Welcome to Culture Plaza: as the Black Fox takes you around the "cultural Qinglou", we want you to join in with us – let all your senses thoroughly immerse you in our journey as we explore cultural differences through the ages.
We’ll start with Qinglou, which had a special place in ancient Chinese culture. Today, Qinglou is sometimes translated literally in English as either “brothel” or “whorehouse”, when in fact the Qinglou were so much more back in their day. So let's start with explaining Qinglou (pron. “Ching-low”).
The original meaning of the Chinese word "prostitute" was not a woman who exchanged her body for money, but rather a cultured woman who might just as easily entertain her clients – who themselves were from the “officer class” or high levels of society – with music or poetry or enlightened discussion...and, maybe sex too. Perhaps a bit like the Japanese Geisha.
Starting with the palace mistresses of the Supreme Rulers, the rulers of all strata had a wide range of singers, dancers and singers, who sometimes bestowed sexual favours on their patrons as well – an early version of prostitutes. While these kept the important people happy, the common people relied on “witch prostitutes” to satisfy their desire to have a woman, or sometimes two, or sometimes more! In the “Spring” and “Autumn” periods of Chinese history (around the year 770 BC), Guan Zhong, the Prime Minister of the Qi State, opened a national brothel, in which domestic prostitutes and witch prostitutes were merged. The introduction of “official prostitutes” increased the government's financial revenue and played a role in enriching the country and strengthening the army, with army officers being favoured guests of both the ladies and the institution. It is not difficult to see the analysis of women and sex in the male-dominated society behind the background of slavery and feudalism.
As society developed, the distinction between "Qinglou" and "brothel" gradually emerged. The women in Qinglou received strict artistic training, which represented the highest artistic level at that time. Many forms of music, dance and art were taught in Qinglou, which also served to preserve them through centuries. Qinglou also handed down many moving love stories from one generation to the next. Later, Xu Yan of the Yuan Dynasty wrote "Qingmei Ten Chants: First Seeing, Two Drinks, Three Baths, Four Naliang, Five Clinics, Six Pillows, Seven Acquaintances, Eight Dialects, Nine Dawns, Ten Narrations.
The "Qinglou" were equally important as places for love and relationships, as merely places for sex.
欢迎来到荣宅工作室，带着你的视觉，听觉，嗅觉，味觉，让黑狐带着你一起逛一逛“文化青楼“。
“青楼”这个中国文化中孕育出来的特殊文字，自然不是Brothel or whorehouse类似的英文能够直译的，那么就让我们从“青楼”聊起。
在中国，最早“妓”的本意并不是以肉体换取金钱的女子，而是指女乐，从最高统治者的宫妓开始，各阶层统治者拥有名目繁多的歌姬，舞妓，声妓。而平民百姓则依靠巫妓来满足拥有两个以上女人的愿望。直到春秋时期齐国的宰相管仲开设的国家妓院，合并的家妓和巫妓。官妓的出现增加了政府的财政收入，起到的富国强兵的作用。不难看出在奴隶，封建制背景后面男权社会对女人和性的解析。随着社会的发展，逐渐出现了“青楼”和“妓院”的区分，青楼的女子受到严格的艺术训练，代表了当时的最高艺术水平，很多的音乐，舞蹈，艺术在青楼得到传承，也流传下来不少动人的爱情故事，后有元朝的徐琰的《蟾宫曲 · 青梅十咏》一初见，二小酌，三沐浴，四纳凉，五临床，六并枕，七交欢，八言盟， 九晓起，十叙别。更证实了“青楼”是一个酌情，性的地方。
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