Contents:
GAY EMPERORS CHE HISTORY
Morn Cha has a plited relatnship wh homosexualy: It was crimalized 1997, but queer dividuals ntue to face social stigma and issu like nversn therapy and censorship of LGBTQ topics on Weibo. Some historians, however, argue that the suatn was much different ancient history: In Che history, wh Tamkang Universy rearchg Liu Demg even suggtg a 2009 paper that homo-erotic relatnships were trendy among noble and tellectual men durg the Qg dynasty.
The last emperor of the Wtern Han dynasty, who led om the 7 BCE to 1 BCE, was the spiratn of the idm “Sleeve-cuttg affectn, ” which refers to homosexualy. Th, the phrase “Leftover peach affectn” (余桃之癖) also beme a chengyu to scribe a homosexual relatnship (see a pattern?
CHA’S GAY EMPEROR KNOWN FOR HIS ‘CUT SLEEVE’
The historian Bret Hsch asserts Passns of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradn Cha that all ten emperors who led over the first two centuri of the Han dynasty were “openly bisexual, ” wh Ai beg the tenth. Gil, wrg the Journal of Sex Rearch, Cha had “a long history of dynastic homosexualy” before the Revolutn of 1949, wh “urtly love among lers and subjects of the same sex beg elevated to noble virtu. ” He says that the survivg lerature om that time perd Cha “dit that homosexualy was accepted by the royal urts and s ctom wispread among the nobily.
While the de later turned on Mizi Xia, this vigte led to both “the bten peach” and “Mizi Xia” beg tchphras referrg to gay love Che. While Europe’s Christiany promoted homophobia (along wh sexism and racism), much of the rt of the world celebrated a diversy of ways to love, to prent genr, and to have sex prelonial tim. Even the ancient perd, we see men who mataed a heterosexual marriage and a homosexual romance whout apparently seeg any ntradictn between the two.
Seymour argu that ser homophobia didn’t seem to appear Cha until the Song dynasty (found 960):. Durg the Song dynasty there was the popular redisvery of a sixth-century Indian Buddhist text that nmned homosexualy.