Moonrat was worried the other day that she might just have imagined that story about Mao Zedong having slept with lots of young virgins to increase his health and strength, and more specifically to boost his longevity, and was asking if anyone could confirm.
I threw in my two-pennorth - I believe the principal source for this story to be The Private Life Of Chairman Mao, a notoriously iconoclastic biography by The Great Helmsman's long-time personal physician, Dr Li Zhishui. Although much of this book is to be taken with a large grain of salt, the 'virgins' allegation seems to be widely accepted, and I gather there are some other sources in support of it.
Just last night I was chatting with a friend who specialises in Chinese history and he contributed another fascinating little nugget to the discussion: apparently, Chinese beliefs about the effect of sex on health and longevity stem from the Daoist tradition, rooted in the concepts of Yin (female) and Yang (male). These vital energies are believed to be released and transmitted through bodily fluids, and are therefore much more easily transferred from the male to the female than vice versa.
In short, if Mao - or any other man - should seek to prolong his life indefinitely by sleeping with a lot of virgins, he must ensure that they achieve orgasm, while avoiding ejaculating himself.
This, of course, put me in mind of the League of Health and Strength.... and also of the batty "precious bodily fluids" theory of Jack D. Ripper, the deranged USAF general who tries to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Russia in the great '60s black comedy Dr Strangelove (a film I love, love, love; if it ain't the best film ever made, it's certainly very close - in the top five or so, I'd say).
I threw in my two-pennorth - I believe the principal source for this story to be The Private Life Of Chairman Mao, a notoriously iconoclastic biography by The Great Helmsman's long-time personal physician, Dr Li Zhishui. Although much of this book is to be taken with a large grain of salt, the 'virgins' allegation seems to be widely accepted, and I gather there are some other sources in support of it.
Just last night I was chatting with a friend who specialises in Chinese history and he contributed another fascinating little nugget to the discussion: apparently, Chinese beliefs about the effect of sex on health and longevity stem from the Daoist tradition, rooted in the concepts of Yin (female) and Yang (male). These vital energies are believed to be released and transmitted through bodily fluids, and are therefore much more easily transferred from the male to the female than vice versa.
In short, if Mao - or any other man - should seek to prolong his life indefinitely by sleeping with a lot of virgins, he must ensure that they achieve orgasm, while avoiding ejaculating himself.
This, of course, put me in mind of the League of Health and Strength.... and also of the batty "precious bodily fluids" theory of Jack D. Ripper, the deranged USAF general who tries to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Russia in the great '60s black comedy Dr Strangelove (a film I love, love, love; if it ain't the best film ever made, it's certainly very close - in the top five or so, I'd say).
2 comments:
Oh gawd. Strangelove is sheer genius. It'd be among my top five, as well -- at least among the comedies, or "comedies." (Tho' off the top of my head the only other one I can think of is Young Frankenstein.)
So glad to have found this post while researching your nomination as a Superior Scribbler. Happily, everyone nominated becomes an instant winner.
Why, thank you, JES.
I'm not a fan of 'memes', but I shouldn't churl (if it's not a verb, it should be) against such a kind compliment.
Producing nominations of my own will take some time, though. Most of my online reading is news/media/business blogs - more about content than literary endeavour.
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