Marco Polo - Laurence Bergreen [121]
Even in the City of Heaven, sexual expression had its limits. Kissing, considered an intimate part of sexual intercourse, was strictly forbidden in public. Male homosexuality was discouraged, though its female counterpart was tolerated, and even expected. The underpinnings of this seeming inequity had to do with the Chinese concept of yin and yang, female and male essence, and the emphasis on preserving the all-important but limited yang. It was considered necessary for the male to guard against excessive ejaculation, which would deplete his sexual energy. Prolonged arousal was held to be preferable to simple ejaculation. In this scheme of things, male homosexuality was judged a waste of yang, and thus out of harmony with the balance of nature.
AS THEY ATTEMPTED to exert social control over Quinsai, the Mongols sought to restrain sexual expression among the populace, especially women. T’ao Tsung-i, a Yüan dynasty chronicler, sternly cautioned against relying on the questionable advice contained in “Art of the Bedchamber,” an ancient but still-popular anthology of Chinese sexual practices and philosophy. He identified no fewer than nine types of professional women who wreaked havoc on a household: the Buddhist nun, the Taoist nun, the female astrologer, the female go-between, the sorceress, the female thief, the female quack, and lastly the midwife. “Few are the households that, having admitted one of them, will not be ravaged by fornication and robbery,” he warned. “The men who can guard against those, keeping them away as if they were snakes and scorpions, those men shall come near the method for keeping their household clean.”
Pamphlets specifying various types of scandalous behavior that corrupted a family’s moral standing circulated among households. The guides warned against the hazards of “violent debauch,” or rape; “crazed debauch” “predestined debauch,” or romantic love; “proclaiming debauch,” or boasting; and “idle debauch.” Even the production of erotica, a staple of Chinese intimate life, earned censure. Only prostitutes escaped the new wave of censorship invading the city; their trade, if anything, flourished in the face of it.
If Marco was aware of these sexual politics, he did not refer to them in his account. Nor did he mention that other prominent feature of Chinese domestic life, foot binding. Skeptics have cited its omission as evidence that he did not visit China, or at least Quinsai. There are reasonable explanations for the lapse. Women with bound feet remained sequestered indoors, and Marco may not have been aware of them, or of the custom. Furthermore, the practice may have fallen out of favor during his time in Quinsai. The women he did observe carefully—courtesans at the public baths and on West Lake—had to be ambulatory to perform their tasks. The Venetian did take note of Quinsai’s many eunuchs—who occupied prominent places in the government bureaucracy—but only in passing.
MARCO PREFERRED to focus on public affairs, especially Kublai Khan’s systematic approach to the occupancy of Quinsai, and the harvesting of its wealth. “After he had reduced to his obedience all the province of Mangi [Quinsai], the Great Khan has divided it into nine parts,” Marco observes, “so that each is a great kingdom. But…all these kings are there for the Great Khan and in this way, that they make each year the report of each kingdom separately to the factors of the great lord, of the revenue, and of all things. In this city of Quinsai dwells one of these nine kings, and is lord of more than a hundred and forty cities, all very great and rich.” Yet the