Forbidden Asia

Taoist education, from the simplest effort right up to the most elevated spiritual heights, was founded on the control of sexual energies.

There is a link between the exterior world in which man lives and the individual interior of every human being. Sexuality is thus called upon to play a central role in everyone’s life.
This explains why men thought of satisfying several women sexually as a duty. And the aim was to do it without exhausting all their energy.

In these texts, the sexual act is always referred to metaphorically, with terms such as ‘the war of flowers’, ‘lighting the great candle’, or ‘games of cloud and rain’.

“She dusts the pillow, perfumes her red hairnet,
Swivels the lamp and slips off her clothes.
Her maids know the night will be long
But no call means they may go home.”

— Dai Hao, 6th century