Post Date December, 03 2023
In ancient China, there were lesbians and many literary works. Compared with gay men, ancient China was more tolerant and open-minded towards lesbians.
Situational homosexuality
If we say that the court women, nuns, women's crowns and so on have few opportunities to contact men, so they take homosexuality as a kind of sexual catharsis, which is the so-called "situational homosexuality" in modern sex science. If the environment allows them to have extensive contact with men, they may not choose homosexuality, but there are many lesbians who are completely voluntary choices.
Most lesbians choose to become monks
In many ancient novels, nunneries and women's Taoist temples have always been described as places for raising men and women. "Three Words and Two Pais" is the most influential imitative storybook novel in the Ming Dynasty. It reflects the living conditions, ideas and appreciation tastes of the market class since the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Some of the contents describe the "lewdness" of nuns and Taoist priests stealing from the Han.
There are many different reasons why ancient women shaved their hair to become nuns or nuns: one kind of people sincerely converted to religion. The other is forced by life. The third kind of women just use becoming nunnery and Taoist temple as a means to implement "sexual openness" and "sexual freedom". Women's nuns and women's crowns have traveled widely across the country. They are free and convenient to enter and leave the palace and the people's homes. They are not restricted to contact with women, which has created favorable conditions for their sexual activities. At that time, the society was more tolerant of engaging in lesbians, because it did not destroy marriage and family, did not count as "immoral", and did not affect the blood of children. Of course, it will not be considered as a "good thing". Tao Zongyi of the Yuan Dynasty believed that women's nuns and women's crowns should not enter women's boudoirs at will in order to prevent chaos. Its main implication is also to prevent lesbians from happening.
Lesbians in cultural works
Like men's style, lesbians are also one of the contents of ancient novels, especially sexual novels. It can be seen that lesbians are not uncommon in life in ancient times. For example, the "Plum in the Golden Vase" written by Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng in the Ming Dynasty and the "Shadow of Flowers Beyond the Curtain" written by Ding Yaokang in the same dynasty both narrate lesbians. Feng Menglong's "History of Love" contains a chapter about homosexuality. Their handling attitude is no different from that of heterosexuals. These lesbian literary works, as well as other studies, also show that China's ancient attitude towards homosexuality is much more enlightened than that of the West at the same time.
(Editor in charge: Mei Ye)
