The Last Chinese Eunuch

[Math Is Hard]

A strange but interesting story..

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-china-eunuchs6-2009mar06,0,7938113.story

Emasculation was thought to render eunuchs nonpersons, without ambition or ego, so their presence in the innermost sanctum of the imperial palace did not violate the emperor's privacy.

"The eunuchs were very mysterious and in some ways more interesting than the emperors themselves," said Jia Yinghua, Sun's biographer. Jia met Sun when he was researching a book about Puyi, and recorded 100 hours of conversations with him.


Sun was privy to the court's most intimate secrets, the opium addiction and out-of-wedlock pregnancy of the emperor's first wife, Wanrong, and the emperor's ambivalence about his own sexuality.

[hypatia]

Alrighty now, I have read this a few times, and it has left me postless, which must be the same as speechless:bugeye: What a weird life this person had.

[turbo-1]

What a horrid thing! At least the eunuchs had a chance at gaining wealth and power. The castrati who were castrated to keep their voices from deepening probably had far fewer opportunities, and if their singing-voices failed them, oh well!

[Math Is Hard]

I would really love to read this biography when it becomes available. Such an unusual piece of history. It sounds like the eunuchs were servants but some became more like concubines.

[Evo]

In the harems of the Ottomans, eunuchs were guardians.

[arildno]

In the harems of the Ottomans, eunuchs were guardians.
As they were among the Byzantines.

In both realms, several rose to positions of great power and wealth; since they were, for example, physically unable to found any rival dynasty, the emperor/sultan could rely on their loyalty and when the eunuch died, whatever riches he had amassed reverted to the state (that was the case in the Ottoman empire, at least).