DPM Chapter 67-Leaving Part 2
Translated by Snowfall77
When they both woke up, the morning was still dark. Ye Fan didn’t need bright lights, though Wu Xingyun’s night vision was obviously worse than Ye Fan’s. Ye Fan lit a candle, then went downstairs, washed his face, and brought some water up for Wu Xingyun.
Wringing the towel, Ye Fan washed Wu Xingyun’s face too.
It was not Wu Xingyun’s habit to have someone wait on him like that, but because it was Ye Fan, Wu Xingyun let it be.
Finished cleaning themselves up, the two men went out.
Today’s business had already been arranged yesterday. Wu Xingyun would be going together with other mutants’ family members to Wang Ruoxu’s temple, where they’d receive the priest’s teachings.
It was about a hundred people total, men, women, and children. Ordinary family of the mutants, surviving the last days thanks to the Wang brothers.
Entering the newly restored main hall of the temple, they waited for Wang Ruoxu there. After a long time, Wang Ruoxu appeared, wearing a Taoist robe, acting all mystical and mysterious. Like some shady witchdoctor, Wang Ruoxu made a lot of awfully strange motions directed towards the kettle in front of him. Finally, his performance concluded, the water from the kettle was given to the crowd to drink.
Wu Xingyun drank the water, thinking that it tasted just like normal boiled water, nothing special. However, the people around him called it ‘holy water,’ rapidly caught up in firm religious conviction.
The drinking finished, everyone was promptly sent away to their work task for the day. Repair the city wall, clean Wang Ruoxu’s residence, tend to the flowers and trees, et cetera, et cetera.
Wu Xingyun was called to go in and see Wang Ruoxu by himself. Wang Ruoxu asked Wu Xingyun for his birth date, the priest saying he’d forgotten to ask yesterday, and that it was needed to register Wu Xingyun.
Casually making one up to suit his actual age, Wu Xingyun was then assigned to pushing carts.
The carts were filled with white stones that mutants had risked their lives to get from the banks of the Wei River. Apparently, Wang Ruoxu wanted to pave a courtyard with them.
Wu Xingyun pushed carts all day, and in the evening Ye Fan returned from hunting. He’d killed an enormous frog. The frog meat had been delivered to the Wang brothers, while Ye Fan and Wu Xingyun made do with the dark, gooey food again.
Days passed, and about three months later, Wang Ruoxu found Ye Fan once more.
During the past few months, Ye Fan had already fulfilled two of Wang Ruoxu’s requests. He’d killed a huge serpent out in the desolate hinterlands, giving Wang Ruoxu the skin to make clothes. Ye Fan had also imperiled himself by plucking some of the carnivorous flowers as ornaments for Wang Ruoxu’s garden.
His third time looking for Ye Fan, Wang Ruoxu asked Ye Fan to kill someone.
The target was a mutant leader of a nearby community. Wang Ruoxu wanted to annex them, yet the other didn’t concede and conflict had ensued. Supposedly the other leader’s strength was quite high, thus the task was undoubtedly dangerous. And that was why Wang Qiang wasn’t willing to do the job himself.
If Wang Ruoxu had the other leader taken out successfully and got rid of their food stockpile, the weaker mutants there would have no where else to go, and would then naturally switch their allegiance to the Wang brothers.
While telling Ye Fan all this, Wang Ruoxu preened, stroking his goatee with a self-satisfied smirk, his eyes narrowed to unbecoming slits: “Consider this task an opportunity that only comes once. Ye Fan, what were you before the end days?”
“I had just finished my college entrance exams.” Ye Fan told him.
“Hehe.” Wang Ruoxu smiled. “I was a Taoist priest even before these last days, an average person. But now I can’t be ordinary anymore. I can’t collect tickets in scenic areas every day, cheating coins out of tourists. Every one of my fellow brothers practiced martial arts, and participated in national tournaments. Then these end times came. They all died, while I still live on. Doesn’t this mean that I have a special destiny?”
“Some matters do need good luck,” Ye Fan replied.
Wang Ruoxu went on: “In olden times, there was a great Tao emperor. Now there’s me. Although I can’t compare to him, I’m still a little like that, don’t you think?”
""Silent, Ye Fan thought to himself: “Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty was an immoderate waste. Every day, using a seized virgin’s yin to feed his yang, until his nation was vanquished and he died in captivity.” Ye Fan raised his head and eyed Wang Ruoxu, noticing fresh scratches on the priest’s neck.
In the past three months, Ye Fan had heard a lot about Wang Ruoxu. How now and then Wang Ruoxu would harass mutants’ female partners, using them for sex or even more excessive things.
Yet from the start Ye Fan had decided that, so long Wang Ruoxu didn’t provoke him personally, Ye Fan wouldn’t poke his nose in other people’s business.
Ye Fan’s primary reason was that the Wang brothers only slept with women, seemed to be only interested in women. That was why Ye Fan was convinced that Wu Xingyun was safe. And, as Ye Fan himself had said, there were lots of mutants who were better looking than Wu Xingyun. Even if the Wang brothers’ tastes did suddenly shift to men, Ye Fan was afraid he’d be in more danger than Wu Xingyun.
At present, Ye Fan had only one objective. For Wu Xingyun to be able to thoroughly survive in the thick Saer fog as soon as possible. Besides accomplishing that, nothing else mattered.
“In the future, all these mutants will swear fealty to me,” Wang Ruoxu claimed. “I can’t have just Wang Qiang as the only helper by my side. Ye Fan, your skills are pretty good, and you handle your work attentively. Frankly, I admire you. So long as you bring me back the head of that man, I’ll award you three merits, along with a set of practices that’ll make you even more formidable. What do you think?”
His heart skipping, Ye Fan found Wang Ruoxu’s terms very enticing. When he’d completed the first task Wang Ruoxu had given him, Wang Ruoxu had taught Ye Fan the turtle-breathing method that allowed Ye Fan conceal himself noiselessly. It’d proved to be quite useful.
Of course, what made it even more tempting, was the three merits. If he got those, Ye Fan would have five merits, halfway to ten, one step closer to the goal. Perhaps in just half a year, Wu Xingyun could be completely free.
Ye Fan aimed his gaze at Wang Ruoxu’s two eyes: “Will you honor your word?”
Wang Ruoxu nodded: “You can trust me!”
Extending an arm, Ye Fan shook hands with Wang Ruoxu. “Looking forward to our further cooperation!”
For the first time, Ye Fan would actively try to kill someone. For benefits, not survival.
""Feeling a little disturbed, that night Ye Fan couldn’t sleep no matter how he shifted in bed. He was clear on the fact that, with the world descended into chaos, he had to get tougher, become stronger. Only when he grew powerful enough, could he protect those he wanted to protect.
He could have refused Wang Ruoxu’s offer, yet in the end, he’d accepted it. Because—he wanted to be fierce, he wanted to defend the person he loved.
Ye Fan bowed his head and kissed Wu Xingyun’s lips.
All of a sudden, Wu Xingyun opened his eyes. Unexpectedly, he wasn’t asleep either.
Kissing on their bed, they didn’t separate for a long time.
Wu Xingyun said: “Ye Fan, you……Whatever you do, I’ll stand by your side. So you’d better stay safe. Because I’ll be waiting for you to come back.”
A warm current flooded Ye Fan’s heart. Holding Wu Xingyun close, Ye Fan thought that, whatever he did, if it meant that Wu Xingyun could survive, live well, than it was worth it. It was what needed to be done.
In the early morning, Ye Fan got out of bed and got dressed. After checking his weapons, he opened the door to the dark air, and walked outside of the city.
Gulping Qi Method (Turtle Breathing)
Gulping Qi method, or turtle breathing, is frequently used in energetic fasting (Bigu), or general practice for gathering Qi energy. It has a history of more than 2000 years in Chinese literature. IN order to achieve the status of filling up Qi without desire for food, you need practice a minimum of 36 mouthful of gulping qi for each meal, and three times a day…, some literature suggests to gulping qi up to 3000 mouthfuls a day. Usually, the more you practice, the less likely you will feel hunger.
https://goblusal.github.io/gulping-qi-method-turtle-breathing.html
Yin and yang
The concept of yin and yang is important in Taoism and consequently also holds special importance in sex. Yang usually referred to the male sex, whereas yin could refer to the female sex. Man and woman were the equivalent of heaven and earth, but became disconnected. Therefore, while heaven and earth are eternal, man and woman suffer a premature death.[12] Every interaction between yin and yang had significance. Because of this significance, every position and action in lovemaking had importance. Taoist texts described a large number of special sexual positions that served to cure or prevent illness, similar to the Kama Sutra.[13]
For Taoists, sex was not just about pleasing a man.[14] The woman also had to be stimulated and pleased in order to benefit from the act of sex. Sunü (素女) [zh], female advisor to the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi), noted ten important indications of female satisfaction.[15] If sex 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.[16] According to Jolan Chang, in early Chinese history, women played a significant role in the Tao (道) of loving, and that the degeneration into subordinate roles came much later in Chinese history.[17] 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 sex 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 ejaculation or refractory period. To quote Laozi from the Tao Te Ching: “The Spirit of the Valley is inexhaustible…Draw on it as you will, it never runs dry.” [18]
Women also helped men extend their lives. Many of the ancient texts were dedicated explanations of how a man could use sex to extend his own life. But, his life was extended only through the absorption of the woman’s vital energies (jing and qi). Some Taoists came to call the act of sex “the battle of stealing and strengthening”.[19] These sexual methods could be correlated with Taoist military methods. Instead of storming the gates, the battle was a series of feints and maneuvers that would sap the enemy’s resistance.[20] Jolan Chang points out that it was after the Tang dynasty (AD 618–906) that “the Tao of Loving” was “steadily corrupted”, and that it was these later corruptions that reflected battle imagery and elements of a “vampire” mindset.[21] Other research into early Taoism found more harmonious attitudes of yin-yang communion.[22]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoist_sexual_practices
Wei River, Chinese (Pinyin) Wei He or (Wade-Giles romanization) Wei Ho, river in Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, north-central China, a western tributary of the Huang He (Yellow River). It rises in the Niaoshu Mountains in Weiyuan county of central Gansu province and flows east, first between the north-south-trending Long Mountains and the east-west-trending Qin (Tsinling) Mountains and then along the northern base of the Qin. Entering Shaanxi province, it flows to the north of Xi’an and Huayin before joining the Huang He at Tongguan. The river’s total length is approximately 535 miles (860 km). Its basin is sharply defined to the south, through most of its course, by the abrupt clifflike northern face of the Qin Mountains. The Wei’s drainage basin is formed almost entirely by tributaries flowing from the north and is divided into three major areas: the mountainous and arid plateau region to the west of the Long and Liupan mountain ranges in Gansu; the heavily dissected Loess Plateau of Shaanxi, which is covered with the fine windblown silt called loess; and the troughlike floodplain of the river’s lower course. Its major tributaries in Shaanxi are the Jing and Luo rivers.
Historically, the Wei River valley was the earliest centre of Chinese civilization and until the 10th century AD was the site of a succession of capital cities. The area around the junction of the Jing and the Wei rivers was also the site of the first ambitious irrigation works in China—the Baigong and Chenggong canal systems, built in the 3rd century BC. The Wei and its tributaries have always carried a heavy silt load and thus have never been major waterways. To supply the capital cities in the area of Xi’an, canals were built paralleling the river as far east as Tongguan. The first of these was constructed at the beginning of the 1st century BC during the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220). Although this earliest canal fell into disrepair, another canal was built during the Sui dynasty (581–618). The irrigation works on which the Wei River valley depended for its prosperity have undergone many vicissitudes. After being left derelict in the late 19th century, a new canal system called the Weihui (“Favour of the Wei”) was opened in 1937.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Wei-River-Gansu-and-Shaanxi-provinces-China
Song Huizong, personal name (xingming) Zhao Ji, (born 1082, China—died 1135, Yilan [now in Heilongjiang province]), temple name (miaohao) of the eighth and penultimate emperor (reigned 1100–1125/26) of the Bei (Northern) Song dynasty (960–1127). He is best remembered both as a patron of the arts and as a painter and calligrapher.
The Huizong emperor sought escape from affairs of state through the pleasures of arts and letters. He urged painters in his academy of painting to depict objects that were “true to colour and form,” inviting an extreme literalness of representation; his own paintings of birds and flowers were detailed, accurately coloured, and perfectly composed. He is also known as a calligrapher who excelled in an elegantly mannered style known as “slender gold.” Huizong sponsored the compilation of a major catalog of artists’ biographies and paintings from the 3rd century to his time, known as the Xuanhe huapu (“Catalog of Paintings of the Xuanhe Emperor”).
Politically, the Huizong emperor’s reign was fatal to the Bei Song dynasty. He promoted Daoism at the court and sought comfort and amusement in the arts, in amorous affairs, and in the construction of an extravagant new palace garden. He busied himself with requisitioning colourful stones, rare plants, and exotic pets for this garden, while leaving the administration of the state to others. Political disputes between conservatives and reformers went unresolved, and the emperor’s favourite eunuchs gained unprecedented power in the government.
Threatened by the expanding Liao empire in the north, the Huizong emperor formed an alliance with the Juchen (Chinese: Nüzhen, or Ruzhen) tribes of Manchuria (now the Northeast region of China). The resulting victory over the Liao was wholly illusory, since it was the Juchen who turned out to be the real menace. In mounting crisis, Huizong abdicated in 1125/26 in favour of his son, Zhao Huan (the Qinzong emperor), who reigned for less than two years. In 1127 the invading Juchen ended the Bei Song dynasty and sacked the Song capital (Kaifeng). Both Huizong and his son were captured and lived in exile in Manchuria under miserable conditions until their deaths.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Huizong
A Misplaced Artist–Emperor Song Huizong
Emperor Huizong (November 2, 1082 – June 4, 1135) was the eighth and one of the most famous emperors of the Song Dynasty of China, with a personal life spent amidst luxury, sophistication and art but ending in tragedy.
Song Huizong
Reigning from 1100 to 1126, Emperor Huizong was undoubtedly far from being a model emperor. He neglected the army while Song China became increasingly weak and at the mercy of foreign enemies. By the beginning of 1126 the Jin dynasty, a strong enemy from the north, attacked Kaifeng, the capital of the Song Empire. Stricken with panic, Huizong fled away as he abandoned the celestial duties Heaven bestowed upon him to protect the Chinese empire. Thanks to brave officials who found the courage not to follow their leader, the Jin dynasty didn’t manage to occupy the well fortified city of Kaifeng. The Song regime was forced to sign some humiliating treaties and give tribute to the superior Jin. Eventually the Jin did take over the capital, capturing Huizong and most of his court, fortunately his son, later better known as Emperor Gaozong (高宗) , managed to escape and establish the southern Song dynasty of which the capital was the beautiful city of Hangzhou. Huizong died in captivity in total poverty in the remote area of northern Manchuria, where he spent the last 9 tragic years of his life.
In spite of being a total failure in running state and military affairs, Huizong is probably one of the greatest patrons of art any nation ever had. Not only a great patron of art but without doubt a great artist himself, he excelled in painting birds and flowers and also produced worthy poetry. His paintings are considered to be China’s greatest surviving masterpieces and his fine reproduction of Zhang Xuan’s ‘Court Ladies Preparing Newly-Woven Silk’ is the only surviving copy of this great Tang masterpiece. His unique calligraphy became an independent style known as the “Slender Gold” style (Shou Jin Ti). The name “Slender Gold” came from the fact that Huizong’s writing resembled gold filament, twisted and turned. This style of calligraphy is a sharp diversion from anything seen before and in a way demonstrates that although Huizong was not very courageous in the battle field, he certainly had the courage to innovate in the field of aesthetics. His calligraphy, even more celebrated than his painting, is extremely unconventional and original, the strokes are stretched to their extreme limits and the result is a fascinating dynamism that until today stands out as an independent and striking interpretation of Chinese characters.
http://en.chinaculture.org/classics/2008-04/07/content_129795.htm
DPM Chapter 67-Leaving Part 2
Translated by Snowfall77
When they both woke up, the morning was still dark. Ye Fan didn’t need bright lights, though Wu Xingyun’s night vision was obviously worse than Ye Fan’s. Ye Fan lit a candle, then went downstairs, washed his face, and brought some water up for Wu Xingyun.
Wringing the towel, Ye Fan washed Wu Xingyun’s face too.
It was not Wu Xingyun’s habit to have someone wait on him like that, but because it was Ye Fan, Wu Xingyun let it be.
Finished cleaning themselves up, the two men went out.
Today’s business had already been arranged yesterday. Wu Xingyun would be going together with other mutants’ family members to Wang Ruoxu’s temple, where they’d receive the priest’s teachings.
It was about a hundred people total, men, women, and children. Ordinary family of the mutants, surviving the last days thanks to the Wang brothers.
Entering the newly restored main hall of the temple, they waited for Wang Ruoxu there. After a long time, Wang Ruoxu appeared, wearing a Taoist robe, acting all mystical and mysterious. Like some shady witchdoctor, Wang Ruoxu made a lot of awfully strange motions directed towards the kettle in front of him. Finally, his performance concluded, the water from the kettle was given to the crowd to drink.
Wu Xingyun drank the water, thinking that it tasted just like normal boiled water, nothing special. However, the people around him called it ‘holy water,’ rapidly caught up in firm religious conviction.
The drinking finished, everyone was promptly sent away to their work task for the day. Repair the city wall, clean Wang Ruoxu’s residence, tend to the flowers and trees, et cetera, et cetera.
Wu Xingyun was called to go in and see Wang Ruoxu by himself. Wang Ruoxu asked Wu Xingyun for his birth date, the priest saying he’d forgotten to ask yesterday, and that it was needed to register Wu Xingyun.
Casually making one up to suit his actual age, Wu Xingyun was then assigned to pushing carts.
The carts were filled with white stones that mutants had risked their lives to get from the banks of the Wei River. Apparently, Wang Ruoxu wanted to pave a courtyard with them.
Wu Xingyun pushed carts all day, and in the evening Ye Fan returned from hunting. He’d killed an enormous frog. The frog meat had been delivered to the Wang brothers, while Ye Fan and Wu Xingyun made do with the dark, gooey food again.
Days passed, and about three months later, Wang Ruoxu found Ye Fan once more.
During the past few months, Ye Fan had already fulfilled two of Wang Ruoxu’s requests. He’d killed a huge serpent out in the desolate hinterlands, giving Wang Ruoxu the skin to make clothes. Ye Fan had also imperiled himself by plucking some of the carnivorous flowers as ornaments for Wang Ruoxu’s garden.
His third time looking for Ye Fan, Wang Ruoxu asked Ye Fan to kill someone.
The target was a mutant leader of a nearby community. Wang Ruoxu wanted to annex them, yet the other didn’t concede and conflict had ensued. Supposedly the other leader’s strength was quite high, thus the task was undoubtedly dangerous. And that was why Wang Qiang wasn’t willing to do the job himself.
If Wang Ruoxu had the other leader taken out successfully and got rid of their food stockpile, the weaker mutants there would have no where else to go, and would then naturally switch their allegiance to the Wang brothers.
While telling Ye Fan all this, Wang Ruoxu preened, stroking his goatee with a self-satisfied smirk, his eyes narrowed to unbecoming slits: “Consider this task an opportunity that only comes once. Ye Fan, what were you before the end days?”
“I had just finished my college entrance exams.” Ye Fan told him.
“Hehe.” Wang Ruoxu smiled. “I was a Taoist priest even before these last days, an average person. But now I can’t be ordinary anymore. I can’t collect tickets in scenic areas every day, cheating coins out of tourists. Every one of my fellow brothers practiced martial arts, and participated in national tournaments. Then these end times came. They all died, while I still live on. Doesn’t this mean that I have a special destiny?”
“Some matters do need good luck,” Ye Fan replied.
Wang Ruoxu went on: “In olden times, there was a great Tao emperor. Now there’s me. Although I can’t compare to him, I’m still a little like that, don’t you think?”
""Silent, Ye Fan thought to himself: “Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty was an immoderate waste. Every day, using a seized virgin’s yin to feed his yang, until his nation was vanquished and he died in captivity.” Ye Fan raised his head and eyed Wang Ruoxu, noticing fresh scratches on the priest’s neck.
In the past three months, Ye Fan had heard a lot about Wang Ruoxu. How now and then Wang Ruoxu would harass mutants’ female partners, using them for sex or even more excessive things.
Yet from the start Ye Fan had decided that, so long Wang Ruoxu didn’t provoke him personally, Ye Fan wouldn’t poke his nose in other people’s business.
Ye Fan’s primary reason was that the Wang brothers only slept with women, seemed to be only interested in women. That was why Ye Fan was convinced that Wu Xingyun was safe. And, as Ye Fan himself had said, there were lots of mutants who were better looking than Wu Xingyun. Even if the Wang brothers’ tastes did suddenly shift to men, Ye Fan was afraid he’d be in more danger than Wu Xingyun.
At present, Ye Fan had only one objective. For Wu Xingyun to be able to thoroughly survive in the thick Saer fog as soon as possible. Besides accomplishing that, nothing else mattered.
“In the future, all these mutants will swear fealty to me,” Wang Ruoxu claimed. “I can’t have just Wang Qiang as the only helper by my side. Ye Fan, your skills are pretty good, and you handle your work attentively. Frankly, I admire you. So long as you bring me back the head of that man, I’ll award you three merits, along with a set of practices that’ll make you even more formidable. What do you think?”
His heart skipping, Ye Fan found Wang Ruoxu’s terms very enticing. When he’d completed the first task Wang Ruoxu had given him, Wang Ruoxu had taught Ye Fan the turtle-breathing method that allowed Ye Fan conceal himself noiselessly. It’d proved to be quite useful.
Of course, what made it even more tempting, was the three merits. If he got those, Ye Fan would have five merits, halfway to ten, one step closer to the goal. Perhaps in just half a year, Wu Xingyun could be completely free.
Ye Fan aimed his gaze at Wang Ruoxu’s two eyes: “Will you honor your word?”
Wang Ruoxu nodded: “You can trust me!”
Extending an arm, Ye Fan shook hands with Wang Ruoxu. “Looking forward to our further cooperation!”
For the first time, Ye Fan would actively try to kill someone. For benefits, not survival.
""Feeling a little disturbed, that night Ye Fan couldn’t sleep no matter how he shifted in bed. He was clear on the fact that, with the world descended into chaos, he had to get tougher, become stronger. Only when he grew powerful enough, could he protect those he wanted to protect.
He could have refused Wang Ruoxu’s offer, yet in the end, he’d accepted it. Because—he wanted to be fierce, he wanted to defend the person he loved.
Ye Fan bowed his head and kissed Wu Xingyun’s lips.
All of a sudden, Wu Xingyun opened his eyes. Unexpectedly, he wasn’t asleep either.
Kissing on their bed, they didn’t separate for a long time.
Wu Xingyun said: “Ye Fan, you……Whatever you do, I’ll stand by your side. So you’d better stay safe. Because I’ll be waiting for you to come back.”
A warm current flooded Ye Fan’s heart. Holding Wu Xingyun close, Ye Fan thought that, whatever he did, if it meant that Wu Xingyun could survive, live well, than it was worth it. It was what needed to be done.
In the early morning, Ye Fan got out of bed and got dressed. After checking his weapons, he opened the door to the dark air, and walked outside of the city.
Gulping Qi Method (Turtle Breathing)
Gulping Qi method, or turtle breathing, is frequently used in energetic fasting (Bigu), or general practice for gathering Qi energy. It has a history of more than 2000 years in Chinese literature. IN order to achieve the status of filling up Qi without desire for food, you need practice a minimum of 36 mouthful of gulping qi for each meal, and three times a day…, some literature suggests to gulping qi up to 3000 mouthfuls a day. Usually, the more you practice, the less likely you will feel hunger.
https://goblusal.github.io/gulping-qi-method-turtle-breathing.html
Yin and yang
The concept of yin and yang is important in Taoism and consequently also holds special importance in sex. Yang usually referred to the male sex, whereas yin could refer to the female sex. Man and woman were the equivalent of heaven and earth, but became disconnected. Therefore, while heaven and earth are eternal, man and woman suffer a premature death.[12] Every interaction between yin and yang had significance. Because of this significance, every position and action in lovemaking had importance. Taoist texts described a large number of special sexual positions that served to cure or prevent illness, similar to the Kama Sutra.[13]
For Taoists, sex was not just about pleasing a man.[14] The woman also had to be stimulated and pleased in order to benefit from the act of sex. Sunü (素女) [zh], female advisor to the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi), noted ten important indications of female satisfaction.[15] If sex 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.[16] According to Jolan Chang, in early Chinese history, women played a significant role in the Tao (道) of loving, and that the degeneration into subordinate roles came much later in Chinese history.[17] 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 sex 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 ejaculation or refractory period. To quote Laozi from the Tao Te Ching: “The Spirit of the Valley is inexhaustible…Draw on it as you will, it never runs dry.” [18]
Women also helped men extend their lives. Many of the ancient texts were dedicated explanations of how a man could use sex to extend his own life. But, his life was extended only through the absorption of the woman’s vital energies (jing and qi). Some Taoists came to call the act of sex “the battle of stealing and strengthening”.[19] These sexual methods could be correlated with Taoist military methods. Instead of storming the gates, the battle was a series of feints and maneuvers that would sap the enemy’s resistance.[20] Jolan Chang points out that it was after the Tang dynasty (AD 618–906) that “the Tao of Loving” was “steadily corrupted”, and that it was these later corruptions that reflected battle imagery and elements of a “vampire” mindset.[21] Other research into early Taoism found more harmonious attitudes of yin-yang communion.[22]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoist_sexual_practices
Wei River, Chinese (Pinyin) Wei He or (Wade-Giles romanization) Wei Ho, river in Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, north-central China, a western tributary of the Huang He (Yellow River). It rises in the Niaoshu Mountains in Weiyuan county of central Gansu province and flows east, first between the north-south-trending Long Mountains and the east-west-trending Qin (Tsinling) Mountains and then along the northern base of the Qin. Entering Shaanxi province, it flows to the north of Xi’an and Huayin before joining the Huang He at Tongguan. The river’s total length is approximately 535 miles (860 km). Its basin is sharply defined to the south, through most of its course, by the abrupt clifflike northern face of the Qin Mountains. The Wei’s drainage basin is formed almost entirely by tributaries flowing from the north and is divided into three major areas: the mountainous and arid plateau region to the west of the Long and Liupan mountain ranges in Gansu; the heavily dissected Loess Plateau of Shaanxi, which is covered with the fine windblown silt called loess; and the troughlike floodplain of the river’s lower course. Its major tributaries in Shaanxi are the Jing and Luo rivers.
Historically, the Wei River valley was the earliest centre of Chinese civilization and until the 10th century AD was the site of a succession of capital cities. The area around the junction of the Jing and the Wei rivers was also the site of the first ambitious irrigation works in China—the Baigong and Chenggong canal systems, built in the 3rd century BC. The Wei and its tributaries have always carried a heavy silt load and thus have never been major waterways. To supply the capital cities in the area of Xi’an, canals were built paralleling the river as far east as Tongguan. The first of these was constructed at the beginning of the 1st century BC during the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220). Although this earliest canal fell into disrepair, another canal was built during the Sui dynasty (581–618). The irrigation works on which the Wei River valley depended for its prosperity have undergone many vicissitudes. After being left derelict in the late 19th century, a new canal system called the Weihui (“Favour of the Wei”) was opened in 1937.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Wei-River-Gansu-and-Shaanxi-provinces-China
Song Huizong, personal name (xingming) Zhao Ji, (born 1082, China—died 1135, Yilan [now in Heilongjiang province]), temple name (miaohao) of the eighth and penultimate emperor (reigned 1100–1125/26) of the Bei (Northern) Song dynasty (960–1127). He is best remembered both as a patron of the arts and as a painter and calligrapher.
The Huizong emperor sought escape from affairs of state through the pleasures of arts and letters. He urged painters in his academy of painting to depict objects that were “true to colour and form,” inviting an extreme literalness of representation; his own paintings of birds and flowers were detailed, accurately coloured, and perfectly composed. He is also known as a calligrapher who excelled in an elegantly mannered style known as “slender gold.” Huizong sponsored the compilation of a major catalog of artists’ biographies and paintings from the 3rd century to his time, known as the Xuanhe huapu (“Catalog of Paintings of the Xuanhe Emperor”).
Politically, the Huizong emperor’s reign was fatal to the Bei Song dynasty. He promoted Daoism at the court and sought comfort and amusement in the arts, in amorous affairs, and in the construction of an extravagant new palace garden. He busied himself with requisitioning colourful stones, rare plants, and exotic pets for this garden, while leaving the administration of the state to others. Political disputes between conservatives and reformers went unresolved, and the emperor’s favourite eunuchs gained unprecedented power in the government.
Threatened by the expanding Liao empire in the north, the Huizong emperor formed an alliance with the Juchen (Chinese: Nüzhen, or Ruzhen) tribes of Manchuria (now the Northeast region of China). The resulting victory over the Liao was wholly illusory, since it was the Juchen who turned out to be the real menace. In mounting crisis, Huizong abdicated in 1125/26 in favour of his son, Zhao Huan (the Qinzong emperor), who reigned for less than two years. In 1127 the invading Juchen ended the Bei Song dynasty and sacked the Song capital (Kaifeng). Both Huizong and his son were captured and lived in exile in Manchuria under miserable conditions until their deaths.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Huizong
A Misplaced Artist–Emperor Song Huizong
Emperor Huizong (November 2, 1082 – June 4, 1135) was the eighth and one of the most famous emperors of the Song Dynasty of China, with a personal life spent amidst luxury, sophistication and art but ending in tragedy.
Song Huizong
Reigning from 1100 to 1126, Emperor Huizong was undoubtedly far from being a model emperor. He neglected the army while Song China became increasingly weak and at the mercy of foreign enemies. By the beginning of 1126 the Jin dynasty, a strong enemy from the north, attacked Kaifeng, the capital of the Song Empire. Stricken with panic, Huizong fled away as he abandoned the celestial duties Heaven bestowed upon him to protect the Chinese empire. Thanks to brave officials who found the courage not to follow their leader, the Jin dynasty didn’t manage to occupy the well fortified city of Kaifeng. The Song regime was forced to sign some humiliating treaties and give tribute to the superior Jin. Eventually the Jin did take over the capital, capturing Huizong and most of his court, fortunately his son, later better known as Emperor Gaozong (高宗) , managed to escape and establish the southern Song dynasty of which the capital was the beautiful city of Hangzhou. Huizong died in captivity in total poverty in the remote area of northern Manchuria, where he spent the last 9 tragic years of his life.
In spite of being a total failure in running state and military affairs, Huizong is probably one of the greatest patrons of art any nation ever had. Not only a great patron of art but without doubt a great artist himself, he excelled in painting birds and flowers and also produced worthy poetry. His paintings are considered to be China’s greatest surviving masterpieces and his fine reproduction of Zhang Xuan’s ‘Court Ladies Preparing Newly-Woven Silk’ is the only surviving copy of this great Tang masterpiece. His unique calligraphy became an independent style known as the “Slender Gold” style (Shou Jin Ti). The name “Slender Gold” came from the fact that Huizong’s writing resembled gold filament, twisted and turned. This style of calligraphy is a sharp diversion from anything seen before and in a way demonstrates that although Huizong was not very courageous in the battle field, he certainly had the courage to innovate in the field of aesthetics. His calligraphy, even more celebrated than his painting, is extremely unconventional and original, the strokes are stretched to their extreme limits and the result is a fascinating dynamism that until today stands out as an independent and striking interpretation of Chinese characters.
http://en.chinaculture.org/classics/2008-04/07/content_129795.htm
