Eunuchs in China
A eunuch is a man who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. In China, castration included removal of the penis as well as the testicles. Both organs were cut off with a knife at the same time.
Eunuchs existed in the Chinese court starting around 146 AD during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han, and were common as civil servants as early as the time of the Qin dynasty. From those ancient times until the Sui dynasty, castration was both a traditional punishment 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 Certain eunuchs gained immense power that occasionally superseded that of even the Grand Secretaries, such as the Ming dynasty official Zheng He.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. 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."
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.
The number of eunuchs in Imperial employ fell to 470 by 1912, with the eunuch system being abolished on 5 November 1924. The last Imperial eunuch, Sun Yaoting, died in December 1996.
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. The Qin government confiscated the property and enslaved the families of rapists who received castration as a punishment. Men punished with castration during the Han dynasty were also used as slave labor.Han dynasty
In Han dynasty China, castration continued to be used as a punishment for various offenses. Sima Qian, the famous Chinese historian, was castrated by order of the Han Emperor of China for dissent. In another incident multiple people, including a chief scribe and his underlings, were subjected to castration.During the Han dynasty, the euphemism for castration was "sent to the silkworm house" since castrated men had to be shut in an enclosed room like how silkworms were raised during the castration procedure, and when they were recovering in order to prevent death. Castration as a punishment was known as gōngxíng or fǔxíng.
The Han dynasty under the reign of Emperor Wu castrated a prince of the kingdom of Loulan from Xinjiang that they were holding hostage at court because he broke a law. Loulan asked for his return in 92 B.C.E after their king died but the Han dynasty refused since they wanted to cover up the fact that they castrated him.
Zhang He, the older brother of Zhang Anshi was originally sentenced to death but was castrated instead when his brother pleaded for the sentence to be commuted.
The Han dynasty ordered the castration of Li Yannian as punishment for a crime. Li Yannian's sister Lady Li was a concubine of the Han dynasty emperor.
The Han dynasty ordered the castration of its envoy, Ge Du because he did not kill the "Mad King" of the Wusun who deserved death in the eyes of the Han dynasty and instead helped the Mad King get doctors to cure his illness.
Su Wen was a eunuch who supported prince Liu Fuling and his mother Lady Zhao against Liu Ju, Crown Prince of Wei and his mother Wei Zifu.
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. However, the loyalist warlord, He Jin, was lured into a trap inside the palace and killed by the eunuchs. The other warlords led by Yuan Shao then stormed the palace and massacred the Ten Attendants and many other eunuchs. In the wake of the fighting, Dong Zhuo seized power.
Castration was abolished twice as a legal punishment in the Han dynasty, the first time prior to 167 B.C. and the second time in the 110s A.D.
Northern Wei
In 446 an ethnic Qiang rebellion was crushed by the Northern Wei. Wang Yu was an ethnic Qiang eunuch and he may have been castrated during the rebellion since the Northern Wei would castrate the rebel tribe's young elite. Fengyi prefecture's Lirun town according to the Weishu was where Wang Yu was born, Lirun was to Xi'ans's northeast by 100 miles and modern day Chengcheng stands at its site. Wang Yu patronized Buddhism and in 488 had a temple constructed in his birthplace.The Northern Wei had the young sons of rebels and traitors castrated and made them serve as eunuchs in the palace like Liu Siyi, Yuwen Zhou, Duan Ba, Wang Zhi, Liu Teng and Sun Shao. Gao Huan of Northern Qi had Shu Lüè castrated and become a messenger eunuch because his father Fan Guan remained loyal to Northern Wei. The Northern Wei presented northern wives to Liu Song generals Cui Mo and Shen Mo. Lingdu, a son was born to Shen Mo's northern wife. However Shen Mo fled back south to Liu Song when he had the opportunity and the Northern Wei castrated Lingdu in response. Cui Mo never went back south so his northern son would not be punished. The rebels themselves and their sons above the age of 14 were executed by chopping at the waist while the sons below 14 were castrated and served in the palace as eunuchs.
The eunuch Zong Ai killed two Northern Wei Emperors and a Northern Wei prince. Empress Dowager Hu mourned for the eunuch Meng Luan.
Northern Qi
was said to have initially engaged in sexual relations with her eunuchs—although, in light of their being previously castrated, the traditional historians used the term xiexia rather than "adultery" to describe her acts with them.Tang dynasty
Indigenous tribals from southern China were used as eunuchs during the Sui and Tang dynasties.The rebel An Lushan had a Khitan eunuch named Li Zhu'er 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 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 , 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.
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 Empress Dowager Chengtian led the Khitan to 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. She personally led her own army and defeated the Song in 986, fighting the retreating Chinese army. The Empress 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 Wang Ji'en. The boys were all under ten years old and were selected for their good looks. Another Han Chinese eunuch who was castrated and captured by the Khitan as a boy was Zhao Anren The Han Chinese boys captured and castrated by Empress Chengtian became domestic slaves in the Liao palace and did not gain political power. Khitan women, especially empresses and imperial concubines actively fought in war on the battlefield.The Liao enacted a new ling on castration, when an yila named Tuli 's underage daughter was raped by an Imperial consort clan uncle, lang jun Xiao Yan's 's slave Haili in 962 when Emperor Muzong of Liao was reigning. Haili was made a slave to Tuli after being castrated. Boys were not executed but instead castrated if they were under 16 during the Qing and Liao dynasties as punishment during rebellions.