The humorous erotic culture in Ji Xiaolan's writings

In ancient my country, although the term "erotic culture" was unfamiliar to people at that time and they did not know what erotic culture was, they were constantly interpreting the erotic culture of the society at that time in their real lives.

In the representative work of Qing Dynasty writer Ji Xiaolan, Notes from the Yuewei Cottage, a story called "Dark Night Activities" perfectly illustrates the erotic culture of the Qing Dynasty at that time. This story is not only portrayed in a very humorous way by Ji Xiaolan, but also contains profound erotic cultural content. Ji Xiaolan inherited and developed Chinese erotic culture in his own unique way.

The following is the content of Ji Xiaolan's story in "Dark Night Activities":

During an official selection in a certain Qing Dynasty, a young candidate came into the author's view. In order to run for election, this candidate chose to live in the hometown association hall in the capital. One day, he saw a beautiful woman through a gap in the guild hall wall. Although her clothes were shabby, they were decorated very neatly. When he saw her, his heart was immediately moved.

The mother of the owner of the guild hall was over fifty years old. She used to be a maid in an official's family. She was very well-mannered in her speech and behavior, so she often looked after the house and greeted guests for her son. The candidate thought she was quite capable, so he bribed her with money and asked her to arrange a meeting between him and the woman. The owner's mother said, "I've never seen her before. Maybe she's new here. I'll give her a try, but don't expect too much."

More than ten days later, the owner's mother reported back, "We have succeeded! She was originally a decent woman, but now because of poverty, she has agreed to meet you shamelessly. But she is afraid that others will know, so she must wait until late at night when there is no moonlight before coming. If she comes, you must not light a candle, talk or laugh with her, and you must not let the servants or other guests in the guild hear any sound. When she hears the bell in the morning, she will leave, and you cannot try to keep her. Just give her two taels of silver every night!"

So the beautiful woman really came in the dead of night, and the candidate officials acted according to the agreement. This secret communication has been going on for more than a month. One night, a fire broke out because the neighboring resident accidentally knocked over a candle. The candidate climbed out of bed in panic, and the servant boy immediately rushed into his room to rescue the boxes and baskets of valuables. A servant lifted the bed curtain and pulled out the bedding. Suddenly, there was a loud bang and a naked woman fell off the bed. Everyone took a closer look and found that it was the inn owner's mother! The news spread quickly and everyone who heard it laughed so hard that they fell over.

After interpreting Ji Xiaolan's story, we will gain some understanding when we recall the definition of "erotic culture". The so-called "erotic culture" refers to a cultural phenomenon that uses "emotion" as the main factor, "sex" as the auxiliary factor, appeals to people's emotions, enlightens people with "sex", and uses "sexual suggestion", "sexual knowledge" or "certain art" as the main content to attract people's attention.

If we only look at this story, we may only be able to see Ji Xiaolan's brilliant talent in the humorous language of the story. However, if we consider the social and cultural conditions at that time, we will find that the real purpose of Ji Xiaolan writing this article was to satirize the improper behavior of some officials in the court at that time. Its greatest charm lies precisely in its criticism of current ills. This kind of humorous "criticism of current social ills" is actually a kind of critical art in erotic culture. He perfectly utilized the "sex" in the story to express his true "emotion" when writing the story.