Sexual problems have long been eternal topics since man came into civilization. The history of Chinese researches on sexology can be traced back to a remote antiquity of over 2,000 years ago and China created the earliest sexology. Large amounts of descriptions of sex organs and their formations as well as sexual health-preserving measures can be found in the Taoist's early masterpieces such as "Huang Ting Jing" and "Lao Zi". Sexology, called "Skills in the Room" in the old times, has come into an independent research discipline along with the development of history. Some Chinese works on this subject unearthed in the Ma Wang Dui tomb, including "Ten Questions", "Prescriptions of Yin-Yang Matching", and "A Discussion of Nature", are the extant earliest sexual health-preserving monographs worldwide (Since these works were buried in 168 B.C., it is certain that they were written before the 2nd Century B.C.).

The main purposes of the Skills in the Room in ancient China are as follows: first, longevity and even eternity; second, preventing and getting rid of diseases, and third, proliferation and aristogenesis. Of these three, the first is of most importance. Although Skills in the Room made a great contribution to sexological research due to its huge amount of detailed materials, as time went on its contents became awfully tedious, obscure, low, selfish, and even base during the Wei, Jin, Shui, and Tang dynasties. Due to the dominate position of Confucianism and Taoism in thoughts and learning as well as the fatal weakness of Skills in the Room, this discipline nearly came to its end after the Song Dynasty.

The huge amount of theories and practical knowledge in the heritage of Chinese sexology in ancient times could not be proscribed by human factors. This is because anything that benefits health preservation or convalescence will be certain to find its own place to live. But it is sorry that the Skills in the Room experienced intentional strangulation just because it involved in sexual problems and thus was uncongenial with the dominate trend of social thoughts during that time. It is a paradox that a culture based on sex, for its survival during alienation, gave sexology a deadly blow. But this sexual culture could not exclud that it was rooted in human instinct. Consequently, it was covered by coats of veils and locked by social hoops. The interlacement and antagonism of depression and functional utility thereby brought Chinese sexology into a unique, mysterious, and abnormal culture.

The sexual mysticism of China has a long history. The sexologians and Taoists in Chinese history, out of their own objects, prevalently intended to make an environment of mystery, puzzling the common people. Even in the dynasties of Wei, Jin, Shui, and Tang (220 B.C.--890 A.D.), the skills were dictated in private rather than in written languages. After the Song Dynasty, the mystery of sexology came from the need of social ethics, morality, and even politics. The Confucian school of idealist philosophy of the Song Dynasty created many sorts of preaches, introducing an ardent feudalistic atmosphere and adopting a series of prohibiting steps in administrations and laws. In the Ming Dynasty, a prime period of feudal ethics in Chinese history, a great realistic novel titled "Jin Ping Mei", traditionally called one of the four strange books, appeared. Due to its involvement with sex, this book was prohibited by all rulers in history.

The prohibition and mysticism of Chinese feudal culture on sexual problems was of great dishonesty and harmfulness and inherited a great disaster in later generations. According to relevant reports, numerous erotopsychopathies are a result of the reverse psychology due to sexual mystery and even more sexually ignorant persons are the victims of sexual prohibition.

Tombin, an English historian, said that sex was one of the most knotting problems of mankind. For this knotting problem, the mature Chinese traditional culture exhibited mostly its confinement and conservativeness, whose deep nucleus was, from the feudalistic consciousness, the ignorance of life, humanity, feelings, and secular expression of the Confucian school of idealist philosophy of the Song and Ming dynasties on the Confucian theory and ethical concepts.

Facing the harsh reality and inherited wealth, we find that history makes great fun of the Chinese people: Though China has advanced scientific knowledge about sex in the early civilization, after thousands of years, today's Chinese people, on the contrary, became more unenlightened to sexual problems. This reflects a dilemma filled with rumination and bitterness. All mortal beings in such a dilemma are now being puzzled in the sexual abyss, one of whose sides is the grotesque, fantastic, and unrestrictedly sexual activities in the western countries, where everything is exposed to the light of day. The reverse side is the complicated, confusing, defective, and meritorious sexual knowledge inherited from our ancient ancestors. In such a grotesque abyss, it cannot be avoided that there will be hesitant pursuit and exploratory effort as well as perplexed, puzzled, disconsolate, and explorative thinking.

In this book, the reader will find that under the pressure of Chinese feudalism, though the sexology, in general, was in a state of decadence, it still kept its light at some corner. In former times most doctors admitted and emphasized the significance of sexological research and of healthy sexual activities for human lives. Thoughtful doctors affirmed from human health the beauty and the aesthetic feeling of "human desires" in sexual activities and stressed that sexual intercourse should be finished in harmony between the "soul" and the "body" and that coitus should be a perfect integrity of the "mind" and the "essence". Otherwise, the sperm discharged in the course of sexual activities can be just called a heap of dirty dregs. There are a huge amount of pragmatic and quintessential contents in TCM although its comprehension on sexology is inferior to the western medicine in meticulousness and rigor in some respects. More important is that traditional Chinese sexology plays an important role in traditional Chinese culture and is of more instructive significance since it is Chinese history too. It will be more powerful to rectify the aliened tradition with the true tradition. Moreover affirming in the sense of human health preservation, the significance of the achievements of traditional Chinese sexology, we believe, will strengthen our conviction in discovering the sham curtain of feudal ethics. And, this also is the author's original intention in writing this book.

I. Worship of reproduction in remote ages and the origin of sexology

For all animals, sexual intercourse is a kind of primary instinct. Human emergence, development, multiplication, and prosperity are its crystals. Research on human sexual activities, as a discipline, may be traced back to the Yellow Emperor's dynasty.

However, the Yellow Emperor and the Plain Girl are only ancient figures in legends. Books in the "Skills in the Room" use their names just to certify the long history of the research on this discipline.

From the historic facts, the true origin of the "Skills in the Room" should be sexual worship (reproduction worship) in the primitive society, where, due to the extreme low of social productivity, human civilization was at a very low level and people had a natural and frank bearing towards sexual activities. Such a bearing deeply reflected, in the social environment at the time, the extremely solemn social consciousness--the reproduction of man as social productivity. In primitive society, the character of the growth of population was a high birth-rate, high death-rate, and extreme low rate of natural growth. Therefore the only approach to elevate the population growth was to raise the birth-rate. Such a pressing social need led to the ardent sexual worship (reproduction worship) among our primitive ancestors.

In 1989, a group of rare frescoes in large scale was discovered on the Tian Mountains around 75km southwest to the Hutubi county of Xinjiang, China, where hundreds of man and woman figures in different sizes appear in the tableau, lying or standing with different gestures. In the frescoes, most men exhibit their sexual organs and the women are drawn broad breasted with slender genitals. In some tableaus describing coitus, there are groups of small human figures representing newly born infants (please refer to Figure 1 and Figure 2). In addition, animals, suchas tigers and monkeys, are depicted with their erect penises or being in the posture of coitus as well.

On Nangminghua Mountain of Guangxi and the Yin Mountain of Inner Mongolia, there are a large number of frescoes found on cliffs, many of which relate sexual worship and whose themes are all human yearning for fecundity. Their manners of praise are uniformly stark-naked. The most frequently appeared manner is the exaggeration of genitals, the chest, hip, and other body parts related to reproduction. Also in these frescoes, there are many scenes that directly portray sexual intercourse (see Figure 3). As depicted in Figure 4, a man holding a big bow has a straight and solid genital, showing obviously a praise and yearning for his strength and valiantness. Regarding ancient sexual worship, Rudolph, an American artistic psychologist argued: "In their opinion, this kind of male genitals of a symbolic sense represents a sort of creative power. It not only increases human population but also makes the human health recover. In the words from Lehmann, it is a sort of supernatural strength".

Along with the step-by-step elevation of human civilization, sex-related worship became more and more cloaked, from direct imitation of genitals to genital symbols. During the transitional period, there was an expressive manner blending images with tokens; for example, the famous legend about Fu Xi and Nu Wa.

In the description of carved stones found in the tombs buried in the Eastem Han Dynasty in the Jiaxiang county of Shangdong, both Fu Xi and Nu Wa have human heads, human bodies, and snaky tails, and they connect each other with their tails (see Figure 5). This picture emblems that the human being was created by their sexual intercourse. In Qufu Village of Ganyu county, Jiangsu, one of the stone inscriptions carved in the Han Dynasty is an engraving: two animals having human bodies, human heads, and snaky lower bodies connecting each other with their tails. This is the same as that found in Jiaxing county in terms of meaning because it is an indirect expression of sexual intercourse and an emblem that sexual activity is the inevitable approach in making the human being.

Those reminders related to reproduction worship left over from former generations reflect that our ancestors' understanding of sexual activities exceeded simple descriptions of the delightful and pleasant sensation in sexual intercourse, voicing clearly the wishes and demands for reproduction, health, and sturdiness.

Sexual worship (reproduction worship) generated from the needs for productivity in the primitive society gradually formed the early yin-and-yang culture, in pace with the gradual elevation of human understanding.

II. Sexology and the Yin-Yang Theory

The basic thought of "The Book of Changes", the representative works of Chinese ancient philosophy, is a yin-yang theory. Its formation derives from, to a great extent, ancient sex worship and hence sexual theory.

"The Book of Changes". Its origin is "resembling things and our own bodies", where "bodies" means genital organs. Many specialists believe that yin and yang are the abstract symbols for the genital organs of the male and female, respectively. In "The Book of Changes", the explanation of "Gan" and "Kun", the two basic divinatory symbols of the Eight Diagrams, is as follows: for "Gan", the motion is "straight" and the quiet is "Zhuan" (soft), tallying with the erection and the peaceful state of male genitals; for "Kun", the motion is "Pi" (open) and the quiet is "Xi" (closed), tallying with the state of female genital organs in sexual impulse and peace, respectively. Furthermore, in "The Book of Changes", sex-related discussions such as "masculine essence and feminine blood", "strong male and soft female", and "male bestows production" can be found without any difficulty. Thus it is probably true that "The Book of Changes" deduced from "Nan Xia Nu" (sexual intercourse) with those principles of philosophy such as "heaven and earth" and "variance and production of all things on earth" (please see "Xian divinatory symbol--Tuan") and then enriched and perfected its own contents, has formed the kernel of Chinese thought of philosophy--the yin-yang theory.

III. The Ups and Downs of the "Skills in the Room"

From ancient historic materials, "In the Room" became a type of specialized knowledge during the periods of the Spring-Autumn and the Warring States. In the early works on the "Skills in the Room", "Rong Cheng" is a typical character of the ancient experts in the "Skills in the Room" except the Yellow Emperor and the "Plain Girl".

The living time period is still to be examined. The comments of "Zhuang Zi--Ze Yang" say that he was the teacher of Lao Zi (around the 6th century B.C.). "The Biography of Celestial Beings" says that he was the teacher of the Yellow Emperor (around the 28th century B.C.) and that he came across King Mu of the Zhou Dynasty (around the 10th century B.C.), who was able to absorb the female essence by way of the "Skills in the Room" to prolong life.

Whether Rong Cheng was said to be the teacher of Lao Zi or to be the advisor of the Yellow Emperor has not been affirmed yet. Such being the case, when he met the King Mu of the Zhou Dynasty, Rong Cheng was at least at the age of over seventeen hundred and over two thousand years old in the 6th century B.C., in which Lao Zi lived. So it is probably that the description of Rong Cheng in "The Biography of Celestial Beings" was just to emphasize that Rong Cheng achieved his longevity though the "Skills in the Room". According to our common sense, it is incredible that a man can live as long as over two thousand years.

Lao Zi, who lived twenty-five hundred years ago, is also an important personage in the "Skills in the Room". Lao Zi must have some relevance with the "Skills in the Room" because he was said to be a disciple of Rong Cheng, who indeed, was the great master of the "Skills in the Room". In "Moral Canon", the representative works of Lao Zi, there is more indeed than just a little bit of sexually-related content. For example, in chapter five of "Moral Canon", there is a paragraph which may be explained as follows: The Female is the origin of human desire. Female genitals are of basic importance to all things on the earth. To achieve longevity, sexual activities should be restricted to some extent. Besides, other discussions such as "good qi and healing essence" as well as "the important thing is connection rather than bestowal" are the maxims of sexual sanitary practice.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, necromancers advocated the skills for longevity to cater to the social psychology. Thus the King, Qin Shi Huang, hankering after longevity and immortality, dispatched Du Fu, a necromancer, to cross the East Sea of China to find remedies of immortality. In addition, he constructed the Er Fang Palace and stored up many beauties in it. Because of this fact and Qin Shi Huang's fear of death, we cannot simply explain the story of the E Fang Palace and the beauties in it as sexual desire. In the "Skills in the Room", there is a method called "taking yin", which believes that a man who connects to more women will have more abundant Yin Qin and will be more helpful to longevity. Moreover, Qin Shi Huang was born as a result of the adultery of Lu Bu Wei and the licentious Empress Dowager. Lu Bu Wei recommended Miao Du, a man of great yin, to wallow in pleasure with her. Since both Lu Bu Wei and Miao Du held in esteem the "Skills in the Room" which were described in "Lu Shi's Spring and Autumn", this book dedicated a piece of writing named "Sexual Desire" to put an emphasis on the basic importance of "food" and "sexual desire" for human being; regarding the "Skills in the Room" as an important approach to longevity. All of these echoed the general atmosphere for stressing health preservation in the room. Qin Shi Huang could not avoid that influence in such an environment. It also cannot be excluded that Qin Shi Huang might put those crowded beauties in the E Fang Palace for body cultivation.

In 1973, a large number of important historical relics were unearthed in Ma Wang Dui in the outskirts of the Shangsha City of Hunan. Of them medical books such as the "Ten Questions", "Prescriptions for Health Preservation", "Prescriptions for Yin-Yang Matching", "On the Ultimate way of the Universe", and others., which were written on silk and bamboo slips, are the extant earliest monographs on the "Skills in the Room". According to textual research, these works were written between the late Warring States and the 12th year of King Wen of the Han Dynasty (in 168 B.C.). They truly to some extent reflected the state of the "Skills in the Room" at the time, From the context, the "Skills in the Room", at that time, was relatively simple. Its characteristics are: (1) The guiding ideology is pionics. The intercourse gestures depicted in those books, for the most parts, imitate that of those animals such as tigers, cicadas, fish, and rabbits; (2) Placing an emphasis on the combination with appearance-and-mind cultivating methods such as physical and breathing exercises and qi gong; (3) Stressing the moderation of the number of acts of sexual intercourse; (4) Emphasizing that males and females should be harmonious and integrated in psychology and physiology. In two words, the whole content is sound and simple.

Before the Han Dynasty, "In the Room" was a branch of knowledge in great demand. In "Han Book--Yi Wen Zhi--Fang Ji Lei", there are 168 volumes of works of eight "In the Room" schools of the recorded 36 medical schools. "Li Ji--Li Yun", an early classic works of the Confucian school, pointed out: that "food and drink and sexual desire are the most important desires for human beings ......". This illustrates that the great masters admitted too that sexual desire is a necessary demand in human physiology and psychology.

In the Han Dynasty, a period in which the "Skills in the Room" was in fashion, many types of medicines that could promote sexual functions were invented and the research on the yang-restoring drugs had made significant advances. In the light of "Anecdotes of the Late Zhao Dynasty" written by Lin Xuan of the Han Dynasty, there was a sort of medicine called "Shen Xue Jiao" in the imperial palace. A man could connect sexually with a woman if he took only one pill a time. Since an emperor would die early if he gave way to his carnal desires, a woman officer was appointed to administer this medicine and restrict him to one pill a day. Because of its strong effect, certain emperors died of uncontrolled intakes followed by wanton intercourse. The segment of records, in some respect, reflects the state of research on sexology at the time.

In the Han Dynasty, Feng Junda , Gan Shi, Zuo Yuanfang , and Dongguo Yannian were all famous experts in the "Skills in the Room". Witches and wizards are the practitioners and propagators of the "Skills in the Room". This point of view can be shown by the behavior of a famous Taoist priest, Zhang Tianshi (Zhang Daolin) of the East Han Dynasty, who was an expert in the "Things in the Room" and often used the "Skills in the Room" when he treated patients (see "The Biography of Celestial Beings--The Biography of Zhang Daolin").

When time came to the Wei, Jin, and Sui Dynasties, the "Skills in the Room" was in vogue and there appeared many experts and many works on the "Skills in the Room". Ge Hong, Bao Jing, and Tao Hongjing were all very famous figures. Ge Hong was a second-generation follower of Ziao Yuanfang, an expert in the "Skills in the Room" in the Han Dynasty. His books titled "Bao Puzi" and "The Biography of Celestial Beings" recorded a lot of content related to the "Skills in the Room". Also, he wrote his monograph on the "Skills in the Room" named "Yufang Secrets". Based on history, Bao Jing praised highly the "Skills in the Room", as well. The book, entitled:"On Sexual Preservation and Longevity", written by Tao Hongjing, was a treatise on health preservation and longevity, whose Volume B had a chapter entitled, "The loss and advantage of the Yu Woman", discussing in detail the "Skills in the Room".

During the Wei, Jin, and Shui Dynasties, under the influence of fashion, the public generally believed in the philosophy of life of Laozi and Zhuangzi, which advocated that a man should lead a life of pleasure, not seek government positions, hanker after health preservation, and run after creature comforts and longevity. "Drink a cup of wine, play a piece of music with a stringed musical instrument, and the aspiration is then accomplished" (from the Ji Zhong Shan Collection, Volume One) is a true portrait of such a philosophy of life. Under its guidance, the public thus assiduously rack their brains to find methods for longevity. One of those efforts to pursue the ancient customs of sex worship and sought ways to preserve health from the "Skills in the Room" as a means to "adjust one's mind to live long".

To propagate the mystery and magical effect of the "Skills in the Room", those experts in the "Skills in the Room" intentionally created a perplexed environment for health-protecting methods during sexual activities, consciously made them more complicated, and formulated many taboos and commandments. For instance, when copulating, the persons concerned had to wear Taoist incantations of yellow and red colors. Hence the "Skills in the Room" was then also called "The Doctrines of Yellow and Red". At that time, the "Skills in the Room" had nothing to do with love and passion. Sexual passion was even under taboo. For example, "The True Imperial Mandate" said that persons who copulated should be banned to have thoughts and behaviors related to sexual passions such as "seeking lewdness", "vowing in private", and "embracing each other", and they would suffer punishment by heaven if they so did.

Besides, at that time the procedure of the "Skills in the Room" was so tedious that it made the persons concerned not to know what course to take. For instance, there is a book recording 123 methods and several thousand pithy formulas.

During the Tang Dynasty, the "Skills in the Room" declined gradually. The reasons can be listed as follows:

(1) It was emphasized by the "Skills in the Room" that during sexual intercourse, the male should hold essence and avoid ejaculation, requiring that the man concerned restrain his intrinsic spermcapability with a supernatural discipline and self-control. This, for most of the public, can hardly be done comfortably.

(2) Those over-elaborate procedures, taboos, and commandments embody the selfish departmentalism of the "Skills in the Room", paying no attention to physiological satisfaction and psychological desire. At that time, it could not be said to be very charming if coitus was done in accordance with the requirements of the "Skills in the Room". The exceedingly sentimental affection, joyous love, and harmony, which were held in esteem by the experts in the "Skills in the Room" before the Han Dynasty, did not exist then. Therefore, such skills contrary to human nature naturally received no support from the public.

(3) The aim of the "Skills in the Room" was "gathering yin and tonifying yang", professing that the more women a man copulated with, the more healthy. This could hardly be achieved by the public except the richer, powerful and the influencial people. It was thus too hard to popularize it. Sexual indiscretion was incompatible with the general mood of society and the ethics then influenced by prevailing the Confucian school and Buddhism. Thereby, the "Skills in the Room" had almost no market. Certain persons who sincerely believed in this sort of skill had to do so between man and wife.

(4) As mentioned above, the methods of the "Skills in the Room" were so complex that they could not be propagated and they only sought to confuse interested people.

(5) After the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buddhism spread throughout China and was welcome by the social strata. The taboos of Buddhism are contrary to the "Skills in the Room". During the Jin and Tang Dynasties, the contest between Taoism and Buddhism was more and more acute. Because the majority of kings of the Tang Dynasty believed sincerely in Buddhism, Taoism, which held in esteem the "Skills in the Room", declined gradually in social status and thus it was harder for the "Skills in the Room" to thrive.

After the Song Dynasty, the Confucian school, Buddhism, and Taoism took a trend towards merging. The " Skills in the Room", because of its incompatibility with the ethics of the Confucian school and the prohibition of Buddhism, declined more seriously. Therefore, only a few schools of the "Skills in the Room" survived, regarded as "heretical sects" of Taoism in very restricted regions. After the emergence of the Confucian orthodox, Cheng and Zhu Confucian school of idealist philosophy of the Song and Ming Dynasties with its famous theory of "heavenly principle but no normal human feelings", became the unique standard in the scopes of thoughts, culture, and science and technology. As a result, the "Skills in the Room" could not keep its foothold and since then it became feeble and died outwardly.

From the above historic facts, we can find that the emergence, development, and declination of the "Skills in the Room" all have close relations with Taoism. The Chinese Medicinal theory and Taoism, though they are separate, have a thousand and one links. The branches of TCM such as health-preserving and Qigong Daoyin inherited themselves nearly directly from Taoism. The saying of King Ziaozhong of the Ming Dynasty, in reference by Hu Mi of the Ming Dynasty in "A Discussion on the Three Religions in All Fairness", is "preserving a tranquil mind by Buddhism, cultivating one's moral character by Taoism, and conducting oneself in society by Confucianism", where, "cultivating one's moral character by Taoism" means that Taoism is good for the body science, pointing out the consanguine relationship between Taoism and TCM. Although the "Skills in the Room" is a learning of Taoism, it has such a firm foundation in body science, in which involves a huge amount of content regarding health-preserving, Qigong, birth-giving, and getting rid of illnesses, etc. Thus it was natural that it was used by TCM. Although the "Skills in the Room" had not existed in forms since the Tang and Song Dynasties, due to its pragmatic value in medical respects, its essence was still wielded by medical experts of later generations.

IV. Sexology and Genital Medicine

During the period of the Two Song Dynasties, the Confucian school of idealist-philosophy of the Song and Ming Dynasties gradually became the main stream of culture. The attitude of the Confucian school of the idealist philosophy was very clear, that is, "heavenly principles but no normal human feelings" ("Chuan Xi Lu"). Zhu Xi of the South Song Dynasty, a prominent expert of the Confucian school idealist philosophy, pointed out that "To be a scholar, one must get rid of human desires and behave in accordance with the heavenly principles" ("Yu Lei"). The "heavenly principles" were the ethical norms for politics, but the "human desires" were the sensitive desires from individuals, whose main content was sexual demands. In the opinion of the Confucian school of idealist philosophy, "human desires" and "heavenly principles" were antitheses. "If there are heavenly principles, there no human desires, and vice versa" ("Yu Lei"). In the view of Xu Xi, etc., "human desires" and "heavenly principles" were completely incompatible like fire and water. Since Cheng Hao proposed the slogan that "it is trivial to die of starvation but serious to forfeit one's integrity" ("Posthumous papers"), sexual proscription had become the main stream of traditional Chinese ethics. As the enhancement of feudal ethical code continued, the research on sexology was treated as a heretical sect. Historic books, including "A History of the Five Dynasties", "The History of The Song Dynasty", and later othodoxical historic books, no longer recorded monographs on sexology. On the contrary, health-preserving measures on sexual activities could only be found occassionally in the birth-giving parts of TCM's obstetrical and gynecological works or other medical works, for example, "Good Prescriptions for Women" by Chen Ziming of the South Dynasty, "Guang Si Ji Yao" by Wan Mizhai of the Ming Dynasty, "She Sheng Bi Xun" by Hong Jiuyou, "Zhun Sheng Ba Qian" by Gao Lian, "Muo E Xiao Li" by an anonymous author, "Guang Si Quan Jue" by Chen Wenzhi, "Guang Si Wu Zhong Bei Yao" by Wang Baoyin of the Qing Dynasty, "Fu Ke Qiu Si" by Ye Tianshi. These books uniformly used the topic of "offspring" when talking about sexual problems. From the standpoint of the development of culture, they reasonably utilized the protective umbrella of "offspring", borrowing the othodoxical concept of the Confucian school of idealist philosophy that "Offspring is the most important in filial obedience", to keep on the research on sexology. But, the research on sexology, after the Song and Yuan Dynasties, was after all mainly for treatment, especially by way of pharmacotherapy. Thereby, it lost its lively and pragmatic spirit in earlier times.

In modern times, the state of the research on sexology in China has become more inferior. Anything related to this is stated at the beginning of this book and we are omitting it here to save words.