Art of printing; Eroticism in esp. China before World War 1:

 

 Pre 1918 erotic Chinese woodblock and hand paninted erotic pillowbook scroll with introducing calligraphy/

 

 

 

 

 

Art of printing; Eroticism in esp. China before World War 1:

Introduction into Chinese antique erotic literature or printed woodblock or ukiyo-e technique foldingbooks parts 30 images + of superb detail M Art of printing; Eroticism in China and Japan before World War 1: Ukiyo-e and The floating World of teahouses in Japan (Shunga) Ukiyo-e (浮世絵, "prenten van de vlietende wereld") is een vorm van houtsnede uit Japan die sinds het midden van de 18e eeuw ook in Europa populair werd en een grote invloed had op de Europese kunstwereld van het fin de siècle.

The floating World of teahouses in Japan The Floating World (ukiyo) was an expression of the new economy and social ambitions of the common townspeople of the Edo period (1615-1868). It was, specifically, a world of play and entertainment in Japan's three main cities (Edo [now called Tokyo], Osaka, and Kyoto). It could also be argued that this "world" was also a state of mind or an ethos, a characteristic spirit of the chônin ("persons of the town"). Although the activities and occupations varied, the participants focused particularly upon the pleasure quarters and entertainment districts. These areas of play were ritualized milieu offering escape from the constraints that the samurai estate forced upon the growing and increasingly more economically powerful merchant class. The Floating World embraced much of what constituted everyday life, but it especially celebrated the insider's world of the courtesan, kabuki and puppet theaters, teahouses, specialty clothing and accessories shops, and festivals. Broadly speaking, traditional woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) depicting the Floating World were an artistic expression of the new-found wealth and plebeian tastes of the merchant class (all proscribed within certain limits defined periodically by the shôgun's government, called the bakufu). In all its imaginative variations, this world became the primary subject matter of ukiyo-e prints and paintings during the Edo and Meiji (1868-1912) periods. The best known erotic novel, by far, is the "The Golden Lotus", which Pearl S. Buck called "China's greatest novel of physical love". However, the classical Chinese erotic novels should not be confused with pornography. If one removed the sexually explicit passages of "The Golden Lotus", we would still have a great novel of manners, one of whose hallmark attributes is the level of detail that the author infused on the novel. Thus when the novel tells about monetary transactions, we get to know the exact amount paid for items down to dollars and cents (or rather taels of silver and copper coins). Sexually explicit passages are simply part of the author's attention to detail.

The other novels and short stories in this category have equally "redeeming" values. The novels and short stories of Li Yu happen to be one of the funniest in any category. 金瓶梅 The Golden Lotus Written by Lanling XiaoxiaoSheng Translated by Clement Egerton Tuttle Classics, 2011 Rating: ★★★★ The best known Chinese erotic novel is based on a major expansion of a side story of the Water Margin. The story is about Hsi-meng Ching, a rich man with four wives who sets out to acquire wives number 5 and 6. This book was often banned in China for being too sexually explicit. Westerners were not free from self-censorship, though. When Clement Egerton's first published his translation, he rendered all the sexual passages in Latin. Fortunately, the whole work is now available in English. 金瓶梅 The Plum in the Golden Vase Translated by David Tod Roy The Fountainhead of Chinese Erotica: The Lord of Perfect Satisfaction Translated by Charles E. Stone University of Hawaii Press, 2003 271 pages This short novel tells the story of infamous Tang Empress Wu Zetian, the only Chinese empress to actually rule China on her own. (Other empresses ruled but ostensibly only as regents to a child emperor.) The novel was famous for being the first one to depict sexuality in a very graphic manner, thus serving as the prototype for all the ones that followed. 肉蒲團 The Carnal Prayer Mat Written by Li Yu in 1657 Translated by Patrick Hanan University of Hawaii Press, 1996 336 pages Rating: ★★★★★ This masterpiece is an erotic satire disguised as a moralistic tale. The story is about a scholar who wants to become a monk but not before he has married the prettiest girl around. Wanting to seduce a beautiful woman who happens to be married to a well-endowed stud, he resorts to extreme measures to be competitive.

He undergoes surgery to replace his penis with that of a dog, an amazing plot turn considering that the story was written in the 17th century, long before plastic surgery was invented. The story is sexy, imaginative, takes many unexpected turns and, best of all, is outrageously funny. Each chapter ends with a short critique presumably written by a third-party reviewer but quite likely were written by the author himself to add even more to the humor. The Sex and Zen movie was loosely based on the book. 十二樓 A Tower for the Summer Heat Written by Li Yu, 1657 Translated by Patrick Hanan Columbia University Press, 1998 256 pages Rating: ★★★★★ A translation of half the stories of Shi'er Lou, a book of short stories by the author of The Carnal Prayer Mat. The translation takes its title from the first story, in which a scholar uses a new technology from the West, a telescope, to spy on his neighbors. With his new found knowledge he proceeds to woo the girl and convince the girl's father of that the marriage is predestined.

The other stories are equally unconventional and fun. Chinese Ghost Stories for Adults: Sex, Love, and Murder between Spirits and Mortals Written by Pu Sung-Ling (1640-1715) Translated by Tom Ma Barricade Books, 2000 214 pages This is a translation of selected stories from the Liao Tsai Chih Yi, a classic from 18th century containing over 400 short stories Pu Sung-Ling is China's master storyteller whose stories, usually full of supernatural beings and events, reveal a Taoist nonconformist attitude in the midst of Confucian society. While most Westerners seem to have heard of the "Kama Sutra" or Kokashastra, few are aware of the Chinese tradition of erotic literature. Westerners often see Asians as being demure or even downright asexual.

You would have thought that 1.2 billion Chinese souls would have been enough proof to the contrary. Erotica was present in the form of fiction (both full-length novels and short stories) and poetry, erotic art in the form of very practical "pillow books", and taoist treatises on effective sexual techniques for "maximizing life energies". Unfortunately, ancient foot fetishists also invented the painful practice of footbinding in pursuit of the tiny "lotus" feet. source; Yellow bridge The carnal prayer mat; Rouputuan, also known as Huiquanbao and Juehouchan, and translated as The Carnal Prayer Mat or The Before Midnight Scholar, is a 17th-century Chinese erotic novel published under a pseudonym but usually attributed to Li Yu. It was written in 1657 and published in 1693 during the Qing dynasty. It is divided into four volumes of five chapters apiece. It was published in Japan in 1705 as Nikufuton with an preface proclaiming it the greatest erotic novel of all time. The novel had a controversial status in Chinese literature, and has long been banned and censored; recent scholarship treats the work as an allegory which uses its unabashed pornographic nature to attack Confucian puritanism.

The prologue comments that sex is healthy when taken as if it were a drug, but not as if it were ordinary food.[1] The novel's protagonist, Weiyangsheng (未央生; lit. "Unrealised One" or "Unfinished One"), visits a Buddhist temple, where he meets a monk, who notes that he exhibits wisdom but also lust. Weiyangsheng says that the monk's purpose in life is to sit on a zafu (or prayer mat) and meditate, while his desire is to marry a beautiful woman and sit on a "carnal prayer mat" (肉蒲團). The title of the novel comes from this line said by Weiyangsheng. Weiyangsheng is an egoistic young scholar who often boasts of his aspiration to marry the most beautiful woman in the world. He seeks neither fame nor glory, and prefers to indulge in women and sex. A monk called "Budai Heshang" (布袋和尚; lit. "Monk with a Cloth Sack") once urged him to give up on his philandering ways and follow the path of Buddhism, while his father-in-law, Taoist Tiefei (鐵扉道人), also attempted to persuade him to be more decent, but Weiyangsheng ignored both of them. On a trip to the capital city, Weiyangsheng encounters Saikunlun (賽崑崙), a bandit, and becomes sworn brothers with him. Saikunlun introduces Weiyangsheng to Tianji Zhenren (天際真人), a Taoist magician, who surgically enhances Weiyangsheng's penis by splicing strips of a dog's penis into it, causing it to be enlarged and become more 'powerful'.

With Saikunlun's help, Weiyangsheng gets involved in illicit sexual relationships with many married women, including: Yanfang (艷芳), the wife of Quan Laoshi (權老實); Xiangyun (香雲), the wife of Xuanyuanzi (軒軒子); Ruizhu (瑞珠), the wife of Woyunsheng (臥雲生); Ruiyu (瑞玉), the wife of Yiyunsheng (倚雲生). When Quan Laoshi learns of his wife's relationship with Weiyangsheng, he is furious and is determined to take revenge. He disguises himself and infiltrates Weiyangsheng's household, where he has an affair with Weiyangsheng's wife, Yuxiang (玉香), and makes her pregnant. Quan elopes with Yuxiang and sells her to a brothel to be a prostitute. Later, he realises that he has committed grave sins and decides to show penitence by becoming a monk and studying under Budai Heshang. An 1894 illustration of Rouputuan. The three characters depicted are (from left to right): Yuxiang, Taoist Tiefei, Weiyangsheng. zie foto's zwart wit Meanwhile, in the brothel, Yuxiang is trained in a special technique – writing calligraphy by clutching a brush with her genitals. Later, she meets Xuanyuanzi, Woyunsheng and Yiyunsheng, and

has sex with each of them. When Weiyangsheng visits the brothel, Yuxiang recognises her husband and commits suicide in shame. Weiyangsheng is given a good beating, which makes him come to his senses. He decides to follow in Quan Laoshi's footsteps and become a monk under Budai Heshang. He also castrates himself to avoid being distracted from this calling by his surgically enhanced penis. The alternative Chinese titles of the novel – Huiquanbao (The Karmic Cycle) and Juehouchan (Zen After Awakening) – reflect the overarching theme of the story, specifically on Zen and the Buddhist concept of karma: Weiyangsheng had improper sexual relationships with the wives of Quan Laoshi and others, and later he received his karmic retribution when these men had sex with his wife; his sexual escapades came to an end when he finally 'awakened' (i.e. came to his senses) and decided to pursue Zen by following Budai Heshang. Jin Ping Mei (Chinese: 金瓶梅; pinyin: Jīn Píng Méi) — translated into English as The Plum in the Golden Vase or The Golden Lotus — is a Chinese novel of manners composed in vernacular Chinese during the late Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). The author took the pseudonym Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng (蘭陵笑笑生), "The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling,"[1] and his identity is otherwise unknown (the only clue being that he hailed from Lanling County in present-day Shandong).[2] The novel circulated in manuscript as early as 1596, and may have undergone revision up to its first printed edition in 1610. The most widely read recension, edited and published with commentaries by Zhang Zhupo in 1695, unfortunately deleted or rewrote passages important in understanding the author's intentions.[3] The explicit depiction of sexuality garnered the novel a notoriety akin to Fanny Hill and Lolita in English literature, but critics such as the translator David Tod Roy see a firm moral structure which exacts retribution for the sexual libertinism of the central characters.[4] Jin Ping Mei takes its name from the three central female characters — Pan Jinlian (潘金蓮, whose given name means "Golden Lotus"); Li Ping'er (李瓶兒, given name literally means, "Little Vase"), a concubine of Ximen Qing; and Pang Chunmei (龐春梅, "Spring plum blossoms"), a young maid who rose to power within the family.[2] Chinese critics see each of the three Chinese characters in the title as symbolizing an aspect of human nature, such as mei (梅), plum blossoms, being metaphoric for sexuality. Princeton University Press, in describing the Roy translation, calls the novel "a landmark in the development of the narrative art form – not only from a specifically Chinese perspective but in a world-historical context...noted for its surprisingly modern technique" and "with the possible exception of The Tale of Genji (c. 1010) and Don Quixote (1605, 1615), there is no earlier work of prose fiction of equal sophistication in world literature."[5] Jin Ping Mei is framed as a spin-off from Water Margin. The beginning chapter is based on an episode in which "Tiger Slayer" Wu Song avenges the murder of his older brother by brutally killing his brother's former wife and murderer, Pan Jinlian. The story, ostensibly set during the years 1111–27 (during the Northern Song Dynasty), centers on Ximen Qing (西門慶), a corrupt social climber and lustful merchant who is wealthy enough to marry six wives and concubines. After Pan Jinlian secretly murders her husband, Ximen Qing takes her as one of his wives.

The story follows the domestic sexual struggles of the women within his household as they clamor for prestige and influence amidst the gradual decline of the Ximen clan. In Water Margin, Ximen Qing was brutally killed in broad daylight by Wu Song; in Jin Ping Mei, Ximen Qing in the end dies from an overdose of aphrodisiacs administered by Jinlian in order to keep him aroused. The intervening sections, however, differ in almost every way from Water Margin.[6] In the course of the novel, Ximen has 19 sexual partners, including his 6 wives and mistresses. There are 72 detailed sexual episodes.[7] Evaluation For centuries identified as pornographic and officially banned most of the time, the book has nevertheless been read surreptitiously by many of the educated class. The early Qing dynasty critic Zhang Zhupo remarked that those who regard Jin Ping Mei as pornographic "read only the pornographic passages."[8] The influential author Lu Xun, writing in the 1920s, called it "the most famous of the novels of manners" of the Ming dynasty, and reported the opinion of the Ming dynasty critic, Yuan Hongdao, that it was "a classic second only to Shui Hu Zhuan." He added that the novel is "in effect a condemnation of the whole ruling class."[9] The American scholar and literary critic Andrew H. Plaks ranks Jin Ping Mei as one of the "Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel" along with Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and Journey to the West, which collectively constitute a technical breakthrough and reflect new cultural values and intellectual concerns.[10] Romance of the Three Kingdoms; Peach garden ceremony. zie zwart wit print met koe en paard

The story contains a surprising number of descriptions of sexual objects and coital techniques that would be considered fetish today, as well as a large amount of bawdy jokes and oblique but still titillating sexual euphemisms. Some critics have argued that the highly sexual descriptions are essential, and have exerted what has been termed a "liberating" influence on other Chinese novels that deal with sexuality, most notably the Dream of the Red Chamber. David Roy, the novel's most recent translator, sees an "uncompromising moral vision," which he associates with the philosophy of Xunzi, who held that human nature is evil and can be redeemed only through moral transformation.[8] James Cahill and Robert van Gulik are authoroties on Chinese erotic issues. James Francis Cahill (Chinese: 高居翰; pinyin: Gāo Jūhàn; August 13, 1926 – February 14, 2014) was an art historian, curator, collector, and professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He was considered one of the world's top authorities on Chinese art.[1][2] James Cahill was born on August 13, 1926 in Fort Bragg, California. His parents were divorced when he was two, and he lived with a number of relatives and friends. He became interested in literature and music at the Berkeley High School.[3] In 1943 Cahill entered the University of California, Berkeley, initially to study English, but decided to study Japanese instead because of World War II.[3] He was later drafted into the US Army, and served as a translator in Japan and Korea from 1946 to 1948. In Asia he became interested in collecting paintings.[1][3] In 1948 he returned to UC Berkeley and received a bachelor's degree in Oriental languages in 1950. He then studied art history under Max Loehr at the University of Michigan, earning his master's in 1952 and Ph.D. in 1958.[3] In 1954 and 1955 Cahill studied at Kyoto University in Japan as a Fulbright Scholar.[1] coll M pict; bookcover with calligraphy Career The Riverbank is attributed to Dong Yuan, but Cahill believed it was a forgery by Zhang Daqian. Cahill worked at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. as curator of Chinese art from 1958 to 1965, when he became a faculty member at UC Berkeley.[3] He taught at Berkeley for 30 years, from 1965 until his retirement in 1995, after which he became professor emeritus.[4] From the late 1950s to the 1970s, when the Western society had far less interest in Chinese art than today, Cahill was among a group of art historians who researched and cataloged Chinese paintings.[1] In 1960 he published Chinese Painting, which became a classic text that was required reading in Chinese art history classes for decades.[3] In 1973, he was one of the first American art historians to visit China after President Richard Nixon's historic meeting with Chairman Mao Zedong the year before.[3]

Matrimony; Marriage, procession imperial parade, waver form stone print coloured by hand ca 1890 China, signed. coll M

                                        Pillowbook style scroll, antique, China. Coll M.

At a Chinese art symposium in the 1960s, Cahill proposed the theory that notable Ming dynasty Chinese painters were influenced by Western art. His theory was denounced by Chinese academics at the time, but has been widely accepted by experts since then.[3] In the 1990s, financier Oscar Tang purchased The Riverbank, a famous painting attributed to the 10th-century Chinese Southern Tang dynasty master Dong Yuan, and donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City. In 1999, Cahill set off an explosive debate when he announced that the painting was a fake by the 20th-century master painter and forger Zhang Daqian.[1][3][5] In addition to his observation's on the painting's style, which he argued could not be that of a Song dynasty painting, he cited the brushwork and seals.[6] The museum insists the painting is authentic, and the work remains on display at the Met. The dispute remains unresolved.[1][3] James Cahill published hundreds of articles on Chinese and Japanese art, as well as more than a dozen books.[7] He built a significant collection of Chinese and Japanese art, and gave much of it to the Berkeley Art Museum.[4] In 1993 he delivered the Edwin O. Reischaue Robert van Gulik was born in Zutphen, the son of a medical officer in the Dutch army of what was then called the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). He was born in the Netherlands, but from the age of three till twelve he lived in Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta), where he was tutored in Mandarin and other languages.

He went to Leiden University in 1934 and obtained his PhD in 1935. His talents as a linguist suited him for a job in the Dutch Foreign Service, which he joined in 1935; and he was then stationed in various countries, mostly in East Asia (Japan and China). Above; boc cover;Sexual Life in Ancient China A Preliminary Survey of Chinese Sex and Society from ca. 1500 B.C. Till 1644 A.D

Samenvatting

In 1961 Robert van Gulik published his pioneering overview of Sexual Life in Ancient China. This edition of the work is preceded by an elaborate introduction by Paul Rakita Goldin assessing the value of Van Gulik's volume, the subject itself, and its author. The introduction is followed by an extensive and up-to-date bibliography on the subject, which guides the modern reader in the literature on the field which appeared after the publication of Van Gulik's volume. One of the criticisms in 1961 regarded the Latin translations of passages deemed too explicit by Van Gulik. In this 2002 edition all Latin has for the first time been translated into unambiguous English, thus making the full text widely available to an academic audience. Recensie(s) ...brilliant and unexpectedly enlightening... - Donald Holzman, in: T'oung Pao ...brings many precious and thorough statements on social, cultural and sexual habits of Ancient China... - T. Pokora and J. Mellan, in: Archiv Orientalni He was in Tokyo when Japan declared war on the Netherlands in 1941, but he, along with the rest of the Allied diplomatic staff, was evacuated in 1942. He spent most of the rest of World War II as the secretary for the Dutch mission to Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government in Chongqing. While in Chongqing, he married a Chinese woman, Shui Shifang, the daughter of a Qing dynasty Imperial mandarin, and they had four children together. After the war ended, he returned to the Netherlands, then went to the United States as the counsellor of the Dutch Embassy in Washington D.C. He returned to Japan in 1949 and stayed there for the next four years. While in Tokyo, he published his first two books, the translation Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee and a privately published book of erotic colored prints from the Ming dynasty. Later postings took him all over the world, from New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, and Beirut (during the 1958 Civil War) to The Hague. In 1959 Van Gulik became correspondent of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, he resigned in 1963. In 1964 he became a full member, and the next year he became a foreign member.[1] From 1965 until his death from cancer at The Hague in 1967, he was the Dutch ambassador to Japan. Yu Fang Mi Ju (see picture with expl text) Saving not ejaculating, meant strength and more Yi in Tao, a longer life! It was custom for children to watch and somtimes even assist the deed of sexual practice without actually really participating.

I wonder where the French got the idea of a “normal” peadiastry! On most prints one can see the miniscule lotus feet sometimes even with lose straps to refer to its’ erotic binding and its’magical powers. The prints where made on silk or on mulberry pulp silk, or handfabricated papers. A similar technique of Ukyio- e peach woodblock printing was used to print scrolls as well as papillion bound folded pillow booklets. Almost miniature screens to dress and undress behind! After 1680 (when prussian blue got introduced by the Europeans) these prints became popular, but not for long, they became forbidden, not for all eyes, but known to many!

The books are rare and not as pornographic as their Japanese shunga counterparts. M

Finis ‘s-Hertogenbosch 23 dec 2017 Madrason, Wiki and others