Recipes of Planting the Seeds and Songs of Sleeping Along: A Profile of Male Body Culture in Ming-Ch'ing China

種子方與獨臥吟：側窺明清男性的身體文化

熊秉真(Ping-Chen Hsiung)

《欲掩彌彰：中國歷史文化中的「私」與「情」─私情篇》 2003 (2003/09) Pp. 349-410

https://doi.org/10.29531/siqing.200309.0349

摘要

世事雖多乖而難逆，識者對情欲世界或禮教規範卻易持一萬變不離其宗的印象。人文學者之論文化傳統，行為科學上之逐心理要素，幾近如此。漢學研究學界對於中國養生房中的敘說，以及背後虛擬而無庸言喻的男性身體文化，亦有類似之假說。本文即欲以微觀而近寫明代中國醫籍文獻及文學表達中可側見之男性身體經營，略述其氣質內容上之曲折與多變。對於緊接於近現代以前的明清時期，過去一般學者或指其中國歷史文化發展之「近世」或「前近代」（early modern period），或謂其為中華「帝國之晚期」（late imperial era），前者視其狀態為導向日後近現代發展之先聲，後者則稱其諸般現象為快速沒落，即將告終的皇朝帝業的一個尾聲。無論展望其（光明之）未來，或說僅延其（一度輝煌但終告暗淡之）過去，在這兩種基本預設中，歷史與文化的發展都是與時俱移，隨著歲月而推進，且各自呈單線、單向之行進。然而，不論中國的禮教秩序、情欲施展、性別文化、或者身體經營，仔細追究、調查、整理起來，前述藏在歷史文化敘述後面、無庸言宣的宏觀式預設，似乎都不易成立。蓋時空的因素千百年來不但在中國人的情欲世界留下了清楚的刻痕，即單舉養生、房中之傳統，藏在同一詞彙語言系統之後，活動於類似文獻載記之下的，仍有多番不同面貌的現實生活。明代關心廣嗣之道的所謂「男科」醫學，以及同時流傳於士庶階層之間，既求傳家種子，又欲修身獨臥的兩端之執，即十分鮮活地點出了當時男性身體經營的多元面貌，及其在時代上曾經歷的多重起落。歷史上是否曾有一個亙古不變的禮教中國，面貌不斷往多方變幻的情欲明清又該如何理解、掌握，是本文期望商榷於識者之疑問。論文將分三個主軸進行：一是檢討所謂養生與房中之傳承，作為中國男性身體文化之大傳統，其於明代之特殊風貌，二則細述明代廣嗣與男科中的固精之道與種子之方。最後將此身體所負傳宗接代之責，與明清修身之追求、養性之欲望，與長生之活動，在士庶各階層男性生命儀節中之推展，比較而觀之。換言之，以種子之方與獨臥之吟對舉互映，以側窺近世中國男性身體文化之轉折。

關鍵字

養生與房中之傳承 ； 男科中的固精之道與種子之方 ； 獨臥之吟 ； 男性身體文化 ； 禮教中國與情欲明清

並列摘要

One of the challenges historians face these days is documenting the ever-changing historical experience of humanity stressed by scholars in other disciplines as some sort of a universal constant. The different perspectives humanists and behavior scientists take with regard to the body culture of men either as a particular cultural tradition sensitive to specific time and place or as a general human pattern founded on physical and material conditions represents disparate viewpoints. On top of this, in the field of Chinese studies, there exists a parallel tendency which designates ”traditional China” some kind of an essential base (another level of universal constant in a regional sense?) over which the still larger force of progressive modernity (the global reality) eventually takes command. This study proposes to use the body culture of men during the Ming-Ch'ing period as an example to investigate and discuss such deliberations on historical specificity against a hypothesized general humanity and their myriad implications.Although often described as a long thread running through the ages of Chinese physical culture, the belief and practice of both life-nurturing (yang-sheng) and chamber-art (fang-chung) may not in fact be as timeless as they appear. Nor were they, in their many manifestations nearly as domineering, consistent, or one-dimensional as they have been assumed to be. Using medical texts from male medicine (nan-k'o, andronology) from the 16th century onward, juxtaposed with literary evidence representing various religio-philosophical convictions in their advocacy on sleeping alone as a way of self-cultivation, this essay tries to give a portrait of the Ming-Ch'ing male body as both many-sided and temporal. The daily or individual management of this many-sided and temporal male body had to operate under the assumption of multiplicity as well as constant adaptation. The re-discovery of this pluralistic and ever-changing body culture of Ming-Ch'ing males, in addition, sharpens the problematic historical framework in both Chinese and Western scholars which customarily identifies the period under investigation either as the ”late-imperial” period as China travels through its latter phase of the past, else as the ”early modern” phase signifying the incipient stage of some new era. In other words, this historically contextualized body management of Ming-Ch'ing males hopes to help us face up to the modernity discourse founded on the universal and objective nature of bio-physical essentialism, as it engages both social specificity and the cultural representations of a different past.The paper is divided into three parts: It first examines the historical character of the presumably ever-present Chinese tradition of yang-sheng and fang-chung. The essay then moves on to show the textual evidence for male reproductive medicine as it matured in Ming China. Thirdly, it reviews male rites of passage in attempting to ”sleep alone” as men entered ”post-reproductive middle age” as a significant countercurrent and a factor their culture created to handle the bigger element of time as men went through the process of personal life course. Final thoughts will dwell upon the contrast and/or parallel meaning this may have for both the modern bio-physical male body on the one hand and the traditional (sexual or sexless) life-nurturing physique of Chinese men on the other.

並列關鍵字

Life nurturing and chamber art ； Male reproduction ； Sleeping alone ； Sexual or sexless? Angles on historicity