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Eunuchs and the confucians in chinese court
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Introduction
Chinese eunuchs were the original gate-keepers of the imperial palace, menial servants in the imperial harem, and messengers between the emperor, his concubines, and the imperial court. The Chinese inscriptions combing the graphs for ‘male reproductive organ’ and for ‘knife’ have been found on oracle bones dating from about 1300 BCE.1 The context of the inscriptions generally indicates that the castration of captured prisoners of differing ethnicities existed at this early date.2 The word for eunuch, taijan , often connotating a pervert, first appeared in the Chinese language about one thousand years ago.3 Eunuchs were deemed suitable candidates for the emperor’s close aides and attendants because they possessed both a masculine physique and a feminine docility. More important, however, was the use of men deprived from their reproductive power and sexual desires was thought to safeguard the moral purity and sanctity of an emperor’s private chambers.4 Throughout the three-thousand year old institution, the number of eunuchs in the imperial palaces varied between less than 100 in the early years, to more than 100,000 in 1620, roughly 1% of the population.5 The extent, role, and nature of the eunuch presence in Chinese history varied according to specific social and political backgrounds throughout the long existence of the political institution, but identifying some recurring themes of eunuch activities is useful towards reconstructing the social history of eunuchism in China. It is apparent, however, that as imperial power and autocracy increased, the use of castrated men to fill various male jobs in the palace gradually became a necessity.
Background and Historiography
The first eunuch in Chinese history to acqu...
... middle of paper ...
...ng, the operation of castration in China has been relatively unreported by historians.
Western Perceptions of Chinese eunuchs have for the most part coincided with the idea of “Oriental Despotism,” the notion that Eastern political systems were inherently authoritarian, repressive, and corrupt. In light of this, palace eunuchs were seen by westerners as a sign of degeneracy and savagery. As historians Yosefa Loshitzky and Ryan Meyuha said in their 1992 journal article “’Ecstasy of Difference’: Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor,” eunuchs were regarded by modern Western audiences as distorted, unnatural ‘rarities’ of a former backwards era who were associated with the oddities of a foreign culture.25 As Westerners came into China during the Qing dynasty, they began to associate eunuchs as an “uncivilized phenomenon” that somehow survived long past its expiration date.26
I also found it somewhat interesting that those who were in command of fleets and armies in China were mostly eunuchs. These eunuchs were fiercely loyal to the emperor. Levathes describes in depth how prisoners would be castrated and become eunuchs. Zheng He was the commander for Zhu Di fleet of treasure ships. Despite him being a eunuch he was not the stereotypical one; he had a big, booming voice and was about six feet tall. Zheng He died on the returning trip to China and is now renowned as one of the greatest real-life legends of all time.
Ban Zhao wrote Lessons for a Woman around the end of the first century C.E. as social guide for (her daughters and other) women of Han society (Bulliet 167). Because Zhao aimed to educate women on their responsibilities and required attributes, one is left questioning what the existing attitudes and roles of women were to start with. Surprisingly, their positions were not automatically fixed at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Ban Zhao’s own status as an educated woman of high social rank exemplifies the “reality [that] a woman’s status depended on her “location” within various social institutions’ (167). This meant that women had different privileges and opportunities depending on their economic, social, or political background. Wealthier noble women would likely have access to an education and may have even been able to wield certain political power (167). Nevertheless, women relinquished this power within the family hierarchy to their fathers, husbands, and sons. Despite her own elevated social status, Ban Zhao still considered herself an “unworthy writer”, “unsophisticated”, “unenlightened’, “unintelligent”, and a frequent disgrace to her and her husband’s family (Zhao). Social custom was not, however, the only driving force behind Zhao’s desire to guide women towards proper behavior.
Most outcasts of history had a particular, exclusive life; full of struggles against the society ever since birth and grew up with a heart made out of steel from the harsh criticism they have endured. They differ from the community within their beginning to their end, and many of their stories end up becoming legends and gaps of the past that nobody will be able to reincarnate. China’s first and last female emperor, Wu Zetian, was one of these exclusives. Ever since birth, her history of tactics to the people around her; in order to ascend the throne, juxtaposed towards society’s attitudes of women at the time; through her breakdown of gender stereotypes and quick knowledge, and offered a new perspective to the world of just how cruel and beautiful women can be. She successfully destructed all accumulated views of women in the Tang Dynasty, and created her future in the way she wanted it – on top of every man in her country. She was an outcast – somebody who juxtaposed against the demands of her. She was history.
In her article "The body as attire," Dorothy Ko (1997) reviewed the history about foot binding in seventeenth-century China, and expressed a creative viewpoint. Foot binding began in Song Dynasty, and was just popular in upper social society. With the gradually popularization of foot binding, in the end of Song Dynasty, it became generally popular. In Qing Dynasty, foot binding was endowed deeper meaning that was termed into a tool to against Manchu rule. The author, Dorothy Ko, studied from another aspect which was women themselves to understand and explained her shifting meaning of foot binding. Dorothy Ko contends that “Chinese Elite males in the seventeenth century regarded foot binding in three ways: as an expression of Chinese wen civility,
(1800)Topic 2: A Literary Analysis of the Historical Differentiation of Patriarchal Culture and Female Gender Identity in the Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong and the Tale of Genji
Chinese Prostitutes in the 1900s In California, between the 1850’s and the Chinese Exclusion Act, most of the Chinese women who came to San Francisco were either slaves or indentured. They were often lured, kidnapped or purchased and forced to work as prostitutes at the brothels which are run by the secret society of the Tongs of San Francisco. Chinese prostitutes also were smuggled and had worked at the Chinatown brothels in the Comstock Mines in Nevada. Chinese prostitutes are commonly known as prostitutes of the lowest order. “Both outcast slatterns and Asian slaves stood at the edge of the irregular marketplace, far more socially stigmatized than ordinary prostitutes.”
Chen, Jo-shui. "Empress Wu and Proto-feminist Sentiments in T'ang China." In Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China, edited by Frederick P. Brandauer and Chün-chieh Huang. 77-116. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
No other woman in the Early Han held the same amount of influence as Empress Lü throughout her various titles as Empress, Empress Dowager, and then Grand Empress Dowager. Stories recounting her manipulative nature paint a picture of a scheming empress using her imperial power to bestow favors and political positions to her own clan. This essay argues that Empress Lü used the lack of precedence for her position as Empress Dowager to manipulate court officials into granting power to her clan, which caused political unrest late in her life and resulted in the destruction of the Lü clan. To support this claim, this essay will discuss the exceptional nature of Empress Lü's power and the extent of her ability to manipulate the court, and then this paper will provide evidence of a Lü clan extermination after the death of the empress that held power for fifteen years after her husband died – in a nation with no precedence for this kind of rule.
In this initial chapter, Huang provides an anecdotal history of some of the events that occurred, and includes within it a discussion of the set up of the leadership, the repercussions that occurred in the event of certain actions, including the prospects of an audience with the emperor. Huang reviews these issues as he considers that actions taken by the Wan-li emperor, who was only twenty-four in 1587 and who had been a veteran of ceremonial proceedings, and considers his history as an element of understanding the progression of leadership. Huang outlines the reconstruction of the court under Wan-li who came into power at the death of his father and the seemingly insignificant actions taken by the emperor, from his marriage to the redecorating of the court. Within the scope of this discourse, Huang is able to disclose the excesses of the emperor, and consider the implications of the bureaucratic system that he devised as an extension of this excess (13).
Sit, Tony. "The Life of Empress Cixi” (from Issue 10 of the China in Focus Magazine). Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU), 2001. .
At the center of Japanese and Chinese politics and gender roles lies the teachings of Confucius. The five relationships (五倫) of Confucius permeated the lives of all within the Heian and Tang societies.4 However, the focus here will be on the lives of the courtesans. The Genji Monogatari provides us with an unrivalled look into the inner-workings of Confucianism and court life in the Heian period. Song Geng, in his discourse on power and masculinity in Ch...
Historically, slavery in Ancient China has been a major component of life in all l four Ancient Chinese dynasties.Today, the effects of Ancient Chinese slavery are still present and have negatively impacted the word. From 1910 to 1949, slavery was endorsed as a social norm in China and most all Chinese had at least one slave to call their own. Slavery cause massive hysteria in China, as there was no one particularsection of people that were exclude from slavery. Everyone had the potential to be a slave in Ancient China, no matter what race, gender, or social status. In fact, people were often enslaved as compensation from common business transaction and to settle disputes. Slaves were seen as expendable in Ancient China, and treated in a way that the average 21st century human would view as inhumane, but those in China look at slavery as a common practice.(Slavery in Ancient China). In this paper will describe the definition of slavery, how people became slave and power slavery held in Ancient China.
The eunuch is an integral part of the 18th century play The Mogul Tale, by Elizabeth Inchbald. He serves a historical role by being the Mogul’s advisor, watchman, and, most importantly, harem guard. Eunuchs are generally defined as castrated males and are thus excellent choices to guard the Mogul’s women – no fear of the guard taking the ladies for himself. Inchbald reinforces these noble positions by showing the eunuch as the Mogul’s “right-hand man”. But with the passing of time these traditional roles have died along with the people who embraced them. Eunuchs now exist in an India that has all but forgotten their position as protectors. They are now part of a larger, marginalized group that exists on the fringe of Indian society - the hijras1.
Examples of cultural constructions can be seen throughout history in several forms such as gender, relationships, and marriage. “Cultural construction of gender emphasizes that different cultures have distinctive ideas about males and females and use these ideas to define manhood/masculinity and womanhood/femininity.” (Humanity, 239) In many cultures gender roles are a great way to gain an understanding of just how different the construction of gender can be amongst individual cultures. The video The Women’s Kingdom provides an example of an uncommon gender role, which is seen in the Wujiao Village where the Mosuo women are the last matriarchy in the country and have been around for over one thousand years. Unlike other rural Chinese villages where many girls are degraded and abandoned at birth, Mosuo woman are proud and run the households where the men simply assist in what they need. The view of gender as a cultural construct ...
A need for both socialization and a sense of identity forge tight community bonds that many maintain throughout their life. Their life may center on religion, race, or even the socioeconomic class to which they belong. Communities reflect these aspects by grouping together individuals in similar situations and beliefs. Pang-Mei Natasha Chang’s Bound Feet & Western Dress expresses the importance of tradition and culture in community identification by detailing the life of the conventional Chang Yu-i and her relationship with a westernized Hsü Chih-mo. Susanna Kaysen depicts her personal struggles with finding the community that she belongs to in Girl, Interrupted. Both Yu-i and Kaysen learn that community is not assigned, rather it is chosen by a self motivated individual wanting inclusion. Community is formed from a group of people with similar goals and beliefs who obtain identity and strength in numbers. The member is forever bound to his or her community thus preserving the ideals in association which makes finding a new identity is impossible. The effect a community has on its constituents is profound in that it governs the way one looks at the world.