shih ,
Kuei-kuan ts’ung-k’an 28 (Taipei, 1992), 496–498; Ying-shih Yü, “Individualism
and the Neo-Taoist Movement in Wei-Chin China,” in Individualism and Holism:
Studies in Confucian and Taoist Values, ed. Donald J. Munro, Michigan Mono-
graphs in Chinese Studies 52 (Ann Arbor, 1985), 125; Siegfried Englert, Materi-
alien zur Stellung der Frau und zur Sexualität im vormodernen und modernen China,
Heidelberger Schriften zur Ostasienkunde 1 (Frankfurt: Haag und Herchen,
1980), 63 f.; Beatrice Spade, “The Education of Women in China during the
Southern Dynasties,” Journal of Asian History 13.1 (1979), 33; and Kung-chuan
Hsiao, 635 f. and 655. Cf. also Chin-shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1974), 5.136.
For a recent critique of the historiographical trope of “individualism” in Wei-
Chin China, see Michael Nylan, “Confucian Piety and Individualism in Han
China,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 116.1 (1996), esp. 22–26.
18. As cited in the “Jen-tan” chapter of the Shih-shuo hsin-yü ;
text in Yü Chia-hsi , Shih-shuo hsin-yü chien-shu , ed. Chou Tsu-mo
et al., rev. ed. (Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1993), 23.730. Compare the translation
in Richard B. Mather, Shih-shuo Hsin-yü: A New Account of Tales of the World (Min-
neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1976), 374. See also Chin-shu 49.1361.
19. Scholars disagree over the appropriateness of the terms “gentry,” “aris-
tocracy,” “nobility,” “oligarchy,” “literati,” etc. (The most common Chinese terms
are shih-ta-fu and kuei-tsu .) See, e.g., Albert E. Dien, “Introduction,”
in State and Society in Early Medieval China (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University
Press, 1990), 4 ff.; Patricia Buckley Ebrey, The Aristocratic Families of Early Imperial
China: A Case Study of the Po-ling Ts’ui Family, Cambridge Studies in Chinese His-
tory, Literature and Institutions (Cambridge, 1978), 1 ff.; David G. Johnson, The
Medieval Chinese Oligarchy, Westview Special Studies on China and East Asia
(Boulder, Colo., 1977), 1 ff.; Wolfram Eberhard, Conquerors and Rulers: Social
Notes to Pages 115–116 187

Forces in Medieval China, 2d ed. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970), 42 f. In what follows,

these various terms are used more or less interchangeably, because the contro-
versial issues are not directly relevant to this study.
20. See, e.g., Charles Holcombe, In the Shadow of the Han: Literati Thought and
Society at the Beginning of the Southern Dynasties (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i
Press, 1994), 17; and Nakamura Keiji , “‘Ky7ri’ no ronri: Rikuch7
kizoku shakai no ideorogii” , T7y7shi
kenky5 41.1 (1982), 1–27.
21. For one of the most influential accounts of this topic, see Tanigawa
Michio, Medieval Chinese Society and the Local “Community,” trans. Joshua A. Fogel
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985). See also Naka-
mura Keiji, “Rikuch7shi to ‘chiiki shakai’” , in Ch5goku ch5-
shishi kenky5: Zokuhen , ed. Ch5goku ch5shishi kenky5kai
(Kyoto: Ky7t7 Daigaku gakujutsu, 1995), 36–60; Wang Chung-
lo, vol. 1, 378–507; and Ch’en Ch’i-yün, “Chung-kuo chung-ku ‘shih-tsu cheng-
chih’ yüan-yüan k’ao” , Hsin-Ya hsüeh-pao 12
(1977), reprinted in Ch’en, Han Chin Liu-ch’ao wen-hua, 129–169.
22. This point was first articulated by Chao I in his Nien-erh shih cha-chi
(1795; repr., Taipei: Hua-shih, 1977), 12.254. See also Holcombe, 13 and
39; Richard B. Mather, “Individualist Expressions of the Outsiders during the Six
Dynasties,” in Munro, 210; and Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, “Der Buddhismus im
frühen Mittelalter und der Wandel der Lebensführung bei der Gentry im
Süden,” Saeculum 23 (1972), 289.
23. Kung Pin , T’ao Yüan-ming chi chiao-chien , Chung-kuo
ku-tien wen-hsüeh ts’ung-shu (Shanghai: Ku-chi, 1996), 6.402–403.
24. Cf., e.g., Holcombe, 55; Hsü Cho-yün, “Comparisons of Idealized Soci-
eties in Chinese History: Confucian and Taoist Models,” in Sages and Filial Sons:
Mythology and Archaeology in Ancient China, ed. Julia Ching and R. W. L. Guisso
(Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1991), 54–57; Ying-shih Yü, 123; Kuo Yin-
t’ien , T’ien-yüan shih-jen T’ao Ch’ien (repr., Taipei: San-jen,
1974), 185 f.; and Ch’en Yin-k’o , “‘T’ao-hua yüan chi’ p’ang-cheng”
, Ch’ing-hua hsüeh-pao 11 (1938), 79–88.
25. Cf., e.g., Liu Chen-tung , Chung-kuo Ju-hsüeh shih: Wei Chin Nan-
pei-ch’ao chüan (Kuang-chou: Kuang-tung chiao-yü,
1998), 130 ff.
26. “Chin-yu fu” , reconstructed from fragments in Ch’üan Chin-wen
(Yen K’o-chün, [1762–1843], Ch’üan Shang-ku San-tai Ch’in Han
San-kuo Liu-ch’ao wen [1893; repr., Peking: Chung-
hua, 1958]), 87.2a. Cf. Ying-shih Yü, 129; and Spade, 31.
27. “Huo-ni” , Shih-shuo hsin-yü chien-shu 35.922. Cf. also I Chung-t’ien,
, Chung-kuo te nan-jen ho nü-jen , I Chung-t’ien suei-pi-t’i
hsüeh-shu chu-tso, Chung-kuo wen-hua hsi-lieh 2 (Shanghai: Wen-i, 2000), 157;
Tu Yung-ming et al., Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih (Peking: Chung-kuo
hua-ch’iao, 1998) [cited henceforth as Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih; see n. 20 in the intro-
duction of the present volume], vol. 1, 31; and Hsü Shih-ying , “Shih-shuo
hsin-yü chung ti-erh shen ch’eng tai-tz’u yen-chiu”
, Chi-nien Tung Tso-pin Tung T’ung-ho liang hsien-sheng lun-wen chi
188 Notes to Pages 116–117

, Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology 36.1 (1965),

211.
28. Compare the translation in Mather, Shih-shuo Hsin-yü, 488.
29. For more on the “urban hermits,” see esp. Wakatsuki Toshihide
, “Ch5goku ni okeru injakan no hensen: Sanrin no inja kara shich7 no inja e”
, Bungei rons7
8 (1964), 13–20, and 9 (1964), 65–73; as well as Aat Vervoorn, Men of the Cliffs
and Caves: The Development of the Chinese Eremitic Tradition to the End of the Han
Dynasty (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1990), 203–227; Wolfgang Bauer,
“The Hidden Hero: Creation and Disintegration of the Ideal of Eremitism,” in
Munro, 169; and Li Chi, “The Changing Concept of the Recluse in Chinese Lit-
erature,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 24 (1962–1963), 241 ff.
30. “Jen-tan,” Shih-shuo hsin-yü chien-shu 23.727, 731, and 733. For his grief
over a girl whom he did not know, see the passage from the lost Chin-shu
of Wang Yin (fl. fourth century) cited in the commentary of Liu Chün
(462–521) to “Jen-tan,” Shih-shuo hsin-yü chien-shu 23.730.
31. See the passage from the lost Chin-chi of Teng Ts’an (fl. fourth
century) cited in the commentary of Liu Chün to “Jen-tan,” Shih-shuo hsin-yü
chien-shu 23.731.
32. Cf., e.g., Ning Chia , Wei Chin feng-tu—Chung-ku wen-jen sheng-huo
hsing-wei te wen-hua i-yün — , Ko-lun-pu
hsüeh-shu wen-k’u (Peking: Tung-fang, 1996), 169 f.; Holcombe, 93; Sun Shu-
ch’i , Liu-ch’ao ssu-hsiang shih , Liu-ch’ao ts’ung-shu (Nan-
ching: Nan-ching ch’u-pan-she, 1992), 310; Ying-shih Yü, 140; Bauer, 169;
Mather, “Individualist Expressions,” 203; Donald Holzman, Poetry and Politics:
The Life and Works of Juan Chi, A.D. 210–263 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1976), 73 ff.; and Etienne Balazs, “Entre Révolte nihiliste et évasion mys-
tique: Les courants intellectuels en Chine au IIIe siècle de notre ère,” Etudes Asi-
atiques 2 (1948), 27–55, trans. H. M. Wright as “Nihilistic Revolt or Mystical
Escapism: Currents of Thought in China during the Third Century A.D.,” in
Balazs, Chinese Civilization and Bureaucracy, 236 ff.
33. See, e.g., Kuo Hsiang’s commentary to “Ta tsung-shih” , Chuang-
tzu chi-shih 3A.6.267 n. 1.
34. See the passage of the lost Tu-chi by Yü T’ung-chih (fl. fifth
century) cited in the commentary of Liu Chün to “Hsien-yüan” , Shih-shuo
hsin-yü chien-shu 19.694. Yü Chia-hsi thinks the anecdote might be fabricated,
because he doubts that anyone in Hsieh An’s household would have attributed
“Kuan-chü” to the Duke of Chou. For our purposes, however, it is sufficient that
someone wrote the story in the Six Dynasties period. Cf. also Hei Erh-shih-ssu shih,
vol. 1, 135; Jean Pierre Diény, Portrait anecdotique d’un gentilhomme Chinois: Xie An
(320–385) d’après le Shishuo xinyu, Bibliothèque de l’Institut des Hautes Études
Chinoises 28 (Paris, 1993), 91; Englert, 65; and Howard S. Levy, Chinese Sex
Jokes in Traditional Times, Asian Folklore and Social Life Monographs 58, Sino-
Japanese Sexology Classics Series 5 (Taipei, 1973), item 75.
The most famous attack on the Confucian classics was that of Hsi K’ang
(223–262). See especially his “Nan ‘Tzu-jan hao-hsüeh lun’” ; text
in Tai Ming-yang , Hsi K’ang chi chiao-chu (Peking: Jen-min, 1962),
Notes to Page 117 189

7.259–264. See also Donald Holzman, La vie et la pensée de Hi K’ang (223–262 ap.
J.-C.) (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1957), 74 f.
35. See “Jen-tan,” Shih-shuo hsin-yü chien-shu 23.726. On this club, see, e.g.,
Mather, “Individualist Expressions,” 200 f.; Ho Ch’i-min , Chu-lin ch’i-hsien
yen-chiu (Taipei: Shang-wu, 1965); Balazs, 236 ff.; and Henri
Maspero, “Le poète Hi K’ang et le Club des Sept Sages de la Forêt de Bambous,”
in Mélanges posthumes sur la religions et l’histoire de la Chine. Publications du Musée
Guimet; Bibliothèque de diffusion, vol. 2, 57–59 (Paris: Civilisations du Sud,
1950), 59–69 (;Le Taoïsme, 331–340).
36. “Jen-tan,” Shih-shuo hsin-yü chien-shu 23.730.
37. Compare the translation in Mather, Shih-shuo Hsin-yü, 374.
38. “Ta-jen hsien-sheng chuan” ; text in Ch’en Po-chün ,
Juan Chi chi chiao-chu, Chung-kuo ku-tien wen-hsüeh chi-pen ts’ung-shu (Peking:
Chung-hua, 1987), A.165 f. See also Chin-shu 49.1362. Cf., e.g., Balazs, 238.
39. “Individualist Expressions,” 204. See also Ning Chia, 167; and Sun Shu-
ch’i, 310.
40. Despite, e.g., Christina B. Whitman, “Privacy in Early Confucian and
Taoist Thought,” in Munro, 91.
41. Moreover, the sexual dimensions of this exchange are readily apparent;
the trousers are, after all, the garment that houses one’s genitals. (The story
would have been much less effective had Liu Ling complained that his visitors
were entering his shirt or his shoes.) Eric Henry, “The Social Significance of
Nudity in Early China,” Fashion Theory 3.4 (1999), 482 ff., explains insightfully
that Liu Ling’s nudity could have been interpreted as an affront to his guests
because of an early Chinese “fear of the destructive emanations of revealed body
parts.”
42. See esp. “Chu-shu” , in Liu Wen-tien , Huai-nan Hung-lieh chi-
chieh , ed. Feng I and Ch’iao Hua , Hsin-pien Chu-tzu
chi-ch’eng (Peking: Chung-hua, 1989), 9.295, which laid the groundwork for the
Han imperial ideology. Cf. Paul Rakita Goldin, “Insidious Syncretism in the
Political Philosophy of Huai-nan-tzu,” Asian Philosophy 9.3 (1999), 171; and, more
generally, Chiang Jung-ch’ang , “Chung-kuo wen-hua te kung-ssu kuan”
, Hsi-nan Min-tsu Hsüeh-yüan hsüeh-pao: Che-she pan
1998.4, esp. 11–17. Even during the Six Dynasties, more con-
servative thinkers objected to the rise of ssu at the expense of kung. See, e.g., the
“T’ung-chih” chapter of the lost Fu-tzu of Fu Hsüan, reconstructed
from fragments in Ch’üan Chin-wen (Yen K’o-chün), 48.4a–5b. Cf. Holcombe, 36;
and Jordan D. Paper, The Fu-tzu: A Post-Han Confucian Text, Monographies du
T’oung Pao 13 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1987), 25 and 46–51.
Incidentally, Hsi K’ang’s usage of the terms in his “Shih-ssu lun” , Hsi
K’ang chi chiao-chu 6.233–243, is peculiar. Robert G. Henricks, Philosophy and
Argumentation in Third-Century China: The Essays of Hsi K’ang, Princeton Library
of Asian Translations (Princeton, 1983), 107, explains: “Kung in the essay is
‘unselfish,’ and ssu is ‘self-interest.’ But Hsi K’ang also uses kung to mean ‘be
open,’ ‘go public,’ while ssu means to keep things to oneself.” These are not the
normal senses of the words, and Hsi K’ang would not have characterized Liu
Ling’s ideals (with which he sympathized) as ssu.
190 Notes to Page 118

43. See, e.g., Ning Chia, 171 f.; Mather, “Individualist Expressions,” 205;
Rudolf G. Wagner, “Lebensstil und Drogen im chinesischen Mittelalter,” T’oung
Pao 59 (1973), 79–178; E. Zürcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China, Sinica Lei-
densia 11 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972), vol. 1, 79; Balazs, 247 ff.; and Fung Yu-lan, A
History of Chinese Philosophy, trans. Derk Bodde (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 1952–1953), vol. 2, 190.
44. Cf., e.g., Holcombe, 96; and Anna Seidel, “Taoist Messianism,” Numen
31.2 (1984), 173.
45. See Stephan Peter Bumbacher, “Abschied von Heim und Herd: Die Frau
im mittelalterlichen Daoismus und Buddhismus,” Asiatische Studien/Etudes Asia-
tiques 52.3 (1998), 682 ff.; Overmyer, 97–103; and Catherine Despeux, “L’ordi-
nation des femmes taoïstes sous les Tang,” Etudes Chinoises 5 (1986), 56.
46. See, e.g., O¯ fuchi Ninji , Shoki no D7ky7 , T7y7gaku
s7sho 38 (Tokyo: S7bunsha, 1991), 13–76; Mansvelt Beck, 367 ff.; Rolf A. Stein,
“Remarques sur les mouvements du taoïsme politico-religieux au IIe siècle ap.
J.-C.,” T’oung Pao 50.1–3 (1963), 1–78; Paul Michaud, “The Yellow Turbans,”
Monumenta Serica 17 (1958), 47–127; Werner Eichhorn, “T’ai-p’ing und T’ai-
p’ing Religion,” Mitteilungen des Instituts für Orientforschung 5 (1957), 113–140;
idem, “Bemerkungen zum Aufstand des Chang Chio und zum Staate des Chang
Lu,” Mitteilungen des Instituts für Orientforschung 3 (1955), 291–327; and Howard
S. Levy, “Yellow Turban Religion and Rebellion at the End of the Han,” Journal
of the American Oriental Society 76 (1956), 214–227.
47. O¯ fuchi, 330–334, and Kobayashi Masayoshi , Rikuch5 D7ky7shi
kenky5 , T7y7gaku s7sho 37 (Tokyo: S7bunsha, 1990), 199 ff.,
both argue that sexual practices were unknown to the first Celestial Masters dur-
ing the Han dynasty and that they were incorporated only during the Chin or
later, when the movement came into contact with the traditions of ch’i exchange
as they are known from the writings of Ko Hung. Moreover, O ¯ fuchi and
Kobayashi both contend that the macrobiotic dimensions of ho-ch’i have nothing
to do with the Celestial Masters’ earliest doctrines, which centered on faith heal-
ing and exorcism. But see Stephen R. Bokenkamp, “Traces of Early Celestial
Master Physiological Practice in the Xiang’er Commentary,” Taoist Resources 4.2
(1993), 37–51, and Early Daoist Scriptures, Taoist Classics (Berkeley and Los Ange-
les: University of California Press, 1997), 44 ff.
48. Shang-ch’ing huang-shu kuo-tu i (Tao-tsang , HY 1284),
1a. The entire ritual is described in Wile, 25 f.; Kobayashi, 357–366; and Kristofer
Schipper, The Taoist Body, trans. Karen C. Duval (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Uni-
versity of California Press, 1993), 150 ff. As far as I know, the text has never been
translated in its entirety, perhaps because of its extremely complicated technical
vocabulary. Evidently not knowing the Shang-ch’ing huang-shu kuo-tu i, Henri
Maspero, Le Taoïsme et les religions chinoises, Bibliothèque de histoires (Paris: Gal-
limard, 1971), 571, writes, “Le rituel de cette fête ne nous est parvenu: il a prob-
ablement été éliminé du Tao-tsang” (“The ritual of this festival has not come
down to us; it was probably excised from the Taoist canon”; and consequently
his discussion of the huang-shu relies on the very dubious testimony of Buddhist
critics). Incidentally, Schipper, The Taoist Body, 241 n. 56 and 252, gives the
wrong HY index number of the text.
Notes to Pages 119–120 191

49. Schipper disagrees with Kobayashi, 357, who dates the text to the end of
the Liu-Sung dynasty (A.D. 420–478).
50. The Taoist Body, 151.
51. Cf., e.g., Bumbacher, 688.
52. Cf., e.g., Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, 258 n. 43; O ¯ fuchi, 143; and
Levy, “Yellow Turban Religion,” 217.
53. The most famous example is probably that of Chen Luan (fl. 570),
Hsiao-tao lun , in Kuang Hung-ming chi (Taish7 shinsh5 Daiz7ky7
52), 2103.152a, which is the same as Fa-lin (572–640), Pien-
cheng lun (Taish7 52), 2110.545c f. See also Hsüan-kuang (fl. sixth
century), Pien-huo lun , in Hung-ming chi (Taish7 52), 2102.48b f. Cf., e.g.,
Livia Kohn, Laughing at the Tao: Debates among Buddhists and Taoists in Medieval
China (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995), 149 f.; Richard B.
Mather, “K’ou Ch’ien-chih and the Taoist Theocracy at the Northern Wei Court,
425–451,” in Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion, ed. Holmes Welch and
Anna Seidel (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1979), 109 ff.; 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: E. J. Brill, 1961; repr., New York: Barnes
and Noble, 1996), 88 ff.; and Michaud, 94 f.
54. For the example of K’ou Ch’ien-chih (d. 448), see, e.g., Lao-chün
yin-sung chieh-ching (Tao-tsang, HY 784), 2a; and “Shih-Lao chih”
, Wei-shu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1974), 114.3051. See also T’ao Hung-
ching (456–536), Chen-kao (Tao-tsang, HY 1010), 2.1a.
55. “Ku-shih wei Chiao Chung-ch’ing ch’i tso” , Yü-t’ai
hsin-yung 1.34; Kuo Mao-ch’ien, Yüeh-fu shih-chi 73.1034.
56. Compare the translation in Birrell, New Songs from a Jade Terrace, 53. She
misunderstands the phrase Lu-chiang fu hsiao-li as “magistrate of
Luchiang prefecture.” Hsiao-li (minor functionary) is not an official term
and definitely does not signify a position as high as magistrate. We must bear
in mind that Chung-ch’ing is greatly outranked by the son of the county mag-
istrate (hsien-ling ), to whom his former wife is later promised. Moreover,
Lu-chiang was not a prefecture in its own right but was a “commandery” (chün
) in Yang Prefecture ; see “Chün-kuo ssu” , Hou-Han shu, chih
22, 3487. Finally, fu in this context means simply “government offices,” as
in the line in the poem below: “And meanwhile I will report to the Bureau”
. Cf. Burton Watson, trans., The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry: From
Early Times to the Thirteenth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1984),
83.
57. Following the commentary of Wu Chao-i. Ling-p’ing (which is the
same as ling-ting / ), “lonely,” is evidently an indivisible binome.
58. “Ku-shih wei Chiao Chung-ch’ing ch’i tso,” Yü-t’ai hsin-yung 1.36 f.; Kuo
Mao-ch’ien, Yüeh-fu shih-chi 73.1035.
59. Compare the translations in Watson, Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, 83 f.;
Birrell, New Songs from a Jade Terrace, 54 f.; and Arthur Waley, Chinese Poems, paper-
back ed. (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1961), 80.
60. Wu Chao-i’s edition has ch’ien-shih , which does not make much
sense, but he notes that one text reads i-shih , which is intelligible as “hand-
192 Notes to Pages 120–121

me-down present.” Confusion between ch’ien and i is not surprising, espe-

cially since the former appears repeatedly in this poem.
61. “Ku-shih wei Chiao Chung-ch’ing ch’i tso,” Yü-t’ai hsin-yung 1.37; Kuo
Mao-ch’ien, Yüeh-fu shih-chi 73.1035.
62. Compare the translations in Watson, Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, 84;
Birrell, New Songs from a Jade Terrace, 55; and Waley, Chinese Poems, 80 f.
63. “Ku-shih wei Chiao Chung-ch’ing ch’i tso,” Yü-t’ai hsin-yung 1.45; Kuo
Mao-ch’ien, Yüeh-fu shih-chi 73.1038.
64. Cf., e.g., Liu Ta-lin , Chung-kuo ku-tai hsing wen-hua
(Yin-ch’uan: Ning-hsia jen-min, 1993), vol. 1, 272 f.
Bibliography

1. Classical Chinese Texts

Note: Texts from the Sung and later are listed in section 3, where they are
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Chou-li . Ritual text from the mid–Warring States period.

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193
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Feng-su t’ung-i . By Ying Shao (d. before A.D. 204).

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Index

adultery, 26–30, 32–33, 79–85, 94, 74; traditional interpretation of,

112–113, 144n. 140, 164n. 26, 10–24, 49–52, 64, 73, 129nn. 8–9,
173n. 90. See also marriage and con- 131n. 20, 135n. 40, 137n. 66, 149n.
cubinage; sexual intercourse; wife 6, 156nn. 71, 74, 182n. 149
swapping Canon of Odes, cited: Mao 1, “Kuan-chü
Ai-t’ai T’o, 37–38, 142n. 128. See also (The Kuan-ing Ospreys),” 11–18, 32,
Chuang-tzu 64, 73, 117, 135n. 40, 156n. 74,
Analects, 55–58, 63, 66, 106–107, 134n. 34. 188n. 34; Mao 10, “Ju-fen,” 25–26,
See also Confucianism; Confucius 89, 128n. 3; Mao 23, “Yeh yu ssu
ancestor worship, 13–17, 24, 26, 30–31, chün,” 25–26; Mao 32, “K’ai-feng,”
134n. 35. See also hierogamy; ritual; 20–22; Mao 34, “P’ao yu k’u-yeh,”
sacrifices; shamanism; spirits 105–107, 137n. 66, 145n. 148, 182n.
Application of Equilibrium, 55. See also 149; Mao 40, “Pei-men,” 137n. 51;
Confucianism; Confucius Mao 43, “Hsin-t’ai,” 137n. 66; Mao
aristocracy, 3, 111, 115–118, 148n. 4, 44, “Erh-tzu ch’eng chou,” 137n. 66;
186n. 19 Mao 45, “Po-chou,” 101–102; Mao
54, “Tsai ch’ih,” 101; Mao 86,
beauty, 37–38, 42, 142n. 121 “Chiao-t’ung,” 9, 15, 22, 129n. 8;
bestiality, 89–92, 169nn. 67, 72. See also Mao 115, “Shan yu ou,” 18; Mao 131,
sexual intercourse “Huang-niao,” 19–22, 29, 34; Mao
138, “Heng-men,” 9; Mao 151, “Hou-
Canon of Changes, 155n. 61, 182n. 144; jen,” 8, 128n. 3; Mao 159, “Chiu-yü,”
“T’uan” commentary, 155n. 55; 22–23, 182n. 144; Mao 161, “Lu-
“Wen-yen” commentary, 40 ming,” 13–15; Mao 169, “Ti-tu,”
Canon of Odes (Shih-Ching), 2, 4, 20, 34, 137n. 51; Mao 175, “T’ung-kung,”
47–48, 50–54, 63–64, 85, 105, 107, 16; Mao 181, “Hung-yen,” 182n. 144;
113, 136n. 49; arousal (hsing) in, 13, Mao 187, “Huang-niao,” 21–22,
22–23, 26, 131n. 22, 178n. 126; eroti- 178n. 122; Mao 189, “Ssu-kan,” 24,
cism in, 8–24, 129n. 8, 156nn. 71, 26; Mao 192, “Cheng-yüeh,” 51; Mao

225
226 Index

Canon of Odes (continued ) Chuang-hsiang of (Tzu-ch’u), 81–

200, “Hsiang-po,” 148n. 6; Mao 209, 82, 166n. 40; King Hui-wen of,
“Ch’u-tz’u,” 16–17; Mao 210, “Hsin 143n. 135; Lord Mu of, 20, 23–24,
Nan-shan,” 17; Mao 236, “Ta Ming,” 29; Queen Dowager Hsüan of,
53, 150n. 15; Mao 240, “Ssu chai,” 53– 164n. 26, 173n. 91
54; Mao 246, “Hsing-wei,” 134n. 34; Ching, Lady, 58–60, 65–68, 153n. 42,
Mao 251, “Chiung-cho,” 151n. 27; 157n. 85
Mao 256, “I,” 52, 172n. 88; Mao Ch’ing Feng, 60, 154nn. 51–54
259, “Sung-kao,” 172n. 85; Mao 264, Chou, 13, 50–54, 57, 61, 73, 150n. 16,
“Chan-yang,” 48–49, 51–52, 56, 65, 168n. 58; Crown Prince Chin of,
71; Mao 297, “Chiung,” 11 171n. 82; Duke of, 23, 150n. 13,
castration and mutilation, 75–77, 82–85, 188n. 34; King Ch’eng of, 23; King
95, 97–99, 162n. 9, 176n. 101. See Chi of, 53–54, 150n. 13; King Hsiang
also eunuchs; genitalia of, 60–61; King Li of, 52, 149n. 12;
Ceremonies and Rites, 104, 108, 173n. 91, King Ling of, 171n. 82; King P’ing
178n. 129 of, 50, 149n. 9; King Wen of, 53–54,
Chai, Chung of, 10, 129n. 7 86, 150n. 14, 152n. 37, 181n. 142;
Chan-kuo ts’e, 166nn. 38, 42 King Wu of, 57, 86; King Yu of,
Chao Tun, 161n. 4 49–52, 65
Ch’ao Ts’o, 87, 103, 168n. 61 Chòu (King of Shang), 141n. 106,
Chen Luan, 191n. 53 171n. 81
Ch’en, 32–33; Lord Ling of, 32 Chou-I. See Canon of Changes
Cheng, Lord Chao of, 10, 22 Chou-li. See Rites of Chou
Chi K’ang-tzu, 65–67 Chu-fu Yen, 86–88
Chi-tzu, 26–27, 137n. 66 Ch’u, 69, 133n. 30; King Chuang of, 33,
ch’i, 92–93, 151n. 25; exchange of, 6–7, 94, 140n. 92; King Huai of, 34; King
115, 119, 126nn. 20–21, 127n. 23, K’ang of, 140n. 92; King Ling of,
190n. 47. See also yin and yang 140n. 92; King Wen of, 155n. 61
Ch’i, 9, 62–63, 65, 68, 113; King Hsüan Ch’u-tz’u. See Lyrics of Ch’u
of, 157n. 76, 175n. 95; King Wei of, Chü, Viscount of, 68
173n. 94; Lord Chuang of, 68, Ch’ü Yüan, 34, 141n. 107, 146n. 159
158n. 88; Lord Huan of, 62 Chuang-tzu, 37–38, 117, 142n. 123,
Ch’i, Lady, 77, 162n. 13, 169n. 69, 143n. 130, 146n. 159
179n. 133 Ch’un-yü K’un, 173n. 94
Ch’i Liang, 67–68 Chung-ch’ang T’ung, 111–114,
Chia I, 84, 95, 168n. 49, 174n. 94, 180n. 134, 185n. 5
175n. 100 Chung-yung, 55. See also Confucianism;
Chieh, 91 Confucius
Chin, 30, 62; Lord Chao of, 19; Lord Ch’ung-erh. See Chin, Lord Wen of
P’ing of, 62; Lord Wen of, 62–63, Comprehensive Discussions in the White
69, 159n. 95 Tiger Hall. See Po-hu t’ung
Chin, Crown Prince, 171n. 82 concubinage. See marriage and
Ch’in, 2, 81, 94–96, 142n. 121, 165n. 26; concubinage
First Emperor of, 78–88, 94–95, Confucianism, 2, 4, 8, 54–59, 63–64,
164n. 25, 165n. 31, 166n. 34, 167n. 43; 69–70, 100, 125n. 15, 188n. 34;
King Chao of, 164n. 26; King criticized as sexist, 48, 54–56, 64,
Index 227

70–73, 148n. 3, 151n. 27, 159n. 98 Fu Sheng, 76

(see also sexism); opposed Ch’in,
83, 164n. 25; traditionalism in Han genitalia, 13, 26, 47, 84–85, 128n. 3,
times, 97–109, 176nn. 105, 109. See 166n. 35, 167n. 48, 168n. 51, 189n. 41.
also Confucius; Hsün-tzu; Mencius See also castration and mutilation
Confucius, 37–38, 63, 65, 73, 100, Giles, Herbert A., 10, 19
106–107, 129n. 6, 134n. 34, 161n. 4, Great Commentary to the Exalted
182n. 149; view of the Odes, 11–13, Documents, 76, 80
32, 130nn. 13–14, 16; view of Greece, ancient, 3, 123n. 4, 128n. 4,
women, 55–59, 70, 138n. 68. See 154n. 47, 155n. 58, 156n. 63,
also Analects; Confucianism 160n. 109, 186n. 11. See also Europe
constructionism, 3. See also sexual Gulik, R. H. van, 5–7, 127n. 23
orientation
copulation, metaphor of, 1–2, 9, 13–29, Han Chung, 44, 145n. 153, 146n. 159
34–43, 47. See also hierogamy; sexual Han Dynasty, 2–3, 75–77, 86–92, 103,
intercourse 109, 115; Emperor Ai of, 104;
Couvreur, Séraphin, 4 Emperor Ching of, 87, 90, 94–95,
168n. 59; Emperor Hui of, 77–78,
desire. See sexual desire 103–104, 179n. 133; Emperor
Discourses of the States, 58, 138n. 74, Kao-tsu of, 77, 86; Emperor Wen of,
153n. 41, 157n. 75, 171n. 83 95; Emperor Wu of, 75, 85, 87, 94,
168n. 59, 176n. 101; fall of, 111,
eating, image of sexual congress, 8–10, 114, 116–119, 180n. 134; portrayal
13, 15, 26, 128n. 4, 134n. 33 of Ch’in Dynasty, 95–96, 176n. 101;
eunuchs, 75–76, 83, 111, 128n. 25, sexual regulations of, 3, 85, 94–
148n. 6, 154n. 49. See also castration 99, 103–104, 108–109, 116–118,
and mutilation 164n. 25 (see also politics, sexual
Europe, 4–5. See also Greece, ancient dimension of; sexual intercourse)
Exalted Documents, 171n. 81, 176n. 104 Han Fei, 41–42, 47, 73, 78, 127n. 24,
144n. 145, 166n. 40, 169n. 66
Fan, Earl of, 49–50 Han-shu. See History of the Han
Fan Sui, 164n. 26 harem. See inner quarters
female, 23; equality of, 118; and male, Heaven and Earth, 19, 39–40, 44–45,
6–8, 24, 35, 40, 51, 59–74, 91, 99– 47, 49, 67, 70–71, 86, 92–93, 104,
100, 175n. 96; principle in Lao-tzu, 117, 172n. 86; Son of Heaven, 43,
2, 71–74. See also copulation, 66–67, 89, 134n. 34, 158n. 85
metaphor of; sexism; women hierogamy, 13–19, 24, 35, 40, 47,
filial piety, 27, 87, 89, 96–97, 121 132n. 25, 133n. 30. See also ancestor
First Emperor. See Ch’in, First Emperor worship; copulation, metaphor
of of; ritual; shamanism
Five Phases, 104 History of the Han, 89, 97–98, 103,
Freud, Sigmund, 6 178n. 127. See also Pan Chao; Pan Ku
Fu Ch’en, 61, 155n. 59 Ho, Physician, 62, 155n. 61, 157n. 75
Fu Ch’ien, 139n. 84 Ho yin-yang. See Joining Yin and Yang
Fu-fei, 35–37, 142n. 120 homosexuality. See sexual orientation
Fu Hsüan, 185n. 11, 189n. 42 Hsi Fu-chi, wife of, 69, 159n. 95
228 Index

Hsi K’ang, 188n. 34, 189n. 42 ku (worms), 62, 155n. 61, 157n. 75
Hsia, Lady, 32–33, 94, 140n. 92, Kuan Chung, 175n. 95
173n. 91 Kuei-chi, Mount, 78–80, 87–88,
Hsiang An-shih, 11 163n. 17, 164n. 25
Hsieh An, wife of, 117, 188n. 34 Kun, 93, 172n. 89
Hsien, 36 kung (castration). See castration and
hsien. See immortality mutilation
hsing (arousal). See Canon of Odes Kung-fu Wen-po, 58–60, 65–68
Hsiung-nu, 75 Kung Kung, 92–94, 172n. 89
Hsü, 101 Kung-sun Ch’iao. See Tzu-ch’an
Hsün-tzu, 57, 63, 76, 90–91, 105, 145n. Kung-sun Yang, 95, 175n. 98
148, 151n. 27, 171n. 80, 183nn. 150, Kuo Hsiang, 116
153. See also Confucianism Kuo-yü. See Discourses of the States
Hsün Yüeh, 104
Hu T’u, 30–31 Lao Ai, 82–85, 88, 166nn. 38, 40,
Hua Chou, 67–68, 158n. 89 167nn. 45, 48
Huang K’an, 57 Lao-tzu, 2, 71–74, 127n. 23, 146n. 159,
Huang-Lao, 72–74. See also Lao-tzu 159n. 102
Legge, James, 4, 124n. 6
I-ching. See Canon of Changes Li-chi. See Record of Rites
I-li. See Ceremonies and Rites Li Kuang-li, 75, 160n. 3
I-wu, 30–31 Li Ling, 75–76, 160n. 1, 179n. 132. See
immortality, 46–47 also Ssu-ma Ch’ien
incest, 26–30, 85–90, 94, 96–97, 138n. 71, Liang Chih, 31
163n. 20, 168n. 57, 169n. 66, 176n. Liang Hsiao. See Po-yu
103. See also sexual intercourse licentious worship, 30–33, 140n. 90. See
inner and outer (nei and wai), 59, also sacrifices
65–70, 73–74, 115, 154nn. 47–48, Lieh-nü chuan, 147n. 1, 149n. 8,
185n. 11 150n. 16, 153nn. 42–43
inner power. See te Ling-fen, 36–37
inner quarters, 7, 29, 33, 59–60, 79, 115, Liu Chien, 88–92, 109, 170n. 72
145n. 149, 169n. 68, 170n. 72 Liu Ling, 117–118, 189n. 42
Intrigues of the Warring States, 166nn. 38, Liu Pang. See Han Dynasty, Emperor
42 Kao-tsu of
Liu P’eng-tsu, 86–88, 168n. 57
Jang, Marquis, 164n. 26 Liu Ting-kuo, 85, 109
Jen An, 160n. 3 Liu Tz’u-ch’ang, 86
Joining Yin and Yang, 46–47. See also love, 9, 13
ch’i, exchange of; sexual intercourse; Lu, 58, 65–66; Lord Ai of, 37–38; Lord
yin and yang Mu of, 177n. 121
Ju-i, 77 Lü, Empress Dowager, 77–78, 169n. 69,
Juan Chi, 115–117 179n. 133
Lü Pu-wei, 81–85, 166nn. 38, 40, 42
Ko Hung, 114–115, 118, 190n. 47 Lü-shih ch’un-ch’iu, 181n. 141. See also Lü
K’ou Ch’ien-chih, 191n. 54 Pu-wei
Krafft-Ebing, Richard von, 5, 125n. 16 Lyrics of Ch’u, 2, 14, 17, 45–46, 142n. 123;
Kristeva, Julia, 6, 150n. 17 “The Eastern August Magnificent
Index 229

One,” 14–15, 24, 35, 40; “Encoun- Orientalism, 4–5

tering Sorrow,” 34–38, 40, 43–44, Ou-yang Hsiu, 62
146n. 159; “The Lesser Adminis-
trator of Fate,” 39–40, 47; “Wan- Pan Chao, 99–104, 159n. 101, 177n. 110,
dering into the Distance,” 43–46, 178nn. 127, 129, 185n. 11. See also
146n. 159 History of the Han

Ma Jui-ch’en, 12 Pan Ku, 83, 97–99, 176n. 109, 178n.

Ma Jung, 102 127, 183n. 153. See also History of the
Ma Tuan-lin, 76 Han
male: principle in Lao-tzu, 2, 71–74. See Pao Ssu, 49–51, 65, 149nn. 7–8
also female “Peacock Flies Southeast, The” 119–121
Mao commentary. See Canon of Odes, P’eng, 36
cited perversion. See sexual perversion
marriage and concubinage, 21–22, 30, pleasure. See sexual pleasure
43, 61, 79–80, 101, 104, 121–122, Po-hu t’ung, 76, 104–108, 138n. 76,
137n. 50, 155n. 59, 157n. 76, 161n. 8, 177n. 110, 183nn. 151, 153
169n. 66, 172n. 90, 179n. 133; chui- politics, sexual dimension of, 2–3,
hsü, 173n. 94; obligations of wives, 42–43, 47–54, 73, 78–98, 119, 122,
99–100, 112–113, 185n. 11; prohib- 165n. 26, 171n. 81, 175n. 95. See also
ited between people of the same sur- sexual intercourse
name, 29, 108, 138n. 74, 139n. 76; Po-yu, 31, 140n. 89
proper age for, 181n. 142; proper
time of year for, 104–106, 145n. 148, Queen Mother of the West, 126n. 21
181n. 141, 182n. 145, 183n. 151;
remarriage, 94, 101–103, 119–121, Record of Rites, 32, 43, 104, 108, 138n. 76,
173n. 91, 178nn. 128–130; rituals of, 181n. 141, 183n. 153
104–108, 180n. 137 (see also ritual). Records of the Historian, 75, 81–89,
See also adultery; incest; sexual inter- 136n. 45, 166nn. 38, 42, 167n. 45,
course; wife swapping 175n. 94. See also Ssu-ma Ch’ien
Mather, Richard B., 117 Ricci, Matteo, 4, 124n. 5
Mencius, 56, 63, 67–68, 90–92, 151n. 25, Rites of Chou, 59
152n. 27, 157n. 76, 170n. 76, ritual, 3, 13–14, 30, 63, 91, 99, 104,
171n. 80, 175n. 95, 178n. 121; his 133n. 31, 139n. 80, 157n. 85; codes,
mother, 150n. 16, 157n. 82. See also 104–108, 180n. 137, 183n. 153,
Confucianism 185n. 11; objections to, 115–122;
Methods of War, 2 sexual, 118–119, 190n. 47. See also
missionaries, 4–5 ancestor worship; hierogamy;
Mohism, 159n. 97 sacrifices; shamanism; spirits

Nan-tzu, 27–28, 138nn. 68, 71, 163n. 20, sacrifices, 30–33, 67, 140n. 90, 181n.
173n. 91 141. See also ancestor worship;
Needham, Joseph, 127n. 23 licentious worship; ritual; spirits
nei. See inner and outer sado-masochism, 5, 89–90, 114–115,
125nn. 15–16. See also sexual inter-
orgasm and ejaculation, 6–7, 46, 126n. 20. course; sexual perversion
See also sexual intercourse Schipper, Kristofer, 119
230 Index

sex organs. See genitalia Shun, 57, 93, 152n. 35, 169n. 66
sexism, 2, 48–51, 60–64, 70–73, 80, Six Dynasties, 113–122, 186n. 17,
112–115, 118, 148n. 3, 151n. 27, 188n. 34, 189n. 42
152n. 32, 159n. 98. See also female; spirits, 44, 70, 118, 132n. 25, 133n. 30,
women 139nn. 85, 88, 170n. 72; worship
sexual desire, 7–10, 41–42, 51–52, of, 13–19, 24, 66, 140n. 90 (see
60–65, 68, 73, 91–93, 119, 155n. 61, also ancestor worship). See also hiero-
157nn. 76–77, 163n. 20, 164n. 25, gamy; ritual; sacrifices; shamanism
171n. 79, 175n. 95. See also sexual Ssu-ma Ch’ien, 89, 95, 140n. 92, 161n.
intercourse; sexual pleasure 4, 165n. 26, 166n. 34, 167n. 43,
sexual intercourse, 1, 6–10, 13, 42–43, 174n. 94; castrated, 75–77, 80–81,
46, 84, 104, 166n. 40; illicit and 84–85, 109, 160n. 3, 176n. 101 (see
excessive, 3, 26–33, 62–63, 73, also castration and mutilation). See
76–98, 109, 111–115, 119, 144n. also Records of the Historian
140, 157n. 75, 163n. 20, 164n. 26, Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju, 146n. 159
167n. 47, 168n. 57, 171nn. 79, 81, Sun Pin, 2
173n. 90, 176n. 103; manuals of, Sung, 9–10, 27, 129n. 7
46–47, 118, 154n. 48 (see also ch’i, Sung Ch’ao, 27–28, 163n. 20
exchange of); regulation of, 3,
79–80, 85, 92–99, 103–104, 108– T’ai Chiang, 53–54
109, 117–119, 164n. 25, 175n. 99 (see T’ai Jen, 53–55, 150n. 13
also politics, sexual dimension of). T’ai Ssu, 54–55, 57–58
See also copulation, metaphor of; tao, 38, 86–87, 91, 104
genitalia Tao-te ching. See Lao-tzu
sexual orientation, 3, 5, 7, 123n. 4, T’ao Ch’ien, 115–116
127nn. 24–25, 143n. 135 Taoism, Religious, 30, 118–119,
sexual perversion, 5, 86, 89–92, 94, 146n. 159, 190nn. 47–48
96–97, 114–115, 125nn. 15–16, te, 38, 52, 61–63, 149n. 11, 150n. 14,
138n. 71. See also incest; sexual 157n. 75
intercourse Terrien de Lacouperie, A. E. J. B.,
sexual pleasure, 6–8, 10, 42, 62–65, 68, 124n. 8
78, 93, 157n. 77. See also sexual Ts’ai Yung, 43
desire; sexual intercourse Ts’ao, Lord Kung of, 69
sexuality, history of, 1, 3 Tso-chuan, 2, 20, 26–33, 58, 60–61, 68,
shamanism, 14–15, 35, 45–47, 131n. 24, 85, 101, 108, 135n. 44, 136n. 45,
133n. 31. See also ancestor worship; 139n. 80
hierogamy; ritual; spirits Ts’ui Shu, 161n. 4
Shang, Lord. See Kung-sun Yang Tu Ch’in, 156n. 62
Shang-shu, 171n. 81, 176n. 104 Tu Yü, 28
Shang-shu ta-chuan, 76, 80 Tung Chung-shu, 103
Shen, Marquis of, 50 Tung Hu, 161n. 4
Shen Pu-hai, 40–41, 143n. 137 Tzu-ch’an, 29, 31, 108, 138nn. 74, 76,
Shen-sheng, 30–31 140n. 89
Shih-chi. See Records of the Historian Tzu-ch’u. See Ch’in, King Chuang-
Shih-ching. See Canon of Odes hsiang of
Shu-chan, 138n. 74 Tzu-chü brothers, 19–22, 136n. 45
Shu Hsi, 116 Tzu-hsia, 129n. 6
Index 231

Tzu-kung, 175n. 94 to ministers, 35–37, 40–42, 143n.

Tzu-ssu, 177n. 121 135; in politics, 48–54, 60, 67, 72–73,
Tzu-yüan, 155n. 61 77–78; views of, 2, 51–74, 112–115,
118, 127n. 22, 175n. 95; virtuous,
Victorianism, 5 53–58, 64, 67–68, 101–102, 150n. 16,
157n. 75. See also female; sexism
wai. See inner and outer Wu, King. See Chou, King Wu of
Waley, Arthur, 4 Wu Chü, 140n. 92
Wang Ch’ung, 181n. 142 Wu-Hsien. See Hsien
Wang Fu, 111–114 Wu-hsing p’ien, 156n. 74
Wang I, 34–35
Wang Jung, 116–117 Yang Chen, 60
Wang Mang, 176n. 109 Yang Chu, 47, 147n. 167
Wang Tsun, 96–98, 176nn. 103, 105 Yao, 57, 93, 152n. 35
Wei, 26–29, 37–38, 101; Lord Hsüan of, yin and yang, 6–7, 40, 46, 93, 104, 118,
26–27; Lord Ling of, 27–29 172n. 86, 183n. 151. See also ch’i,
Wei Jan, 164n. 26 exchange of; Joining Yin and Yang
Wen, King. See Chou, King Wen of yin-ssu. See licentious worship
wife swapping, 59–60, 154n. 50. See also Yü, 15, 91, 93, 134n. 33, 152n. 31,
adultery; marriage; sexual inter- 163n. 17
course Yüeh, 94, 163n. 17; King Kou-chien of,
women, 6–7, 21–22, 156n. 64, 117n. 110, 164n. 25
178n. 126, 180n. 137; comparable
About the Author

PAUL RAKITA GOLDIN, who received his Ph.D. from Harvard

University, teaches Chinese history and philosophy at the
University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Rituals of the
Way: The Philosophy of Xunzi (1999) and numerous articles
in scholarly journals. He is currently working on “A Reader of
Traditional Chinese Culture,” coedited with Victor H. Mair
and Nancy S. Steinhardt, a volume of primary sources for the
study of ancient Chinese culture.