The “theory of juices” holds that sperm passes through the spinal column directly to the brain. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European medicine laboured under the same misapprehension. How frightening it must have been to be a young boy masturbating and believing that doing so would lead to a degeneration of the spinal chord and a drying-out of the brain!
Whilst ejaculation provides a mere instant of pleasure which is very swiftly lost and finishes in the relaxation of the entire body, a buzzing in the ears, tiredness of the eyes and a dry throat, coitus reservatus or coitus interruptus provokes a growth in vitality and an improvement in all the senses. Among the best-known manuals are those of Sou Nu King and Sou Nu Fang, which among other things recount how the legendary Yellow Emperor, Huang-ti (2697–2599 B. C., according to traditional historical reckoning) used experienced women to teach him about the art of love-making. In The Treaties of the Bedroom there is a conversation between the Emperor and one of his mistresses, a simple young girl:
‘The Yellow Emperor asks the simple young girl: My spirit is listless and lacking in substance; I live constantly in fear and my heart is full of sadness. What can I do to cure myself? The young girl replies quite simply: “All human weaknesses come from an unhappy union of bodies during the sexual act. As water wins in the fight against fire, so woman gains in the fight against man. Those who are skilled in pleasure are like good cooks who know which five spices to add to a soup.” Those who understand the art of Yin and Yang can unite the five modes of pleasure; those who do not know this die before reaching the age of maturity and without having had the slightest pleasure from sex. Should one not forestall this danger?’
12. Wedding book illustrating love positions, 19th century. Japan.
13. Wedding book illustrating love positions, 19th century. Japan.
14. Wedding book illustrating love positions, 19th century. Japan.
15. Wedding book illustrating love positions, 19th century. Japan.
And in another lesson in the same work: Huang-ti asked: “What does one gain from practising sex according to the path of Yin and Yang?”
“For man, sex makes his energies surge – for woman, it serves as protection against sickness. Those who do not know the right path think that the sexual act can be harmful to health. In truth, the sexual act has only one purpose: physical pleasure and joy, but also peace in the heart and strength of the will. The person feels neither sated nor hungry, he is neither hot nor cold; the body is satisfied and the spirit likewise. Energy ebbs and flows majestically, and no desire troubles this harmony. This is the result of a well-accomplished union. If one follows this rule, women will achieve full pleasure and men will always remain healthy.” Thus answered Sunu.
All of these manuals advocate making love as often as possible and even at an advanced age: “Whatever his age, man would not be happy living without a woman. If he is without a woman, his concentration suffers because of it. If his concentration suffers, the forces of his mind grow weaker; if the forces of his mind weaken, the span of his life grows shorter…”
The bibliography of works of the Han era, which directly pre-dated the birth of Christ, includes eight books that are entirely devoted to the art of love-making. During that era the following maxim was adopted: “The art of having sexual relations with a woman consists of remaining master of oneself and preventing ejaculation in order to allow the sperm to return to the brain.” From that moment on, every educated Chinese man felt obliged to be familiar with the technique of reinforcing masculine power named “drinking at the jade fountain”: the man had to remain inside the woman while she had her orgasm and only leave her when it was over, without releasing any sperm in the process. The treatises teach that it was even possible to make love several times in one night with different women if one followed this technique. Taoist wisdom emphasises the positive aspects of this for the man’s health:
‘Those who are capable of making love several times a day without spilling their sperm will be cured of all illnesses and will reach a ripe old age. If sexual relations are not limited to one woman, the success of this method will only be enhanced. The best option is to make love with ten women or more during the course of one night.’
16. Wedding book illustrating love positions, 19th century. Japan.
Sex, medicine and religion are thus closely linked in Taoism because of the large number of energy channels that flow through the body. There is a link between the exterior world in which man lives and the individual interior of every human being. Sexuality is thus called upon to play a central role in everyone’s life.
This explains why men thought of satisfying several women sexually as a duty. And the aim was to do it without exhausting all their energy. So, men were supposed to learn different erotic techniques for giving several women multiple orgasms without, however, experiencing their own. Taoist education, from the simplest effort right up to the most elevated spiritual heights, was founded on the control of sexual energies. Tantrism, influenced by Buddhism, was in its teachings and intentions largely similar to Taoism.
The greatest development in erotic art was principally concentrated in the rich commercial cities in the south of China, during the early part of the period that is considered the beginning of the modern era in Asia. From the tenth century onwards, cities as famous as Suzhou, Hanzhou or Quanzhou were among the most flourishing in the entire world. Businessmen frequented luxurious brothels, wine houses and other places of pleasure such as tea houses or the baths. They formed a sub-culture which today is largely documented by writings and novels from that period. The culture of courtesans was a part of this.
The golden age of Chinese erotic art dates from the end of the Ming period (1368–1644), which was characterised by relatively great liberty and the flourishing of all kinds of arts and science. The prudery of Confucianism was the cause of the destruction of a great number of erotic paintings which illustrated the ancient Taoist manuals. Confucianism denied eroticism, and advocated the separation of the sexes as well as the subordination of personal passions to the laws of family and the state.
17. Images of Spring, coloured shunga, 18th century. Silk on card.
Later on, Christianity played a negative role in favouring these iconoclastic practices. What had survived all of these eras was finally destroyed during the Maoist cultural revolution. These philosophical detours can no doubt go some way to explain the delicacy of Chinese eroticism. Like a mantra, these pieces of information are repeated again and again in books about China. And yet Asian eroticism still remains very enigmatic to western understanding.
As Europeans, we cannot help but wonder how sexual ecstasy can be combined with a technique that is so precisely worked out and that is controlled by such a myriad of instructions and recommendations. Does it not lead to a loss of spontaneity in one’s feelings and passions? Is this whole culture of delicacy, of the small and the pure, perhaps obeying a process of distancing things from reality and idealisation? Is what is really happening actually a change in the opposite direction? Does this oh-so-subtle control of natural impulses perhaps indicate repressed anguish hidden by the official and ideological explanation of love?
For a man to avoid having an orgasm is clearly in this day and age a very reasonable method of birth control, but when this practice is advocated because of the loss of vital energies, one suspects quite another motivation. Is there not here