ABSTRACT
Manuscript P. 2539 Tiandi yinyang jiaohuang dalefu 天地陰陽交歡大樂賦 (The Heaven and Earth, Yin and Yang Songs of Great Satisfaction in Sexual Pleasure, hereafter The Songs of Great Satisfaction) is a fu 賦 or ‘song’ attributed to Bai Xingjian 白行簡 (776?–826), a younger brother of the famous Tang poet, Bai Juyi 白居易 (772–846), which illustrates human sexual behaviour. Fu are discussed from a mainly literary point of view, but this piece has attracted particular attention from a non-literary and more technical point of view. Ma Jixing and Wang Shumin, for example, include this fu in their collection of Dunhuang medical manuscripts. 1 Similarly, Li Ling includes this fu under the sexual arts in a collection of fangshu 方術 ‘technical arts’ (which include recipes, remedial therapies and magical techniques), although he notes that this is not a standard text for the genre. 2 On the other hand, Liu Dalin claims that this fu is one of a body of literary works that portray sexual life during the Tang dynasty. 3
