Richard Wang definitively reveals major aspects of sexuality in Ming society by demonstrating parallels and links between the themes of erotic novellas and contemporary concerns in Confucian, and more extensively, Daoist thought. Although these texts may have appeared in response to the increasing fascination with pleasure and desire as a means of self-expression among the Ming social elite, Professor Wang demonstrates the consistency and relevance of their many Daoist references. Many simply adapt earlier Daoist allegories of enlightenment through physical union to create more explicitly sexual descriptions, some of them parodies of their sources. Unquestionably this monograph will be widely read and cited among readers interested in the literate culture of late imperial China and its philosophical and religious underpinnings.