The Culture of Sex in Ancient China

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments Portions of this book were originally read as public lectures. Chapter 2 was presented as “The View of Women in Early Confucianism” at the annual conference of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, Washington, D.C., December 29, 1998; at Stanford University, February 8, 1999; and at the University of California, Los Angeles, February 9, 1999. Chapter 3 was presented as “Sex, Politics, and Ritualization in the Early Chinese Empire” at the University of Pennsylvania, September 28, 1999. I would like to thank the audiences at these lectures for critical discussions that aided me in making final revisions for the book. An abbreviated version of chapter 1 appeared as “Imagery of Copulation in Early Chinese Poetry,” in Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 21 (1999), 35–66; and an earlier version of chapter 2 appeared as “The View of Women in Early Confucianism,” in The Sage and the Second Sex: Confucianism, Ethics, and Gender, ed. Chenyang Li (Chicago: Open Court, 2000), 133–161. The idea for this study came to me in the course of several sustained conversations with my colleague, Matthew H. Sommer, a specialist on sex law in late imperial China. I have also benefited from discussions with other scholars: Constance Cook, Scott Cook, Bernard Faure, Amy Gadsden, Eric Henry, Eric Hutton, Jiang Xinyan, Li Chenyang, Tina Lu, Victor H. Mair, Gilbert L. Mattos, Andrew Meyer, William H. Nienhauser, Jr., David W. Pankenier, Moss Roberts, Haun Saussy, David Schaberg, Nancy S. Steinhardt, Bryan W. Van Norden, Robin Wang. The Center for East Asian Studies of the University of vii Pennsylvania provided a grant to prepare an undergraduate course entitled “Sex and Society in Ancient China,” for which I gathered much of the material incorporated in this book. Many thanks also to Patricia Crosby and the staff at the University of Hawai‘i Press, as well as Rosemary Wetherold and the G&S editors, for the care with which they have handled the production of this book. viii Acknowledgments ...