The History and Ancient Literature of “Naodongfang”: Chinese Wedding Games prior to 1912

Abstract

This article focuses on archiving and translating Chinese written form materials about Naodongfang (???): the obscene wedding games from ancient times to 1912. Naodongfang refers to pranks with sexual innuendo carried out by participants during the wedding nights and literally means “disturbance in ta bridal chamber.” Based on twenty-seven references in classical Chinese historical texts, I outlined the development of Naodongfang. The records include various types of literature, such as official history books, scholars’ comments, folk ballads, regional records, travel accounts and poems. Historiography here proves the existence of Naodongfang for over 2000 years and its geographical spread across China.