A summary of Jin Wenxue 金文学, "Lust and prudery were two sides of the same coin" (好色と戒色はコインの裏表) in Kōshoku to Chūgoku bunka: Chūgoku no rekishi wa yoru ni tsukurareta 好色と中国文化：中国の歴史は夜に作られた [Kawaguchi-shi, Japan: Nihon kyōhōsha, 2004], pp. 46-50.)
In both Korea and China, sex pursued to excess inevitably brought about warnings of possible harm. The strongest anti-sex force was the “prohibitionism” of the Song-dynasty Neo-Confucianists. One prominent aspect of this attitude was the extreme importance placed on chastity and chaste widowhood. These Neo-Confucians railed against the “debauched mind” (yinxin 淫心), which they regarded as the “root of all evils.”
In late imperial China, even Daoism became influenced by this prohibitionist mentality. For example, it became a common practice for men and women to keep personal ledgers of merit and demerit in which they would record their moral triumphs and failings on a daily basis. In the Ledger of Merit and Demerit Concerning the Ten Admonitions 十戒功過格, one finds the following items for men:
To discuss whether girls have pretty faces is one demerit
To stare at or look back at beautiful women when meeting them is one demerit
To idly think lewd thoughts is one demerit
To have a lewd dream is one demerit
After having a lewd dream, to fail to blame one’s self and to reminisce about it is five demerits
Deliberately to grasp a woman’s hand and harbor desires in one’s mind is ten demerits
In addition to ledgers, Qing-dynasty Chinese often recorded their moral struggles in their diaries. In the diary of the famous official Ceng Guofan 曾國藩, for example, we find an entry for Daoguang 21 (1842), 11th month, first day in which he spends the day as a guest in someone’s house. The women in the upper floor several times cast suggestive glances his way. He regarded their actions as a moral failing on his part and blamed himself for having been rude. This is the degree of self-censorship and prohibitionism that had become the norm by the late Qing dynasty.
The spread of Neo-Confucianism caused a “boom” in anti-sex attitudes to rage beneath the surface (or on the underside of) Chinese sexual culture. One can trace this boom through the Qing period, through the Republican period, and through Mao’s China. Only very recently is it showing signs of waning.
(For a detailed study of ledgers of merit and demerit, see Cynthia J. Brokaw, The Ledgers of Merit and Demerit: Social Change and Moral Order in Late Imperial China [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991]).
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