Eunuch

For the Hong Kong TV series, see Eunuch (1980 TV series). For the Channel 4 documentary about voluntary eunuchs, see Eunuchs (Channel 4 documentary). For the 1986 South Korean film, see Eunuch (film).
The Kızlar Ağası, head of the black eunuchs of the Ottoman Imperial Harem. The title literally means "Chief of the Girls".

A eunuch (/ˈjuːnək/; Greek: εὐνοῦχος)[1] is a man who may have been castrated, typically early enough in his life for this change to have major hormonal consequences. In some ancient texts, "eunuch" may refer to a man who is not castrated but who is impotent, celibate, or otherwise not inclined to marry and procreate. In Latin, the words eunuchus,[2] spado (Greek: σπάδων spadon),[3][4] and castratus were used to denote eunuchs.[5]

Castration was typically carried out on the soon-to-be eunuch without his consent in order that he might perform a specific social function; this was common in many societies. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 21st century BC.[6][7] Over the millennia since, they have performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures: courtiers or equivalent domestics, treble singers, religious specialists, soldiers, royal guards, government officials, and guardians of women or harem servants.

Eunuchs would usually be servants or slaves who had been castrated in order to make them reliable servants of a royal court where physical access to the ruler could wield great influence.[8] Seemingly lowly domestic functions—such as making the ruler's bed, bathing him, cutting his hair, carrying him in his litter, or even relaying messages—could in theory give a eunuch "the ruler's ear" and impart de facto power on the formally humble but trusted servant. Similar instances are reflected in the humble origins and etymology of many high offices (e.g., chancellor originally denoted a servant guarding the entrance to an official's study).

Eunuchs supposedly did not generally have loyalties to the military, the aristocracy, or to a family of their own (having neither offspring nor in-laws, at the very least), and were thus seen as more trustworthy and less interested in establishing a private 'dynasty'. Because their condition usually lowered their social status, they could also be easily replaced or killed without repercussion. In cultures that had both harems and eunuchs, eunuchs were sometimes used as harem servants (compare the female odalisque) or seraglio guards.

Etymology

Eunuch comes from the Greek word eunoukhos, first attested in a fragment of Hipponax,[9] the 6th century BC comic poet and prolific inventor of compound words.[10] The acerbic poet describes a certain lover of fine food having "consumed his estate dining lavishly and at leisure every day on tuna and garlic-honey cheese paté like a Lampsacene eunoukhos".[11] In ancient classical literature from the early 5th century onward, the word generally designates some incapacity for or abstention from procreation, whether due to natural constitution or to physical mutilation. For instance, Lucian suggests two methods to determine whether someone is a eunuch: physical inspection of the body, or scrutiny of his ability to perform sexually with females (Lucian, Eunuchus 12).

The earliest surviving etymology of the word is from late antiquity. The 5th century (AD) Etymologicon by Orion of Thebes offers two alternative origins for the word eunuch: first, to tēn eunēn ekhein, "guarding the bed", a derivation inferred from eunuchs' established role at the time as "bedchamber attendants" in the imperial palace, and second, to eu tou nou ekhein, "being good with respect to the mind", which Orion explains based on their "being deprived of male-female intercourse (esterēmenou tou misgesthai), the things that the ancients used to call irrational (anoēta, literally: 'mindless')".[12] Orion's second option reflects well-established idioms in Greek, as shown by entries for noos, eunoos and ekhein in Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon, while the first option is not listed as an idiom under eunē in that standard reference work.[13] However, the first option was cited by the late 9th century Byzantine emperor Leo VI in his New Constitution 98 banning the marriage of eunuchs, in which he noted eunuchs' reputation as trustworthy guardians of the marriage bed (eunē) and claimed that the very word eunuch attested to this kind of employment.[14] The emperor also goes further than Orion by attributing eunuchs' lack of male-female intercourse specifically to castration, which he said was performed with the intention "that they will no longer do the things that males do, or at least to extinguish whatever has to do with desire for the female sex".[15] The 11th century Byzantine monk Nikon of the Black Mountain, opting instead for Orion's second alternative, stated that the word came from eunoein (eu "good" + nous "mind"), thus meaning "to be well-minded, well-inclined, well-disposed or favorable", but unlike Orion he argued that this was due to the trust that certain jealous and suspicious foreign rulers placed in the loyalty of their eunuchized servants.[16] Theophylact of Ohrid in a dialogue In Defence of Eunuchs also stated that the origin of the word was from eunoein and ekhein, "to have, hold", since they were always "well-disposed" toward the master who "held" or owned them.[17][18] The 12th century Etymologicum Magnum (s.v. eunoukhos) essentially repeats the entry from Orion, but stands by the first option, while attributing the second option to what "some say". In the late 12th century, Eustathius of Thessalonica (Commentaries on Homer 1256.30, 1643.16) offered an original derivation of the word from eunis + okheuein, "deprived of mating".

In translations of the Bible into modern European languages, such as the Luther Bible or the King James Bible, the word eunuchus as found in the Latin Vulgate is usually rendered as officer, official or chamberlain, consistent with the idea that the original meaning of eunuch was bed-keeper (Orion's first option). Modern religious scholars have been disinclined to assume that the courts of Israel and Judah included castrated men,[19] even though the original translation of the Bible into Greek used the word eunoukhos.

The early 17th century scholar and theologian Gerardus Vossius therefore explains that the word originally designated an office, and he affirms the view that it was derived from eunē and ekhein (i.e. "bed-keeper").[20] He says the word only came to be applied to castrated men in general because such men were the usual holders of that office. Still, Vossius notes the alternate etymologies offered by Eustathius ("deprived of mating") and others ("having the mind in a good state"), calling these analyses "quite subtle". Then, after having previously declared that eunuch designated an office (i.e., not a personal characteristic), Vossius ultimately sums up his argument in a different way, saying that the word "originally signified continent men" to whom the care of women was entrusted, and later came to refer to castration because "among foreigners" that role was performed "by those with mutilated bodies".

Modern etymologists have followed Orion's first option.[21][22] In an influential 1925 essay on the word eunuch and related terms, Ernst Maass suggested that Eustathius's derivation "can or must be laid to rest", and he affirmed the derivation from eunē and ekhein ("guardian of the bed"),[21] without mentioning the other derivation from eunoos and ekhein ("having a well-disposed state of mind").

One major problem, however, with the derivation from eunē ("bed") is that, according to the rules of Greek vowel contractions (see crasis), the ou in eunoukhos requires an o-sound between the contracted words, specifically e+o, e+ou, o+e, o+ei, o+o or o+ou, and cannot feature an a-sound there.[23] As an alpha-declension noun, eunē features the stem-vowel -a-, but an a-sound will not combine with any other vowels to produce the ou that occurs in eunoukhos. All words (other than eunoukhos anyway) that are formed by adding onto eunē have an a-sound or long e-sound in the combined syllable, as in eunater or eunēter ("bed-fellow"), eunaios ("in one's bed") or eunēthen ("from or out of bed").[24] By analogy, a compound between eunē and ekhein would be expected to come out as eunēkhos, or in English "eunech". Even if the form okhos ("carrier" or "holder") were compounded with eunē, as many dictionaries suggest, the stem-vowel a from eunē combined with the initial o from okhos would combine to form an omega, and the resulting word ("bed-carrier") would be expected to come out as eunōkhos, with the English word becoming "eunoch". On the other hand, the etymology offered by Eustathius (eunis + okheuein) would work only if eunis contributes an e-sound or o-sound to the compound. Unfortunately, there are no known compounds of eunis to use for comparison. Consequently, the rules of Greek vowel contraction at any rate favor the derivation from eunoos and ekhein ("having a well-disposed state of mind"). And in fact, other words that have the same ending -oukhos feature a stem-vowel o in the first word of the compound, such as skēptoukhos, rabdoukhos, lampadoukhos, ofioukhos and kleidoukhos.

Be that as it may, virtually all modern reference works cite the derivation from eunē and ekhein ("keeper of the bed").

Eunuchs by region and epoch

Ancient Middle East

Eunuchs were familiar figures in the Assyrian Empire (ca. 850 until 622 BC) and in the court of the Egyptian Pharaohs (down to the Lagid dynasty known as Ptolemies, ending with Cleopatra),(30 BC). Eunuchs sometimes were used as regents for underage heirs to the throne, as it seems to be the case for the Neo-Hittite state of Carchemish.[25] Political eunuchism became a fully established institution among the Achamenide Persians.[26] Eunuchs held powerful positions in the Achaemenide court. The eunuch Bagoas (not to be confused with Alexander's Bagoas) was the Vizier of Artaxerxes III and IV, and was the primary power behind the throne during their reigns, until he was killed by Darius III.[27]

Ancient Greece, Rome and Byzantium

The practice was also well established in other Mediterranean areas among the Greeks and Romans, although a role as court functionaries does not arise until Byzantine times. The Galli or Priests of Cybele were eunuchs.

In the late period of the Roman Empire, after the adoption of the oriental royal court model by the Emperors Diocletian and Constantine, Emperors were surrounded by eunuchs for such functions as bathing, hair cutting, dressing, and bureaucratic functions, in effect acting as a shield between the Emperor and his administrators from physical contact, thus enjoying great influence in the Imperial Court (see Eusebius and Eutropius). Eunuchs were believed loyal and indispensable.

The Roman poet Martial rails against a woman who has sex with partially castrated eunuchs (those whose testicles were removed or rendered inactive only) in the bitter epigram (VI, 67): "Do you ask, Panychus, why your Caelia only consorts with eunuchs? Caelia wants the flowers of marriage – not the fruits." [28] It is up for debate whether this passage is representative of any sort of widely practiced behavior, however.

At the Byzantine imperial court, there were a great number of eunuchs employed in domestic and administrative functions, actually organized as a separate hierarchy, following a parallel career of their own. Archieunuchs—each in charge of a group of eunuchs—were among the principal officers in Constantinople, under the emperors.[29] Under Justinian in the 6th century, the eunuch Narses functioned as a successful general in a number of campaigns. By the last centuries of the Empire the number of roles reserved for eunuchs had reduced, and their use may have been all but over.

Following the Byzantine tradition, eunuchs had important tasks at the court of the Norman kingdom of Sicily during the middle 12th century. One of them, Philip of Mahdia, has been admiratus admiratorum, and another one, Peter the caid, was prime minister.

China

A group of eunuchs. Mural from the tomb of the prince Zhanghuai, 706 AD.

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.[30][31][32][33]

From ancient times until the Sui Dynasty, castration was both a traditional punishment (one of the Five Punishments) and a means of gaining employment in the Imperial service. Certain eunuchs gained immense power that occasionally superseded that of even the Grand Secretaries. Zheng He, who lived during the Ming Dynasty, is an example of such a eunuch. Self-castration was a common practice, although it was not always performed completely, which led to its 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. A similar system existed in Vietnam.[34]

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 alternate political will of the bureaucracy. The clash between them would thus have been a clash of ideologies or political agenda.[35]

The number of eunuchs in Imperial employ fell to 470 by 1912, when the practice of using them ceased. The last Imperial eunuch, Sun Yaoting, died in December 1996.

Shang dynasty

Records of eunuchs in China date to the Shang Dynasty, when the Shang kings castrated prisoners of war.[36]

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.[37] The Qin government confiscated the property and enslaved the families of rapists who received castration as a punishment.[38] Men punished with castration during the Han dynasty were also used as slave labor.[39]

Han dynasty

In Han dynasty China castration continued to be used as a punishment for various offences.[40][41] Sima Qian, the famous Chinese historian, was castrated by order of the Han Emperor of China for dissent.[42] In another incident multiple people, including a chief scribe and his underlings, were subjected to castration.[43]

Tang dynasty

Indigenous tribals from southern China were used as eunuchs during the Sui and Tang dynasties.[44]

Yuan dynasty

Massive numbers of Korean boy eunuchs, Korean girl concubines, falcons, ginseng, grain, cloth, silver, and gold were sent as tribute to the Mongol Yuan dynasty.[45][46][47][48][49][50] such as the Korean eunuch Bak Bulhwa and Korean Empress Gi. Goryeo incurred negative consequences as a result of the eunuch Bak Bulhwa's actions.[51] The tribute payment brought much harm to Korea.[46]

Ming dynasty

During the early Ming period, China demanded eunuchs to be sent as tribute from Korea. Some of them oversaw the Korean concubines in the harem of the Chinese Emperor.[52][53]

Korean eunuchs and Korean girl concubines were sent as tribute to the Ming dynasty,[54][55][56][57][58] in imitation of the previous dynasty's precedent,[59] as were Vietnamese women and eunuchs.[60] There were Korean, Jurchen, Mongol, and Vietnamese eunuchs under the Yongle Emperor.[61] Korean eunuchs and Korean virigins were delivered from Korea to the Ming Xuanzong Emperor.[62][63] Muslim eunuchs and Mongol eunuchs were present in the Ming court.[64] There were Korean, Jurchen, Central Asian, and Mongol eunuchs under Yongle.[65] Mongol eunuchs served under Yongle while he was Prince of Yan.[66][67][68] Vietnamese eunuchs like Ruan Lang, Ruan An, Fan Hong, Chen Wu, and Wang Jin were sent by Zhang Fu to the Ming.[69][70] Muslim eunuchs were sent as ambassadors to the Timurids.[71][72] Zheng He was a eunuch who worked for Yongle (Zhu Di).[73] People who performed massages and eunuchs were solicited by Hongwu from Vietnam.[74]

Korean officials were beaten by Korean eunuch ambassadors working for the Ming.[58] A Korean King and Korean officials were publicly disparaged in 1398 by the Ming Korean eunuch Sin Kwi-saeng and many Korean girl concubines were delivered to the Ming.[75][76]

When the Ming army finally captured Yunnan from Mongols in 1382, thousands of prisoners were killed and, according to the custom in times of war, their young sons – including Zheng He – were castrated.[77][78] During the Miao Rebellions, Chinese commanders castrated thousands of Miao boys when their tribes revolted, and then gave them as slaves to various officials.[78]

Zhu Shuang 朱樉 (Prince Min of Qin 秦愍王), while he was high on drugs, had some Tibetan boys castrated and Tibetan women seized after a war against minority Tibetan peoples and as a result was reprimanded after he died from overdose.[79][80][81][82][83][84]

On 30 January 1406, the Yongle Emperor expressed horror when the Ryukyuans castrated some of their own children to become eunuchs in order to give them to the emperor. The Yongle Emperor said that the boys who were castrated were innocent and didn't deserve castration, and he returned the boys to Ryukyu and instructed them not to send eunuchs again.[85]

An anti pig slaughter edict led to speculation that the Zhengde emperor adopted Islam due to his use of Muslim eunuchs who commissioned the production of porcelain with Persian and Arabic inscriptions in white and blue color.[86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94] Muslim eunuchs contributed money in 1496 to repairing Niujie Mosque. Central Asian women were provided to the Zhengde Emperor by a Muslim guard and Sayyid Hussein from Hami.[95] The guard was Yu Yung and the women were Uighur.[96] It is unknown who really was behind the anti-pig slaughter edict.[97] The speculation of him becoming a Muslim is remembered alongside his excessive and debauched behavior along with his concubines of foreign origin.[98][99] Muslim Central Asian girls were favored by Zhengde like how Korean girls were favored by Xuande.[100] A Uighur concubine was kept by Zhengde.[101] Foreign origin Uighur and Mongol women were favored by the Zhengde emperor.[102]

At the end of the Ming dynasty, there were about 70,000 eunuchs (宦官 huànguān, or 太監 tàijiàn) employed by the emperor, with some serving inside the imperial palace. There were 100,000 eunuchs at the height of their numbers during the Ming.[103][104][105][106]

Conquest Dynasties

Many of the non-Han Chinese peoples who founded states in China after invading originally did not have eunuchs as part of their culture, but adopted it from the Han Chinese.

Khitan Liao dynasty

The Khitan adopted the practice of using eunuchs from the Chinese and the eunuchs were non-Khitan prisoners of war. The Khitan were a nomadic Mongolic people and originally did not have eunuchs as part of their culture.[107] When the Khitan founded the Liao Dynasty they developed a harem system with concubines and wives and adopted eunuchs as part of it. The eunuchs were not Khitan and they came from two sources, all of their eunuchs were captured ethnic Chinese from the Central Plains. The Khitan captured Chinese people who were already eunuchs at the Jin court when they invaded the Later Jin. Another source was during their war with the Chinese Song dynasty, the Khitan would 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. The Empress Dowager Chengtian played a large role in the raids to capture and emasculate the boys.[108] The Khitan Empress Dowager Xiao Chuo (Chengtian) of the Khitan Liao state took power at age 30 in 982 as a regent for her son. She personally led her own army against the Song Chinese in 986 and defeated them in battle,[109][110][111][112][113] fighting the retreating Chinese army. She then ordered the castration of around 100 ethnic Chinese boys she had captured in China, 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.[114][115][116][117]

The History of Liao 遼史 described and praised Empress Chengtian's capture and mass castration of Chinese boys in a biography of the Chinese eunuch Wang Ji'en.[118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128]

Manchu Qing dynasty
The Empress is carried and accompanied by palace eunuchs, before 1908

The Qing like all dynasties that ruled China made much use of eunuchs. The number of eunuchs under the Ming experienced a massive decrease under the Qing.[129] The Qing had 2,000 eunuchs.[130] The eunuchs at the Forbidden City during the later Qing period were infamous for their corruption, stealing as much as they could.[131] The position of eunuch at the Forbidden City offered such opportunities for theft and corruption and China was such a poor country that countless men willingly become eunuchs in order to live a better life.[132] However, eunuchs as the Emperor's slaves had no rights and could be abused at the emperor's whim. The emperor Puyi recalled in his memoirs that growing up in the Forbidden City that: "By the age of 11, flogging eunuchs was part of my daily routine. My cruelty and love of power were already too firmly set for persuasion to have any effect on me...Whenever I was in a bad temper the eunuchs would be in for trouble."[133][134] All of the eunuchs that lived in the Forbidden City had to carry their severed genitals in a glass jar full of vinegar around their necks at all times.[135] At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 2, 000 eunuchs working in the Forbidden City.[136] After the revolution of 1911-12 that toppled the Qing, the last emperor, Puyi, continued to live in the Forbidden City with his eunuchs as if the revolution had never happened while receiving financial support from the new Chinese republic until 1924 when the former emperor and his entourage were expelled from the Forbidden City by the warlord General Feng Yuxiang. In 1923, after a case of arson that Puyi believed was started to cover the theft of his Imperial treasures, Puyi expelled all of the eunuchs from the Forbidden City.[137]

The sons and grandsons of the Tajik rebel, Yaqub Beg, in China were all castrated. Surviving members of Yaqub Beg's family included his 4 sons, 4 grandchildren (2 grandsons and 2 granddaughters), and 4 wives. They either died in prison in Lanzhou, Gansu, or were killed by the Chinese. His sons Yima Kuli, K'ati Kuli, Maiti Kuli, and grandson Aisan Ahung were the only survivors in 1879. They were all underage children, and put on trial, sentenced to an agonizing death if they were complicit in their father's rebellious "sedition", or if they were innocent of their fathers' crimes, were to be sentenced to castration and serve as eunuch slaves to Chinese troops, when they reached 11 years old, and were handed over to the Imperial Household to be executed or castrated.[138][139][140] In 1879, it was confirmed that the sentence of castration was carried out; Yaqub Beg's son and grandsons were castrated by the Chinese court in 1879 and turned into eunuchs to work in the Imperial Palace.[141]

A Qing dynasty eunuch, China, before 1911

Korea

The eunuchs of Korea, called Naesi (내시, 內侍),[142] were officials to the king and other royalty in traditional Korean society. The first recorded appearance of a Korean eunuch was in Goryeosa ("History of Goryeo"), a compilation about the Goryeo period. In 1392, with the founding of the Joseon Dynasty, the Naesi system was revised, and the department was renamed the "Department of Naesi" (내시부, 內侍府).[143]

The Naesi system included two ranks, those of Sangseon (상선, 尙膳, "Chief of Naesi"), who held the official title of senior second rank, and Naegwan (내관, 內官, "Common official naesi"), both of which held rank as officers. 140 naesi in total served the palace in Joseon Dynasty period. They also took the exam on Confucianism every month.[143] The naesi system was repealed in 1894 following Gabo reform.

During the Yuan Dynasty, eunuchs became a desirable commodity for tributes, and dog bites were replaced by more sophisticated surgical techniques.[144][145][146] During the period when Korea was subjected to the Mongol Empire, the Korean kings regularly sent "human tributes" to their overlords, sending hundreds of teenage Korean girls to serve as concubines to the Yuan Emperors of China, while hundreds of teenage Korean boys were castrated and then sent to serve as eunuchs at the Chinese court once every three years.[147] Korean sources only record the names of Korean aristocrats sent to China as a "human tribute" to work as either eunuchs and concubines, but there were thousands more commoners who were rounded up to serve whom the Korean sources mention only in passing.[148]

Eunuchs were the only males outside the royal family allowed to stay inside the palace overnight. Court records going back to 1392 indicate that the average lifespan of eunuchs was 70.0 ± 1.76 years, which was 14.4–19.1 years longer than the lifespan of non-castrated men of similar socio-economic status.[149]

Vietnam

The Vietnamese adopted the eunuch system and castration techniques from China. Records show that the Vietnamese performed castration in a painful procedure by removing the entire genitalia with both penis and testicles being cut off with a sharp knife or metal blade. The procedure was agonizing since the entire penis was cut off.[150][151][152][153][154][155][156] The young man's thighs and abdomen would be tied and others would pin him down on a table. The genitals would be sterilized with pepper water and then cut off. A tube would be then inserted into the urethra to allow urination during healing.[157] The eunuchs served as slaves to the Vietnamese palace women in the harem- like the consorts, concubines, maids, Queen, and Princesses- doing most of the work.[158][159][160][161][162][163] The only man allowed in the Palace was the Emperor, the only others allowed were his women and the eunuchs since they were not able to have sexual relations with the women. The eunuchs were assigned to do work for the palace women, like massaging and applying make up to the women, preparing them for sex with the Emperor.[164][165][166][167]

Lý Dynasty

Lý Thường Kiệt was a prominent eunuch general during the Lý Dynasty (1009-1225).

Trần Dynasty

A boy student was given money in exchange for becoming a eunuch by Tran Canh in 1254 since many men castrated themselves to become eunuchs during the Tran and Ly dynasties.[168]

The Trần Dynasty sent Vietnamese boy eunuchs as tribute to Ming Dynasty China several times, in 1383, 1384 and 1385[169] Nguyen Dao, Nguyen Toan, Tru Ca, and Ngo Tin were among several Vietnamese eunuchs sent to China.[170]

Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam (Ming dynasty)

During the Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam, the Ming Chinese under the Yongle Emperor castrated many young Vietnamese boys, choosing them for their handsomeness and ability, and brought them to Nanjing to serve as eunuchs. Among them were the architect-engineer Nguyễn An[171] and Nguyen Lang (阮浪).[172] Vietnamese were among the many eunuchs of different origins found at the Yongle Emperor's court.[173] Among the eunuchs in charge of the Capital Battalions of Beijing was Xing An, a Vietnamese.[174]

Lê Dynasty

In the Lê Dynasty the Vietnamese Emperor Lê Thánh Tông was aggressive in his relations with foreign countries including China. A large amount of trade between Guangdong and Vietnam happened during his reign. Early accounts recorded that the Vietnamese captured Chinese whose ships had blown off course and detained them. Young Chinese men were selected by the Vietnamese for castration to become eunuch slaves to the Vietnamese. It has been speculated by modern historians that the Chinese who were captured and castrated by the Vietnamese were involved in trade between China and Vietnam instead of actually being blown off course by the wind and they were punished as part of a crackdown on foreign trade by Vietnam.[175][176][177][178][179][180][181][182][183][184][185][186][187]

Several Malay envoys from the Malacca sultanate were attacked and captured in 1469 by the Lê Dynasty of Annam (Vietnam) as they were returning to Malacca from China. The Vietnamese enslaved and castrated the young from among the captured.[169][188][189][190][191]

A 1472 entry in the Ming Shilu, reported that some Chinese from Nanhai county escaped back to China after their ship had been blown off course into Vietnam, where they had been forced to serve as soldiers in Vietnam's military. The escapees also reported that they found out that up to 100 Chinese men remained captive in Vietnam after they were caught and castrated by the Vietnamese after their ships were blown off course into Vietnam. The Chinese Ministry of Revenue responded by ordering Chinese civilians and soldiers to stop going abroad to foreign countries.[192][193][194][195] China's relations with Vietnam during this period were marked by the punishment of prisoners by castration.[196][197]

A 1499 entry in the Ming Shilu recorded that thirteen Chinese men from Wenchang including a young man named Wu Rui were captured by the Vietnamese after their ship was blown off course while traveling from Hainan to Guangdong's Qin subprefecture (Qinzhou), after which they ended up near the coast of Vietnam, during the Chenghua Emperor'srule (1447 - 1487) Twelve of them were enslaved to work as aaricultural laborers, while the youngest, Wu Rui (吳瑞) was selected for castration -since he was the only young man -becoming a eunuch attendant at the Vietnamese Imperial Palace in Thang Long. After years of service, he was promoted at the death of the Vietnamese ruler in 1497, to a military position in northern Vietnam. There, a soldier told him of an escape route back to China and Wu Rui escaped to Longzhou. The local chief planned to sell him back to the Vietnamese, but Wu was rescued by the Pingxiang Magistrate, then was sent to Beijing to work as a eunuch in the palace.[198][199][200][201][202][203]

The Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư records that in 1467 in An Bang province of Dai Viet (now Quảng Ninh Province), a Chinese ship blew off course onto the shore. The Chinese were detained and not allowed to return to China as ordered by Le Thanh Tong.[204][205][206][207][208] This incident may be the same one where Wu Rui was captured.[200]

Nguyễn Dynasty

The poet Hồ Xuân Hương mocked eunuchs in her poem as a stand in for criticizing the government.[209]

Commoners were banned from undergoing castration in Vietnam. Only adult men of high social rank could be castrated. Most eunuchs were born as such with a congenital abnormality. The Vietnamese government mandated that boys born with defective genitalia were to be reported to officials, in exchange for the town being freed from mandatory labor requirements. The boy would have the option of serving as a eunuch official or serving the palace women when he became ten years old.[210] This law was put in place in 1838 during the Nguyễn Dynasty.[211] The only males allowed inside the Forbidden City at Huế were the Emperor and his eunuchs.[212]

The presence of eunuchs in Vietnam was used by the French colonizers to degrade the Vietnamese.[213]

Thailand

In Siam (modern Thailand) Indian Muslims from the Coromandel Coast served as eunuchs in the Thai palace and court.[214][215] The Thai at times asked eunuchs from China to visit the court in Thailand and advise them on court ritual since they held them in high regard.[216][217]

Burma

Sir Henry Yule saw many Muslims serving as eunuchs in Konbaung Dynasty Burma (modern Myanmar) while on a diplomatic mission.[218][219][220][221] These Muslim eunuchs came from Arakan.[214][215]

Ottoman Empire

Chief Eunuch of Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II at the Imperial Palace, 1912.

In the Ottoman Empire, eunuchs were typically slaves imported from outside their domains. A fair proportion of male slaves were imported as eunuchs.[222]

The Ottoman court harem—within the Topkapı Palace (1465–1853) and later the Dolmabahçe Palace (1853–1909) in Istanbul—was under the administration of the eunuchs. These were of two categories: Black Eunuchs and White Eunuchs. Black Eunuchs were African slaves who served the concubines and officials in the Harem together with chamber maidens of low rank. The White Eunuchs were Europeans from the Balkans or the Caucasus, either purchased in the slave markets or were boys taken from Christian families in the Balkans who were unable to pay the Jizya tax. They served the recruits at the Palace School and were from 1582 prohibited from entering the Harem. An important figure in the Ottoman court was the Chief Black Eunuch (Kızlar Ağası or Dar al-Saada Ağası). In control of both the Harem and a net of spies in the Black Eunuchs, the Chief Eunuch was involved in almost every palace intrigue and could thereby gain power over either the sultan or one of his viziers, ministers, or other court officials.[223] One of the most powerful Chief Eunuchs was Beshir Agha in the 1730s, who played a crucial role in establishing the Ottoman version of Hanafi Islam throughout the Empire by founding libraries and schools.[224] The entire Devşirme system, where the children of Christian families in the Balkans unable to pay the onerous jizya tax were taken away, and- depending upon their sex- became either concubines, in the case of the girls, or, in the case of the boys, were conscripted into Janissary Corps or became eunuchs. The act (emasculation) made Ottoman rule much hated by Christians in the Balkans.

Coptic involvement

Many sources claim that eunuchs in the nineteenth century Ottoman Empire were created mainly at one Coptic Monastery, variously said to be called "Abou Gerghè", "Abou Gerhè", or "Abou Gerbe".

Edmund Andrews of the Northwestern University, in an 1898 article called "Oriental Eunuchs" in the American Journal of Medicine, refers to Coptic priests in "Abou Gerhè in Upper Egypt" castrating slave boys.[225]

Black eunuch of the Ottoman Sultan. Photograph by Pascal Sebah, 1870s

Coptic castration of slaves was discussed by Peter Charles Remondino, in his book History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present,[226] published in 1900. He refers to the "Abou-Gerghè" monastery in a place he calls "Mount Ghebel-Eter". He adds details not mentioned by Andrews such as the insertion of bamboo into the victim. Bamboo was used with Chinese eunuchs. Andrews states his information is derived from an earlier work, "Les Femmes, les eunuques, et les guerriers du Soudan"[226] published by a French explorer, Count de Bisson, in 1868, though the place does not appear in de Bisson's book.[227]

Remondino's claims were repeated in similar form by Henry G. Spooner in 1919, in the American Journal of Urology and Sexology. Spooner, an associate of William J. Robinson, referred to the monastery as "Abou Gerbe in Upper Egypt".[228]

According to Remondino, Spooner and several later sources, the Coptic priests sliced the penis and testicles off Nubian or Abyssinian slave boys around the age of eight. The boys were captured from Abyssinia and other areas in Sudan like Darfur and Kordofan, then brought into Sudan and Egypt. During the operation, the Coptic clergyman chained the boys to tables, then, after slicing off their sexual organs, stuck a piece of bamboo into the genital area, and then submerged them in neck-high sand to burn. The recovery rate was ten percent. The resulting eunuchs fetched large profits in contrast to eunuchs from other areas.[229][230][231]

An identifiable Coptic area named in relation to castration of slaves is the former village of Al-Zawya. Slave traders travelling north from the Sudan would castrate their slave boys here, before entering the Muslim city of Asyut, 10 miles north, where they could be sold.

Indian subcontinent

Eunuchs in Indian sultanates (before Mughals)

Eunuchs were frequently employed in Imperial palaces by Muslim rulers as servants for female royalty, as guards of the royal harem, and as sexual mates for the nobles. Some of these attained high-status positions in society. An early example of such a high-ranking eunuch was Malik Kafur, a Hindu boy captured and enslaved (along with tens of thousands of other Hindus who were typically captured during such raids), during the raids of the Delhi Sultanate into Gujarat. Eunuchs in Imperial palaces were organized in a hierarchy, often with a senior or Chief Eunuch (Urdu: Khwaja Saras), directing junior eunuchs below him. Eunuchs were highly valued for their strength- an ability to provide protection for ladies' palaces and trustworthiness- allowing eunuchs to live amongst women with fewer worries. This enabled eunuchs to serve as messengers, watchmen, attendants and guards for palaces. Often, eunuchs also doubled as part of the King's court of advisers.[232][233]

The Hijra of South Asia

Main article: Hijra (South Asia)
Hijras of Delhi, India

The Ancient Indian Kama Sutra refers to people of a "third sex" (triteeyaprakrti), who can be dressed either in men's or in women's clothes and perform fellatio on men. The term has been translated as "eunuchs" (as in Sir Richard Burton's translation of the book), but these persons have also been considered to be the equivalent of the modern Hijra of India.

Hijra, a Hindi and Urdu term traditionally translated into English as "eunuch", actually refers to what modern Westerners would call transgender women and effeminate homosexual men (although some of them reportedly identify as belonging to a third sex). Some of them undergo ritual castration, but the majority do not. They usually dress in saris (traditional Indian garb worn by women) or shalwar kameez (traditional garb worn by women in South Asia) and wear heavy make-up. They typically live in the margins of society and face discrimination.[234] However, they are integral to several Hindu ceremonies which is the primary form of their livelihood. They are a part of dance programs (sometimes Adult) in marriage ceremonies. They also perform certain ceremonies for the couple in Hindu tradition. Other means to earn their living are: by coming, uninvited at weddings, births, new shop openings and other major family events, singing until they are paid or given gifts to go away.[235] The ceremony is supposed to bring good luck and fertility, while the curse of an unappeased hijra is feared by many. Other sources of income for the hijra are begging and prostitution. The begging is accompanied by singing and dancing and the hijras usually get the money easily. Some Indian provincial officials have used the assistance of hijras to collect taxes in the same fashion- they knock on the doors of shopkeepers, while dancing and singing- embarrassing them into paying.[236] Recently, hijras have started to found organizations to improve their social condition and fight discrimination, such as the Shemale Foundation Pakistan.

Religious castration

Castration as part of religious practice, and eunuchs occupying religious roles have been established prior to classical antiquity. Archaeological finds at Çatalhöyük in Anatolia indicate worship of a 'Magna Mater' figure, a forerunner of the goddess Cybele found in later Anatolia and other parts of the near East.[237] Later Roman followers of Cybele, were called Galli, who practiced ritual self-castration, known as sanguinaria.[237] Eunuch priests also figured prominently in the Atargatis cult in Syria during the first centuries CE.[238]

The practice of religious castration continued into the Christian era, with members of the early church practising celibacy (including castration) for religious purposes,[239] although the extent and even the existence of this practice among Christians is subject to debate.[240] The early theologian Origen found evidence of the practice in Matthew 19:10-12,:[241] "His disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry." But he said to them, "Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can." (NRSV)

Tertullian, a 2nd-century Church Father, described Jesus himself and Paul of Tarsus as spadones, which is translated as "eunuchs" in some contexts.[242] Quoting from the cited book:[242] "... Tertullian takes 'spado' to mean virgin ...". The meaning of spado in late antiquity can be interpreted as a metaphor for celibacy. Tertullian even goes so far with the metaphor as to say St. Paul had been castrated.[242]

Eunuch priests have served various goddesses from India for many centuries. Similar phenomena are exemplified by some modern Indian communities of the Hijra, which are associated with a deity and with certain rituals and festivals – notably the devotees of Yellammadevi, or jogappas, who are not castrated[243] and the Ali of southern India, of whom at least some are.[244]

The 18th-century Russian Skoptzy (скопцы) sect was an example of a castration cult, where its members regarded castration as a way of renouncing the sins of the flesh.[245] Several members of the 20th-century Heaven's Gate cult were found to have been castrated, apparently voluntarily and for the same reasons.[246]

Eunuchs in the Bible

Rembrandt, The Baptism of the Eunuch, 1626.

Eunuchs are mentioned many times in the Bible such as in the Book of Isaiah (56:4) using the word סריס (saris). Although the Ancient Hebrews did not practice castration, eunuchs were common in other cultures featured in the Bible, such as Ancient Egypt, Babylonia, the Persian Empire and Ancient Rome. In the Book of Esther, servants of the harem of Ahasuerus such as Hegai and Shashgaz as well as other servants such as Hatach, Harbonah, Bigthan, and Teresh are referred to as sarisim. Being exposed to the consorts of the king, they would have likely been castrated.

There is some confusion regarding eunuchs in Old Testament passages, since the Hebrew word for eunuch, saris (סריס), could also refer to other servants and officials who had not been castrated but served in similar capacities.[247][248] The Egyptian royal servant Potiphar is described as a saris in Genesis 39:1, although he was married and hence unlikely to have been a castrated eunuch. The cupbearer who became governor of Judah, Nehemiah, may have been a eunuch.

One of the earliest converts to Christianity was an Ethiopian eunuch who was a high court official of Candace the Queen of Ethiopia. Acts 8:27-39 The reference to "eunuchs" in Matthew 19:12 has yielded various interpretations.

Non-castrated eunuchs

Hippocrates describes a particular ethnic group afflicted with high rates of erectile dysfunction as "the most eunuchoid of all nations" (Airs Waters Places 22). According to Aristotle in Generation of Animals (1.2, 4.1), male or female gender is defined by the function played in procreation and consists of two elements: the faculty to procreate and the anatomical parts needed to put that faculty in practice. Any man who either lacked the faculty of procreation from birth, even with a full set of genitals (Gen.An. 2.7), or was eventually deprived of the anatomical parts necessary for procreation met the definition of a eunuch. Hence, the term "eunuch" was applied not only to castrated men, but also to a wide range of men who were unable to procreate. The broad sense of the term "eunuch" is reflected in the compendium of ancient Roman laws collected by Justinian I in the 6th century known as the Digest or Pandects. Those texts distinguish between the general category of eunuchs (spadones, denoting "one who has no generative power, an impotent person, whether by nature or by castration",[249] D 50.16.128) and the more specific subset of castrati (castrated males, physically incapable of procreation). Eunuchs (spadones) sold in the slave markets were deemed by the jurist Ulpian to be "not defective or diseased, but healthy", because they were anatomically able to procreate just like monorchids (D 21.1.6.2). On the other hand, as Julius Paulus pointed out, "if someone is a eunuch in such a way that he is missing a necessary part of his body" (D 21.1.7), then he would be deemed diseased. In these Roman legal texts, spadones (eunuchs) are eligible to marry women (D 23.3.39.1), institute posthumous heirs (D 28.2.6), and adopt children (Institutions of Justinian 1.11.9), unless they are castrati.

Castrato singers

Main article: Castrato

Eunuchs castrated before puberty were also valued and trained in several cultures for their exceptional voices, which retained a childlike and other-worldly flexibility and treble pitch (a high-pitched voice). Such eunuchs were known as castrati. Unfortunately the choice had to be made at an age when the boy would not yet be able to consciously choose whether to sacrifice his reproductive capabilities, and there was no guarantee that the voice would remain of musical excellence after the operation.

As women were sometimes forbidden to sing in Church, their place was taken by castrati. The practice, known as castratism, remained popular until the 18th century and was known into the 19th century. The last famous Italian castrato, Giovanni Velluti, died in 1861. The sole existing sound recording of a castrato singer, documents the voice of Alessandro Moreschi, the last eunuch in the Sistine Chapel choir, who died in 1922.

Eunuchs in the contemporary world

The hijra of India (see above) may number as many as 2,000,000,[250] and are usually described as "eunuchs", although they may be more of a male-to-female transsexual individual, but have surgical castration instead of reassignment surgery, and seldom have access to hormones. The loss of testosterone and lack of estrogen means their bodies take on the characteristics of post-pubertal eunuchs.

The most commonly castrated men are advanced prostate cancer patients. In the United States alone there are more than 200,000 new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed each year. It is estimated that over 80,000 of these men will be surgically or chemically castrated within six months of diagnosis.[251] With the average life expectancy after castration, there are approximately a half million chemically or surgically castrated prostate cancer patients at any time in the U.S. alone. While most of these men would deny the term "eunuch," they meet all physiological characteristics of post-pubertal eunuchs. Some do, however, embrace the term for the historic and psychological grounding that it gives them.[252][253]

Convicted sex offenders who have been castrated are rare, although there is debate as to whether the drastic reduction of testosterone and the consequent diminishing of libido might have an effect on recidivism.[254]

A study on eunuchs has found that they live 13.5 years longer than non-eunuch men as a result of a lack of testosterone, which reduces the likelihood of participation in risky behaviors, such as violence.[255]

In popular culture

Films

Books

Notable eunuchs

In chronological order.

First millennium BCE:

First millenum CE:

Second millennium CE:

See also

Notes

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    See also: Peoples Union of Civil Liberties (Karnataka) Report on Human Rights Violations Against the Transgender Community, released in September 2003. Reported in Being a Eunuch, By Siddarth Narrain, for Frontline, 14 October 2003.
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