Page 449 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

410 TH E ENC YC LOPEDI A OF TAO ISM A - L

To read these lines (or comparable lines in the Daode jing) as usingjing to denote
male reproductive fluids would be nonsensical. Clearly, the term refers here
to an essence that suffuses a person's being. Taoist literature is replete with
comparable uses. But even some excellent scholars have persisted in reading
the termjing as meaning "semen," no matter what text may contain it. It is
particularly important to consider the real or intended audiences of such
texts: if the advocated practices would otherwise seem applicable to women
and men alike, it is quite possible that there, as in the Neiye, references to jing
involve preservation of a general life-force, not reproductive fluids.
Generally, we must distinguish Taoists' emphasis on cultivating life's basic
forces (,bio-spiritual cultivation") from various other parties' interest in ex-
plaining and enhancing sexual relationships (Kirkland 1994, 162). Early texts
that suggest methods for improving lovemaking range from *Mawangdui
manuscripts (Harper 1987b; Wile 1992, 77-83) to a tenth-century Japanese
medical compendium, the *Ishinpo (Methods from the Heart of Medicine;
Wile 1992, 83-II3; Kohn 1993b, 153-59). Very different are texts from Ming
and Qing times that prescribe esoteric ritual techniques, instead of ordinary
attempts to improve lovemaking (Wile 1992, 146-92). Some Tang texts, like
*Sun Simiao's QianjinJang 1-fit1f (Prescriptions Worth a Thousand; Wile
1992, II4- 19; Kirkland 1997-98, II3-14), urge cautious sexual activity, but have
little identifiable Taoist content. And none of those texts are preserved in the
Daozang- a fact that indicates either that Taoists did not value such texts, or
that they were loath to admit that they did. Some have argued thatJangzhong
shu are related to Taoist spiritual practices because both are concerned with
"the cultivation of qi" (Wile 1992, 149). But if so, the earliest proponent of
"sexual alchemy" would logically be Mencius (Mengzi JET, 2A.2; trans. Legge
1895, 189)-a notion that few would accept.
Generally speaking, Taoists have never been the prudes that Confucians, or
followers of Western religions, have been. And since Taoists have, throughout
history, been reluctant to demarcate boundaries between orthopraxy and het-
eropraxy, certain Taoists of various periods may have advocated or participated
in practices (perhaps including *heqi, "merging pneumas": see Bokenkamp 1997,
44-46) that involved more sexuality than Westerners or Confucians generally
find comfortable or comprehensible. But ultimately, Taoist self-cultivation,
beginning with the Neiye, married physiological rectification with attempts
to attain and embody higher experiential realities, such as essence, pneuma,
and spirit (*jing, qi, shen), and the Dao. Some *Shangqing texts instruct a male
practitioner to visualize spiritual interaction with a feminine spiritual being
(Schafer 1978a; Kohn 1993b, 267- 71; Bokenkamp 1996b; Kroll 1996c). But such
models, though couched in mildly erotic terms, really advocate a meditative
process of visualizing an exchange of energies, not the phYSical coupling as-