The way of sex: Joseph Needham and Jolan Chang

Rocha, Leon Antonio (2012) The way of sex: Joseph Needham and Jolan Chang. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 43 (3). pp. 611-626. ISSN 1369-8486

Full content URL: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2012.04.002

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The way of sex: Joseph Needham and Jolan Chang

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Abstract

This paper analyses the understandings of Daoist alchemy and Chinese sexuality of Joseph Needham and his friend and correspondent, the Chinese-Swedish writer Jolan Chang (Chang Chung-lan, 1917-2002). Using the extensive correspondence between the two men, as well as Needham’s files on “inner alchemy” deposited at the Needham Research Institute, the paper begins with a partial reconstruction of a 1977 symposium, chaired by Needham, to promote Chang’s new book, The Tao of Love and Sex: The Ancient Chinese Way to Ecstasy. Needham and Chang’s visions of Chinese sex are then read against excerpts from Science and Civilisation in China, specifically Volume V: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 5: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Physiological Alchemy (1983). Three inter-related aspects are explored. First, reading Science and Civilisation in China against materials in the Needham archives offers crucial hints to Needham’s historiography and historical practice. Second, the way that Daoist regimens came to be actively reconstructed and repackaged as practices concerned with the enhancement of sexual pleasure and intensity. Third, the investigation of the networks and circulations of assumptions, visions, fantasies about “China”.

Keywords:Chinese sexuality, Daoism, “Inner alchemy”, Jolan Chang (1917–2002), Joseph Needham (1900–1995), Science and Civilisation in China
Subjects:V Historical and Philosophical studies > V380 History of Science
V Historical and Philosophical studies > V241 Chinese History
V Historical and Philosophical studies > V140 Modern History
L Social studies > L320 Gender studies
V Historical and Philosophical studies > V340 Intellectual History
Divisions:College of Arts > School of History & Heritage > School of History & Heritage (History)
ID Code:34978
Deposited On:15 Feb 2019 10:08

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