Lust, fight, greed — blood and qi, the force behind drive and violence, and how the oldest sources lead it

Confucius names the three dangers of a life by the state of its blood and qi, its vital breath: lust while they are unsettled, fighting while they are hard, greed while they decline. The vitality that a practised breath gathers and makes firm is the same force that, left unled, turns into drive and violence. China, India and Greece say this independently; the monasteries of the Church inherited it. The same texts also say how to lead the force instead of driving it: by the breath, and by a will that waits. Read together, the oldest manuals define the sexual act from within. Her signs set the measure; he reads them and waits; the seed is held or given by will. The same books show how the method was turned against women by men who had power.