Summary:

The sexual description in "The Plum in the Golden Vase" is an important issue that has attracted widespread attention. From it, we can clearly see its anti traditional and anti Confucian cultural background and humanistic ideas that emphasize quality. It can be said that the sexual description in "The Plum in the Golden Vase" is a literary novel specimen of the Ming Dynasty that releases sexual tension.

At the same time, there were also a large number of pornographic descriptions in Ming Dynasty folk songs, which became folk specimens for relieving sexual tension.

Studying and analyzing the pornographic descriptions in Ming folk songs can help us to have a correct understanding of the cultural background of "The Plum in the Golden Vase" and its sexual portrayal.

(1)

The folk songs of the Ming Dynasty are represented by Feng Menglong's compilation of the Northern Song "Hanging Branches" and the Southern Song "Mountain Songs". Due to the lack of editing by editors, these folk songs are quite bold and unrestrained in their praise of sexual love. Compared with the erotic descriptions in poetry and music created by literati, they can be described as overflowing with pornography.

The emergence of a large number of pornographic folk songs is first and foremost related to the strict control of sexual culture in the Ming Dynasty and the emergence of capitalist production relations within the feudal society.

The Ming rulers implemented unprecedented strict control over social sexuality, promoting Han Confucianism, Cheng Zhu Neo Confucianism, banning official prostitutes, opposing officials from soliciting prostitution, and allowing members of the ruling class to vent their sexual desires on the relatively fixed family sex objects under the marriage form of three wives and four concubines. In society, there was a strong promotion of women being faithful, showing loyalty, valuing chastity, and turning widows into "survivors".

This kind of sexual domination is clearly in sharp opposition to the thriving commercial economy and culture of the city.

The sexual culture in the commercial economy pursues the enjoyment of life with good sex and good goods, and indulging in sensuality is its important value orientation. As Li Zhi proposed, people should use good sex and good goods as the evaluation criteria for society and human nature, and should be allowed to freely pursue a society that satisfies this desire.

So, the result of this contradiction and opposition has made the pursuit of human liberation a distinct and profound creative theme in the literature of the Ming Dynasty, including folk literature. Therefore, the operas, novels, spring palace paintings, folk songs and ballads of the Ming Dynasty became tools for relieving social tension, overflowing with unprecedented pornographic and lascivious descriptions, displaying sharp conflicts between sex and ethics, emotions and ethics, and forming the era spirit of literary sex description that praises free sex.

Folk love songs are rich in both urban and rural culture, and naturally quickly accept the influence of this literary trend of the times, even leading the charge in this literary trend.

Secondly, the widespread emergence of pornographic folk songs is an inevitable product of the social reality of secular extravagance and corruption.

The decadent sexual life of the ruling class in the Ming Dynasty was actually comparable to that of previous dynasties. According to historical records, Emperor Shenzong once asked Wang Xijue about his long-term indulgence in lust, lack of energy, and physical weakness, and had a "meeting of wise ducks" with palace maids by bathing naked in the pool;

Emperor Guangzong accepted the red pill, indulged in excessive desires, and died after two months in power;

Emperor Wuzong reached the pinnacle of his career by constructing leopard houses and monasteries for debauchery, where he indulged in debauchery with Hui female believers and lamas. As recorded in the "Wanli Yehuo Bian," aphrodisiacs flowed into the palace, and debauchery intensified.

Consort Wan colluded with eunuchs and courtiers to offer medicine and curry favor with Emperor Xianzong, in order to strengthen his favor;

During the reign of Emperor Shizong, a large number of courtiers gained favor by using aphrodisiacs. For example, Tao Zhongwen refined red lead pills for women's first menstruation and presented them to Emperor Shizong and Emperor Muzong, causing great physical damage to the young Emperor Muzong. As a result, he was unable to observe the court and passed away at the age of 36; Emperor Shizong also ordered 460 women aged 8 to 14 from both inside and outside the capital to enter the palace for Tao Zhongwen to refine medicine.

Sun Taigong, in order to seduce the young boy, even made him drink a warming agent. "After a long time, his yang became extremely painful and swollen, and he couldn't turn and cut off the medicine to seduce him. He killed dozens of young children, which can be described as unbearable.

The emperor is so licentious that the officials must be very pleased. Yan Song's spitting requires the maid to swallow it with her mouth, and the "fragrant bowl" night pot is also made of gold in the shape of a beautiful woman, with urine resembling sexual intercourse; Yan Shifan's "licentious plot" further demonstrated the people's obsession with virgins at that time, and was particularly notorious;

Wei Zhongxian had an affair with the wet nurse of the Crown Prince, Lady Ke, and became jealous of the Wei Dynasty, forming a triangular affair: some eunuchs even used fake genitals to play with young courtesans in the church, causing them to be mutilated to death; Some eunuchs, in order to restore sexual function, even killed young men and ate their brains; Most palace maids also choose eunuchs as "vegetable households" and form "opposite meals" to live as husband and wife.

Book Shadow of "Wild Harvest Compilation"

In society, prostitutes who relied on selling laughter and engaging in prostitution for a living were spread all over the country. In addition to the prosperity of the two capitals in the north and south, Datong women and Yangzhou skinny horses were also famous for a while. Regular brothels and various private brothels became places for people to vent their desires.

According to "Mei Pu Yu Tan", outside the imperial city, there were numerous brothels and chaotic music. In order to make a living, the common people in the outer city often seduced beggar girls, set up brothels, and made several small holes in the walls near the roadside, allowing prostitutes to lie naked inside the house, humming tunes and making various obscene movements to attract customers.

Prostitution has lost its aesthetic appeal and has become a blatant act of sexual desire. The male trend was flourishing, along with sex novels and erotic paintings, becoming the three prominent aspects of the Ming Dynasty's sexual fashion.

This deteriorating social trend has had a profound impact on folk sexual activities themselves, as well as on the mood and ideas of folk love songs.

In addition, the widespread emergence of pornographic folk songs is also determined by the aesthetic taste and value orientation of folk love songs.

Folk love songs have a natural inclination towards infidelity and sensationalizing sexual content, incorporating these lascivious and vulgar tastes into their aesthetic system. It talks about sexual organs and intercourse, presenting the privacy of sexual life in a straightforward and vulgar way in broad daylight, forming a sharp contrast with the elegant aesthetic taste of literati poetry that is implicit and imbued with aspirations and emotions.

For example, when appreciating women's bodies, the most vulgar "Ten Fragrance Poems" (Liao Yel ü Yixin) describe women as "strong in red silk, light in white jade light, trying to open their chests to explore, especially better than trembling and crispy fragrance", and describe women as "no longer wearing colors, the heart is busier with tentacles, and inside the silk skirt, there is a unique fragrance that captivates the soul";

In "Eighteen Touch", it became "Mantou rising to the sky, Mantou collapsing to the tip", "a triangle field, a shuttle with two sharp ends, and a beard divided on both sides". The Southern Western Chamber "(by Ming Dynasty's Cui Shipei and Li Jingyun) can be described as unrestrained:" The flower heart is lightly plucked, the willow waist is arranged, the dew drops on the branches and peonies bloom, and the fragrant butterflies and bees gather. A slanting cloud sideburns, not caring about falling golden hairpins, a overturned brocade quilt, not caring about freezing but thin bones, like a goddess of Xiangwang meeting on a balcony. One is half pushed, one is both shocked and loved, one is shy and full of spring

The folk love song "Job hopping" is: "Uncover the red tent with your hands, put a pillow on your waist, you can't say what good things are; Luan is shaking and making a scene all night, the clouds gather and the rain disperse, and you're done. Are you good or bad for a girl

The even more humble "Picking Cucumbers" depicts it without hesitation: "It's not easy for an old man to push a cart, and he feels numb while arranging flowers behind him, like a spider crawling; he inserts and inserts nine hundred times, until the water flows out and the sand is like a bowl of almond tea." (quoted from pages 20, 10, and 26 of "Research on Chinese Literature" in the extra issue of "Fiction Monthly")

The reason why we do not avoid citing examples here is to emphasize the characteristics of sexual description in folk love songs.

Due to the fact that a large number of folk pornographic songs cannot be accepted into the mainstream, they have been ignored by many researchers, resulting in biased conclusions about the sexual characteristics of folk love songs.

This trait, namely aesthetic taste, determines the value of pornographic folk songs: they are rural, common, and popular; It satisfies the curiosity of various people about sex and indirectly provides sex education and knowledge;

It provides the public with a stimulating, exciting, tense, and enjoyable form of entertainment, relieving and satisfying their sexual tension and psychology; Its artistic charm, which is characterized by its stirring and humorous humor, as well as its vulgar and straightforward expression, is like sex itself, hidden at the bottom of folk culture and has a permanent and vigorous vitality; At the same time, it also provides a value orientation and descriptive mode for the creation of literati literature.

The emergence of a large number of pornographic folk songs in the Ming Dynasty is due to two reasons that cannot be ignored: the inheritance and variation of folk songs, and the influence of literati poetry and drama on folk love songs.

We will not elaborate further here.

(To be continued)

Research on the Plum Culture in the Golden Vase "edited by Wang Ping, Li Zhigang, and Zhang Tingxing

Author affiliation: Jinan University

This article is authorized for publication, and the original text was published in "Research on the Plum Culture in the Golden Vase" (edited by Wang Ping, Li Zhigang, Zhang Tingxing), China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Press, 1999. Please indicate the source when forwarding.Return to Sohu to view more