Treatment Cave

This is the fourth and last part of Sexuality in Chinese Medicine. Chinese medicine has always stressed the importance of excessive sexual activity as a cause of disease but not insufficient sexual activity.  This has not always been so as, during past dynasties, all sex manuals explicitly say that sexual activity is essential for the health of both men and women.  Indeed, sexual abstinence was viewed with suspicion (as Buddhist nuns were). The current pruderie of Chinese medicine is clearly a result not so much of the Communist influence but of the Qing dynasty’s Confucian influence.  As we have seen, the Confucianists frowned upon sexual activity and believed that it should be carried out in secret and there should be no public display of affection (as in modern China until recently). It is important to understand, however, that these rules did by no means imply that sex was a “sin” and woman was the origin of such sin as in the Christian view: nothing could be further ...

SEXUALITY AND THE EXTRAORDINARY VESSELS Human sexuality is closely linked to the physiology and pathology of the extraordinary vessels, especially the Du, Ren and Chong Mai. The Du and Ren Mai are the expression of Fire and Water respectively with regard to sexuality: the exchange of sexual essences and of Yin and Yang during sexual intercourse takes place through the intertwining of the Du and Ren Mai during intercourse. Both these vessels arise from the space between the Kidneys where the Yuan Qi throbs: they then flow down to the perineum where they separate, one following the spine up to the brain, the other following the front up to the face and eyes.  However, internally they intersect and both flow through the heart. The “Su Wen” in chapter 60 has the following pathway for the Du Mai: it starts near the uterus, goes down to the pubic bone, in women to the vagina.  Its Luo channel goes around the vagina, passes to the perineum, then the buttocks, down to meet the Kidne...