Yufang mijue

Yufang mijue (Chinese: 玉房秘訣), translated into English as Secrets from the Jade Chamber,[1] Secret Formulae from the Jade Alcove,[2] or Secret Instructions from the Jade Chamber,[3] is a Chinese sex manual composed during the Han dynasty.

Yufang mijue
Chinese玉房秘訣

Publication history

Written during the Han dynasty,[4] the original text is lost, though it was partially preserved in the Japanese medical text Ishinpō (醫心方).[5] In 1903, Chinese sexologist Ye Dehui (葉德輝) published an almost fully reconstructed version of Yufang mijue, alongside four other ancient Chinese texts on sexuality; this was not well-received by the public, and in 1927 the Chinese Communist Party executed Ye for being a "counter-revolutionary".[6]

Contents

Presented as a compilation of quotations from various mythological and obscure figures, Yufang mijue discusses in detail numerous facets of sex, including days on which one is forbidden from having sex[7] and male impotence.[8] The text also echoes many principles taught in an earlier publication on Taoist sexology titled Su Nü Jing,[1] and even includes fictitious dialogue between the Yellow Emperor and his "sexual mentor", the goddess Su Nü;[9] for example, the Yellow Emperor asks her to elaborate on the benefits of "loving with infrequent ejaculation", to which she states:

When a man makes love once without ejaculating, he strengthens his body. Twice and his sight and hearing become more acute. Three times and all his diseases will be cured. Four times, his soul will be at peace.[10]

Literary significance

In Yufang mijue, the Taoist goddess Xiwangmu (西王母) is described as engaging in "sexual vampirism",[4] and copulating with young boys in order to attain immortality—a claim that is not repeated in any other biography of Xiwangmu.[11] Quoting from Yufang mijue, a chapter of Ishinpō details a method of penis enlargement involving powdered Zanthoxylum piperitum, Orobanche ammophyla, and Asarum, dried inside a dog's bladder for a month.[3]

References

Citations
  1. Wile 1992, p. 84.
  2. Brown 1988, p. 30.
  3. Steavu 2017, p. 30.
  4. Milburn 2017, p. 11.
  5. Goldin 2006, p. 285.
  6. Wile 2018, p. 15.
  7. Wile 1992, p. 105.
  8. Wile 1992, p. 107.
  9. Cawthorne 2007, p. 41.
  10. Cawthorne 1997, p. 91.
  11. Goldin 2006, p. 288.

Bibliography
  • Brown, Carolyn T. (1988). Psycho-Sinology. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. ISBN 9780819167293.
  • Cawthorne, Nigel (1997). Secrets of Love: The Erotic Arts Through the Ages. Pavilion. ISBN 9781857938296.
  • Cawthorne, Nigel (2007). Daughter of Heaven: The True Story of the Only Woman to Become Emperor of China. Oneworld. ISBN 9781851685301.
  • Goldin, Paul (2006). "The Cultural and Religious Background of Sexual Vampirism in Ancient China". Theology and Sexuality. 12 (3): 285–307. doi:10.1177/1355835806065383.
  • Milburn, Olivia (2017). "The Legend of Lady Xia Ji: Two Late Ming Dynasty Portrayals of an Ancient Chinese "Femme Fatale"". Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews. 39: 1–25. JSTOR 45014208.
  • Steavu, Dominic (2017). "Buddhism, Medicine, and the Affairs of the Heart: Āyurvedic Potency Therapy (Vājīkarana) and the Reappraisal of Aphrodisiacs and Love Philters in Medieval Chinese Sources". East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine. International Society of East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (45): 9–48.
  • Wile, Douglas (1992). Art of the Bedchamber: The Chinese Sexual Yoga Classics Including Women's Solo Meditation Texts. State University of New York Press. ISBN 9780791408858.
  • Wile, Douglas (2018). "Debaters of the Bedchamber: China Reexamines Ancient Sexual Practice". JOMEC Journal. Cardiff University Press (12): 5–69.
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