What was the attitude of ancient Chinese society towards homosexuality?

On the perspective of the relevant laws in modern China, homosexuality satisfies neither the conditions for the establishment of marriage nor the conditions for the non-establishment of marriage, that is, homosexual marriage is neither recognized nor prohibited. Obviously, China’s attitude toward the gay community is still not as inclusive and open as it is in the Western countries. This is largely due to the belief that when homosexuality is prevalent, the society is generally in a lustful and soft state, and that members of society tend to pursue a hedonistic lifestyle, diluting their social responsibilities and thus reducing social cohesion, which is not conducive to the development of the country.

But in ancient Chinese society, where feudal dogma was more stringent, homosexuality existed from the pre-Qin period and lasted until the end of the Qing Dynasty. That is, until the Xinhai Revolution and the fall of the Qing Dynasty, homosexuality in the ancient Chinese culture left the stage of history. The attitude of ancient Chinese high society towards homosexuality is: as long as it does not violate the rules, whatever is fine.

What does this mean? The ruler guides subject (君为臣纲), so the ruler can’t give his male favor to the official position because of personal feelings; the husband guides wife (夫为妻纲), so you can’t choose not to marry because you’re gay; the father guides sons (父为子纲), so you cannot choose not to have a son because you are gay, which may result in no one being able to inherit the patriarchy.

The court of the Han dynasty revered the culture of male favor, Zhang Fang, Deng Tong and Dong Xian, all of whom were indiscriminately given official positions as male favors, but in the end, that is after the death of the emperor, they were all killed by ministers. On the contrary, some wise kings, such as Emperor Wu, although they also had their own favored male pets, but did not violate the feudal rules, and received much less criticism.

As for the rest is better understood, the vast majority of homosexuals in ancient China are married. If you wanna find a counter-example, that will be difficult.

But that doesn’t mean that every member of high society has this tolerant attitude toward homosexuality.

To be continued…