Why do couples love to take a bath together?

Although there are more and more opportunities for single men and women to be in the same room, being in the same room is not their ultimate goal. In other words, the ultimate goal is to do something they love together.

Unfortunately, in terms of variety, these things are basically becoming less and less. The more opportunities there are, the easier it is for your imagination and physical strength to be exhausted.

Therefore, in order to keep the things that both parties love doing fresh and constructive, "mandarin duck bathing" has been popular for quite some time.

Bathing together, as the literary term goes, is called a "mandarin duck bath". The words come from the late Tang poet Wei Zhuang's "Bodhisattva Man": "The spring scenery in Luoyang city is beautiful, and the talented man from Luoyang grows old in a foreign land. Willows are dark on the Weiwang embankment, and my heart is confused at this moment. Peach blossoms are in the clear spring water, and mandarin ducks are bathing on the water.

I look at the setting sun with hatred in my heart, missing you but you don’t know. "It must be noted that not every time a man and a woman take a bath together can be called or self-proclaimed as a "mandarin duck bath".

In China's traditional symbol system, mandarin ducks represent a relationship between men and women that conforms to morality, law and beauty. "When the mandarin ducks are flying, they are caught in a net. When the mandarin ducks are on the beam, they tuck in their left wing." (Xiaoya) As early as the time of the Book of Songs, mandarin ducks were a model of monogamy. According to human observation, mandarin ducks during the breeding season not only strictly adhere to the monogamous system, but also love playing in the water.

However, real mandarin ducks are not like in the legend, that they fly together, swim together, and nest with wings intertwined. If one dies, the other will remain faithful for the rest of its life or even die of depression. Neither mandarin ducks are that infatuated, so You jump, I jump.

In fact, mandarin ducks usually live their own lives. Their pairs and flying together are just an intimate gesture they show during the mating period. Once mating is completed, there is no need to beat them, as they will immediately go their separate ways and become strangers.

As for the work of laying eggs and raising chicks in the later stage of breeding, it is all done by the single mother mandarin duck, and the mandarin duck is completely "wansong" (Cantonese slang, leaving as soon as the job is done). Therefore, although using mandarin ducks as a mascot for monogamy is more intuitive, it is actually very unlucky, which of course is not without truth. As Zheng Banqiao said, "The word 'mandarin duck' is a beautiful story in the boudoir. How many heroes and heroines have caused disasters and injustices. The golden lotus in the front palace and the jade tree in the back garden have been destroyed by the wind and rain."

Therefore, although the name of "Double-breasted Bath" is erotic, logically it clearly takes the legality of sexual relations as an important prerequisite for bathing together. Once the premise no longer exists, there is no buffer zone of "wild bathing in love" or "bathing in love together", which directly leads to hooligan activities and bestial behavior.

Li Zhi, a mad scholar in the Ming Dynasty who was against Confucianism and advocated the autonomy of marriage between men and women, was once accused of many "beastly acts" by mainstream society, including "having sex with prostitutes and bathing with them in broad daylight." In fact, the so-called "beastial behavior" is the most simple definition of mandarin ducks playing in the water.

In any case, at least when they are "bathing" in the water, the deep affection between mandarin ducks and ducks, their inseparable "bathing posture", where the male and female swim together and live together, is still a model of love in the eyes of people on the shore.

Ji Kang's poem says: Mandarin ducks are flying. The whistling companion is a life partner. Visit the plateau. Stay in Zhongzhou at night. Neck entwined and wings flapping. Be content with the clear stream. Chew orchid. Relax and unwind. Swim in that long river. Say to stop.

Climb that high hill. It means to cut off the Chu. Alas, I am on my journey. Walking alone. Look up to that triumphant wind. Tears fell like rain. Therefore, once bathing is labeled as "mandarin duck", the government basically does not care and the public does not object.

At the very least, "taking a bath together" is superior to couples watching porn at home in terms of motivation and effect. Now, more and more people believe that "mandarin duck bath" helps to promote the relationship between husband and wife and strengthen human relations.

I don't know how "mandarin duck bath" can promote the relationship between men and women, but to be pragmatic, "mandarin duck bath" is obviously beneficial in the following aspects without any harm:

1. Two can live as cheaply as one. Taking a bath together is more efficient than taking a bath alone, and resources can be shared.

Think about the increasingly scarce water resources and the huge cost of the "South-to-North Water Diversion" project. Even if it is just to save water, mandarin duck bathing is worth promoting.

Second, a person has only two arms and two hands (a person will have a deeper understanding of this after entering the bathroom and taking off all his clothes). The body is three-dimensional, and the elbows will never bend outward. Therefore, there are always some gray areas on the body that can never be washed or cleaned by hands (such as the back) without the help of others.

All in all, there is no bathroom tool that is more powerful, more effective, more pleasant and more humane than the "many-person bath" in this regard.

3. When unmarried couples take a bath together, they take off all disguises and see each other naked under the light which is much brighter than that in the bedroom. It is really a great opportunity to deepen their understanding of each other.

For example, both men and women can take this opportunity to check if the other has any hidden illness or tattoos that may cast doubt on his or her integrity. I believe that not many people would oppose the idea that it is a proactive premarital examination that does not occupy public resources.

I personally also vaguely believe that bathing together, in addition to further understanding each other's bodies, may also help to deepen your understanding of their character.

Someone once told me that the best places to see a person's true nature are "while traveling" and "at the poker table." In my experience, there is some truth to this statement, and I would also like to add that in addition to traveling and the card table, the bathroom is probably a similar occasion.

Unfortunately, as a married Virgo man, although I have had plenty of opportunities to do so, I have never been able to put it into practice. Therefore, although the reason is difficult to explain at the moment, in our country, bathing has always been related to spiritual phenomena, that is, in addition to personal physical pleasure, it also involves the quality of sentiment and morality.

From the sacrifices in the Spring and Autumn Period to Mr. Yang Jiang's "Bath", they have been passed down from generation to generation. As the saying goes, "cleanse your body and purify your virtue."