Gender and Coital Disorders in Medical Texts of Early Imperial China
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Chen, Yun-Ju
Abstract
This study analyzes how in Early Imperial China male authors of medical recipes interpreted and treated the coital disorders caused by improper coital behavior, thereby showing different meanings of coital behavior of males and of females. The primary difference between the coital disorders recorded in Han medical texts and in Medieval ones is that the former are divided into three branches of “recipes and techniques” (Fangji 方技) in Han, while the latter were divided into two parts corresponding to male and female bodies. In Han, the coital disorders recorded in medical canon 醫經 and empirical recipes 經方, two branches of recipes and techniques, lacked symptoms with gender characters, thus, not specifying patients’ gender. Only the bedchamber 房中, another branch, recorded particular male coital disorders and constructed the relevant theory of nourishing life, which emphasized prevention of losing the male essence 精 and manipulation of preserving and refining the male essence. However, in Medieval China, this difference of branches is not the most important factor in differentiating the coital disorders anymore. In addition, although the reason why coital behavior harms bodies is inherited from the Han medicine, the male coital disorders are gradually divergent from female ones in considerable aspects, including pathogenic situations, pathological mechanisms, symptoms, and relevant sexual fluids — male essence and female blood.he gendering of the coital disorders in medieval China reflects that meanings of males’ coital behavior are different from those of females’ : men could use sexual arts of the bedchamber or medical recipes in order to replenish male essence to achieve multiple goals of body managements, ranging from curing disorders, getting male children, becoming young again, achieving longevity. On the contrary, the female coital disorders and their treatments are mainly associated with the issue of gestation. Besides the above difference, according to certain records of medical recipes, women could nourish their bodies by refining their own essence or by absorbing male essence through sexual arts, which may deplete male essence and damage male bodies. In this case, the role which female essence played in female bodies is just like that of male essence in male bodies—women can also accomplish multiple goals of body management by manipulating essence. However, the Confucian gender regulations permeating medical recipes confines circulation of such sexual arts because of their damage to male sexual partners. In conclusion, even though there are two kinds of female bodies in Medieval Chinese medicine: one being the body of nourishing life with essence as its essential bodily, and the other being that of gestation with blood as its fluid, the latter is the main female bodies in medicine.eywords: sex, sexuality, the arts of the bedchamber, body, nourishing life, gestation
Subjects
sex
sexuality
the arts of the bedchamber
body
nourishing life
gestation
Type
thesis
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