UntitlemmEnfant terrible

I am tired at this point of reading and watching Danmei/Dangai and be exposed to the same “cut sleeve” reference to allude to male same-sex attraction and relationships.

Don’t get me wrong, I thank the creative team and the writers for finding such a unique (?) way of bypassing censorship but there are so many more literary and historical references that they could use to allude to same-sex attraction. I’m kinda over the same old “Cut Sleeve” reference. 😖

Here are some of the most popular allusions used by writers in Chinese literature to reference male same-sex desire.

The Four Male Love Icons of Chinese Literature

I’m pretty sure that, if you are into Chinese history, folk, literature, etc, you have heard of the four beauties of ancient and imperial China. You have the four most beautiful Chinese women and the four most handsome Chinese men.

The same thing is true for the tradition of male same-sex love. Those are:

Mizi Xia (彌子瑕) and Duke Ling of Wey (衛靈公)

Lord Longyang (龍陽君) and King Anxi of Wei (魏安僖王）

Prince Zixi, Lord of È (鄂君子皙), and the Yue man (越人)

Emperor Ai of Han (漢哀帝) and Dong Xian (董賢)

Other literary allusions include:

Pan Zhang (潘章) and Wang Zhongxian (王仲先)

Lord Chan of Anling (安陵君) and King Xuan of Chu (楚宣王）

Hu Tian Bao (胡天保) as Tu’er Shen (兔兒神)

The four revered bottoms of Chinese literature and history are:

Mizi Xia (彌子瑕)

Longyang (龍陽君)

Dong Xian (董賢)

Chan (纏), Lord of Anling (安陵君)

If you ever come across a poem or prose that mentions any of those names to refer to a male beauty, just know that it’s an allusion to their stories. They were considered the peak of bottom literary reference.

The Passion of the Half-Eaten Peach (餘桃癖) 🍑

(With more ways)

This is probably my favorite book that I own. It takes this one Tang Dynasty poem and looks at 19 different translations of it, taking a page or two to break down the various pros and cons of the choices each translator made. My copy cost me like 5 bucks and I would recommend it to anyone interested in translation.

The Poem in Chinese

each character translated individually

An English translation

An english translation that made different choices

A French Translation

My edition has ‘more ways’ and this is one of those.