Women today choose from a wide spectrum of reliable contraceptive techniques, from the pill to the diaphragm to the condom, interspersed with various spermicidal sponges, creams, and jellies. There are, in theory, birth control methods to suit women of every age, shape and life style. But how did women of ancient China avoid unwanted pregnancies?

Zhao Feiyan and Zhao Hede, two beautiful concubines in the court of Emperor Chendi (51 BC -7 BC) of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC –AD 8), controlled their fertility by rubbing musk into their navels, according to historical records.

Prostitutes in ancient China rarely experienced unplanned pregnancies. The herbal soup, or "liangyao," of which musk was an ingredient, that they drank before going to work was effective enough to cause eventual sterility. But other birth control potions containing mercury, strychnine, and arsenic that certain  ladies of the night took were far more dangerous. Metal deposits that accumulate in the internal organs over years cause bodily dysfunctions, amnesia, lowered immunity, chronic pain, and death.  

Modern scientific research shows that small doses of mercury prevent pregnancy by causing menstrual problems, manifest in heavy bleeding, lengthened menses and dysmenorrhoea, or menstrual pain. Metal infusing the placenta also prompts miscarriages.

Certain classical contraceptive methods, as correctly administered by imperial physicians, did prevent pregnancies without causing harm. After sex with concubines or court ladies with whom he had no desire to procreate, for example, the emperor would order the appropriate eunuch to clean out their vaginas with saffron herbal soup.

But contraception was not the sole responsibility of women, even in imperial China. Condoms made of sheep intestines and fish lungs are mentioned in the ancient volume Classics of Mountains and Seas, a treasure trove of rare data on rituals, medicine, natural history, and ethnic peoples of the ancient world, as well as stories of the adventures of mythical figures. Contraceptive sheaths were also fashioned in silk and cotton. The rhythm method was common, and women also used sponges as a barrier method of birth control.

One folk contraception remedy consists of grinding seven dried persimmon pedicels, steeping the powder in boiling water, and drinking the brew for seven days. 

So there appears to have been a wide choice of birth control in early imperial China. Women ancients, whether palace concubines or street whores, had means of avoiding pregnancy, the latter at the risk – at best -- of sterility or at worst of death. But they had no choice, as an unwanted child in any event amounted to an economic death sentence.