Art of the Bedchamber: The Chinese Sexual Yoga Classics Including Women's Solo Meditation Texts

Rating:
Summary: An important reference work for the serious student
Review: Here is the largest collection of historical Chinese texts on Taoist sexuality in English, excellently translated and footnoted. A must have reference work for the serious, advanced student.

This is not an introductory text, and I think a beginner would be hard pressed to understand and practice many of the techniques in the book.

Rating:
Summary: the art of the bedchamber
Review: I'm just a beginner on this subject,I started with some photocopies on the subject(nothing special)and found them not very elucidatory. I wanted to know more!...then I bought this book,although I haven't read it all,from the pages I read, I felt I could comprehend easier what was being said.It explained certain doubts that came accross from the other texts I read.

I think(from the little insight I have)that this book is perfect to understand the subject, if one already knows something about Taoist ancient sexual practices.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent translations on sexual alchemy.
Review: This is a compendium of translations of over 20 classic Chinese texts on Taoist esoteric sexual practice. For those with this particular interest, I highly recommend it. There's no other book like it.

This is not a 'new-age relationships' book, nor a 'light-reading sex-tips' book; it's a scholarly and faithful set of translations of Taoist texts originating from the second century B.C. through the early 1700's.

These might be rather heady for the beginner, but if you've studied alchemical Taoism (especially the sexual aspect) from more modern sources - and would like to peruse some of the classics (from the 1000's of years that the Chinese have been studying this stuff), then this is THE book. It's extremely well written; the introduction alone is worth the price of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Very complete. documented and Annotated
Review: This is a work of scholorship and not simply a book about the ancient Chinese view of sex. It's very complete and contains both usuful material for moderns and very interesting historical material regarding alchemy, Qi Gong and Chinese medicine as they relate to sex.