In 1949 the sinologist Robert van Gulik (also known now for his Judge Dee mysteries) purchased in a Tokyo curio-shop a set of printing blocks of a Ming Erotic Album. Two years later the album, with an extensive treatise, was published by Van Gulik himself in a 50 copies print run, sent to a small group of Sinological libraries, as the erotic prints and other data ought not to fall into the hands of unqualified readers . It was to be the author s first work on the subject, preceding his 'groundbreaking' Sexual Life in Ancient China (new edition, Brill, 2002). Unqualified readers...