Showing posts with label chi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chi. Show all posts

Thursday, January 04, 2018

Dark Consciousness (Yasuo Yuasa)








A/Z stretching (archives) + noble figure with contorted acrobat + Macuilcuetzpalin (Mary Miller & Karl Taube, The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya);
Entrevista com Jerzy Grotowski (Arquivos e a Vida Louca da Internet/Youtube);
Jerzy Grotowski au Collège de France: Lecture Inaugurale (1994) (De Revolutionibus/Youtube); 
Giacinto Scelsi's Four illustrations: IV, Krishna-Avatara;

"Ce n'est que du dedans, vécue jusqu'à la transe... Soi-même, ce n'est pas le sujet s'isolant du monde, mais un lieu de communication, de fusion du sujet et de l'objet... demeurer figé comme une bête." 
Georges Bataille 
"... ces forces actives... elles échappent à la conscience... c'est pourquoi nous ne savons pas ce que peut un corps, de quelle activité il est capable..."
Gilles Deleuze

"C'est la vie qui peu à peu, cas par cas, nous permet de remarquer que ce qui est le plus important pour notre coeur, ou pour notre esprit, ne nous est pas appris par le raisonnement mais par des puissances autres."
Marcel Proust (le narrateur, Albertine disparue)
"...  ma mère, laquelle (m'expliquant volontiers qu'il ne fallait pas confondre la véritable sensibilité, ce que, disait-elle, les Allemands, dont elle admirait beaucoup la langue, malgré l'horreur de mon père pour cette nation, appelaient Empfindung, et la sensiblerie Empfindelei) était allée, une fois que je pleurais, jusqu'à me dire que Néron était peut-être nerveux et n'était pas meilleur pour cela."
Marcel Proust (le narrateur, La Prisonnière)
"Art as art is order or expression or integration of these. It is a light, the Chinese say, but there is darkness."
John Cage (45' for a Speaker)

"Die große Vernunft dieses Fatalismus, der nicht immer nur der Muth zum Tode ist, als lebenerhaltend unter den lebensgefährlichsten Umständen, ist die Herabsetzung des Stoffwechsels, dessen Verlangsamung, eine Art Wille zum Winterschlaf. Ein paar Schritte weiter in dieser Logik, und man hat den Fakir, der wochenlang in einem Grabe schläft..."
"Rechnet man gar noch die geradezu viehischen Nachguß-Bedürfnisse der alten, durchaus nicht bloß alten Deutschen dazu, so versteht man auch die Herkunft des deutschen Geistes — aus betrübten Eingeweiden..."
Nietzsche

"... my Lord has shown me the intestines of all my countrymen in the Land of Two Dimensions by taking me with him into the Land of Three..."
the Square in Abbott`s Flatland (quoted by Linda Henderson)
"La vie intime du corps est si profonde!"
Pierre Angelici

"... ce qui permet à l'effet d'effectivement ouvrer est précisément ce 'fonds' discret — à l'antipode de l'effet voyant — qu'aucune mise en oeuvre ne saurait épuiser... Cette ressource ou ce fonds d'effet, comme on dit de quelqu'un qu'il a du fonds, est le fonds d'immanence de l'effet. Au gré d'images qui sont traditionnelles en Chine, il est la souche et le tronc de l'arbre à partir de quoi se déploient naturellement les branches comme autant d'effets singuliers; ou encore il est la mère de l'effet et les effets en sont les enfants..."
"Il y a bien agir, mas c'est un agir en amont; et celui-ci s'opère si bien en amont qu'on ne le voit plus agir. Car au lieu de prétendre gérer la réalité en s'attaquant directement à la situation présente, et d'espérer réussir à coup d'exploits, le sage (est sage celui qui sait) qu'il faut toujours passer par un processus pour parvenir à l'effet."
"... les gens se rendent compte des marques tangibles, ou des traces, qui constituent le succès, mais non des 'configurations implicites' dont les linéaments ont conditionné l'évolution antérieure, et par lesquelles j'ai abouti au succès. C'est-à-dire que les gens voient l'effet (une fois qu'il est advenu, prend un aspect donné et limité, à titre de résultat), mais non d'où vient l'effet, à quoi renvoi la 'trace' — tout son passé d'effect."
François Jullien (Traité de l'efficacité)

"Volitional effort is effort of attention."
William James
"... through explorations of the effects of psychedelic drugs, the visionary practice of shamans, and oriental techniques of meditation, the existence of other dimensions of consciousness has become a matter of personal experience for many Westerners... the body is itself organized and pervaded by fields."
Rupert Sheldrake
"... que que soit le nombre des composantes immatérielles de la personne, qu'elles soient innées ou acquises... teporaires, durables ou éternelles, immuables ou soumises au changement, tous ces principes générateurs de vie, de connaissance, de passion ou de destin ont une forme indéterminée, sont faits d'une substance indéfinissable et résident à l'ordinaire dans les tréfonds des corps."
Philippe Descola

"Le tennis est un art martial. Olga l'a compris en prenant quelques leçons de karaté avec Pierre-Louis... Pour l'heure, elle s'amuse de la ressemblance entre le 'rebond-frappe' et l'attaque à main nue dans le combat de budo. Même alternance de concentration et de relâchement mesuré, même timing entre la saisie de soi et de l'adversaire, et cette échappée inconsciente mais décisive du geste physique... Vous devez vous glisser dans l'instant précis où l'attaque de l'adversaire n'est pas encore clairement formulée mais reste dans son esprit à l'état d'intention. Tout est-là: saisir l'instant où la conscience de l'ennemi décolle de ses mouvements. En termes techniques: saisir le maai temporel. Cela vous permettra de mesurer en pensée et en geste la véritable distance entre l'adversaire et vous, ce qu'on appelle maai spatial... L'énergie dort das la colonne vertébrale... Olga sent des vagues remonter dans ses vertèbres, dilater ses côtes, son bassin, ses tibias, transmettre des pulsations jusqu'aux tissues des hanches, des bras. La tension aime sommeiller en circuit fermé, elle se laisse alors apprivoiser et l'on peut presque lui parler comme à une onde qui est en vous mais qui n'est pas vous. Tout ce que son corps compte de noeuds, d'articulations et de cartilages, où s'amassent des flux comprimés, s'éveille maintenant et vibre."
Olga (Les Samuraïs)  
**************************************************************

"... the base structure of the mind-body relation... refers both to the interconnection among the various organs controlled by the autonomic nervous systems, and the splanchnic sensations of the internal organs, as well as the conjoined emotions (the autonomic nervous system's internal perception as protopathic sensation). Psychologically, this base structure appears in part as conscious feeling (through the stimulation of the cortex), but most of its function lurks in the unconscious regions, resisting any clear differentiation. It forms the dark consciousness hidden beneath the bright consciousness... thrusting into the dark, primitive consciousness, the creative intuition of a genius may also seem endowed with a sense of 'abnormality'..." Yasuo Yuasa, The Body (State University of New York Press, 1987, p. 187-87).
"The neurons of the brain cells are not fully interrelated with each other in a child, and, as one grows, the dendrites and netlike synapses are further developed. This implies that the cortex is immaturely developed in childhood and that the functions of the old cortex and the nervous system beneath the cortex are strongly vivified... a child lives within a dreamlike, smiunconscious world of emotions... This is probably why fluctuating emotional responses are so common in children, responses like the sudden reversals between crying and smiling" (197-98).
"Asanas are the various postures for sitting in meditation, the essential point being to achieve a stable, quiet body over a long duration... Since the motor nerves are in the cortex and linked with conscious activities, a resting bodily state lowers the activity of the bright consciousness and its activating of the sensory-motor circuit... prana-yama is a general term for various breathing methods... prana is a philosophical term translated as ki... it approximates the meaning of the pneuma or logos in Greek thought... The organs governed by both the cerebral and the autonomic nerves include only the respiratory organs and the sphincter muscles... Yoga emphasizes kumbhaka, holding the breath for a long time. According to Tsuruji Sahoda, if, at the outset of training, one practices kumbhaka in its extreme form, one will lose one's eyesight... bhastrika method alternates rapid breathing with regular breathing twice each minute" (211-12).
"Pratyahara is mean to control the sensations... when absorbed single-mindedly in reading or thinking, we do not notice any external noises, and are not aware of seeing anything, even when looking at it. Pratyahara tries to produce such a state of mind in meditation. For example, in concentrating on a monotonous sound like the ticking of a clock, we enter into a mildly hypnotic state... the dark, primitive consciousness surfaces... Dharana means the mental concentration on one object through a conscious effort, for example, a part of one's body (the space between eyebrows, the tip of the nose, or the lower abdomen) or a conceptual object (a buccha, a bodhisattwa, or the notion of emptiness). Mandalas and pictures depicting Buddha's descent, for example, were originally meditative tools... a phenomenon analogous to psychosomatic disease occurs... compensatory animation... At the initial state of meditation, a cultivator often experiences emotional instability, physical abnormalities, and hallucinations. The Tendai Budhist meditation tradition, shikan, calls this the state of majikyo (the demonic realm) and warns us not to confuse it with a true satori... meditation is immunization therapy: one elevates the soul to higher state by producing voluntarily a stage of slight sickness... dhyana is a state in which the mind rests quietly and stably... samadhi is one in which ego-consciousness is eliminated, one achieves the 'self without a self', the distinction between the ego and its object is eliminated... in the case of meditative cultivation, the self roots itself deeply in the base structure by controlling and overcoming emotions. In terms of Nishida's philosophy, we can say that the self approaches the authentic self grounded in the basho vis-à-vis nothing. This power, springing forth from such a center of the personality, is the function that produces the mental harmony and solidarity..." (214).
"... in Yogic theory, the body has three dimensions: gross, subtle (suksma-sarira), and casual... The dictionary meaning of suksma is 'small, delicate, thin, intangible, inaudible, and atom-like... this subtle body consists of numerous nadis (rivers, veins, tubes)... In Chinese medicine there is a kind of artery system in the body know as the 'meridians'... The meridian system in Chinese medicine takes its inspiration from the yin-yang and five-agent theories of the I Ching, a common source for both Taoism and Confucianism... Prana cannot be known rationally but only experimentally — along with the functions of the heart, belly, and blood — in one's meditation." (219).
"... if we were lost in an African jungle, we would have to rely on intuition to decide in what direction go... intuition is the function of judging the place of one's being by grasping holistically and synthetically the ontological relationship between self and world... 'existential anxiety'... From the standpoint of Jung's depth psychology, this is the question of who (wer)..." (227).
"In Yoga, it is considered experientially evident that parapsychological abilities arise in the process of meditation... There is a modern intellectual tendency, even among some religious figures, to consider parapsychological phenomena and miracles to be mere superstition. Perhaps this is one reason why the secularized religions have lost their popular support..." (251).

About politics and rationalistic ideology:
"People with a developed capacity for intellectual thinking are skillful in giving rationales for their feelings, but an excessive tendency towards logical coherence is an expression of emotional instability. To take an example from mass psychology, an ideological political explanation may define an opposing group as 'the enemy of the people,' or 'the enemy of freedom,' and the view may be supported by a coherent logic deduced from one's fundamental principles" (226).
"What truly moves people's minds is not speculative logic, but charismatic power radiating from within the personality..." (232).

See also:

**************************************************************
More:

"At the Institute of Noetic Sciences, my colleagues conducted a survey of more than a thousand meditators to ask about their experiences. They found that three out of four reported increases in meaningful synchronicities as a result of their practice," Dean Radin's Real Magic (Harmony/Penguin 2018), p. 77; 
"... your sketch might reflect how you feel about the target and have nothing to do with what the target looks like... achieve a state of deep physical relaxation... create a sense of tension... excitement [but] be patient and don't force it..." [on remote viewing] Dean Radin's Real Magic (Harmony/Penguin 2018), p. 89-91;
"... the paradoxical concept of 'effortless striving'... a passionate, obsessive, overwhelming desire... but at the same time you must also maintain zero anxiety about it..." Dean Radin's Real Magic (Harmony/Penguin 2018), p. 103;

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Needham*** & van Gulik****: CHINA



Gallous Agro-Rural-Pop Brazilian-Chinese Humour Constructivism (A/Z's Instagram post);
"Monk with Tiger", A/Z's Graphite & Pencil Drawing of a Medieval Chinese handscroll (original image: Two Minds in Harmony, in the manner of Shi Ke), available with other drawings and photographs at Fine Art America; 
**************************************************************

"Notons seulement que la philosophie chinoise rend manifeste au plus haut point ce qui paraît être un trait central de toute ontologie analogique, à savoir la difficulté à distinguer en pratique, dans les composantes des existants, entre ce que relève de l'intériorité et ce qui relève de la physicalité. C'est ce qu'exprime cet aphorisme tiré d'un traité à peu près contemporain d'Aristote, le Hi ts'eu, 'les wou (êtres) sont faits de tsing et de k'i'. Par wou, il faut entendre chacun des types de choses animées et inanimées, un ensemble communément appelé les 'Dix Mille Essences' (wan wou), mais dont le nombre exact, calculé d'après les 64 hexagrammes servant à la divination, serait en fait de 11520, correspondant à autant de situations, d'états et d'emblèmes singuliers. Chaque wou est constitué d'émanations provenant du Ciel où règne le Souffle (k'i) et de la Terre qui produit les essences nourricières (tsing), de sorte que toute 'nature' (sing) est le résultat d'une combinaison et d'un dosage plus moins harmonieux et équilibrés entre des éléments hétérogènes qui procèdent de l'Eau, du Feu, du Bois, du Métal, de la Terre."
Philippe Descola (Par-delà nature et culture)

"Cependant, rien n'égalait les nuances de Canton: le poisson désossé, les côtelettes sucrées, la tortue, le serpent sauté, le boeuf à l'huile d'huître—le Sud y déployait tout cet éventail de subtiles fadeurs que Bréhal était venu glaner, synonyme de civilisation."
"Si le petit enfant utilise pour faire du sens, ces tonalités qu'il est capable de discerner et de reproduire dès l'âge de six mois, c'est qu'il entre profondément dans le langage dès l'âge de six mois—voilà au moins qui est clair—et non pas à deux ans. Deux ans, comme le fera le petit Français, Anglais, Russe, etc... Alors, le petit Chinois est saisi très tôt par le système de la parole, il est éduqué et poli par les symboles depuis le lait maternel et avec le lait maternel... Je dis que tout petit Chinois est potentiellement un disciple du Tao-tö king: il se nourrit de sa mère comme des mots chantés, la musique lie le lait au language."
Olga (Les Samouraïs)
"On danse ave les artères et les veines. Ne croyez pas qu'il s'agisse d'une affaire de bras ou de jambes. Le sang se propulse ou reflue, puis vient un moment où le corps se transforme. Ce n'est pas qu'il disparaît, mais son rythme sanguin s'harmonise avec les figures imaginées de l'espace, le corps est tout l'espace, dedans et dehors pris ensemble et redécoupés, agrandis comme à l'infini, disséqués comme à l'infini... cette avenue, ici, ce fleuve et ces vieilles ou jeunes carapaces, à côté, avec leur air d'extasiés impassibles, m'ont fait découvrir quelque chose qu'une salle de gym à Paris ou à New York ne révélera jamais: sans intérieur ni extérieur, une harmonieuse circulation entre mon corps et le monde, qui métamorphose le monde en corps et le corps en espace sans bornes."
Hervé (Les Samouraïs)
"Je propose d'en revenir par le théâtre à une idée de la connaissance physique des images et des moyens de provoquer des transes, comme la médecine chinoise connaît sur toute l'étendue de l'anatomie humaine les points qu'on pique et qui régissent jusqu'aux plus subtiles fonctions."
A. Artaud (En finir avec les chefs-d'oeuvre)
"Et d'après des vieux Chinois le foie est le filtre de l'inconscient mais la rate est le répondant physique de l'infini."
A. Artaud (Le Rite du Peyotl chez les Tarahumaras)
"Sourire un peu asiatique"
André Masson (Propos sur le Surréalisme)
"No glot... C'lom Fliday..."
William S. Burroughs
**************************************************************

"'Returning to the state of infancy...' It was indeed one of the most ancient slogans of Taoism..." (: 25).
"... tien tao, 'turning nature upside down'"(: 26).
"...the keynote was to avoid excess in everything, to live the most healthy kind of life, to cultivate ataraxia" (: 29).
[contrast between "Buddhist acceptance of fate" and "the Taoist attitude... that people can do something actively and successfully about their life-span..." (: 46);]
"However we may judge their physiological theories now, there is no reason for doubting that under appropriate conditions they could perform miracles of restoring physical and mental health" (: 47).
"The first thing which must be said about the fundamental ideas of nei tan alchemy is that without giving serious attention to the ideology of the I Ching... there is no hope of understanding them" (: 52).
["going against nature", "exaltation of feminine qualities", "sublimation of intra-specific aggressiveness" (: 61);]
"...he who possesses abundant virtue may be likened to a babe; a man harbouring the fullness of tê in his mouth and bosom is protected by the spirits as if they were protecting a child... An infant does no hurt to any creature, nor does any creature hurt it. In a generation entirely peaceful, men are neither esteemed nor despised. Stinging creatures therefore then reverse their nature, and poisonous snakes do no harm to man" (: 132).
"The most important thing is simply to... breathe like an embryo (: 143)... Neither during exhalation nor inhalation should one hear with one’s ears the sound of the breathing, and one should make sure that more goes in than comes out. A wild goose feather may be placed in front of the nose and mouth..." (: 144).
"... the breathing became secondary to an imaginative voluntary circulation of the chi of the internal organs" (: 147).
["... the body should be exercised in every part but... this should not be over-done in any way... By stretching at the waist and moving the different joints to left and right one can make it difficult for people (to grow) old" (: 161);]
"It was only natural that Chinese Buddhism should have had a strong physical (: 166) exercise tradition of its own because it inherited much of Indian yoga technique" (: 169).
[Taoist influences on the development of the Naturphilosophie movement (: 175);]
[Goethe interest in Chinese ideas (: 177);]
"The way to get it is not to want it" (: 181).
"One of the most curious practices was the 'absorbing the image of the sun'" (: 183).
["Hsi Wang Mu... was a woman who obtained the Tao (of immortality) by nourishing the Yin (within her)..." (: 194);] 
"This was simply that the essential procedure of coitus thesauratus could be effected by masturbation" (: 201). 
[Ko Hung, Pao Phu Tzu book: "This is all nonsense, exaggerated talk of enchantments derived from the books of wizards and magicians... it has lost all relation with the facts. Some of it indeed is the work of licentious charlatans... There are obvious natural limits to these principles... once the essential rules are known, the benefits will increase in proportion with the number of copulations; but if one makes love without properly knowing this Tao, it is enough even to bring danger of quick and sudden death, as has been seen in one or two cases. All the essentials are contained in the old methods of Phêng Tsu..." (: 210);] 
"Although from the Upanishads onwards the general Indian tendency had been to reject the phenomenal world as ephemeral, painful and illusory, for both Yoga and Samakhya the world was real and not illusion" (: 258).
"... the movement was both anti-ascetic (in the extreme sense of the word) and anti-speculative. In the Kalacakra Tantra a Buddha reveals that man’s own body is the true cosmos" (: 260).
"Let us now take a brief look at certain general characteristics of the yogistic systems, thinking particularly of relations with China and the physiological alchemists there. First, 'contrariness' as such. Liberation (mukti), in Indian thought, always had a flavour of 'going contrary to all normal human inclinations'" (: 261).
"There may be a remnant of the ancient shamanism complex here, with its ecstatic aerial voyages, its mastery of fire, and its changes in and out of animal forms" (: 262).
"... [the idea of going counter-current] was therefore entirely congruent with modern science and technology, which in so many ways have had to convince these later centuries that it is not always necessary to proceed 'in the way that God intended'" (: 292).
***Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1956). 

"...peculiarly Chinese was the belief in a mysterious life force, ch'i, which pervades the universe and all it contains in a continuous circular course of waning and waxig, later to be defined as the eternal mutual interaction of dual cosmic forces, the positive (yang) and the negative (yin). It was believed that this life force followed a definite path that represented the supreme order of nature, later called tao... Those who lived in consonance with the natural order collected thereby a great amount of ch'i, which increased their tê, 'virtue' — to be understood in its original sense of magical power, mana. This tê was not the exclusive possession of man, also birds and beasts, plants, trees and stones were deemed to have it" (: 12).
"Since the king has a maximum of tê, he needs a large number of female partners to nourish and perpetuate it through sexual intercourse. The king has one queen (hou), three consorts (fu-jên), nine wives of the second rank (pin), twenty-seven wives of the third rank (shih-fu), and eighty-one concubines (yü-chi). These figures are fixed according to a hoary number-magic" (: 17).
"The unbroken line represented the positive, male force in accordance with the above-mentioned number-magic which had fixed odd numbers as expressive of positive and male forces. The broken line represented the negative, female force because even numbers stood for that element" (: 35).
"Fire easily flares up, but it is also easily extinguished by water; water, on the contrary, takes a long time to heat over the fire but it will also cool down very slowly. This is a true image of the actual difference in pre- and post-orgasm experience of man and woman. Chinese medicine, though weak in anatomical science, has always evinced a very shrewd appreciation of psychological factors" (: 38).
"According to the theory of yin and yang generating each other in an everycurrent circular movement, when yang is at its minimum it changes into ying; ying then grows and when it has reached its maximum it changes into yang. For yang harbours a yin element, and yin harbours the embryo of yang" (: 41).
"...intimate contact between two yang elements can not result in a total loss of vital force for either of them... It is praised if such a relationship inspired great artistic achievements. It may be added that while female homosexuality was widely spread, male homosexuality was rare in early times up till the Han dynasty; during that period it was at times deemed fashionable, and it seems to have flourished especially in the early part of the Liu-ch'ao period, and again during the Northern Sung dynasty (960-1127A.D)" (: 48).
"... since the Chinese considered the sexual act as part of the order of nature, and the exercise of it the sacred duty of every man and woman, it was never associated with a feeling of sin or moral guilt" (: 50).
"The Palace cult of the Han rulers was predominantly Taoist. It was intended to enhance the Emperor's position as Lord of the Universe, of super-human magical potency and longevity. The rulers surrounded themselves with Taoist alchemists and magicians, which engaged in the search for the Elixir of Life, and the quest for the Isles of the Immortals" (: 56).
"The first three Emperor, Kao-tsu (i.e. Liu Pang, the founder of the dynasty, 206-195 B.C.), Hui-ti (194-188 B.C.) and Wên-ti (179-157 B.C.) were pronouncedly bi-sexual; next to their regular intercourse with the uncounted haren-ladies, all three had relations with young men... Emperor Wên's homosexual proclivities were encouraged by his Taoist studies. He once dreamed that a boatman ferried him over to the Abode of the Immortals. When later he saw a good-looking young boatman called Têng T'ung who resembled the man seen in his dream, he made him his favourite boy-lover, and showered wealth and honour on him. This same Emperor sought assiduously for the Elixir of Life, and together with Taoist adepts engaged in various alchemistic experiments" (: 62).
"The last Emperor of the Former Han dynasty, Ai-ti (6-1 B.C.) had a number of boy-lovers, the best known of them was a certain Tung Hsien. Once when the Emperor was sharing his couch with Tung Hsien, the latter fell asleep lying across the Emperor's sleeve. When the Emperor was called away to grant an audience, he took his sword and cut off his sleeve rather than to disturb the sleep of his favourite. Hence the term tuan-hsiu 'the cut sleeve', has become a literary expression for homosexuality among man" (: 63).
"The ancient Chinese recognized that, apart from other advantages, the completion of the sexual act regulates the blood circulation and relaxes the nervous system (: 69). This is a train of thought where Confucianism and Taoism meet. It brings us to the subject of the handbooks of sex, and the Taoist attitude to sexual relations" (: 70).
"... the commentary states that all these three lived to an advanced age, and always looked like young men... 'He lived to the age of 150 years by practising the art of having sexual intercourse with women, as taught by Jung-ch'êng'... 'Then one's grey hair will turn black again and new teeth will replace those that have fallen out'" (: 71).
"...thereafter she would there let handsome young men drink good wine, and let them stay the night there with her, so that she could practise with them the art described in the book. When she had done so during thirty years, she looked younger still, as if she were only twenty" (: 75)
[handbooks of pictures of positions of the sexual act, given to daughters by parents "in Japan... till well into the 19th century" (: 76);]
"'The people of the present love trifling technical skills, they do not examine the profundity of Tao, they abandon the right and follow the false. They want to arrive at the goal quickly and thus find their path obstructed... And yet those who (really) desire to know the method of partaking of 'the medicine', will find it simple and easy to put into practice'" (: 81).
"... the great musician and philosopher Hsi K'ang (223-262 A.D.), and his bosom friend the poet Yüan Chi (210-263 A.D.). Their close friendship has become the classical example of similar male attachments among poets and artists of later ages — as for instance of the T'ang poets Li Po (701-762) and Mêng Hao-jan (689-740), and Po Chü-i (772-846) and Yüan Chên (779-831)" (: 91).
"Buddhism had been introduced into China in its Mahayanic form, including such magical aspects as that embodied in the Mantrayana, the 'Doctrine of Spells'. The Mantrayanic spells and charms proved to be attractive to both the Chinese literati and to the masses, it appealed to them as a kind of glorified Taoism. Buddhist monks acted as mediums, rain-makers, soothsayers and exorcists, and also Buddhist nuns engaged in these activities" (: 113).
"As soon as the scholar dares to write on this particular subject [sex] he is immediately ostracized. These facts are eloquent proof of how badly ensnarled Chinese literati of the Ch'ing period had become in their own sexual inhibitions" (: 123). 
"Every man must regulate his emissions according to the condition of his vital essence. He must never force himself to emit semen. Every time he forces himself to reach orgasm he will harm his system. Therefore, strongly-built men of 15 years can afford to emit semen twice a day; thin ones once a day" (: 146). 
"The Plain Girls said: 'The 16th day of the fifth moon is the day when Heaven and Earth mate. On this day one should refrain from sexual intercourse. Those who offend against this taboo will die within three years. In order to obtain proof one has but to suspend a piece of white cloth of one foot long on the evening of that day on the eastern wall (of one's house). If one inspects it the next morning one will find it covered with blood. Thus this day is taboo'" (: 151). 
"'If one wishes a proof of the existence of incubi, on has but to repair alone to a marshy place far away in the mountains, in spring or autumn. One should stay there in a condition of complete tranquility, staring into space and concentrating one's thoughts on sexual intercourse. After three days and three nights, the body will suddenly become alternately cold and hot, the heart will be troubled and the vision blurred. Then, a man engaging in this experiment will meet a woman, and a woman a man. During sexual intercourse with such an incubus one will experience a pleasure that is greater than ever felt while copulating with an ordinary human being. But at the same time one will become subject to this disease which is difficult to cure'" (: 152). 
"... reading the numerous poems that must date from this part of her life one obtains the impression that Yü Hsüan-chi was a passionate woman of strong personality who would not readily give up a man she was in love with. Her poetry is vigorous and original, she disdained the conventional clichés used in love-poetry of that time" (: 174).
"Every city took pride in its courtezans, and they figured largely in all public festivities" (: 180).
[sexual intercourse as playing a secondary role in men association with courtezans (: 181);]
"... jealous wives would often brand the faces of concubines out of spite, or as a punishment for some offense" (: 186).
"As to the ideal of male and female beauty of that time, one notices that the men cultivated a virile, even martial appearance. They liked thick beards, whiskers and long moustaches, and admired bodily strength. Both civilian and military officials practised archery, riding, sword fighting and boxing, and proficiency in these arts was highly praised" (: 188).
"Lady Wu Chao, who while still a consort of the Emperor T'ai-tsung established sexual relations with his son, the Crown-prince... When she had become Kao-tsung's favourite, she killed her own child and then falsely accused the Empress and another favourite of the Emperor of having murdered it" (: 190).
"'When a fox is fifty years old, it acquires the ability to change itself into a woman. At hundred it can assume the shape of a beautiful girl, or that of a sorcerer, or also that of an adult man who has sexual intercourse with women. At that age the fox knows what is happening at a distance of a thousand miles, it can derange the human mind and reduce a person to an imbecil. When the fox is a thousand years old, it is in communication with Heaven, and is then called Heavenly Fox'" (: 210)
"...the main point of [Vajrayanist] philosophy was that the ultimate Truth resides within the human body... For the body contains the 'spark of life' which through a meditative process can be made to flare up into a fire that destroys the duality of sex and thereby identifies the practitioner with the deity, making him one with the ultimate power in the universe, the Void" (: 340).
[tantrism highly consideration of woman: "... just as Taoism in China. Contrary to traditional Hinduism, Tantrism considered woman as equal to or even higher than man... one should bow to any female, be she a young girl, flushed with youth, or be she old, be she beautiful or ugly, good or wicked..." (: 346);]
"Having perused this summary of Buddhist and Sakta sexual mysticism, it will have struck the reader that there are striking parallels with modern psycho-analytical theories. It would indeed be worth while to consider Indian, Chinese and Tibetan sexual mysticism from the viewpoint of analytical psychology. Apart from such obvious resemblances as that of the libido to sakti in its sense of universal creative energy, the adept's raising of the 'serpent power' could be explained as an attempt at crossing the boundary between the individual consciousness and the collective unconscious... For on the adept's perilous journey into the unconscious he need solid support so as not to succumb to its centrifugal tendencies that might destroy his mind. It does not seem quite impossible that the adepts in sexual mysticism had come to realize dimly through their experiments the terrors of the unconscious" (: 346-47, n. 1).
"Since sexual mysticism based on the coitus reservatus flourished in China since the beginning of our era, whereas it was unknown in India, it seems obvious that this particular feature of the Vajrayana was imported into India from China, probably via Assam" (: 351).
****Robert Hans van Gulik, Sexual Life in Ancient China (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974). 

See also: