Taoist Sex: Two Dancing Phoenixes

Taoist Sex is the ancient Chinese equivalent of Tantric Sex. But whereas Tantra is the Way of the Goddess, Taoist Sex is focused more on enhancing the health and longevity of the male participant. While the sexual positions of the Kama Sutra are designed to heighten and prolong the pleasures of the female, their Taoist equivalents are aimed more at the pleasure of the male. This is particularly apparent in the position illustrated here (in a Japaneseshunga print of the late eighteenth century), in which a man is copulating simultaneously with two female partners. In this position, called “two dancing phoenixes”, one female lies on top of the other, both spreading their legs so that their vaginas (referred to in Taoism as “yin gates”) are easily accessible to alternate thrusts of the man’s erect penis (“yang spear”).