"Homosexuality" refers to a person's sexual, psychological, emotional and social interests, whose main objects are people of the same gender, and such interest is not revealed in explicit behavior. Those who have love, sexual desire or admiration for people of the same sex are called homosexuals. Although "homosexuality" is a modern term, it actually existed in ancient China. In ancient China, male homosexuality was called "Duanxiu" and lesbianism was called "Mojing".

The allusion of "cut sleeves" originated from the Western Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago. In the second year of Jianping in the Western Han Dynasty, one day, Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty returned to the palace from court and saw a man standing in front of the palace. When he was reporting the leakage, Emperor Ai asked casually: "Isn't that Dong Xian, the man who gave up the family?" The man kowtowed hurriedly and said : "It is the young minister Dong Xian." Dong Xian is the son of the imperial censor Dong Gong. When Liu Xin, Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty, was still the prince, he served as the prince's servant. It was at this glance that Emperor Ai suddenly discovered that Dong Xian had grown more and more handsome after not seeing him for several years. He was even more beautiful than Fendai from the Sixth Palace. He couldn't help but fall in love with him and ordered him to follow him. From then on, she loved him more and more, riding in the same car and sleeping on the same couch. Dong Xian not only looks like a beautiful woman, but also talks and behaves like a woman. She is "soft in nature" and "good at charming". Emperor Ai's deep love for Dong Xian can be illustrated by an example. During a nap, Dong Xian fell asleep with Emperor Ai's sleeve on his pillow. Emperor Ai wanted to get up, but he couldn't bear to wake Dong Xian, so he drew his sword and cut off his sleeve. Whenever later generations mentioned Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty, they would say that he had a "penchant for cutting off his sleeves." As a result, "cut sleeves" has become synonymous with male homosexuality.

So, why is lesbianism called "mirror grinding"? It turns out that "mirror grinding" means grinding and fixing bronze mirrors. Bronze mirrors used in ancient times must be polished frequently before they can take pictures. According to the "Biography of Immortals·Mr. Negative Bureau" written by Liu Xiang, a famous scholar in the Han Dynasty, "I don't know who Mr. Negative Bureau is. He speaks like a person from the Yan Dynasty. He often went to Wu City to show off his Mojing Bureau for one coin." ""Taiping Yulan · Hai Nei Shi Pin" also said: "Xu Ruzi tried to work for Huang Gong of Jiangxia. Huang Gong passed away and went to his funeral. His family was poor and he could not help himself, so he went with him to grind mirrors and tools. He rented the grinder to get money, and then "The poet Liu Deren of the Tang Dynasty once wrote in his poem "Gift to the Taoist": "There is no stable job in Chang'an City, and selling pills and grinding mirrors leads to poverty." In the Qing Dynasty novelist Pu Songling's "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio: Goddess" There is also a saying that "if you ask the person, they will tell you that they are all mirror grinders in the market." And lesbianism is called "mirror grinding", which means that both parties get a certain degree of sexual satisfaction from rubbing or stroking each other's bodies. Since both parties have the same body structure, it seems that they are grinding together with a mirror placed in the middle. It's called "grinding the mirror".

In ancient times, the most common lesbians were the maids in the palace. Why did this phenomenon occur? The famous Tang Dynasty poet Yuan Zhen's poem "The Palace" puts it vividly: "The ancient palace is sparse, and the palace flowers are lonely and red. The white-headed palace maid is here, sitting and talking about Xuanzong." In that desolate and lonely ancient palace, the red flowers in the palace It is blooming everywhere, which is the benefit of spring. However, the beautiful girl who entered the palace at that time also suffered in loneliness for dozens of years, and now she has turned gray-haired and gray-faced. Their youth is ruined here, their tears of sorrow and resentment flow here, and they sigh and sigh in front of the blooming red flowers.

They were the most beautiful women at that time. Her skin was once as creamy and charming. However, the only man abandoned the three thousand beauties and only had eyes for Yang Yuhuan. It's okay not to love them, but they want to ruthlessly dry up their youth. Love is a right that even animals can enjoy, but they are abruptly deprived of it. Living, my heart surges, tenderness is like silk, but it can only turn into water at the bottom of an ancient well. The light is dim, moss grows everywhere, the four seasons are cold, and there is a thick sadness of not being loved.

Until they were so claustrophobic that they became numb, their hair stained with frost, and they sat together, talking lightly about the man in their hearts. This scene, like the red of the palace flowers and the white-haired woman, is not peaceful, but cruel. He was the protagonist of their dreams, but he fell into the gentle land of another beautiful woman and fell into a coma from then on. If there is a great dullness at the end of the splendor, this kind of life can still make people leave with a smile. Let them spread their palms to the sky, and all they will gain is in vain, and they have grown old rapidly.

"The palace flower is lonely and red", these five words describe how deeply thousands of women have spent thousands of years in the deep palace where the flower of youth bloomed and withered lonely. Sex is a natural need of human beings. Under normal circumstances, both men and women long for love, marriage and sexual happiness, but the palace ladies have been cruelly deprived of this right to life.

In the harem, the only men the palace ladies came into contact with were the emperor and eunuchs. Eunuchs had no sexual ability, and there was only one emperor. How many of the palace women could get the favor of the emperor?