The Move Toward Spiritual Asceticism in Chinese Sexual Culture

Bibliographic Data

ID6046623
AuthorsPan Suiming, Suiming Pan (corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume31
Issue1
Pages14-24
Publication date1998-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueChinese Sociology & Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0009-4625 • E-ISSN: 1558-1004
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2753/csa0009-4625310114
OpenAlexW2322769812
LanguageEN
Citations received4

Certain observers of traditional Chinese culture have recently argued that China has consistently practiced sexual prohibition and sexual asceticism. This is certainly not the case. Bearing in mind the various historical forms sexual prohibition takes, we must first clarify what actually is being restricted and to what level. We will thus see that the history of sex in China is not unlike that of the West: Both proceed from marital taboos which then develop into sexual taboos. A spiritual asceticism is only acquired later on. In China it is not until the early period of the Qing dynasty that spiritual asceticism is fully established. Although this may correspond historically, both in terms of the period and its manifestation with British-American Protestantism, the actual social consequences of the Chinese experience were precisely the opposite. As far as the sexual history of humanity is concerned, that there should be two different outcomes from a similar historical trajectory remains a great mystery

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Asceticism · Buddhism · Celibacy · China · History of China · Human sexuality · Humanity · Period (music) · Protestantism · Sexual desire · Sociology · Theology · Chinese history and philosophy · Gender Studies · History · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies

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