Evidence of five thousand years of sex culture
From ancient times, China has had a rich and splendid culture, which includes a rich and wonderful sex culture. A country, or people, which is ignorant, closed and conservative about sex but is capable of establishing a brilliant civilization.
Sex culture of ancient China was closely connected with the political and economic state of the times, flowering and decaying along with the contemporary political and economical situation. For example, ancient Chinese sex culture reach its pinnacle in the Tang Dynasty. After the middle of the Song Dynasty, China feudal society started to deteriorate and sex also became a more and more closed affair; the asceticism of the Confucianists gradually restricted the development of sexual scholarship; this phenomenon affected the Chinese people for seven or eight hundred years.
Sex was hidden behind a veil of mystery. Many sex culture relics gathered dust or were destroyed or lost. Sex culture relics were labeled in China as obscene and pornographic. So many relics were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, as the people had nowhere to hide them. As a result, it is now easier to find and buy Chinese sex culture relics in the antique markets and auction houses of Europe and the U.S.A. than in Mainland China.
The sex culture relics are of great value they prove that Chinese sex culture has a long history. They also contain a special feature of Oriental sex culture as represented by the Chinese Subtlety. They tend toward the unpretentious and their meaning and often essence are hidden behind a plain appearance. The sex culture relics also help to correct a wrong impression about ancient China that the Chinese people have always been conservative and uncivilized in matters of sex. In fact, the many different kinds of sex culture relics prove that the sex lives of the ancient Chinese were active and colorful even in the Ming & Qing Dynasty, when sex culture was most strictly prohibited, erotic painting and novels reach a new height of accomplishment, thereby proving an historical truth Where there is oppression, there is rebellion.
Sex is something that all human beings are interested. People in China were is some ways open and inquisitive, but there was also another hidden, implicit attitude. Some expressed the view that talking about sex was shameful.
Many sex culture relics have two aspects outwardly innocuous, inwardly sex-related. There are pictures, sculptures of people, landscapes, flowers and birds which on the back or the base show figures engaged in sexual intercourse. From this kind of sex culture relic we can construe the interest and the attention of the old Chinese in sex, and also the ingenuity and resourcefulness.
Sexuality Worship
Talisman or lucky charm The ancient Chinese believed that the female genitals had the power to counter evil spells.
A bird was the symbol of male genitalia, while the fish was a symbol of female genitalia. A bird with a fish in its mouth indicated worship of sexuality.
Double fish symbolises the female genitals.
The ancient Chinese believed that sexual intercourse could help ward off evil. So they would hang pictures from the roof beams of their houses in a belief that the Fire God would not dare visit. It implies worship of sexual intercourse.