Were men historically thought to be more susceptible to sexual taxation?
June 17th, 2009
Were men historically thought to be more susceptible to sexual taxation?
Published on June 17th, 2009 @ 12:27:41 am , using 1439 words, 893 views
By Eric Brand
Bob recently made a very interesting post about “window of the sky” points. As it turns out, the evidence that such a category of points existed in traditional literature appears to be lacking. I am fascinated by the ways in which Chinese medicine transforms in our culture, but I must say that I feel a bit of trepidation about the fact that these subtle mistranslations permeate the Western TCM community. Chinese medicine is a bit unique in the sense that it must generally come to us via translation, and the relative paucity of Westerners that study Chinese allows mistranslations to exist for quite a long time before being debunked. By contrast, if we studied traditional Mexican herbal medicine, tons of students would decide to study Spanish and transmission errors would be discovered and corrected as quickly as they arose.
Follow up:
Anyway, I originally studied Chinese medicine in California, and I moved to Taiwan for further study after I graduated. I was constantly amazed at all the little Westernized conceptions I had picked up, all the little things that didn’t stand up in the Chinese literature and medical community. Admittedly, even during my time in school I was quite grounded in source-based translations and I could generally tell Western fabrications from authentic Chinese medicine for the most part, but still I was surprised to discover that I held a number of little misconceptions about things. One of those little misconceptions was the idea that Chinese medicine had a different view of sexual taxation in women than in men.
In the West, it is widely believed that sexual taxation is primarily a problem for men, whereas women are thought to suffer from essence loss primarily through multiparity rather than sex. While it is true that having many children can be associated with essence depletion in women, in actual fact Chinese texts place a similar emphasis on the effects of excessive sexual activity for both sexes. There is no differentiation in the Chinese literature that suggests that sexual taxation is more serious in men than in women.
That said, older texts tend to ascribe more diseases to sexual taxation than later works. In the opinion of my teacher Feng Ye, who has a strong knowledge of Chinese medical history, sexual taxation was used as a catch-all cause of disease that appeared less and less as natural causes of disease became more sophisticated and more extensively developed. Furthermore, in the East as well as the West, the influence of biomedicine has caused a widespread re-assessment of the theories of sexual taxation. Many modern practitioners and texts now simply emphasize a middle ground between extremes.
So how did this idea that the genders are different in terms of sexual taxation come about in the West?
There are many logical arguments for why sexual taxation would be perceived to be more severe for men. It is almost cliché to speak about men rolling over and falling asleep after sex, whereas women often have comparatively more energy post-coitus. Certainly a case could be made to suggest that women are generally the stronger gender when it comes to sexual activity, at least in terms of stamina and repetitive vigor. So perhaps one could say that women may have a higher threshold than men before it reaches the point of “taxation.” Nonetheless, taxation as a disease cause in TCM relates primarily to excesses beyond one’s means, so the strength or weakness of any given person’s threshold is a relative thing.
The fact that traditional Chinese texts did not differentiate sexual taxation between men and women could be explained by a variety of theories. For example, the popular Western conception that men would be more affected than women by sexual taxation may be purely rooted in an expectation from our own culture, namely extrapolating our own conceptions about normal post-coital fatigue onto the Chinese idea of sexual taxation. By contrast, as a disease cause, the Chinese conception of taxation refers to something that is inherently unbalanced, overdone. It is well-documented historically in the elite males of the Chinese court who had many mistresses, but I also can’t help but wonder if sexual taxation was also thought to be a cause of disease in female prostitutes or victims of war.
Regardless, we have an interesting situation in the West wherein many practitioners have been trained in a concept that simply doesn’t exist in the Chinese source literature. The idea that Chinese medicine views sexual taxation differently in men from in women can be traced to a few sources in the English literature, and it appears that a great deal of the confusion on this topic relates to a relatively simple mistranslation by one prominent Western author.
At the heart of the confusion appears to be a section in the book Foundations of Chinese Medicine, by Giovanni Maciocia. When discussing sexual taxation, the author explains that tian gui in women refers to menstrual blood, while in men it refers to semen. Because menstrual blood is not lost during sex, the author reasons, sex affects the male more than the female. Thus, this small section of a common OM 101 textbook inadvertently misleads the students in two ways: 1) it implies that there is a different in TCM between the genders when it comes to the disease cause of sexual taxation, and 2) it implies that tian gui in women can be equated with menstrual blood (and tian gui in men can be equated with semen).
Practitioners who have studied gynecology know that the principle of tian gui is much deeper than the menstrual blood itself. Tian gui is not the actual blood, it is the principle of reproductive viability. Menarche is the sign that tian gui has arrived; after a girl begins menstruating, the principle of reproductive viability can be said to be present. Menarche is a sign of the arrival of tian gui and menopause is a sign of the decline of tian gui, but the blood itself is not the principle of tian gui, it is just a marker of tian gui’s presence. To equate tian gui with menstrual blood is to make a fundamental error, confusing the shadow cast by a thing for the thing itself. With this subtle mistranslation of the concept of tian gui, the author accidentally causes a ripple of confusion that ultimately affects thousands of students.
At nearly every American school I’ve been to, I’ve encountered the misconception that TCM deals with men and women differently when it comes to sexual taxation. Regardless of whether it is ultimately correct or incorrect, this is a Westernized concept that has been superimposed on Chinese medicine. After an idea has been spread long enough, students accept it as fact. But if one reads the Chinese literature or asks historical experts, one will find that the evidence base to support this gender bias is strikingly lacking.
In fact, I remember a conversation with my teacher Bob Damone about this, and Bob pointed out that not only is this gender bias lacking in traditional Chinese sources, it is downright sexist. Basically, the view that sexual taxation could affect men and not women is fundamentally flawed, since both sexes secrete essence-rich fluids during arousal and climax. While most women do not ejaculate as males do, the total amount of fluid that is produced and secreted can actually be much greater, and a significant number of women also experience actual ejaculation. To suggest that a woman’s secretions lack essence while a man’s are pure essence is nonsensical; it trivializes the woman’s essence-rich secretions and suggests that they are somehow inferior or less important than the man’s.
The influence of culture on medicine has been well-documented and it is a fascinating study. All cultures interpret any form of medicine in their own way, and each culture is capable of making great contributions to almost any form of medicine, be it biomedicine, TCM, shamanism, ayurveda, or whatever. But at this young stage of Chinese medicine’s arrival to our culture, we must be vigilant to verify the authenticity of our sources. We must be mindful of the actual evidence base of accumulated Chinese experience and we should not be quick to superimpose our own interpretations before we have studied the original concepts well. We are very fortunate to have a medicine with thousands of years of history and literature, but if we strive to pioneer new ground without understanding the source literature, it cannot be said that we are authentically practicing a medicine based on thousands of years of history and experience.
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Sun Simiao was the most famous CM author to expound on Taoist sexual philosophy and practices. The thrust of his sexual writings can be summed up as follows, “Actually the bedroom art is very simple but most people are ignorant of it. How can I intercourse with ten women in a night without feeling tired? I just hold fast to my semen and do not let it go. This is the climax of the bedroom art.”
In the Qian Jin Yao Fang he goes even further when he states, if a man can have sex with 93 women and not ejaculate, he can live for ten tousand years. Alas the secret of immortality is revealed.
This theme, that longevity can be realised through withholding ejaculation is ubiquitous throughout Taoist sexual writings. But no exploration of a parallel avenue of sexual preservation for women exists. This is a glaring double standard that is truly sexist.
If the premise of your blog is true; and I've yet to see it expressed explicitly in any historical text (nor did you refer to any), then it is logical that women must also be able to harness these powerful energies for the purposes of health and longevity.
The question then arises what can a woman do in the bedroom to live for ten thousand years? Avoid the weaker sex altogether?
You bring up some good points. Indeed, male-centered culture was a major factor historically that has influenced the issue. For example, you can read some interesting quotes from historical texts that relate to problems of gender hierarchy in my previous blog post, a Brief History of TCM Gynecology. As it relates to sex, I am not an expert in the Chinese literature. But there are a few things that are worth mentioning.
As regards withholding ejaculation and using women as an object for the cultivation of male longevity, this is well-known in the Chinese literature. However, most Westerners do not understand that these slightly-extreme schools of Taoist thought are widely regarded in modern Chinese culture as being extremely outdated with regard to sexual equality. In other words, Westerners get really gaga woo-woo about anything related to Taoist sexual arts, but in actual fact there was a great deal of sexism inherent in their practices, which were essentially based on using women as an essence reserve to be tapped and drained for the health of males. That said, such practices have always been regarded as a bit extremist, and it is only common sense that mutual harmony between the sexes is the middle road to travel upon. At present, one would be hard pressed to find many Chinese doctors that would advocate seminal retention from a medical perspective, and the modern cultural trend towards greater gender equality makes things like that old Taoist worldview seem terribly outdated.
As regards your statement "women must also be able to harness these powerful energies for the purposes of health and longevity," I have to answer definitely yes. And there is abundant literature to support this. I am not an expert in Chinese sexual history, but I do know that there is a classical text (I believe it is called the Su Nu Jing, the Canon of the Simple Woman) in which a woman skilled in the sexual arts is instructing the Emperor on yin and yang, and sexual and philosophical principles. Here a woman is the teacher to the Emperor, she is clearly a master of sexual arts, and her words are deeply respected. Without a doubt, there is a historical basis for the notion that women can be sexually sophisticated, cultivated, and worthy of giving advice to the Emperor himself.
Finally, I think that it is important for all readers to understand that Chinese sexual attitudes have shifted from more liberal to more conservative attitudes many times throughout history. For example, the relatively recent Qing dynasty was quite conservative, and sometimes physicians could not even palpate the pulse of a wealthy female patient with direct skin contact. Similarly, the depictions of the Bronze Man (tong ren) statues used in acupuncture have changed over the years, with the early Song dynasty models having a much rounder and "sexier" look than the stiff model that we see today. Some dynastic periods had widespread homosexuality amongst the Imperial elite of both genders, others have been totally taboo about it. Even today, Chinese sexual attitudes remain complex and different from Western attitudes in a number of ways, often simultaneously more conservative and more liberal, but about different issues. What I want to say is, when speaking about a topic as large as Chinese sexuality over history, it is important to understand that it was not one static way. Sexual history by nature is diverse and complex, and generally defies whatever stereotypes and generalizations we tend to make about it.
Eric
However, in other books I see Nu Zi Bao, both in translation and the original (simplified) text.
I quote from the big, new GM page 225, "The Uterus was called zi bao in Chinese medicine. Boa is actually a structure that is common to both men and women and is in the Lower Field of the Elixir (Dan Tian): in men, Bao is the "room of Essence: in women it is the Uterus. "
This is confusing, to me it implies that Uterus can be applied to both men and women. Someone in class (a gynecologist actually) asked if we could call the "male Uterus" the prostate. To which I could only say that it might correlate but we can only speculate.
hmmm...
None of the Chinese source texts that I have read suggest that there is a physical structure in men that is equivalent to the uterus. The discussion of the essence chamber in men is often conceptualized as a male equivalent to the uterus, but the essence chamber has no defined physical structure like the uterus. Modern texts suggest that it includes the testicles, seminal vesicles, prostate, etc, but basically it is a metaphorical relationship, not a physical structure.
Thank you for your piece. As a current student of TCM, I had unresolved questions on this topic which you have helped clarify.
I would like to mention that I have encountered a concept that would be the equivalent of the male seminal retention/et al for women. This is the idea that a female adept practicing the taoist arts, may eventually stop menstruating altogether as she cultivates the sexual elixir that is then used to awaken and transform the higher centers of consciousness in the quest for "immortality".
I am not a practicing Taoist and I encountered these ideas years ago in the Healing Tao system of Mantak Chia, having since learned there is some controversy around the soundness/authenticity of his teaching.
However, I personally knew of a women practicing this system who had ceased to menstruate altogether based on the aims of the practice. Regardless of the merit of that particular system, I believe it does suggest that these practices did/do exist in China for both women and men.
There is no doubt that sexual cultivation practices have existed for both men and women since ancient times. However, it is worth noting that even back in the day, some of these practices were seen as a bit extreme and their integration into mainstream Chinese medicine has always been somewhat limited and/or controversial. We find books like the Su Nu Jing (Classic of the Simple Woman) that clearly illustrate that value was place on women's knowledge, expertise, and cultivation techniques.
While there is no doubt that sexual cultivation has always been an important topic in Chinese medicine, there are differences in opinion as to what is appropriate and healthy for each individual. You give the example of stopping menstruation through qi gong. Obviously, any qi gong that could stop menstruation has power. But is stopping menstruation a desirable goal? Is the body healthier in the absence of menstruation? There is probably no absolute answer, but fundamentally it seems to go against the grain. Just the other day, I heard of a patient who began menstruating (or at least bleeding) after years of menopause following intensive qi gong. Is that a good thing? Obviously it is a red flag for biomedical testing, but it begs the question "what is normal?"
When I was about 19 or so, I was quite into qi gong and I did some experimenting the Mantak Chia material. One particular seminal retention episode made me pass out and have a seizure. Powerful, yes, positive, not so sure. Certainly it freaked out my girlfriend at the time.
Also, it is important to consider the effects of culture on medical trends. Fertility and continuity of the family line has long been important in Chinese culture (this is part of the reason why gynecology is so developed in CM). A qi gong technique that caused an absence in menstruation would not be conducive to fertility, so it wouldn't gain as much traction. Similarly, Chinese culture strongly values eating, so fasting never really caught on as a medical approach. Sure, it is bad to have a replete mess of non-transformed material in the intestines, but the idea of cleansing and purification isn't not a big piece of Chinese medical theory like it is in popular Western culture. So culture may play a complex role here as well.
Based on the requirements and results of these practices, we can see that from a Taoist perspective the semen and menstrual blood are very important substances. In my understanding they are both very closely related to essence. Even more specifically so the egg and the semen since they are the fundamental substances of reproduction which rely on essence for their production. Women's sexual fluids wouldn't necessarily be as rich in essence as the egg or the menstrual blood since the egg and menstrual blood are substances that are directly produce and nourish a new life. So apart from the inadvertent misinformation in the GM book. It seems that from simple observation it's pretty clear that men will become taxed from overindulging in sex beyond their means. And for women menstruation when yin and yang are out of balance can cause them to be tired and weak. So it would be easy to say that based on "normal" sexual interactions between men and women, that men would have the more likely tendency for sexual taxation based on the stereotypical man's desire. And based on women's natural sexual tendencies the common women would not be as prone to sexual taxation.
I think Eric mentioned a very important point about mistranslations and popular conceptions for those of us who studied Chinese Medicine in the west. And thanks for clarifying the issue from source based material.
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