Before reading this article, please click "Follow", which is not only convenient for you to discuss and share, but also can bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support.
Pineapple appreciators
Pineapple appreciators
Preface
Eunuchs are not unique to China.
In ancient society, some slave owners or feudal landlords, as well as their wives and concubines, often brought some slaves with them in order to make life more convenient.
These slaves were both male and female, and in order to prevent male slaves from becoming too intimate with their wives and concubines, male slaves had to be "purified" before they could serve in close quarters.
Not only China, but also in ancient Rome, Egypt and other countries have similar "eunuchs", but they have existed for a long time, only China's "eunuch system" has lasted for thousands of years.
In the thousand-year-old history of eunuchs in China, there have been countless cases of "eunuchs grabbing power", and there are even bold eunuchs who dare to kill the emperor directly.
Why does a servant who serves the royal family have so much power?
Where did the eunuchs come from
The history of eunuchs is relatively old, even earlier than the appearance of some official positions.
Some clues can be found from the unearthed oracle bone inscriptions, and the eunuchs have been there in the Yin Shang period, and even the eunuchs are described more specifically in books such as "The Book of Songs" and "Zhou Yi".
In the beginning, becoming a eunuch was forced, and it was usually some prisoner in the prison, and after being tortured, he was sent to the inner court to serve the nobles.
This situation gradually ended in the period of Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, and only Huaien of the Ming Dynasty was sat together because of family reasons and became a eunuch by the palace.
Secondly, after the war, the captives and captive children of other nationalities were aimed at extinguishing the flame of the "comeback" of the rebel party, and a cruel thing happened during the Ming Yingzong period.
Ruan, the eunuch who guarded Huguang and other places, castrated all the more than 1,500 rebel children captured and sent them to the inner court to serve as chamberlains.
However, in ancient times, a considerable number of eunuchs entered the palace voluntarily, why is this?
Why is there a "eunuch dictatorship"
Since the Song Dynasty, eunuchs have become a profession, and even power can be held through the eunuch path, and all the many volunteers want to get ahead, waiting in line to be castrated.
It is true that there have been many times in the history of the mainland when eunuchs have monopolized power, and it is not incomprehensible that some people from poor families want to "go off the rails".
Looking at so many times when eunuchs have monopolized power, we can find the following similarities:
The first is the psychological factor, it cannot be denied that the emperor has a higher degree of trust in eunuchs than foreign ministers.
The emperors of all dynasties have just been born, and they will basically assign exclusive eunuchs, who will accompany them to grow up, and the relationship between many princes and eunuchs is even closer than that of their biological parents.
Feelings are always cultivated in the process of getting along, and the emperor is Xi to call eunuchs "inner ministers", and civil and military officials are "foreign ministers", one "inside" and one "outside" is enough to see the distance between the two courtiers in the emperor's heart.
And the eunuchs served by the emperor's side day and night, naturally groping the emperor's temperament clearly, and the words they said were more pleasing to the emperor.
After a long time, those in power will naturally have some bias in their hearts.
Second, the emperor sometimes needed eunuchs to hold power in order to keep it in his own hands.
This is a common problem of rulers, they do not trust anyone, even loyal and good generals, in the eyes of the emperor, they are outsiders, and they can overthrow their existence at any time.
But eunuchs are different, eunuchs are infertile due to biological reasons, even if they steal power, who can they inherit?
In the eyes of the emperors of all dynasties, the eunuch group was completely subservient to it, and it was a worthy weapon in their own hands, and giving power to the eunuchs was equivalent to the power still in their own hands.
This has a certain reason and effect, but at the same time, it also breeds the ambition of eunuchs to gain power, and the emperor with tough means can still suppress them, but once they meet the weak lord and the young lord, they will inevitably be attacked by the "eunuch in power".
Tang Xuanzong worked hard in the early stage and saved the precarious Tang Dynasty a little, but in the later period, he favored the eunuchs very much, rewarded the eunuchs close to him, and entrusted them with important tasks.
Eunuchs can not only leave the palace at will, but can even be sent to other places to supervise the army and control the local military and political power.
According to records, during the period of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, there were more than 4,000 eunuchs in the capital, and a quarter of them had official positions, and even ranked in the fourth and fifth ranks.
You must know that the champion who entered the officialdom through the imperial examination, and his first position was only the compilation of the Hanlin Academy of the sixth grade.
The New Tang Dynasty Book records the peak of the eunuchs' power at that time, and the eunuchs' own private duty fields, farms, and mansions could occupy more than half of Gyeonggi.
Finally, eunuchs are more likely to form factions than foreign ministers, we all say that "it is difficult to make a forest alone", and if you want to achieve the goal of "autocracy", you can't do it by relying only on a chief eunuch in charge, not to mention the eunuchs' excellent ability to "make friends".
The frequent exchanges between foreign ministers often aroused the suspicion of the emperor, but the eunuchs did not have this concern, because of the particularity of their status, forming gangs and factions was very common among eunuchs.
The emperor knew this, but he only felt that the eunuch was alone in the inner court, and it was normal for him to make relatives and friends, and he couldn't make any waves, so he let it go.
In fact, it is this kind of normal friendship between seemingly small people that makes the eunuchs' interpersonal network spread all over the palace and outside, from the harem concubines to the ministers of the court, to grasp the first-hand information.
Historically, there was a famous eunuch of the cholera dynasty called Wei Zhongxian, and when Chongzhen investigated his henchmen in the early years, 315 people were arrested, including all strata inside and outside the court, which is enough to see the power of the "eunuch party".
In fact, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang also tried to suppress the eunuchs.
It is said that in the tenth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang wrote an official document to be issued, and at this time, an old eunuch next to him spoke, and he pointed out the mistakes in Zhu Yuanzhang's official document out of good intentions.
Zhu Yuanzhang also knew that he was right, but he still sent the old eunuch back to his hometown on the grounds of "eunuch interference".
After another seven years, Zhu Yuanzhang specially hung an iron plaque on the palace gate, with eleven big characters written on it: "Ministers are not allowed to interfere in political affairs, and offenders will be beheaded!"
But it's a pity that when his son Zhu Di became the emperor, he changed this rule again, and even regarded the eunuch as a confidant and reused it wantonly, which also laid the groundwork for the appearance of ministers like Wei Zhongxian later.
Why, then, is it that eunuchs are particularly prone to retainers?
There is also pity for the hateful
Looking back at eunuchs and the like, we can see a distorted and contradictory psychology from them: they have an extremely low self-esteem and want to use power to "decorate" their own strength.
This may be related to their living environment, because they have been tortured, so they are not recognized as biological sex, and even because of the disability of the body, which leads to urinary problems.
According to records, many eunuchs had the problem of wetting their pants, and in ancient times, when productivity was low, bathing was a very troublesome thing, which made them often smell of urine.
It is precisely these reasons that make them always looked down upon, disliked everywhere, resulting in psychological defects, and even then, they have to force a smile and grovel, because they are serving the pinnacle of power in this country.
Therefore, once they have the opportunity to climb up and no longer be looked down upon by others, they will do everything they can, wanting to "throw away" their previous inferiority complex and let themselves fly high.
Because I felt the most "evil" of that era, it was the "evil" itself that was returned to the world.
epilogue
In 1996, China's last eunuch, Sun Yaoting, died, and this group that had lasted for thousands of years in the feudal era finally disappeared from the land of China.
Eunuchs have always been a mysterious group, and the evaluation of them in history is relatively negative, but it is undeniable that in the long river of history, there are also positive images of eunuchs, such as Zheng He, Wang Chengen and others.
However, more eunuchs stole great power in the feudal rule of successive dynasties, and the emergence of autocratic power was the product of corrupt rule, which further deepened the corrupt rule.
Its appearance pushed generations of feudal dynasties to the end.