chapter 1

Androgyny in Chinese Philosophy

Androgyny, an ancient concept, is deeply rooted in both Western and Chi-

nese philosophies. In the Symposium, Plato, through Aristophanes, men-
tions the existence of three primordial races, one of which is made of the
union between men and women. Although the united body is later split by
God into halves of diVerent sexes, each seeks the other, yearning for the
original whole.1 While the Judeo-Christian tradition promotes patriarchy,
the androgynous ideal can be traced in religious stories outside oYcial scrip-
ture.2 The motif of androgyny abounds in Western creation myths and clas-
sic literature;3 it is also incorporated into modern theories such as the
Freudian concept of bisexuality4 and Carl Jung’s analytical psychology. Of
special relevance to the gender discussion here is the Swiss psychologist’s
positing that there is a masculine soul, or animus, for woman, and a femi-
nine soul, or anima, for man, as the carriers of their respective unconscious.
These buried elements, Jung asserts, surface in the human psyche in the de-
velopment of personality, pointing to the potential for androgyny.5
In Chinese culture, the orthodox gender paradigm was theoretically des-
ignated in the Han text Chunqiu fanlu (Luxuriant dew from the spring and
autumn annals), generally attributed to the Confucian scholar Dong Zhong-
shu. Applying traditional metaphysics to the realm of ethics to consolidate