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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026

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墨子 discusses punishments for rape during the Warring States period, and various annals including 春秋左傳 and 詩經 describe rape in a decidedly disapproving manner.

Yeah but they disapprove because it soils the man’s qi, in a ‘this practice is not consistent with obviating temporal desire and attaining the Dao’ sort of way. That a woman is involved at all, let alone an unwilling one, is of no consequence - they’d complain just as much about a long goon session.

I think this is really quite inaccurate, and frankly, quite disparaging and myopic.

For one, since I previously referenced 墨子 Mozi:

墨子卷十五號令

官府城下吏卒民家前後左右相傳保火火發自燔燔曼延燔人斷諸以眾彊凌弱少及彊姦人婦女以讙譁者皆斷

Mozi, Chapter 15, section on Orders and Commandments

Among the officials, officers, soldiers, and common people within the government offices and the city, those to the front, rear, left, and right are mutually responsible for reporting and preventing fires. If a fire breaks out due to one's own negligence, and it spreads to harm others, the responsible party shall be beheaded. For any who use their numbers to bully the few or the weak, who forcefully violate or rape women, or those who encourage such actions, all such offenders shall be beheaded.

We can see that rape is packaged as part of actions that harm others.

Aside from this, while rape (as 强姦/彊姦) is not often directly mentioned in Chinese annals except in legal settings, the euphemisms used are telling.

The most direct is 妻/妻略 - “to wickedly take [as if she was] a wife”; others include:

  • 不敬 - “to show disrespect”
  • 非禮 - “to fail to behave in accordance to ritual and manners”
  • 弗賓 - “to fail to treat as a guest”
  • 姦亂 - “anarchic/disorderly licentiousness”
  • Etc.

Even in veiled form, these terms show disapproval of rape both as a personal affront to the woman as well as besmirching the honour of her husband or clan. Of course this is not quite the same idea as our liberal standards of rape, but it nevertheless is very far from the idea “that a woman is involved at all, let alone an unwilling one, is of no consequence”. And to this day, the term for molestation is 非禮.

Or you could go through eyewitness accounts of the Nanjing event for more details about how the Chinese reacted to the rape of their women. That works, too.


What makes your statement even more bizarre is that some Chinese cults that actually do have a strong proscription not just on rape, but on sex in general, sometimes were also the most sex-egalitarian; IIRC some millenarian cults (maybe some parts of the White Lotus societies?) worshipping Wusheng Laomu were like this, though I couldn’t find any sources in a hurry. Traditional Daoist thinking would both admit that 精 "essence" is lost in ejaculation, but that abstinence produced various maladies and infirmities, so caution and moderation would be most healthful.