Erotic Colour Prints of the Ming Period (2 Vols): With an Essay on Chinese Sex Life from the Han to the Ch'ing Dynasty, B.C. 206-A.D. 1644. Authorized ... Leidensia) (English and Chinese Edition)

In 1949, the sinologist Robert van Gulik purchased in a Tokyo curio-shop a set of printing blocks of a Ming erotic album. Two years later the album, with an extensive treatise, was published by van Gulik himself in a 50-copy print run and sent to a small group of sinological libraries, as "the erotic prints and other data ought not to fall into the hands of unqualified readers". It was to be the author's first work on the subject, preceding his groundbreaking "Sexual Life in Ancient China". Unqualified readers have now at last become qualified with this official edition. James Cahill, Wilt Idema and Soeren Edgren provide readers with introductions to its art historical, literary, biographical and book technical content.