SEMEN & CULTURES

Qigong and Chinese medicine place huge emphasis on a form of energy called  (pinyin: jīng, also a morpheme denoting "essence" or "spirit") - which one attempts to develop and accumulate. "Jing" is sexual energy and is considered to dissipate with ejaculation so masturbation is considered "energy suicide" amongst those who practice this art.
According to Qigong theory, energy from many pathways/meridians becomes diverted and transfers itself to the sexual organs during sexual excitement. The ensuing orgasm and ejaculation will then finally expel the energy from the system completely. The Chinese proverb (pinyin: yì dī jīng, shí dī xuè, literally: a drop of semen is equal to ten drops of blood) illustrates this point.
The scientific term for semen in Chinese is  (pinyin: jīng yè, literally: fluid of essence/jing) and the term for sperm is  (pinyin: jīng zǐ, literally: basic element of essence/jing), two modern terms with classical reference.

GREEK PHILOSOPHY OF SEMEN
In Ancient Greece, Aristotle remarked on the importance of semen: "For Aristotle, semen is the residue derived from nourishment, that is of blood, that has been highly concocted to the optimum temperature and substance. This can only be emitted by the male as only the male, by nature of his very being, has the requisite heat to concoct blood into semen." According to Aristotle, there is a direct connection between food and semen: "Sperms are the excretion of our food, or to put it more clearly, as the most perfect component of our food."

The connection between food and physical growth, on the one hand, and semen, on the other, allows Aristotle to warn against "engaging sexual activity at too early an age ... [since this will affect the growth of their bodies. Nourishment that would otherwise make the body grow is diverted to the production of semen.... Aristotle is saying that at this stage the ''body'' is still growing; it is best for sexual activity to begin when its growth is 'no longer abundant', for when the body is more or less at full height, the transformation of nourishment into semen does not drain the body of needed material."

Additionally, "Aristotle tells us that the region round the eyes was the region of the head most fruitful of seed ("most seedy" σπερματικώτατος), pointing to generally recognized effects upon the eyes of sexual indulgence and to practices which imply that seed comes from liquid in the region of the eyes." This may be explained by the belief of the Pythagorean that "semen is a drop of the brain δε σπέρμα εἶναι σταγόνα ἐγκέφαλου."

Greek Stoic philosophy conceived of the ''Logos spermatikos'' ("seminal word") as the principle of active reason that fecundated passive matter. The Jewish philosopher Philo similarly spoke in sexual terms of the Logos as the masculine principle of reason that sowed seeds of virtue in the feminine soul.

The Christian Platonist Clement of Alexandria likened the Logos to physical blood as the "substance of the soul," and noted that some held "that the animal semen is substantially foam of its blood". Clement reflected an early Christian view that "the seed ought not be wasted nor scattered thoughtlessly nor sown in a way it cannot grow."

SEMEN SACRED

In some per-industrial societies, semen and other body fluids were revered because they were believed to be magical. Blood is an example of such a fluid, but semen was also widely believed to be of supernatural origin and effect and was, as a result, considered holy or sacred.

Semen is currently and has long been revered by Buddhist and Daoist traditions as a very important constituent of human physiology.

Dew was once thought to be a sort of rain that fertilized the earth and, in time, became a metaphor for semen. The Bible employs the term “dew” in this sense in such verses as Song of Solomon 5:2 and Psalm 110:3, declaring, in the latter verse, for example, that the people should follow only a king who was virile enough to be full of the “dew” of youth.

It was widely believed, in ancient times, that gemstones were drops of divine semen which had coagulated after having fertilized the earth. There is an ancient Chinese belief that jade, in particular, was the dried semen of the celestial dragon.

Based upon the resemblance of dandelion juice to human semen, it was historically believed that the flower magically promoted the flow of sperm. (This belief probably derives from the doctrine of signatures.)

The orchid’s twin bulbs were thought to resemble the testicles, and there was an ancient Roman belief that the flower sprang from the spilled semen of copulating satyrs.

Barbara G. Walker recounts these examples of sacred semen in ''The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects'', the thesis of which is that myth and folklore show a pre-patriarchic rule by women that was later supplanted by masculine culture.

In primitive mythology around the world, semen is very often considered analogous to breast milk in some way. In the traditions of Bali, it is considered to be the returning or refunding of the milk of the mother in an alimentary metaphor. The wife feeds her husband who returns to her his semen, the milk of human kindness, as it were.

In some systems of medical philosophy, such as traditional Russian medicine and the Vital Force theory of Herbert Nowell, semen is regarded as the product of a complex physiological interaction between a man and a woman (rather than merely the product of the male reproductive system).