by GINGER HUANG
IMAGE/Women of History
Prostitution is oft cited as the oldest of professions, but is it possible that it might just be the most noble as well? Today, we view prostitutes, typically, as women who engage in sexual activity for payment. However, back in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), a modern man would be astounded by the brothels of the day and the women living in them; modern interpretations simply fail to grasp the complexity of the “prostitute” of yore. Our sexual time traveler would find an artistic trade that transcends the simple and tawdry exchange of sex for money.
For a long time in ancient China, prostitution was completely legal. As scholar Lin Yutang (???) wrote: “One can never overstate the important roles Chinese prostitutes played in romantic relationships, literature, music, and politics.” The contradiction between the modern and the ancient concepts of prostitution in part comes from the origin of the word itself. The Chinese character for prostitute, ? (jì), is not so much to do with sex but instead “a female performer”. These women did not just offer sex but rather the pleasure of their company through music, singing, dancing, and even poetry.
In ancient China, noble ladies did not need to be intelligent or talented to be respectable, and ancient China, for all its delicate charms, could be hard on women. A proverb first seen in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) book The Elders Thus Say (???????n de zh?ng yán), is frequently quoted describing the ideal woman: “A woman is virtuous as long as she is ignorant.” The Chinese woman is supposed to be obedient to her husband, dutiful to her children, mind her domestic affairs and be virtuously ignorant on all other matters.
As wives and concubines were expected to abide by social codes, Chinese men were in need of intellectual counterparts of the opposite sex. Marriages were matters of social hierarchy, leaving endless scholars and aristocrats with marriages that lacked both the affection and communication that can be found on a deeper, more spiritual plane. Prostitutes were exceptions to the rule. Unlike the girls brought up in ordinary families who were deprived of education, prostitutes were taught to become—not merely entertaining performers—but the mental equals to aristocrats, scholars, government officials, and all manner of high society.
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Like Cui Ya, Liu Yong (??), a Song Dynasty (960-1279) poet, spent his entire lifetime writing poems for prostitutes; unfortunately for Liu, his fame as a poet was so great that it backfired, crushing his hopes of becoming an official. When the well-known young man took the Imperial Exam and passed all the tests, the emperor rejected him, saying: “What do you need feats and fame for? You should just fill your cup and softly sing.” As a result Liu gave up all hope of become a politically-accomplished man and spent all his time and talent writing odes to the prostitutes with which he was so enamored.
The World of Chinese for more
via Women of History