“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.
