Classic Chinese Erotica
While most Westerners seem to have heard of the "Kama Sutra", few are aware of
the Chinese tradition of erotic literature. Westerners often see Asians as
being demure or even downright asexual. You would have thought that
1.2 billion Chinese souls would have been enough proof to the contrary.
Erotica was present in the form of fiction (both full-length novels and short
stories) and poetry, erotic art in the form of very practical "pillow books",
and taoist treatises on effective sexual techniques for "maximizing life
energies". Unfortunately, ancient foot fetishists also invented the painful
practice of footbinding in pursuit of the tiny "lotus" feet.
Erotic Novels and Short Stories
The best known erotic novel, by far, is the "The Golden Lotus", which Pearl S.
Buck called "China's greatest novel of physical love". However, the
classical Chinese erotic novels should not be confused with pornography.
If one removed the sexually explicit passages of "The Golden Lotus", we would
still have a great novel of manners, one of whose hallmark attributes is the
level of detail that the author infused on the novel. Thus when the novel
tells about monetary transactions, we get to know the exact amount paid for
items down to dollars and cents (or rather taels of silver and copper coins).
Sexually explicit passages are simply part of the author's attention to
detail. The other novels and short stories in this category have equally
"redeeming" values. The novels and short stories of Li Yu happen to be one of
the funniest in any category.
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Mini Review
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金瓶梅
The Golden Lotus
Written by Wang Shih-cheng
Translated by Clement Egerton
Heian International Publishing Co., 1979
Boxed edition
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Rating:
The best known Chinese erotic novel is based on a major expansion of
a side story of the Water
Margin. The story is about Hsi-meng Ching, a
rich man with four wives who sets out to acquire wives number 5 and 6.
This book was often banned in China for being too sexually
explicit. Westerners were not free from self-censorship, though. When
Clement Egerton's first published his translation, he rendered all the sexual
passages in Latin. Fortunately, the whole work is now available in English.
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The Fountainhead of Chinese Erotica: The Lord of
Perfect Satisfaction
Translated by Charles E. Stone
University of Hawaii Press, 2003
271 pages
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This short novel tells the story of infamous Tang Empress Wu
Zetian, the only Chinese empress to actually rule China on her own. (Other empresses ruled
but ostensibly only as regents to a child emperor.) The novel was famous for being the first one to depict
sexuality in a very graphic manner, thus serving as the prototype for all the ones that followed.
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肉蒲團
The Carnal Prayer Mat
Written by Li Yu in 1657
Translated by Patrick Hanan
University of Hawaii Press, 1996
336 pages
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Rating:
This masterpiece is an erotic satire disguised as a moralistic tale.
The story is about a scholar who wants to become a monk but not before he
has married the prettiest girl around. Wanting to seduce a beautiful
woman who happens to be married to a well-endowed stud, he resorts to extreme
measures to be competitive. He undergoes surgery to replace his penis with that
of a dog, an amazing plot turn considering that the story was written in the
17th century, long before plastic surgery was invented. The story is sexy,
imaginative, takes many unexpected turns and, best of all,
is outrageously funny. Each chapter ends with a short critique
presumably written by a third-party reviewer but quite likely were written
by the author himself to add even more to the humor. The
Sex and Zen movie was loosely based on the book.
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十二樓
A Tower for the Summer Heat
Written by Li Yu, 1657
Translated by Patrick Hanan
Columbia University Press, 1998
256 pages
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Rating:
A translation of half the stories of Shi'er Lou, a book
of short stories by the author of
The Carnal Prayer Mat. The translation takes its title from
the first story, in which a scholar uses a new technology from
the West, a telescope, to spy on his neighbors. With his new found
knowledge he proceeds to woo the girl and convince the girl's father of
that the marriage is predestined. The other stories are equally unconventional and fun.
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Chinese Ghost Stories for Adults: Sex, Love, and
Murder between Spirits and Mortals
Written by Pu Sung-Ling (1640-1715)
Translated by Tom Ma
Barricade Books, 2000
214 pages
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This is a translation of selected stories from the Liao Tsai Chih
Yi, a classic from 18th century containing over 400 short stories Pu Sung-Ling
is China's master storyteller whose stories, usually full of supernatural
beings and events, reveal a Taoist nonconformist attitude in the midst of Confucian society. |
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K: The Art of Love
Written by Hong Ying
Translated by Henry Zhao and Nicky Harman
Marion Boyars, 2002
252 pages
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Unlike the other books banned in the PRC, this one was not
banned by government censors but was banned due to a libel
lawsuit filed by the daughter of Ling Shuhua, the model for Lin, the novel's
main protagonist. In the 1930s, Julian Bell, nephew of Virginia Wolf, is
teaching at a Chinese university and has a passionate affair with Lin Cheng, a
writer and wife of the university dean. The book has been called China's
Lady Chatterley's Lover for its explicit sexual content.
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