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BEIJING – It’s a small museum in a quiet and grubby village, and few people pay attention to it. Yet, despite its low profile, any man who walks into the little exhibition hall will no doubt feel a chill down his spine: it’s a museum dedicated to China’s 2,000-year history of eunuchs.
Built in 1998 and recently refurbished, the museum sits next to a tomb for the high-ranking eunuch Tian Yi from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). In a space the size of a 2,000 square foot apartment, five exhibit rooms give visitors a brief but complete account of how the system of castrating men came into being, how the eunuchs' institution grew to become powerful political cliques and how the system finally ended with the death of the last eunuch in China, Sun Yaoting, in 1996.
Bo Gu/ NBC News
The museum dedicated to China's 2,000-year history of eunuchs displays a knife that was used in castration.
The etymology of “eunuch” is the Greek word for “bed keeper.” Young boys’ penises and testicles were castrated before they were sent to serve in royal and aristocratic families as slaves – the practice was meant to ensure there was no chance of them sleeping with female members of the household or concubines.
Records of eunuchs have been found in ancient Greece, Egypt, Rome, Turkey and Persia, but none of the other countries maintained the system for long. But the practice lasted for thousands of years in China.
It’s hard to trace when exactly the first eunuch appeared in China, but the museum shows a picture of an oracle bone inscribed with the hieroglyphic word that means "eunuch" – a penis-shaped character with a blade right next to it. Hieroglyphics evolved during the Shang and Zhou dynasties (17th century B.C.-256 B.C.), but it wasn’t until the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 A.D-220 A.D.) that only castrated men were allowed to serve in royal families.
The system of eunuchs reached its zenith in China’s Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) when eunuchs became the de facto rulers who controlled the imperial power and founded their own political parties and secret police. In the late Ming-era court officials even had to bribe the sterilized men to get access to the emperor.
Zhu Youjian, the 16th and the last emperor of Ming Dynasty, had more than 100,000 eunuchs during his rule. The eunuch clique was so powerful, yet corrupt, that when Li Zicheng, the leader of an uprising during the late Ming dynasty, finally conquered the capital city, he kicked out all the eunuchs.
The museum lists all of the best-known eunuchs in one exhibit room, of which the most famous is probably Zheng He (1371-1433), the mariner, explorer, diplomat and fleet admiral, who commanded voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Africa. His travels were later remembered outside China as “Eunuch Sanbao to the Western Ocean.” The list of luminary eunuchs also includes Cai Lun (60-121), who is revered in China as the inventor of paper.
Cruelest cut
The most chilling and vivid display room shows the actual process of castration. A life-size diorama shows a young boy lying on a bed with his limbs tied down while three other men – one holding a simple apparatus like a knife, the other holding the boy’s legs, and one performing the surgery – conduct the operation without any anesthesia.
The patients would stay in bed for months after the surgery until they could finally move again, others simply died in pain.
Bo Gu, NBC News
The tomb for the high-ranking eunuch Tian Yi sits right next to the museum.
The penis and testicles, after being removed, were usually carefully wrapped up, put in a fine case and hung up on a roof beam in the boy’s house. They would eventually be buried together with the body when the man died, following the Chinese tradition of “dying a full-body death.”
Some of the other museum displays show nicely sculptured tombstones, silk outfits senior eunuchs used to wear and a mummy excavated from nearby.
One corner is devoted to Sun Yaoting, who served the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty and his concubines. Sun died at 94 years old in 1996; “The Last Eunuch of China” is a book about his life.
Losing a man’s most important organ was never easy, which may explain why so many eunuchs donated the bulk of their money to Buddhist or Taoist temples in order to secure a different – and complete – afterlife.
Leave a Comment:
and here I thought it would be a discussion of female footbinding, where they cut the heel and force the foot backwards into a six inch point. Eunuchs were a world wide, cross cultural phenomenon. Footbinding, uniquely Chinese, apparently isn't cruel enough to warrant a story (but I'll bet there's a museum for it)
God forbid that every single type of human atrocity not be mentioned in this article. And I am pretty sure that you did not experience footbinding personally, so my guess is that you read about it somewhere. Did it mention castration? You ma'am are ignorant.
well, unless you've been castrated personally, I'm guessing you read about that as well.
if i had to pick between footbinding and castration... yeah, bind my feet, please.
Go find an article about foot binding and seed it for Christ's sake.
Foot binding was a cosmetic practice, not much different in its own way from breast implantations or nose reconstruction. Women had it done willingly many times. Castration now is a different story altogether and this article did a good job of covering it. Considering the men who survived during the Ming Dynasty, it gives new meaning to fable of needing "balls" to rule.
Arlnee
The article was not about footbinding. Thousands of articles have been written on that subject over the years.
Not every article has to be about women OR ( you) in particular. You are probabally one of those women who think all men should be castriated anyway.
Does that make you better than the people who bound womens feet? No it makes you the same as any man that has abused a woman. I work with a battered spouse shelter. We do not call it a battered womens shelter because 40% of the people who come to us are men and women that are physically abused by WOMEN.
Men are physically abused by women every day in America. Most are beaten, burned, or stabbed by abusers while they sleep, with no provacation whatsoever. BUT you are one of those women i'm sure who would say "Well they deserved it anyway"
I thought we were past this but I guess as long as there are women like you, these thoughts will still be in womens minds!
I will never complain about nicking myself while shaving again.
bboomer said :"Women had it done willingly many times". yes, this was a cosmetic procedure, but 'women' did not have it done willingly. this procedure was performed on children- girls aged 4 to 6 years old. hardly women, and your assertion that they were 'willing' is dubious at best. a woman with unbound feet was not a desirable bride for marriage, and that was the motivation for foot binding. you really think it's okay to dismiss child abuse as a willingly performed cosmetic procedure? I hope you'll reconsider.
In fact there IS a museum for it. The Women's Museum in Xian.
How did this discussion morph to feet, and women's at that?? I thought it was about men's body parts, or lack thereof, a few feet higher! Oops, didn't mean to make a pun, but, there you are!
Let us remember some important things about castration. Life in China two thousand years ago- and ever after- was very hard for the poor, and not so much better for the equivalent of the middle class- landed farmers. Life was dirty, brutish, and fraught with all sorts of dangers, up to and including incessant warfare, where you were bound to fight for your local lord. A eunuch was automatically accepted into a royal household with all the luxury and fine trappings. He was exempted from compulsory military service, was given a fine education, and entered into a fraternity of great honor where as an educated man, he might become a high government functionary and live in genuine splendor. The article mentioned Zhenge He; this particular eunuch commanded the Treasure Fleet. This was the biggest mercantile endeavor in history, umimaginably rich and grand in scope. Hundreds of ships; the flagships were sailing vessels four hundred feet long with eight masts. As many as twenty thousand men, women and soldiers traveled with this fleet, which sold Chinese goods as far as the Red Sea and spread Chinese culture and religions widely. Zhenge He was a Muslim, himself, and is credited with bringing his religion to Indonesia. The practice of castration was halted not because of the cruelty, but because of the power of the clan. Now, footbinding. The average woman was not bound. The reason footbinding was desirable in a wife was because it was a sign of luxury- this woman, binding proclaimed, is not meant for a life of work- but for a lifetime of leisure and wealth. Only the rich did this, and mothers did it to their daughters the way fathers had their sons castrated- to improve their station. It is alien? Yes. Was it cruel? Yes. But in the light of American mothers who make their daughters into bulemics, who give their daughters nose jobs and boob jobs and liposuction- who castrate their daughters' self respect and health- it really isn't so odd.
How many woman died from foot binding!
When the Creator and/or nature won't cooperate with the the desires of arrogant rulers who would never consider other human beings to have equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, they are willing to butcher their fellow humans and justify it for the sake of culture or social order. The Germans were inspired to eliminate the human body completely. What amazing wisdom.
Odd that they didn't mention castration was practiced in Italy until the mid/late 1800's to produce male sopranos for the stage. There are even a couple of recordings made of the last castrati made in the early parts of the last century.
Last castrato:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv-S3uoeTXg
Not a perfect pitch singer, but ok.
Castrato: A male soprano especially cut out for his job.
.. and yes, Rome was mentioned.
Did they whack the pee pee's off as well like they did to Eunuchs?
Foot-binding was horrific, too. Adults do cruel things to children, of both sexes.
It's a fascinating story. What's interesting is the ancient practice of multilating a male's genitals with the purpose of protecting the honor of the female. Whereas now, in some cultures, the female's genitals are mutilated as a way of protecting the honor of the male.
yeah I'd rather suffer a foot binding, even if it meant I couldn't walk again, than have my manhood cut off.
Also odd that they do not mention that the eunuch practice is ACTUAL at this time and age performed by the Saudis who raid North Africa towns every other year in order to kidnap 5 year old boys castrate them and use them as slaves. THIS IS STILL HAPPENING IN ISLAMIC COUNTRIES RIGHT NOW. Same with the equivalent of castration is still practice to ALL girls as soon as they reach puberty (between 9 and 12) so that Islamic women NEVER feel any pleasure, THIS IS ALSO STILL HAPPENING IN ISLAMIC COUNTRIES RIGHT NOW.
Your comment implies that all countries that practice Islam perform castration on young girls.
Can you please post a link to the article, or website, where this information can be confirmed?
Thank you!
Google infibulation, there's a lot of articles out there about it.
No one complains about Islamic practices. I wonder why?
Not just Islamic - it occurs in non-Islamic cultures as well. Still horrific, though.
female genital mutilation is a cultural problem for some countries, mostly african. Islam has never mentioned such act.
God, I must confess, I really hate coming across articles like this. I've read enough about these subjects to have some desensitivity towards them, but I tell you, I cannot even imagine the horror of the young boys who had this performed on them, presumably against their will.
I know that many adult eunuchs (such as those in India, currently) choose to be surgically castrated (nowadays typically with proper anesthesia and hospitalization). These men are generally homosexual or transgendered, and this is actually a respectable option in Indian society, though the tradition is quickly becoming extinct.
But for ANY young boy, especially as TC mentioned- the Italian castrati of the 1800's- to be subjected to to such emotionally and physically painful barbarism as this defies even the coldest of souls. How sad that our human history is rife with examples of such base depravity and injustice. Please tell me the future of mankind holds human life more valuable than these relics of the past.
Oh, cutting a man's parts off to ensure that he won't have sex was the cruelist thing? What about female genital mutilation? or infibulation? And that is still going on today!
Look at the title of the article, it's China's cruelist cut, its not saying that FGM isn't bad or doesn't exist, just that male castration was conducted in China. Pay attention to what the article is about before you make a comment.
it says "Cruelest Cut" right above the picture. Or maybe you didn't read it.
Lots of bad things happen in the world. Lots of stories get written. This one is about castration in China. If no one ever talked about FGM, I'd be sympathetic to you bringing it up, but I'm sure that you, like me, have read many stories on the subject. Why don't you let this story make its own point in its own way without trying to compare which is worse.
Deserea, they didn't just mutilate the males, they cut everything off. They wrapped it up and hung it up in the person's house. How would you like to have to pass by your parts everyday? They did this to prevent the person from having sex with the women. Ok. I know that FGM is pretty bad, but come on! This is at a whole other level. They do this to children and the boy can't go thru puberty or grow like he is supposed to. I hope you don't think that those children asked for it? I think something like this is worse than what happens to the girls. Think about it, everything that dangles is cut off. I guess guys look at it different.
clearly many women have no idea of the ramifications for this sort of thing. This is SO MUCH MORE than about sex. To live in such a condition would be hell compared to being whole. The ramifications for the flow of blood and energy chi whatever you want to call and the immune system etc from head to toe would be dire. You simply have no clue. You want to talk about mutilation and unkind cuts still going on in THIS country? Look no further than circumcision of infant males. What many women fail to understand is that the incredible sensations they are capable of experiencing have correlations in the anatomy of men but it is external and very vulnerable. If they are removed those feeling are gone forever. These kind of societal attacks on individual sexuality and yes sensitivity are unfortunately ingrained in human history and we have our own kind here and it needs to stop.
Infibulation is a regional practice, and doen by the local "pagan" tribes as well as by Muslims. It is not characteristic of all Muslim nations.
This explains Karl Rove.
While all this is awful to think about, I'm more concerned or, I guess, puzzled as to why in the heck we need to have a news article dedicated to ball-less Chinese men. Is there nothing else going on?
There is news, and there are features. Get over it!
Some stories are just informative.
If you're not interested, don't read. God...It always astounds me how people can get so wound up about a piece that was just an interesting article about a past practice in a specific area and the fact that they actually have a museum. Eunuchs were principal players in the history of China, hence an acknowledgement. This is not an article condoning the practice nor is it an article stating that more hideous acts did not and do not exist. I may give up reading the comments because they wear me out with the holier than thou attitude of most of the writers.
I agree, Terry.
Why does every commenter have to inject their own agenda into the mix? This World Blog article, horrific as it may be, is extremely informative and culturally/historically significant. I don't understand how an article about a rather specific subject became a lightning rod for gender-centric one-upmanship and (obvious, if not implied) political antagonism/pandering? Isn't it just enough to learn something without making a big stink out of whether or not it fits into your personal view of what's newsworthy, or what you may feel should be, or should not be mentioned?
You could rightfully claim my own interjected distaste for all the trivial back and forth commentary is itself an agenda. I'm all for logical discussion or debate. I just wish people wouldn't bicker, balk, bemoan and badmouth in the comments sections for the sport and sheer contrarian thrill of it. I suppose I shouldn't read the comments of articles expecting too much of people...as the article clearly shows, they have never been much for treating each other with respect.
Quite correct, AMH. Truthseeker (post #12) is the perfect example of what you have remarked about.
"bicker,balk,bemoan,and badmouth" Wow!! Nice aliteration there AMH!
Hold on. I just looked up infibulation. This is NOT an Islamic practice as some of the commentators have alleged. There is a HUGE difference between circumcision as praticed by Muslims and Jews, and infibulation which is genital mutilation. If some third-world tribal societies practice this on girls, then that's their baggage, but don't lump it in with Islam.
Was Michael Jackson a eunich?
JM
No he was not AND give it a rest OK.
The man is dead!!!!!!!!! You got your wish SO shut the hell up about it!
Everyday I wake up and thank God that I was born American and at the best time in the history of Humanity.
Wow. That article just blew me away.
I did a search for the book , the "last eunuck" by Sun Yaoting and, even used, it runs about $75.00.
Castration, male or female, still occures in modern times no matter how evolved we suppose ourselves to be.
Female castration is equally horrible. Male eunucks are expected to have no sex drive-hence-no threat.
Females, mulilated, no procreative drive...are expected to have sex with no enjoyment...hence, again-no threat.
Sex , love (or not), procreation is such a basic drive for all human beings. How anyone believes that it can be controlled is denying our humananity and is fooling themselves.
My only argument with your point is to say that a woman's primal drive, to procreate, is still intact with female castration. Not to say that it's "great" or "awesome", or without pain ... they can still conceive.
In a eunuch's case, their primal drive, to spread the seed, is made impossible. No genitals = no babies.
As a famous patriot once so fittingly shouted"
"Give me my balls or give me death"
Give me by balls or give me death" "
Are there any cannibals reading this?Hey why waste the product,since its just a by-product of surgery right.(Posted as a result of visiting websites of people who do cannibalism.)
It would seem understandable if is was only illiminating the pathways for channeling of reproductive items,to control population growth,but to have a person look like a Barbie doll just does't seem right.I think we are born to look the way we are meant to look,not ,simply due of cultural-social demands(if it were to stabilize the pop./food ratio)make 'Kens'.We are born with the ability to,but we should not be stupid.
Ouch!
Good Lord that is barbaric and twisted. The logic and thought process behind it is beyond twisted.
I hope Obama & Hillary read this, then maybe they will stop borrowing $$$$$$$$$$$$ from China & the Saudis.
why is it that so many people who take the time to read and comment on the individual articles on newsvine feel compelled to pull the 'so what- what about THAT thing? why didn't you mention THAT thing?'. why can't you comment on the article without either a: dismissing the horror/disgust/dismay that said article is usually about, or b: bringing up some other topic, with little or no relation to the topic of the article, and insist that said thing is 'worse'. maybe it is, but an article is usually about some thing.
this isn't some idiotic panel show on TV here, where two or several people yack on about a given topic until it's exhausted! a news article covers some thing, maybe gives you some background about that thing, and end of story. this article was about a museum devoted to castration, with background on the practice. it was not a compare and contrast, it was not a transcript of a panel discussion. you want to read an article about footbinding Auzziegirl? then find one and link it in the comments if you must. or write one up yourself and post it on your blog. but people come on- learn what the purpose of an article is, please. and then comment on the article.
there's all kinds of bad things that happen, and have happened, and will happen! there is nothing wrong with exploring bad things one at a time, one article at a time. I personally have no interest in reading an article, any article, that instead of having one topic, instead must include every bad and wrong thing that has ever happened! come on!
well at least they kept them hanging from the rafters so that they could look at them every day and then only get united with them in death.
Actually, China hasn't stopped the procedure, not exactly, anyway. Instead of boys, they've merely adopted the practice to the global economy.