Art of the Bedchamber

The Chinese Sexual Yoga Classics Including Women's Solo Meditation Texts

SUNY, 1992.
Paperback, 293 pages

Yellow Silk from Ma-wang-tui

The important and exciting thing about the Ma-wang-tui texts is the fact that the manuscripts from this site are a few hundred years older - closer to the original, more genuine, and therefore less riddled with transcription errors - then the texts available up to now. In China - and of course in Chinese - this whole collection of new found texts has been published (Wen-wu Press, 1985) as Ma-wang-tui Han-mu po-shu (Chin., Silk Manuscripts from the Han grave of King Ma).

Where and what - you may think - is the link between an excavation in an unknown Chinese village and Great Bliss? This connection has been made by the appearance of a unique work with translations of the most relevant and oldest known Chinese (Taoist) texts on the 'Arts of the Bed Chamber'. Apart from the Te Tao Ching and the I Ching (also newly translated), the dead king was also accompanied by some classical texts mainly dealing with the (Chinese) knowledge of sexual techniques to enhance the psychosomatic well-being of man and woman, the skills and potential of heterosexual love and the (then) state of the art in handling sexual energies.

Douglas Wile, Associate Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, has translated these latter texts and made them accessible for the English-reading public; and this work is a treasure-house of information. Translated here are classical and long lost works like the Ho yin yang (Chin., The Uniting of Yin and Yang), the T'ien hsia chih-tao t'an (Chin., Talks on the Highest Tao under the Heaven) and the Yang-s-heng fang (Chin., Recipes for the Nourishment of Life).

This publication makes most other books about Chinese (Taoist) sexuality almost completely outdated, and the author also takes apart most of the 'New Age' publications on Chinese Tantra. The work is an absolute must for everyone seriously interested in this subject and having no trouble with a scientific text about the subtleties of Chinese sexual language and concepts. Simply Great!

Review: RCC
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