Mizi Xia [SEP] sex or gender
his writing. The Liang dynasty poet Liu Zun wrote, "Favors of the cut sleeve are generous,/ Love of the half-eaten peach never dies," confident that any educated person reading the poem would know exactly to whom he alluded. The earliest extant Chinese document to address homosexuality, the "Poetical Essay on the Supreme Joy" by Bo Xingjian, lists Mizi Xia amongst the famous examples of homosexuality: "Mizi Xia shared a peach with his lord".
By the 12th century, male companions no longer tended
as such in other traditions would be described by veiled allusions to the actions they enjoyed, or, more often, by referring to a famous example from the past. The most common of these references to homosexuality referenced Dong Xian and Mizi Xia.
The Tang Dynasty "Poetical Essay on the Supreme Joy" is a good example of the allusive nature of Chinese writing on sexuality. This manuscript sought to present the "supreme joy" (sex) in every form known to the author; the chapter on homosexuality comes between