{"id":616,"date":"2017-08-08T23:53:31","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T23:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/blog\/2017\/08\/08\/sex-in-the-yellow-emperors-basic-questions\/"},"modified":"2020-02-14T12:24:51","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T18:24:51","slug":"sex-in-the-yellow-emperors-basic-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/blog\/2017\/08\/08\/sex-in-the-yellow-emperors-basic-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex in the Yellow Emperor’s Basic Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My newest ILL book is Jessica Leo\u2019s Sex in the Yellow Emperor\u2019s Basic Questions<\/a><\/em> (2011). I haven\u2019t gotten past the foreword (written by Dennis Schilling of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich<\/a>), but it gives what feels like a good overview of what I can expect from Leo\u2019s book.  Leo\u2019s book looks at sexuality through the lens of medical texts rather than erotic literature.<\/p>\n

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Leo\u2019s book is primarily concerned with the 1st century BCE-1st century CE text, Suwen<\/a> <\/em>(\u7d20\u554f, Basic Questions), which is dedicated to the Yellow Emperor<\/a>. The text is considered part of Chinese medical canonical thought, and was annotated and amended over the course of 500 years.<\/p>\n

The Suwen<\/em> connects human physiology with natural forms and structures, using the same word (mai<\/em>) used for river systems as for circulatory systems. This is indicative of the larger framework that guided Chinese thought: \u201c[the] human being as a par of nature means that, by means of intelligence, humanity is capable of co-operating with the productive cycle of heaven and earth\u201d (x<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Schilling also mentions Stephen Owen\u2019s \u201cReproduction in the Shijing<\/em> (Classics of Poetry)\u201d and how human fertility and reproduction were presented there as being aligned with agricultural cycles of sowing and harvesting. More pearl-growing for me!<\/p>\n

Understanding Chinese views of human sexuality shine a much brighter light on pregnancy and obstetrics, as well as Chinese culture. For example, because sexuality and reproduction were seen as life-sustaining forces, the separation of the sexes in Chinese society was not a way to diminish sexuality but rather used to \u201ccontrol and guide human sexual behavior in certain ways believed to be consistent with the dualistic scheme of nature\u201d (x<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The physical body was seen as an ancestral gift, and fertility an extension of that. There was a \u201cdeep concern\u201d (ix<\/em>) exhibited in Chinese literature for childbearing and fertility, as it was a way to honor one\u2019s family and clan by continuing the ancestral line.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Sex in the Yellow Emperor\u2019s Basic Questions<\/a> was originally published on The Eastern Gate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My newest ILL book is Jessica Leo\u2019s Sex in the Yellow Emperor\u2019s Basic Questions (2011). I haven\u2019t gotten past the foreword (written by Dennis Schilling of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich), but it gives what feels like a good overview of what I can expect from Leo\u2019s book.  Leo\u2019s book looks at sexuality through the lens of … Continue reading “Sex in the Yellow Emperor’s Basic Questions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[228],"tags":[131,135,134,133,136,132,125,24,116,137,112],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eTPU-9W","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":859,"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions\/859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biblionalia.info\/leah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}