Classical Chinese Pornographic Literature

Today Brandon joins Rob and Lee for one of the weirdest stories that they have ever done. The “Biography of Lord As-You-Like-It” 如意君傳 is a work of Ming Dynasty pornographic literature that discusses the only Empress to ever rule China, the Tang empress Wu Zetian. In this pornographic work, the idea of feminine rulership is equated with sexual promiscuity, and, according to the pornographic story, the only way to solve the problem of political illegitimacy/sexual promiscuity is for Wu Zetian to submit, both politically and sexually, to a man with a giant penis. This work of pornography is fascinating from a feminist perspective, because it makes the nexus between power and gender explicit. It is also important to literary scholars because it is one of the predecessors to the pornographic novel Jin Ping Mei, the Plum in the Golden Vase. This is the first in a series we are doing on toxic masculinity.