Editing Sex manual (section)

== Early sex manuals ==
In the Graeco-Roman era, a sex manual was written by
[[Philaenis|Philaenis of Samos]], possibly a [[hetaira]] ([[courtesan]]) of the [[Hellenistic period]] (3rd–1st century BC).<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=Erôs in Ancient Greece|last1=Sanders |first1=E.|last2=Thumiger |first2=C.|last3=Carey |first3=C. |last4=Lowe |first4=N.|date=2013|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=9780199605507|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qt7JkvxScSkC|page=287|access-date=2014-12-07}}</ref> Preserved by a series of fragmentary [[papyrus]]es which attest its popularity, it served as a source of inspiration for [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Ars Amatoria]]'', written around 3&nbsp;BC, which is partially a sex manual, and partially a burlesque on the art of love.

The ''[[Kama Sutra]]'' of [[Vatsyayana]], believed to have been written in the 1st to 6th centuries, has a notorious reputation as a sex manual, although only a small part of its text is devoted to sex. It was compiled by the Indian sage [[Vātsyāyana]] sometime between the second and fourth centuries CE. His work was based on earlier [[Kamashastra]]s or ''Rules of Love'' going back to at least the seventh century BCE, and is a compendium of the social norms and love-customs of patriarchal Northern India around the time he lived. Vatsyayana's ''Kama Sutra'' is valuable today for his psychological insights into the interactions and scenarios of love, and for his structured approach to the many diverse situations he describes. He defines different types of men and women, matching what he terms "equal" unions, and gives detailed descriptions of many love-postures.

The ''Kama Sutra'' was written for the wealthy male city-dweller. It is not, and was never intended to be, a lover's guide for the masses, nor is it a "Tantric love-manual". About three hundred years after the ''Kama Sutra'' became popular, some of the love-making positions described in it were reinterpreted in a Tantric way. Since Tantra is an all-encompassing sensual science, love-making positions are relevant to spiritual practice.

The earliest East Asian sex manual is the ''[[Su Nü Jing]]''. Probably written during the Chinese [[Han dynasty]] (206 BC – 220 AD), the work was long lost in China itself, but preserved in Japan as part of the medical anthology ''[[Ishinpō]]'' (984). It is a Daoist text purporting to describe how one might achieve long life and immortality by manipulating the [[yin and yang]] forces of the body through sexual techniques, which are described in some detail.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Erotica Stories |url=https://eroticastory.ca/|access-date=2020-09-15|website=Adult Confessions and much more.|language=en-US}}</ref> The ''[[Yufang mijue]]'' ({{zh|玉房秘訣}}), translated into English as ''Secrets from the Jade Chamber'',{{Sfn|Wile|1992|p=84}} ''Secret Formulae from the Jade Alcove'',{{Sfn|Brown|1988|p=30}} or ''Secret Instructions from the Jade Chamber'',{{Sfn|Steavu|2017|p=30}} is a Chinese sex manual composed during the [[Han dynasty]].

Medieval sex manuals include the lost works of [[Elephantis]], by [[Constantine the African]]; ''[[Ananga Ranga]]'', a 12th-century collection of [[Hindu]] erotic works;[[Ratirahasya]],a [[Medieval India|medieval Indian]] sex manual written by Koka and ''[[The Perfumed Garden|The Perfumed Garden for the Soul's Recreation]]'', a 16th-century [[Arabic language|Arabic]] work by [[Sheikh Nefzaoui]]. The fifteenth-century ''[[Speculum al foderi]]'' (The Mirror of Coitus) is the first medieval European work to discuss sexual positions. Constantine the African also penned a medical treatise on sexuality, known as ''Liber de coitu''. The medieval Jewish physician and writer [[Maimonides]] is author of a ''Treatise on Cohabitation.''