An Orgy, but with Reward Points
The arc of history is long but it bends towards Spreadsheet Simulator 2000
I have already covered the treatment of sex in pre-imperial texts, but the historical material we have on that is a tiny fraction of the whole. The dynastic period bequeathed vast libraries of sexual content to us. This falls into two main categories:
Pornography.
Medical-spiritual guides on techniques intended to ensure both a happy wife and a happy life.
Is is the second category we will be reviewing today, and particularly its earliest beginnings in the late warring states/early Han dynasty. Most of what is going to appear in this thread comes from the Mawangdui medical texts, which came out of the same tomb complex as the famous and terrifying mummy of Lady Dai, and taught us almost all we know about Daoist sex in the Han dynasty.
These texts, written on silk, have not all survived particularly well (the screenshot below is the decipherable characters of a variety of impotence cures), but since we knew close to nothing about these techniques originally they're still a huge step forward.
Unfortunately for sufferers, the impotence recipes are too fragmentary to make much of, but later on in the same text a mixture of poria cocos and pork fat to increase female pleasure, so there's no reason your significant other should suffer for these textual gaps. You can still buy the key ingredient for this on Amazon if you fancy a try. Apparently it reduces anxiety, which I guess might help get things going if you led the high-stress lifestyle of an ancient concubine.
In addition to this the text contains recipes for dealing with unwanted pubic hair (earthworms, spiderwebs and bitter gourd - honestly shaving sounds easier) and venereal diseases (using willow bark - salicylic acid is still used as a wart cure today).
The really interesting parts are those covering physical techniques, however. (The translations of this part are by Li Ling and Keith McMahon.) These are both more and less weird than you'd expect.
In contrast with a lot of other traditional cultures, the female orgasm is not just recognised as a phenomenon but seen as the overall goal. The aim is to 操玉策，则马骜 ("use one's jade whip such as to make the horse gallop").
There are some lovely descriptions of this in the texts.
The manifestations of the stage of great completion (dazu 大卒) are: moist air comes from the nose, the lips turn white, the hands and feet move erratically, the buttocks rise off the mat. When intercourse is finished, she hardly breathes (?), as if she were dead. At this time, the qi from the inner extreme (zhongji 中极) billows forth, energy gathers within, and thus she attains spiritual clarity (shen-ming 神明). (He yinyang 8, 156, nos. 131–133)
She hugs him tightly and doesn’t let go until she hardly breathes (?), as if she were dead. The qi penetrates the capillaries (*limao 厘毛) of all four limbs and the trunk; her lips turn white, her sweat flows down to the back of her knees; the number of thrusts has reached one hundred. (Tianxia zhi dao tan 19, 166, no. 61)
To achieve this is it necessary to cultivate the "virtues of the penis":
The Sunü Jing has a passage describing five virtues of the jade stalk, part of which goes as follows: “To bestow generously is its [the jade stalk’s] benevolence; to have just intervals in opening and closing [lit., “in the middle to have openings”] is its righteousness; to be able to control hardness [lit., “in the top to have nodes”] when upright is its courtesy; to be able to rise when desirous and to be able to stop when desire ceases is its trustworthiness; to be able to lower itself and face upward according to circumstances is its wisdom” (Fangnei, 12a).
The passage is oddly reminiscent of Zhuangzi's discourse on the virtues of thieves:
The followers of the robber Zhi asked him, saying, 'Has the robber also any method or principle (in his proceedings)?' He replied, 'What profession is there which has not its principles? That the robber in his recklessness comes to the conclusion that there are valuable deposits in an apartment shows his sageness; that he is the first to enter it shows his bravery; that he is the last to quit it shows his righteousness; that he knows whether (the robbery) may be attempted or not shows his wisdom; and that he makes an equal division of the plunder shows his benevolence. Without all these five qualities no one in the world has ever attained to become a great robber.'
Having got a handle on this, you can begin to address your partner. Start by stroking her hands, and then progress through the various body parts in approximately this order:
It’s easy to giggle at the nerdiness of the Han approach, but it’s worth noting that they had fully shape-rotated the female anatomy and provided technical terms for the various components 2000 years before Harper tried to convince us that there is an orgasm duct.
(Pls note: some texts suggest that anything beyond "stinking rat" is too deep. Exercise caution.)
Once you’ve got her warmed up, ten specific positions are on the table (so to speak) but only some of them are clearly understood today:
hu you 虎游, “the tigers play.” This corresponds to the “tiger’s stance,” hu bu 虎步, of the Xuannü jing (14a–15b) and Sunü miaolun (Mishu shizhong 121–122), which describe the woman on all fours, head down, buttocks raised, with the man kneeling and entering from behind, thus resembling tigers’ intercourse.
chan fu 蟾附 (附), “attached cicada.” This is also seen in the Xuannü jing (15a) and Sunü miaolun (122), which describe the man as lying on top of the woman lying on her stomach, the man entering her from the rear; the image is of a cicada (the man) perching.
chi huo 尺蠖, “inchworm.” For each move it makes, the worm arches its back.
jun jiao 𤠣角 (圓) 角, two “deer locking” horns. Dongxuanzi (16b) has the term “unicorn’s horn” (qilin jiao 麒麟角), but this refers to external play prior to intromission.
huangzhe 蝗蜇, “locust spreading (its legs?).”
yuan ju 猿據, “the monkey latches on.” This term perhaps corresponds to yuan bo 猿搏, “the monkey pounces,” in Xuannü jing (15a) and Sunü miaolun (122), which define it as the woman lying on her back with the man upright, holding up her legs as he enters. The monkey stands for the man.
chan zhu 蟾蜍, “toad.”
tu wu 兔蹶, “the rabbit flees.” This term corresponds to “the rabbit licking hair,” tu shun hao 兔舐毫, in the Xuannü jing (15b), and tu shun in the Sunü miaolun (123), which define it as the man lying on his back with the woman sitting astride him facing his feet and having him enter from behind. The image is of a rabbit (i.e., the woman) escaping.
qingling 青蛉 (蜻) 命 (蛉) (qingting 蜻蜓), “dragonfly.”
yu suo 魚鎖, “sucking fish.” This corresponds to “the fish sucking scales,” yu shu lin 魚舐 (噬) 鱗, in the Xuannü jing (15b–16a), which defines it as the man lying on his back, the woman straddling him facing his head. The image in the Mawangdui text is of a swimming fish, i.e., the woman, sucking in food, i.e., the penis. In the Sunü miaolun (123–4), yu sha is completely different, referring to two women drawing their vaginas together for the man to enter.
Once in position it's time for the fun part: maths. One can't help but suspect that this worked very well, not because 81 is a mystical number but as a delaying technique.
Two of the most crucial concepts of ejaculation control in later texts are the thrusting method of “nine shallow and one deep” (jiu qian yi shen 九淺一深) and the practice of “returning the jing to supplement the brain” (*huan jing bu nao 還精補腦), both of which scholars have often misinterpreted. Both find their origins in the Mawangdui texts, especially the concept of regulated thrusting. He yinyang 2 says: “The ten movements begin with ten, then go to twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and up to one-hundred” (155, no. 112). It is clear from this that one “movement” is made up of ten thrusts and that ten movements therefore equal one-hundred thrusts. But even this interpretation must be qualified since it is improbable that the ancients thought exactly one-hundred thrusts would make one “attain spiritual illumination.” The number ten is often nothing more than a round number signifying fullness. The decimal system in ancient China took ten as “small fullness” (xiaoying 小盈) and one-hundred as “big fullness” (daying 大盈). “Ten movements” should be taken as signifying fullness and repletion and not as a literal number. Likewise, Shiwen 3 (146, nos. 19–23) mentions only “Nine Arrivals” (jiuzhi 九至, “Arrival” being equivalent here to “Movement”). Yi xin fang frequently refers to the “number 9 × 9” (jiujiu zhi shu 九九之數 or “nine shallow, one deep, 9 × 9 = 81, the yang number is complete.” In both cases the figures are intended as round numbers, with each “ten” consisting of “nine shallow and one deep.” The interpretation of the term “await climax” (dai ying) above under “Eight Benefits,” as well as of the term used below, “Ten Completions” (shiyi), must comprehend this qualification.
Throughout this, you can use the actions and noises made by your partner as a guide to help judge your progress.
The first movement is “joining the hands,” jie shou 接手, by which the woman shows that she desires to bring the bodies close together.
The second is “extending the elbows,” shen zhou 信 (伸) 肘 (肘), which indicates that she desires to have the upper part of the vagina stroked.
The third is “flexing the ankles,” zhi zhong 直踵; she feels entry is not deep enough.
The fourth is “hugging him from the sides with her legs,” ce gou 側勾 (勾), which means that she desires to have the left and right sides of the vagina stroked.
The fifth is “hugging him from below with her legs,” shang gou 上勾 (勾); she desires to have the lower side of the vagina stroked.
The sixth movement is “pressing the thighs together,” jiao gou 交股, which indicates that she feels entry is too deep.
The seventh is “heaving upward,” ping yong 平甬 (踊); she desires that entry become shallower.
The eighth is “rocking left and right,” zhen dong 振動; she desires her partner to stay joined with her for a long time.⁷¹
The first is the sound of “panting from the throat,” houxi 侯 (喉) 息, showing that the vaginal fluids are copious.
The second is the sound of “panting from the chest,” chuanxi 喘 (喘) 息, showing that the qi and blood are surging upward and that the vagina is open wide.
The third is constantly “calling out,” lejiao 累譟 (寂); she sways her buttocks, her vagina opens and closes.
The fourth is “exhaling,” he 欷 (吁); after the climax of excitement, the vagina feels hot and tingly.
The fifth is “biting the lower lip,” nie chun 齧 (齧); her body sways, showing that she wants her partner to continue intercourse for a long time.⁷²
Obviously the pronunciation of the characters has changed somewhat over the years, meaning that if you're trying to use these texts to work out your own progress you can't use modern Mandarin, but need to reconstruct the archaic phonology. Fortunately, Zev Handel has provided an attempt at reconstruction of the biting component in particular based on his own expertise (on reconstructed pronunciation I mean...):
It may be that it's difficult or impossible to determine any of the actual sounds. But a superficial glance shows two words in this passage that might be onomatopoetic. "瘛息者，内急也；喘息，至美也；累哀者，玉策入而痒乃始也；吙者，盐甘甚也，啮者，身振动，欲人之久也。" The two are 吙 and 啮 (presumably 嚙). (There's maybe a third one, we'll get to that later.) These are translated as 'exhale' and 'grind teeth' respectively by Wile, but I'm skeptical of both. To me they look like simple onomatopoetic representations, with the 'mouth' (口) radical attached to a character representing a sound. If that's correct, then 吙 represents a sound like "huai" or "hua", possibly with a glottal catch at the end. 嚙 is a more interesting case. Later dictionaries gloss this graph (and its variants 齧 and 囓) as a word meaning 'bite, gnaw', pronounced in Mandarin yǎo or niè. But I'm guessing that's not correct here. I think the character represents a sound similar to that of the word written with "齒", so that 嚙 is a sound like "chuh" ([tʃʰə]), again possibly ending with a glottal catch. If that's right, then the accidental similarity to the formally identical graph writing 'bite' has misled translators. But I'm just speculating.
Interestingly, these being comparatively early texts, the all-pervading focus on semen retention that appears later is not present. Gentlemen are allowed to let themselves go as long as they make sure their partner is satisfied first.
zhi shi 智 (知) 時, “mastery of timing”; before intromission, to engage first in affectionate foreplay until both partners are filled with the urge to have intercourse.
xu qi 蓄氣, “accumulation of qi”; during the course of love-making, relax the back, lift the anus, and cause the qi to sink down.
he mo 和沫, “the joining of genital secretions”; during intercourse, thrust slowly and gently and thereby attain the utmost harmony of joining secretions.
qie qi 窃氣, “stealing qi”; the man lies down and has the woman cause his penis to become erect, but has her stop just as the penis reaches its fullest state. Since this is sometimes referred to as ji qi 積氣, “to accumulate qi,” the method seems to be part of the process of building up qi in the man.
dai ying 待 (待) 應, “await climax”; when sexual climax is about to occur, tense the back, be still, hold the qi in and make it sink, and in this way motionlessly “await climax.” This seems comparable to dai ying above in the “ten elaborations.”
ding jing 定精 (定), “finally to ejaculate”; after the “ten movements” are completed and the man has ejaculated, he withdraws while still erect. Compare this to the later Dongxuanzi passage: “The man must not return dead; he must come out alive. Otherwise he will suffer great harm. He must exercise utmost prudence” (11b). Shiwen 3 has the same use of ding jing (定精), “to ejaculate”: “Do not let the jade spring flow out,” where “jade spring” refers to jing (146, no. 18).
Nevertheless, the idea that one could attain health and longevity by "riding many women" while retaining jing (either by not ejaculating or via the "reverse orgasm" techniques common throughout tantric practices) was already present in the texts.
Regardless of the period, the following three concepts must be mentioned as the most central in the texts of the bedchamber arts: the method of “nine shallow and one deep” (jiuqian yishen zhi fa 九淺一深之法); “ride many young women, but ejaculate rarely” (duo yu shaonü, er mo shu xie jing 多御少數, 而莫數數精); and “returning jing to supplement the brain” (huan jing bu nao 還精補腦). All are found at least by the Han, while some aspects of all these concepts can be traced to the Mawangdui texts.
Fangnei contains many references to the method of “nine shallow and one deep.” The Sunü jing coordinates it with the “Eight Benefits” and mentions the numbers “nine times two,” “nine times three,” etc., on up to “nine times nine.” The Xuannü jing coordinates it with the “Nine Methods” and has “the number of five times nine” (wujui zhi shu 五九之數), “six times nine,” “three times eight,” etc. But the clearest explanation of this concept is not found until the Sunü miaolun: “Make shallow thrusts nine times and a deep thrust once. Time each thrust with exhalation and holding of breath. This is called the method of nine shallow and one deep.” The concept of “shallow and deep” and the taking of ten thrusts as a unit probably have their origins in the Mawangdui texts, which, however, provide no clear evidence of how the counting is coordinated.⁷⁵
The concept of “riding many young women, but ejaculating rarely,” is found mainly in four sources: the Pengzu jing (Fangnei, 3a–b, 6a), the Fangnei quotes of a book by Feng Junda 封君達 (6b), the Yufang mijue (Fangnei, 6a–b), and the Yufang zhiyao (Fangnei, 22b). “To ride many young women” means to change sexual partners frequently and to choose young women who have not yet had children. The frequency of change can be as high as “changing the woman after each movement” (yi dong ji yi nü 一動即易女, Yufang mijue), or “changing more than ten women in one night” (yi xi yi shi ren yishang 一夕易十人以上, Feng Junda); in these cases, the “ten movements” originally meant for one woman are spread out over ten or more. Besides age, the standards for a “young woman,” i.e., virgin (shaonü 少女), are various and are directly related to the later Taoist concept of “selecting the cinnabar stove” (ze ding 擇鼎). The frequency of ejaculation should vary according to the man’s age and health.⁷⁷
Interestingly, people have begun automating these techniques. One well-known one involved presure on the perineum:
All in all, this advice probably did help to improve its devotees lives, not so much for immediate medical reasons as because giving your concubines plenty of orgasms and comparatively few children was probably good way to minimise your own domestic worries.
Which raises a question: are these - and the proliferation of longevity and cultivation manuals that appeared post-Han an adaptation of the pre-imperial Daoist tradition or a betrayal?
The early Daoists believed in accumulating experiences with the aim of abstracting univeral prinicples from their commonalities. They were most likely interested in the post-coital mindset insofar as that it gave a radically different perspective on known phenomena, and hence new data points for their ongoing empiricist project. Each person would experience it differently, and some people would experience nothing at all. Which was fine, it just meant that they had to keep wandering and observing. It was a fundamentally analogue and unreplicable experience.
The authors of later texts saw the almost supernatural levels of insight attained by the early Daoists and attempted to systematise it for less exceptional readers, thereby turning it into the kind of box-ticking exercise that would have been antithetical to someone like Zhuangzi. Naturally this did not turn any of their disciples into immortal mountain spirits, but it did give them a feeling of progressing towards a goal and - more importantly - kept their wives happy, so it survived and evolved over the mext 2000 years while pre-Imperial Daoism, relying as it did upon the brilliance of individual outsiders, whithered. Where the warring states era selected ruthlessly for superlatives, the dynastic era preferred tacitly constrained stability. Intellectuals were pushed to diversion-max to forestall the existential crisis that would inevitably ensue should they consider their own systemic helplessness.
These later years, so light and thin, an age whose shine is growing dim.
We gave our minds to our own desires, and our wealth to stoke the fires.
And as my fine robes are meant for show, so cook my dishes rich and slow.
The pot boys will leave what they cannot eat, the dancers tread silk beneath their feet…
A human life is a transitory stay, unnoticed our years will slip away,
They vanish like the morning dew, so briefly you shine and then are gone too?
So churn the thoughts inside of me, and overflow in a tearful sea,
But the guards must never see my face, I follow the rules and keep to my place
- Zhang Maoxian
Wandering was replaced by rewarded box-ticking. Divine inspiration turned into grinding out Hail Maries. We have seen something similar in the west: the aristorcratic concept of leisure as beneficial wandering - otium, schole - has been largely replaced by following orders in a more satisfying manner. The leisure of the powerless is not based around a lack of constraint, but on a fantasy of reliable constraint - video games that dole out rewards and punishments in a learnable way, in contrast to the arbitrary visitations they experience in their everyday lives. The otium enjoyed by a Roman patrician wandering his library required two related components: freedom from consequence and a developed system of internal quality metrics. He was not simply killing time, he was following his own curiosity with no external metric of success, and he could do that partly because he was not afraid of where it would lead. He had been doing it his whole life and had developed the internal equipment to make independent judgments on its results rather than looking to another for affirmation. Over time this very ability to take one’s own mind as an unmoved pivot upon which to assess creation became one of the hallmarks of aristocracy. A slave used to being yelled at and beaten would be bewildered and terrified by the same prospect. He would much rather have the Good Boy Points, thank you.
The Daoists associated learning and leisure for the same reason the Greeks did (schole is the root of school, after all) - because both require equanimity in the face of repeated failure. For someone who understands their own errors to be as valuable a part of the process as their successes, this is not hard. For someone who has spent a lifetime striving to learn patterns in more or less arbitrary systems of reward and punishment and being told that if only he were better it would be easy, such a prospect contains only distress.
Thus the majority of gamification mechanisms are, in fact, thinly disguised workification mechanisms. They are self-soothing processes that do not provide freedom but rather temporary access to a rule-bound world. The meal kit market is possibly the summum of this Spreadsheet Simulator 2000 phenomenon. Someone who has been taught to feel guilty about every failure will struggle to learn to cook as an adult. Every mistake - and they will be manifold - feels like a personal indictment. A meal kit provides the sensation of cooking with the failure removed. It also removes the creativity, but creativity is no source of enjoyment for the slave - he just wants a reliable outcome. He will never become a Carême, which he just might have done had he launched into the enterprise alone, but he will also enjoy half an hour of predictable calm at the end of a miserable day without falling back on fast food, and who are we to deny him that?
The thrust-counting textbooks won’t make you immortal, but they will reduce your stress and keep your wife happy, which in the here and now is probably much more important than nurturing the next Zhuangzi.
Another banger, no pun intended. It’s interesting how tied up with mysticism this all is; rather reminiscent of how a lot of Feng Shui for businesses is actually the folk wisdom version of management consulting.
Incredible work. I have no idea if I agree with its implications and will need to take time to consider