Wallace Welcome Page / Announcements / EA105 Summer 2013

 

LEGEND

❖ Testable topics and materials
◊ Other topics and materials
✓ To be completed by class time

text

Premodern views of intercourse and sexual relations

Topics

❖ Daoist sexual alchemy as described in the Ishimpo / Ishinpo (醫心方・医心方, late 10th c. Japanese copy of what was probably a Han dynasty [206 BC – 220 AD] Chinese medical text, ) and related texts

About the topics of this session*

In discussing sexual alchemy I note the goal of Daoists who were seeking to lengthen their life spans was the accumulation and balanced circulation of energies and to this point intercourse with women is said, in the Ishimpo, to provide yang energy for the man. We discuss these details to some degree, but the larger point is that intercourse with multiple women, within this system, is viewed as a means towards health for the man with the benefits flowing from woman to man, not mutually. I present this way of thinking primarily to drive a wedge between the modern notion of sexual intimacy as an expression of romantic intimacy and sexual intimacy as primarily an act of benefiting oneself and not particularly connected to romantic feelings at all. Additionally, it is a reminder of the unequal and chauvinist world within which the premodern narratives we read were fashioned.

Vocabulary notes

御 yù: to resist, imperial, (classical) to drive (a chariot), to manage, to govern

御妻 yuqi: imperial concubine

Required or suggested to be completed for today's session

✓ SUGGESTED (I will give the basic details in class. This reading has explicit sexual material.): "Ishimpo" (bSpace, PDF). This is an ancient Chinese medical manual. This text is sexually explicit. If you are uncomfortable with graphic details regarding intercourse and sex anatomy, you can skip this assignment. Just read the "main points" (below) and follow the lecture. If you do read it, don't worry about the specifics—we read this to understand the place of sexuality in premodern East Asia. We aren't trying to become immortal :) Just look around in it to get a sense of things. We cover the basics in class. NOTE: Please don't print out this reading assignment or any other PDF I provide. Please read my Green Policy. I design classes to reduce paperwork and do not run them in a way that it is an advantage to have a paper copy.

Main points of the Ishimpo reading assignment:

This reading is to remind us, to make crystal clear, that the place of sex in most of the premodern texts we read is quite far from a modern characterization of sex as an expression of love or tenderness. Ishimpo, a Chinese text meant as a medical argument for healthy behavior and also used by Daoists as a practice towards immortality, will argue that sex is for the benefit of the man's health by drawing energy from the woman. It gives details on how to arouse a woman so more energy can be drawn from her. It also warns against the male orgasm, since semen is considered the life essence and should be kept within.

✓ ADDITIONAL READING FOR THOSE INTERESTED: "Sex and Immortality: A tentative study on how Chinese sexual art impressed upon the idea of becoming Better-being in religious contexts" by Sumiyo Umekawa — This includes an interesting study of the Japanese Buddhist esoteric sect "Tachikawa ryu".

Materials probably presented this day

  • La difference (bSpace, PPTX)
  • Man competes with woman in sexual arts (bSpace, PDF)
  • Sexual alchemy basics in poem form (bSpace, PDF)

Books that are the basis of the comments in this session

  • Art of the Bedchamber: The Chinese Sexual Yoga Classics Including Women’s Solo Mediation Texts, Douglas Wile, SUNY 1992
  • The Essential of Medicine in Ancient China and Japan: Yasuyori Tamba’s Isimpō, Emil C. H. Hsia, Brill 1986
  • The Culture of Sex in Ancient China, Paul Rakita Goldin, Hawaii 2002

*UNDER CONSTRUCTION: If this red font phrase underneath the session title has not been erased it means something on this page is incomplete. Perhaps I want to recheck information or perhaps I haven't converted the page from the version of the previous class. It is available but should be taken dubiously.

*ABOUT THIS SESSION: My hope is that you look at this portion BEFORE a session. If there is content here it might help you focus on the main points of the day. However, I add various things here at various times. When I feel I haven't succeeded in class stating something clearly, I might restate it here. Of if it is a difficult concept in might be given in written form here. I will assume that you have read and rechecked for changes this session in preparation for any midterm or test.

Schedule:

M, June 17
Tu, June 18
W, June 19
Th, June 20

M, June 24
Tu, June 25
W, June 26
Th, June 27

M, July 1
Tu, July 2
W, July 3
Th, no class


Course theme: The interpretation of East Asian narrated romance (premodern and modern) through awareness of worldviews and select core values as context.

Course goals:

1) Deeper and more accurate interpretations of East Asian romantic narratives premodern and modern.

2) Vertical analysis (contemporary narratives compared to historical traditions) — As a necessary activity in working towards Goal #1, we try to take a measure of the place of premodern values (relevant to romance) in instances of modern East Asian cinema (with speculation of what this might suggest of society).

3) Horizontal analysis (comparison to one another of values in film and beyond of China, Korea and Japan) — As a derivative of #2, a comparison of China, Korea and Japan, finding differences and similarities worth noting.

Primary means to the goal: Disciplined interpretation & analysis constrained to specific method and rules that consider narratives within cultural context. Analysis is carried out through individual, team, and classwide exercises, reports, presentations & discussions. The class, therefore, is part lecture, part discussion and part workshop.

Course rules:

"all about love" "equal interest in the three countries" "beat average Joe" "subtle differences" "contribution to the class" "tolerance of others" "team cooperation" "narratives are not reality" "subtitles are the official language"