Asian 212 Lecture 13: Sexing your way to heaven
We are going to move backwards in time, briefly. Last time we discussed in broad terms the fall of the Han, but we should go back and talk a little about a tomb discovery and motifs from the Western Han. Also note that the idea that writing (such as the Shang oracle bones) influences speech is ridiculous. Because the Shang wrote short snippets on Oracle bones doesn’t imply they were a race of short-spoken stuttering Chinese.
Mawangdui tomb finds (W. Han, 2nd Century BCE)
Mawangdui is in Central China in Changsha of Hunan, where there was the very well preserved corpse of a still-pliant woman. Then they disemboweled her and placed her and her organs into a museum. The most exciting thing from this find was a library of texts written on silk. Silk was more prestigious than bamboo for texts. There were two full copies of the Laozi text, some artwork and astrological charts, and charts of exercises with animal movements corresponding to the positions (see martial arts) found in the philosophical / cosmological portion of the library.
Immortality and Longevity
Dating back to the warring states period there is a growing fascination with immortality. Even the Zhou bronzes contained appeals of longevity for the family to the ancestors. In the Han, this notion has exploded among the elite, and you find that the Han elite are almost always buried in jade suits made from squares of jade sewn together with gold thread. To this day, Jade is considered protective auspicious stones. Cicadas carved from Jade were sometimes placed on the tongue, as the shedding skin is a symbol of rebirth.
How the journey to the afterlife was made is more complicated. There is a large silk banner draped over the coffin of the Mawangdui Lady Dai, an elaborate painting on silk. It took quite a while to interpret this properly, but over time we’ve learned more. From older dynasties back to the Shang we see two male and female deities carved in stone holding the Sun with a raven and the Moon with a toad.
Random rant: “Everyone seems to think humans are nothing but dirt.”
Another carving shows a 9-tailed fox arranged in an upper register, and human forms in a lower register. Xiwangmu (West King Mother), is found in the upper panel. By the Han, she is some kind of Queen mother goddess. There is also a mortar and pestle being ground by a hare in the top-left who is creating the elixir of life. This image of the hare reappears (sometimes in the moon) grinding the elixir of life.
There’s also an ancient Shang myth about there being 10 suns (they had a 10 day week). The notion was that each day was a different sun coming out, and there’s a myth where all 10 suns come out at once and an archer comes to shoot down the other 9.
Past two guardians we see something being pulled up in front of some deity in the silk. From the normal human realm, a creature is being pulled through the canopy of heaven into the celestial sphere. Indeed, the tomb occupant is drawn in the human register, and above, waiting for her, again is the tomb occupant showing her successful transformation into a spirit with a dragon tail, an arms length away from the elixir of immortality. There’s an additional register below which includes long-furry tailed turtles representing the watery depths, the underworld. Thus, this silk is a depiction of Han dynasty beliefs about the afterlife.
Alchemy (inner v.s. outer)
In a quest to transform themselves, members of the elite tried to ingest all kinds of things. In the west, alchemist wanted to turn lead into gold, but the Chinese notion of alchemy was more inclusive. They believed that there must be a process to turn a mortal into an immortal. Inner alchemy is a meditation to transform the energies inside of you to become immortal in a strange sort of way. This concern explodes following the Han.
For example, there are lots of sexual manuals (some of these are called “The manual of how to ride many young women in one day”) which describe how ?? de jing (essence, vital energy) can be saved to become immortal. Having sex will cause your jing to leave you and become depleted. Instead, they allow themselves to have promiscuous sex but never allow themselves to finish. This becomes a physical exercise, like stretching or eating foods. To most of us, this is an unattractive notion, but it was considered a legitimate method of attaining immortality.
Taoist religious practice
By and large, we associate these practices with the Taoists. Buddhist texts are generally critical of these activities. However, the deviant sexual practices and orgiastic sexual initiation rites of the Taoists are confirmed by texts from both sources.
Revealed texts to the Taoists come from the so-called spirits of former teachers initiating people into various techniques. Thus, Taoist sects take off at the time because a Taoist master can claim authority through the spirits of ancestors.
To this day, Chinese want to deny that Taoism has a link to breathing techniques, sexuality, or other practices that are non-philosophical and more religious.
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 16th, 2006 at 10:39 pm and is tagged with warring states period, oracle bones, painting on silk, female deities, mawangdui, way to heaven, shedding skin, animal movements, central china, astrological charts, gold thread, cicadas, shang, changsha, dynasties, immortality, hunan, bce, zhou, afterlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.
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- Asian 212 Lecture 13: Sexing your way to heaven
Having sex will cause your jing to leave you and become depleted. Instead, they allow themselves to have promiscuous sex but never allow themselves to finish. This becomes a physical exercise, like stretching or eating foods. ...
on March 19th, 2006 at 4:50 am
I can’t believe you would publish course notes in such poor taste. Your text is also racist and un academic.
I only hope this blog has been hacked or spammed, and that you really do not subscribe to any of these views.
on March 19th, 2006 at 5:34 am
BB, if the commonplace word for sex, “fucking,” offends you, you clearly haven’t read the rest of the notes. They represent an academic collection of facts and ideas about Taoism, none of which are racist in any way. You’re not a Cornell student, and no search engine visitors have hit this post yet, so I’m baffled as to how you can here, and why you would accuse me of racism….
on April 6th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
My guess? Pearlstone relative.
on April 7th, 2006 at 5:11 pm
Hey Elliott! Keep up the excellent work!!
on April 11th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Hey Elliot. Just wondering whether you were going to continue posting class notes or not? Thanks. I noticed they only go to lecture 13.