What does eunuch mean?

Eunuch, commonly known as eunuch or "husband". There are many titles in the document, including eunuch, eunuch, official, middle official, internal official, internal minister, internal servant, eunuch, internal supervisor and so on. The reproductive organs of these men lose their sexual function after castration and become neutral men and women. These people were slaves who served the emperor and his family in the courts of past dynasties.

According to records, not all eunuchs in the pre-Qin and Western Han Dynasties in China were eunuchs; Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, eunuchs have been used. This is because there are many women in the palace, from the empress dowager, imperial concubine, empress dowager, concubines to maids. If waiters are allowed to enter and leave, it is inevitable that the palace curtains will be messy. Therefore, other adult men are not allowed to work in the palace.

The number of eunuchs in China in the past dynasties was the largest in the Ming Dynasty, generally known as L0000. The Qing Dynasty reformed the bloated eunuch institutions in the Ming Dynasty and formulated a set of management system, namely the Palace Regulation Law, which reduced the number of eunuchs from more than 90,000 to 9,000 at the end of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty. Eunuchs in the Qing Dynasty were hierarchical, and there was no organization in the Qing court to manage eunuchs, which was called "respect room" or "palace prison". It is stipulated that under the overseers, there are the general manager, the deputy general manager, the squad leader, the imperial eunuch, the eunuch in the temple, the eunuch in the general and the little eunuch in the lower cleaning department. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the rank of eunuchs was more complicated. In the palace prison, there is a manager, a leader, a case master, a major event, and a little eunuch; There are leaders, masters, masters, supervisors, Chen people, disciples and so on. Such layers of constraints, a layer of management, a layer of pressure, very strict rules.

The feudal emperor was hereditary, and the emperor was afraid that others would usurp his throne. Under normal circumstances, the emperor suspects the officials of the court and always guards against their ulterior motives: but he thinks it is reliable to always serve those ministers who are obedient, humble and have no descendants. Eunuchs often take advantage of this special position in the imperial court to seize enormous power and even manipulate the emperor. These people are small in number, but full of servility, cunning, insidious and cruelty. Once he became the emperor's confidant, he became more arrogant and unscrupulous. They formed best friends, held the emperor hostage, forged imperial edicts, sold officials and titles, took bribes and perverted the law, framed loyalty, and even deposed and even killed the emperor. In the history of China's feudal society, the eunuch's autocratic power once staged a series of tragedies, among which the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty were the most important. Zhao Gao in the Qin Dynasty, Hou Lanhe in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Gao Lishi, Chou Shiliang and Tian in the Tang Dynasty, Liu Jin and Wei Zhongxian in the Ming Dynasty and Li in the late Qing Dynasty were all notorious eunuchs in history.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, most eunuchs in the Forbidden City came from Hejian Prefecture, Hebei Province, and most of them were children of poor families. They were forced into the palace by life. At that time, some were castrated at the age of 65,438+00, Li was castrated at the age of 8 and entered the palace at the age of 9. Early years of the Republic of China. Ma Deqing, a eunuch aged 13, was sent to the small court in Xun Qing.

Speaking of cleanliness, there were people who specialized in this kind of business in Beijing during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty. Wu Bi from the Accounting Department Hutong in Nanchang Street and Xiao Dao Liu from the Brick Hutong in Di 'anmen are specialized in this line of work. Some people say that the owners of these two families are all seven officials of the Qing Dynasty, while others say that Liu's knife is a six-pin high hat. They send clean and healthy children to the general manager's office four times a year, that is, every quarter. This is their profession. The "procedures" for cleaning are all arranged by their two families. In the early Qing dynasty, there was a rule about chastity. You can't act without authorization. According to the criminal law, offenders are prosecuted. It was not so strict at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and there was also a man who personally cleaned his son by his father. The above-mentioned Ma Deqing was removed by his father when he was 9 years old. After liberation, according to Mr. Ma Deqing's memory, cleanliness was the saddest thing in his life, and it was also an unforgettable torture.

After eunuchs entered the palace, a few people slowly climbed to the position of power through flattery, gaining access and other means. Li and Xiao Dezhang are two outstanding figures favored by Empress Dowager Cixi. Li, the supervisor of the army, once colluded with Yuan Shikai to make a fortune, and only accepted Yuan's bribe of 202,000 silver once. It is said that when Li died, he not only had a lot of real estate, but also countless jade articles and jewels. Four stepsons got a lot of money and property, and even two stepdaughters got172,000 silver each. For a time, Li offended many people. After the death of Cixi, she resigned at the end of the first year of Xuantong (1909) and entered the palace, leaving the Forbidden City quietly. However, he finally died in the first month of Xuantong's third year. Some people said that he died of dysentery, while others said that he was killed. During the Cultural Revolution, it was buried in Sijizhuang, Haidian District, and was dug up. When Xiao imitated Li's practice and showed kindness to Cixi, he colluded with the later Empress Guangxu and finally climbed to the position of general manager. His property is incalculable. He has his properties in Jinghai County, Hebei Province and Nanyuan, Gyeonggi Province. He once owned the 65,438+02 building in the British Concession in Tianjin, the magnificent mansion in Yongkang Hutong in Beijing, as well as pawnshops and satin shops.

However, many junior eunuchs in the Forbidden City worked hard all day and left the palace in their twilight years, and never saw the emperor again. Eunuchs are insulted, injured and even tortured to death from time to time. For example, Kou Liancai, the eunuch sent to Guangxu by Cixi in the late Qing Dynasty, dared to write a letter 10 to Cixi in violation of the law and advised Ci Nuo to return to politics, saying that he should not be loyal to straight people and use flatterers exclusively. Finally, she was beheaded by someone who had something to say in the prison of Empress Dowager Cixi. According to the Qing dynasty, it was sent to the punishments for execution. It is said that Kou Liancai was as cool as a cucumber and died without regret.

Eunuchs are often beaten in the Forbidden City. As long as they were slightly "unruly" or occasionally "wrong", Cixi ordered random beatings and punishments. The cruelty of punishment is beyond measure, which is really shocking, and some even implicate others. At the end of Guangxu, Cixi executed 30 eunuchs in Zhen Ji Palace alive with the penalty of "grieve", which caused a great tragedy of persecuting eunuchs. The so-called "angry" is to soak seven layers of white cotton paper in water, seal the victim's nose, mouth and ears, and then kill him with a stick.

In addition, those junior eunuchs will be expelled from the Forbidden City once they lose their service ability. Many eunuchs lived in temples in their later years. According to a survey, there were more than 20 eunuch temples in the suburbs of Beijing during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. After the Revolution of 1911 and the collapse of the imperial dynasty, especially after the small court of Xun Qing Dynasty was expelled from the Forbidden City, the unreasonable eunuch system was finally abolished completely.