Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EUNUCHS AND CONCUBINES
For much of the imperial period, the Forbidden City was home to members of the royal
household. Around half of these were
eunuchs
, introduced into the imperial court as a
means of ensuring the authenticity of the emperor's offspring and, as the eunuchs would
never have any family, an extreme solution to the problem of nepotism. As virtually the
only men allowed into the palace, they came into close contact with the emperor and often
rose to positions of considerable power. Their numbers varied greatly from one dynasty to
the next - the Ming court is supposed to have employed 20,000, but this is probably an
overestimate; the relatively frugal Qing Emperor Kangxi reduced the number to nine thou-
sand.
Most of the eunuchs (or “bob-tailed dogs” as they were nicknamed) came from poor fam-
ilies, and volunteered for their emasculation as a way of acquiring wealth and influence.
The operation cost six silver pieces and was performed in a hut just outside the palace
walls. Hot pepper-water was used to numb the parts, then after the blade had flashed the
wound was sealed with a solder plug. The plug was removed three days later - if urine
gushed out, the operation was a success. If it didn't, the man would die soon, in agony.
Confucianism held that disfiguration of the body impaired the soul, so in the hope that he
would still be buried “whole”, the eunuch carried his severed genitalia in a bag hung on
his belt. One problem eunuchs were often plagued with was bed-wetting, hence the old
Chinese expression, “as stinky as a eunuch”. Eunuchry was finally banned in 1924, and the
remaining 1500 eunuchs were expelled from the palace. An observer described them “car-
rying their belongings in sacks and crying piteously in high-pitched voices”. The last im-
perial eunuch, Sun Yaoting, died in 1996 at the age of 93, and inspired a fascinating book
chronicling the mysteries and horrors of his life at the Imperial Court, Jia Yinghua's
The
Last Eunuch of China: The Life of Sun Yaoting
.
Scarcely less numerous than the eunuchs were the
concubines
, whose role varied from
consorts to whores. At night, the emperor chose a girl from his harem by picking out a tab-
let bearing her name from a pile on a silver tray - though the court astrologer had to OK
the decision. She would be delivered to the emperor's bedchamber naked but for a yellow
cloth wrapped around her, and carried on the back of one of the eunuchs, since she could
barely walk with her bound feet. Eunuchs would be on hand for the event, standing behind
a screen and shouting out cautions for the emperor not to get too carried away and risking
harming the imperial body. Favoured wives and concubines were the only women in dyn-
astic China with power and influence;
Dowager Empress Cixi
was a telling example of just
how successful a wily concubine could be.
