Eunuchs in China

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A group of eunuchs. Mural from the tomb of the prince Zhanghuai, 706 AD.

A eunuch (/ˈjuːnək/ YOO-nək)[1] is a man who has been castrated.[2] Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function.[3]

In China, castration included removal of the penis as well as the testicles (see emasculation). Both organs were cut off with a knife at the same time.[4]

Eunuchs have existed in China since about 4,000 years ago, were imperial servants by 3,000 years ago, and were common as civil servants by the time of the Qin dynasty.[5][6] From those ancient times until the Sui dynasty, castration was both a traditional punishment (one of the Five Punishments) and a means of gaining employment in the Imperial service. Certain eunuchs gained immense power that occasionally superseded that of even the Grand Secretaries such as the Ming dynasty official Zheng He. Self-castration was a common practice, although it was not always performed completely, which led to it being made illegal.

It is said that the justification for the employment of eunuchs as high-ranking civil servants was that, since they were incapable of having children, they would not be tempted to seize power and start a dynasty. In many cases, eunuchs were considered more reliable than the scholar-officials.[7] As a symbolic assignment of heavenly authority to the palace system, a constellation of stars was designated as the Emperor's, and, to the west of it, four stars were identified as his "eunuchs."[8]

The tension between eunuchs in the service of the emperor and virtuous Confucian officials is a familiar theme in Chinese history. In his History of Government, Samuel Finer points out that reality was not always that clear-cut. There were instances of very capable eunuchs who were valuable advisers to their emperor, and the resistance of the "virtuous" officials often stemmed from jealousy on their part. Ray Huang argues that in reality, eunuchs represented the personal will of the Emperor, while the officials represented the alternative political will of the bureaucracy. The clash between them would thus have been a clash of ideologies or political agenda.[9]

The number of eunuchs in Imperial employ fell to 470 by 1912, when the practice of using them ceased. The last Imperial eunuch, Sun Yaoting, died in December 1996.[10]

History[]

Qin dynasty[]

Men sentenced to castration were turned into eunuch slaves of the Qin dynasty state to perform forced labor for projects such as the Terracotta Army.[11] The Qin government confiscated the property and enslaved the families of rapists who received castration as a punishment.[12] Men punished with castration during the Han dynasty were also used as slave labor.[13]

Han dynasty[]

In Han dynasty China, castration continued to be used as a punishment for various offenses.[14][15] Sima Qian, the famous Chinese historian, was castrated by order of the Han Emperor of China for dissent.[16] In another incident multiple people, including a chief scribe and his underlings, were subjected to castration.[17]

Near the end of the Han dynasty in 189, a group of eunuchs known as the Ten Attendants managed to gain considerable power at the imperial court, so that several warlords decided they had to be eliminated to restore the Emperor's government.[18] However, the loyalist warlord, He Jin, was lured into a trap inside the palace and killed by the eunuchs.[18] The other warlords led by Yuan Shao then stormed the palace and massacred the Ten Attendants and many other eunuchs.[18][19] In the wake of the fighting, Dong Zhuo seized power.[19]

Tang dynasty[]

Indigenous tribals from southern China were used as eunuchs during the Sui and Tang dynasties.[20]

The rebel An Lushan had a Khitan eunuch named Li Zhu'er (李豬兒) (Li Chu-erh) who was working for An Lushan when he was a teenager. An Lushan used a sword to sever his genitals and he almost died, losing multiple pints of blood. An Lushan revived him after smearing ashes on his injury. Li Zhu'er was An Lushan's eunuch after this and was highly used and trusted by him. Li Zhu'er and another two men helped carry the obese An Lushan when he dressed and undressed. Li Zhu'er also helped An Lushan dress at the Huaqing (Hua-ch'ing) steam baths granted by Emperor Xuanzang. Later, An Lushan was stricken with a skin disease and became blind and paranoid. He started flogging and murdering his subordinates, and Li Zhuer was approached by people who wanted to assassinate An Lushan. An Lushan was stabbed in the stomach and disemboweled by Li Zhuer and Yan Zhuang (Yen Chuang) (嚴莊), another conspirator whom An Lushan had previously beaten. An Lushan screamed, "This is a thief of my own household!" as he desperately shook his curtains since he could not find his sword to defend himself.[21][22][23]

Liao dynasty[]

The Khitans adopted the practice of using eunuchs from the Chinese, and the eunuchs were non-Khitan prisoners of war. When they founded the Liao dynasty, they developed a harem system with concubines and wives and adopted eunuchs as part of it. The Khitans captured Chinese eunuchs at the Jin court when they invaded the Later Jin. Another source was during their war with the Song dynasty, the Khitan would raid China, capture Han Chinese boys as prisoners of war and emasculate them to become eunuchs. The emasculation of captured Chinese boys guaranteed a continuous supply of eunuchs to serve in the Liao Dynasty harem. The Empress Dowager, Chengtian, played a large role in the raids to capture and emasculate the boys. She personally led her own army and defeated the Song in 986,[24] fighting the retreating Chinese army. She then ordered the castration of around 100 Chinese boys she had captured, supplementing the Khitan's supply of eunuchs to serve at her court, among them was . The boys were all under ten years old and were selected for their good looks.[25][26]

Yuan dynasty[]

As with all parts of the Mongol Empire, Goryeo provided eunuchs to the Mongols.[27] One of them was Bak Bulhwa, who caused harm to Goryeo.[28]

Ming dynasty[]

There were eunuchs from China's various ethnic tribes, Mongolia, Korea,[29][30] Vietnam,[31] Cambodia, Central Asia, Thailand, and Okinawa.[32]: 14–16 

There were Korean, Jurchen, Mongol, Central Asian, and Vietnamese eunuchs under the Yongle Emperor,[33]: 36ff [34] including Mongol eunuchs who served him while he was the Prince of Yan.[35] Muslim and Mongol eunuchs were present in the Ming court,[32]: 14  such as the ones captured from Mongol-controlled Yunnan in 1381, and among them was the great Ming maritime explorer Zheng He,[32]: 14ff [36] who served Yongle.[37] Muslim eunuchs were sent as ambassadors to the Timurids.[38] Vietnamese eunuchs like Ruan Lang, Ruan An, Fan Hong, Chen Wu, and Wang Jin were sent by Zhang Fu to the Ming.[39] During Ming's early contentious relations with Joseon, when there were disputes such as competition for influence over the Jurchens in Manchuria, Korean officials were even flogged by Korean-born Ming eunuch ambassadors when their demands were not met.[40] Some of the ambassadors were arrogant, such as Sin Kwi-saeng who, in 1398, got drunk and brandished a knife at a dinner in the presence of the king.[41] Sino-Korean relations later became amiable, and Korean envoys' seating arrangement in the Ming court was always the highest among the tributaries.[40] Korea stopped sending human tribute after 1435.[40] A total of 198 eunuchs were sent from Korea to Ming.[42] The Ming eunuch hats were similar to the Korean royal hats, indicating the foreign origins of the Ming eunuchs, many of whom came from Southeast Asia and Korea.[43] Yishiha was a Jurchen eunuch in the Ming dynasty.

During the Miao Rebellions, the Ming Governor castrated thousands of Miao boys when their tribes revolted, and then gave them as slaves to various officials. The Governor who ordered the castration of the Miao was reprimanded and condemned by the Ming Tianshun Emperor for doing it once the Ming government heard of the event.[32]: 16 

Zhu Shuang (Prince of Qin), while he was high on drugs, had some Tibetan boys castrated, and Tibetan women seized after a war against minority Tibetan peoples. As a result he was denounced after he died from an overdose.[44]

On 30 January 1406, the Yongle Emperor expressed horror when the Ryukyuans castrated some of their own children to become eunuchs to give them to the emperor. The Yongle Emperor said that the boys who were castrated were innocent and did not deserve castration, and he returned the boys to Ryukyu and instructed them not to send eunuchs again.[45]

An anti-pig slaughter edict led to speculation that the Zhengde Emperor adopted Islam due to his use of Muslim eunuchs who commissioned the production of porcelain with Persian and Arabic inscriptions in white and blue color.[46] Muslim eunuchs contributed money in 1496 to repairing Niujie Mosque.[47] It is unknown who really was behind the anti-pig slaughter edict.[48]

At the end of the Ming dynasty, there were about 70,000 eunuchs (宦官 huànguān, or 太監 tàijiàn) employed by the emperor with some serving inside the imperial palace. There were 100,000 eunuchs at the height of their numbers during the Ming.[32]: 34ff [49][50][51] In popular culture texts such as Zhang Yingyu's The Book of Swindles (ca. 1617), eunuchs were often portrayed in starkly negative terms as enriching themselves through excessive taxation and indulging in cannibalism and debauched sexual practices.[52]

Path to the occupation[]

In Ming China, the royal palace acquired eunuchs from both domestic and foreign sources.[53]: 126–138  On the one hand, the eunuchs in Ming China came from foreign sources. The enemies of Ming China were castrated as a means of punishment when they are captured by the Ming army as prisoners.[53]: 127  For example, the population of Mongol eunuchs in Nanjing increased significantly during Yongle's reign when there was a war between Ming China and the Mongols.[53]: 127  The foreign eunuchs also came as tribute from many small countries around China.[53]: 127  On the other hand, eunuchs also came from indigenous Chinese. In Ming China, many men castrated themselves to be hired in the palace, when the only way for these men to enter into a life of privilege was through eunuchism.[53]: 128  Besides the royal palace, bureaucratic elites, such as mandarin officials, also hired eunuchs to be servants in their families.[53]: 131  With this demand, many men were willing to castrate themselves to become eunuchs.

Daily functions of normal eunuchs[]

Eunuchs in Ming China also played a critical role in the operation of the imperial palace. Their responsibilities varied in significance with jobs that included almost every aspect of everyday routine in the imperial palace. Some of their responsibilities were procuring copper, tin, wood, and iron. Also, they had to repair and construct ponds, castle gates, and palaces in major cities like Beijing and Nanjing, and the mansions and mausolea in the living spaces of imperial relatives.[53]: 131  They prepared meals for a great number of people in the palace. Taking care of the animals in the palace was another one of their jobs. In a word, the eunuchs' work was the cornerstone of the palace's daily operation, and they were responsible for the Emperor and his relatives' comfortable life.[53]: 125 

Relationship with other occupations in the royal palace[]

The eunuchs also highly associated with other lower ranking occupations in the royal palace. For example, some eunuchs would have special relationships with serving women in the palace. Some eunuchs would form a partnership with serving women to support each other, which was called a "vegetarian couple" (Duishi).[54]: 43  In this kind of relationship, both the eunuchs and serving women could be more secure when they encountered conflicts with the those of higher rank such as mandarin bureaucrats.[54]: 60 

Power of eunuchs in the palace[]

The eunuchs also had an opportunity to rise to higher ranks. For example, the duties and jobs of eunuchs gradually changed in Ming dynasty. In the Hongwu Emperor's time, the Emperor decreed that the eunuchs were to be kept in small numbers and of minimal literacy to prevent them from seizing power.[33]: 64  However, in later generations, the Emperors began to train and educate the eunuchs and made them their personal secretaries.[33]: 65  The lack of the restrictions allowed some eunuchs to rise to great power, for example, Wang Zhen, Liu Jin, and Wei Zhongxian especially. There were even an eunuch supervised secret police, which worked for the emperor. It was known as the Eastern Depot and Western Depot.[33]: 65  Also, Zheng He, a famous eunuch in China's history, became an early pioneer of seafaring and spread Chinese influence around the world.[55]

Reputation of eunuchs in China[]

However, the reputation of eunuchs was controversial in Ming China, especially considering the way they had their eyes and ears everywhere. Since the eunuchs served both the harem and the emperors, it was believed that they were able to carry valuable information that could either break or create an emperor's status, so out of fear, Chinese bureaucrat-scholars always depicted eunuchs negatively as greedy, evil, cunning, and duplicitous.[53]: 121  The Chinese seemed to have a stereotypical view toward the eunuchs. This bad reputation may be explained by the fact that the eunuchs, to get employment in the royal palace or official houses, needed to be castrated. Castration gave the eunuchs the license to work in the palace or official houses in Ming China because the officials and the Emperor in Ming China usually kept many concubines.[53]: 133  However, in Chinese society, castration broke with conventional moral rules. A son who could not have a male heir to carry on the family name contradicted Confucian ideology.[53]: 132  The eunuchs, despite their awareness of losing the ability to have children, would get castrated to have better lives. Another stereotypical view of eunuchs in the palace was that they exceeded their power in areas they did not belong, or that they did unpleasant work. For example, they were spies for emperors or officials. The Yongle Emperor gave the eunuchs the authority to be in charge in the implementation of political tasks. As the eunuchs' presence and power grew, they gradually took over the duties of female palace musicians and become the dominant musicians in the Ming palace.[56] When they came to power, eunuchs would even interfere in politics such as the succession to the throne.[53]: 125 

Qing dynasty[]

Empress Dowager Cixi carried and accompanied by palace eunuchs, before 1908

While eunuchs were employed in all Chinese dynasties, their number decreased significantly under the Qing, and the tasks they performed were largely replaced by the Imperial Household Department.[57] At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 2,000 eunuchs working in the Forbidden City.[58][59] The eunuchs at the Forbidden City during the later Qing period were infamous for their corruption, stealing as much as they could.[60] The position of a eunuch in the Forbidden City offered opportunity for theft and corruption. China was such a poor country that countless men willingly became eunuchs to live a better life.[60] However, eunuchs as the Emperor's slaves had no rights and could be abused at the Emperor's whim. The Emperor Puyi recalled in his memoirs of growing up in the Forbidden City that: "By the age of 11, flogging eunuchs was part of my daily routine. My cruelty and love of power were already too firmly set for persuasion to have any effect on me... Whenever I was in a bad temper the eunuchs would be in for trouble."[58][61]

After the revolution of 1911–12 that toppled the Qing, the last emperor, Puyi, continued to live in the Forbidden City with his eunuchs as if the revolution had never happened while receiving financial support from the new Chinese republic until 1924 when the former Emperor and his entourage were expelled from the Forbidden City by the warlord General Feng Yuxiang. In 1923, after a case of arson that Puyi believed was started to cover the theft of his Imperial treasures, Puyi expelled all of the eunuchs from the Forbidden City.[58]

The sons and grandsons of the Tajik rebel, Yaqub Beg, in China were all castrated. Surviving members of Yaqub Beg's family included 4 sons, 4 grandchildren (2 grandsons and 2 granddaughters), and 4 wives. They either mostly died in prison in Lanzhou, Gansu, or were killed. However, his sons, Yima Kuli, K'ati Kuli, Maiti Kuli, and grandson, Aisan Ahung, were the only survivors in 1879. They were all underage children, and put on trial, sentenced to an agonizing death if they were complicit in their father's rebellious "sedition", or if they were innocent of their fathers' crimes, were to be sentenced to castration and serve as eunuch slaves to Chinese troops, when they reached 11 years old. They were handed over to the Imperial Household to be executed or castrated.[62][63][64] In 1879, it was confirmed that the sentence of castration was carried out; Yaqub Beg's son and grandsons were castrated by the Chinese court in 1879 and turned into eunuchs to work in the Imperial Palace.[65]

Notable Chinese eunuchs[]

See also: Category:Chinese eunuchs

First millennium BC[]

  • Zhao Gao: favourite of Qin Shihuangdi, who plotted against Li Si (died 210 BC).
  • Sima Qian (old romanization Ssu-ma Chi'en; 2nd/1st century BC): the first person to have practiced modern historiography – gathering and analyzing both primary and secondary sources to write his monumental history of the Chinese Empire.

First millennium AD[]

  • Cai Lun (old romanization Ts'ai Lun; 1st/2nd century AD): Former attribution to Lun as the inventor of paper has been rescinded following discovery of many earlier manuscripts written on paper. It is now highly questionable if he was directly involved in making paper.

Second millennium AD[]

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Bibliography[]

External links[]

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