According to Taoist and Tantric beliefs, s*x can heal the imbalances in your body, therefore resolving any ailments.
The doctrine prescribes certain sexual postures, positions, and even rhythms that are believed to enhance the circulation of blood, strengthen your bones, increase the production of bone marrow, resolve issues your spirit might have, and bring your body into balance. Taoist sexual practices are the ways Taoists may practice sexual activity.
These practices are also known as “Joining Energy” or “The Joining of the Essences”. Practitioners believe that by performing these sexual arts, one can stay in good health, and attain longevity or spiritual advancement.
Some Taoist sects during the Han dynasty performed sexual intercourse as a spiritual practice called “Héqì”. The first sexual texts that survive today are those found at the Mawangdui.
While Taoism had not yet fully evolved as a philosophy at this time, these texts shared some remarkable similarities with later Tang dynasty texts, such as the Ishinpō. The sexual arts arguably reached their climax between the end of the Han dynasty and the end of the Tang dynasty.
After 1000 AD, Confucian restraining attitudes towards sexuality became stronger, so that by the beginning of the Qing dynasty in 1644, s*x was a taboo topic in public life.
These Confucians alleged that the separation of genders in most social activities existed 2,000 years ago and suppressed the sexual arts. Because of the taboo surrounding s*x, there was much censoring done during the Qing in literature, and the sexual arts disappeared in public life.
As a result, some texts survived only in Japan, and most scholars did not understand that such a different concept of s*x existed in early China. The basis of all Taoist thinking is that qi is part of everything in existence.
Qi is related to another energetic substance contained in the human body known as jing, and once all this has been expended the body dies. Jing can be lost in many ways, but most notably through the loss of body fluids.
Taoists may use practices to stimulate/increase and conserve their bodily fluids to great extents. The fluid believed to contain the most Jing is semen. Therefore, Taoists believe in decreasing the frequency of, or totally avoiding, ejaculation in order to conserve life essence. For Taoists, s*x was not just about pleasing a man.
The woman also had to be stimulated and pleased in order to benefit from the act of s*x. Su Nu, female advisor to the “Yellow Emperor”, noted 10 important indications of female satisfaction.
If s*x were performed in this manner, the woman would create more jing, and the man could more easily absorb the jing to increase his own qi. According to Jolan Chang, in early Chinese history, women played a significant role in the Dao of loving, and that the degeneration into subordinate roles came much later in Chinese history.
Women were also given a prominent place in the Ishinpō, with the tutor being a woman. One of the reasons women had a great deal of strength in the act of s*x was that they walked away undiminished from the act.
The woman had the power to bring forth life and did not have to worry about the ejaculation or refractory period. To quote Laozifrom the Dao De Jing: “The Spirit of the Valley is inexhaustible. Draw on it as you will, it never runs dry.”
