Post coitum omne animal triste est sive gallus et mulier. Literal translation - After sexual intercourse every animal is sad, except the cock [rooster] and the woman. In other words, the postcoital blues.

If you've read anything about sex in ancient China, the woman has plenty of Ying essence that needs to be accessed whereas the man has limited supplies of Yang essence that should be preserved (coitus reservatus). Sounds like a Chinese justification for the relationship between an Emperor and his numerous concubines, but interesting in itself in that different modes of thinking produce different effects. Not least, that of the concept of prolonging the life-span of the man.

“The subject of sex was central to early Chinese thought. Discussed openly and seriously as a fundamental topic of human speculation, it was an important source of imagery and terminology that informed the classical Chinese conception of social and political relationships. This sophisticated and long-standing tradition, however, has been all but neglected by modern historians.” *

So when Chinese women state they are ‘traditional’, the subject of several recent posts, do those women comprehend what they are saying?

Let ‘battle’ commence, but coitus reservatus, and remember that “a beautiful women can overthrow an Empire."

*Further reading:
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/ealc/content/culture-sex-ancient-china