The Chinese Homosexual Idioms
The Bitten Peach and The Cut Sleeve
“分桃之乐”与“断袖之癖”

In China, homosexuality, as one of the three main categories of sexual orientation, along with bisexuality and heterosexuality, has been referred to since the early recorded history.

Like ancient Greek who created the word "Lesbos (the name of the Greek island , where the poet Sappho wrote largely about her emotional relationships with young women.)" to call female homos, ancient Chinese invented their own terms to refer to same-sex lovers, that is, "the bitten peach--Fen Tao (分桃)" and "the cut sleeve--Duan Xiu(断袖)".

"The bitten peach--Fen Tao" was from a story recorded in an article of Han Fei Zi. It said that during the Warring States period (475 B.C-221 B.C), Duke Ling (卫灵公)，the ruler of the state of Wei, loved his intimate minister, Mi Zi Xia (弥子瑕)； one day, when they were taking a walk together in the garden, Mi Zi Xia saw a ripe peach hanging on a peach tree branch; so picking it off, he took a bite and then passed it to the duck, at which all other intimate ministers were astonished, for it was an insult for the ruler to offer him leftover food; however, Duck Ling smiled and said to them:" see, how Mi Zi Xia loves me! He tastes the peach first and give it to me after knowing it was delicious. "

"The cut sleeve--Duan Xiu(断袖)" derived from "The Book of Han", a historical book documenting the history of Eastern Han Dynasty. Emperor Ai (汉哀帝), the second last emperor of Eastern Han Dynasty and the most famous gay Emperor in Chinese history, cared for his male companion Dong Xian (董贤) very much; one day, they took a nap together; when Emperor Ai woke up, he found he could not get up, since Dong Xian was sleeping on the top of his sleeve. In order not to wake Dong Xian up, Emperor Ai carefully cut it off, and then left quietly.

From these two stories, ancient Chinese created the formulaic expressions "The bitten peach and the cut sleeve--Fen Tao Duan Xiu (分桃断袖, fēn táo duàn xiù)" or "The passion of the cut sleeve--Duan Xiu Zhi Pi (断袖之癖, duàn xiù zhī pǐ)" to refer to homosexuality in general.

    同性恋作为人类三大性取向之一(其余两个是异性恋和双性恋)，在中国历史早就有记载。中国古人还创造专门的词汇称呼它，即，分桃之乐，或断袖之癖。

    "分桃"出自《韩非子·说难》。春秋时，卫灵公宠爱卫国大夫弥子瑕。一天，他们在花园里游玩。弥子瑕从树上摘下一个桃来，咬了一口，把剩下的递给卫灵公吃。对他的行为，旁边的近臣都很吃惊，因为给国君吃剩余桃子是对国君的侮辱。但卫灵公却说："弥子瑕对我太好了！自己认为是美味的东西省下来舍不得吃，而给我吃。"

    "断袖"来源于《汉书》。中国史上最著名的同性恋皇帝汉哀帝喜爱太子舍人董贤。有一次，两人同床小睡。汉哀帝醒来，发现衣袖被董贤压住了，无法起身，他怕拉动袖子惊醒“爱人”，于是用刀子将其割断，可见其爱恋之深。哀帝还为董贤建造了一栋与皇宫类似的宫殿，并将御用品中最好的送给董贤，自己则用次品。他为了与恋人生生世世在一起，还为董贤在自己的陵墓旁边修了一座冢茔。《汉书·董贤传》载，哀帝还曾开玩笑地对董贤说：“吾欲法尧禅舜，何如?” 吓得大臣们目瞪口呆。

Source: http://hi.baidu.com/i_love_history/blog/item/5fbf8bd42037aa9ea0ec9c87.html