Eunuchs during the Later Han (From Rafe de Crespigny’s "Fire over Luoyang")

“Eunuchs guarded the private areas, with the Prefect of the Yellow Gates – so-called for the colour of the entryways – controlling access to the emperor’s apartments and the Prefect of the Lateral Courts supervising the harem. Palace eunuchs were formally responsible to the Minister Steward, but as a full man he had limited direct control, and in practice the eunuchs had a hierarchy of their own, headed by Regular Attendants and Attendants at the Yellow Gates, who were largely independent of the regular bureaucracy and were often close confidants and agents of the emperor.”

“The picture of imperial eunuchs in China is confused by the disdain held for them by Confucian gentry and scholars, who resented the high position held by such emasculated creatures, unable to perform the essential duty of maintaining ancestral worship into future generations. Since the time of Sun Cheng during the reign of Emperor Shun, eunuchs had been authorised to adopt sons and even daughters, and the children thus acquired could inherit their property and their titles, but conservative men discounted the value and effect of such adoption. As a consequence of this hostility, reflected by later historians, eunuchs have generally been regarded as creatures of mean quality, greedy holders of illegitimate power, outside the main stream of community.

Not a great deal is known about the recruitment of eunuchs, but while their families may have been impoverished they were not necessarily of low origin.

In particular, whereas many of those who served the court of Tang, centuries later, came from aboriginal tribes of the south and west, the eunuchs of the Han dynasty were Chinese from inner commanderies of the empire. Of Emperor Huan’s five allies, Shan Chao and Zuo Guan were natives of Henan, Xu Huang came from Xiapi, Ju Yuan from Wei commandery and Tang Heng from Yingchuan.”

“Most gentlemen and scholars viewed the procedure and its subjects askance, but for a young man without influence castration opened opportunities far superior to those offered by service in the bureaucracy, and if he was successful in his career his relatives could hope to benefit. It is probable that the family of the senior eunuch Cao Teng, for example, was related to the Xiahou gentry of Pei kingdom, and since Cao Teng was the fourth son of his father, the ancestors would have been adequately cared for. Following his success at court, several of his kinsmen rose to high office, so that a tomb complex excavated in the mid-1970s contained inscriptions recording Administrators of commanderies.“

“In most cases, it appears that the physical operation was undertaken voluntarily – at least on the parents’ part – and that it was carried out before or at the time of puberty, sometimes as young as the age of eight. Castration was not a formal legal penalty, and though it had sometimes been applied as a remission of death during the first century of Later Han, that practice was abolished early in the second century. Hong Gong and Shi Xian of Former Han, powerful eunuchs who served Emperor Yuan, had both been punished for crimes, but there is no record that any palace eunuch of Later Han had such a record. Whether it involved full removal of the genitals or only excision or crushing of the testes, the operation was certainly dangerous, but when carried out by experienced people the mortality was not excessively high.”

“Most eunuchs in the palace were simple attendants and cleaners, but a few were chosen for higher things and received education and practical experience.

The Dowager Deng put the eunuch Cai Lun in charge of editing the Confucian classics; Cao Teng was a study companion to Liu Bao, future Emperor Shun, when he was Heir; and Tang Heng and Zuo Guan are described as shi 史, implying a secretarial capacity. Others dealt with administrative units: as Prefect of the Palace Gardens, Zheng Zhong the supporter of Emperor He against the Dou family had responsibility for detached palaces and parks; as Prefect of the Yellow Gates Ju Yuan was in charge of the apartments of Emperor Huan; there was also a eunuch Prefect of the Lateral Courts who looked after the imperial concubines and took part in their selection, while a Prefect of the Long Lanes supervised maid-servants. All these offices ranked at Six Hundred shi, equal to the head of a bureau in a ministry or the magistrate of a middlerange county. The household of an empress, known as the Palace of Prolonged Autumn (長秋宮 Changqiu gong), was headed by a Grand Prolonger of Autumn (大長秋 da changqiu) ranked at Two Thousand shi, and that of an empress dowager, the Palace of Prolonged Joy (長樂宮 Changle gong), by a Steward (少府 shaofu), Fully Two Thousand shi, the same as a minister in the bureaucracy.

These were important and influential positions, and it must be assumed that those who controlled such offices within the palace, or served as confidential secretaries and agents of the sovereign, were well able to deal with complex documents, detailed accounts, and substantial questions of policy.”