China is an ancient civilization, from the unification of the six kingdoms by Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC to the overthrow of the feudal dynasty by the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, we have experienced a total of more than 2,100 years of feudal era. Dynasties are constantly changing in the land of China, and many of these things we can only look for clues from cultural relics and history books, while those who have not left their names, we can not know their stories, we can only imagine and speculate.
Generally speaking, the closer we are to our time, the more cultural relics and records are left behind, such as the last feudal dynasty in China, the Qing Dynasty, which is the dynasty we objectively know best.
When the last eunuch mentions the late Qing Dynasty, everyone often thinks of the humiliating years of internal and external troubles, the corruption and incompetence of the rulers, the deep water heat of the people, and so on. After all, that era was arguably the most difficult in China's history, and this ancient power had completely become a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country.
However, when we pay attention to the overall trend of history, few people will think that in addition to those who held the power of life and death, there were also many oppressed eunuchs and palace women in the Qing Palace.
Although most people were displaced in that chaotic world, Sun Yaoting, the "last eunuch" in China, was lucky enough to live until 1996, and he also left us a lot of precious historical materials, allowing us to understand the secret life in the Qing Palace in that era.
According to Sun Yaoting's account, the people in the palace have always lived a trembling life, and the ladies and ladies who are served never need to do anything themselves, even taking a bath. And as a subordinate, they do not even have the power to raise their heads and stand up, and they need to kneel to serve their masters in everything they do.
Sun Yaoting's experience Sun Yaoting was born in 1902, and when he was a child, his family was still able to eat, and he also had the opportunity to read for several years. However, the good times were short-lived, and the war and political turmoil ruined the Sun family and could only beg for a living. In order to feed the whole family, the parents decided to send Sun Yaoting to the palace to become a eunuch to maintain the family's livelihood.
However, with the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, the Qing Dynasty collapsed, and Sun Yaoting's way into the palace was also broken. However, although Puyi has abdicated, he and a group of old Manchu nobles still live in the Forbidden City and live a good life. In 1916, Sun Yaoting entered the palace when Puyi recruited eunuchs and palace women and became a lowest eunuch.
At first, Sun Yaoting could not see those nobles in the palace at all, and could only do miscellaneous work and do all kinds of physical work around the great eunuch. However, Sun Yaoting was different from other small eunuchs, he had read books, and he was also more clever, and he was promoted to the drama class by Princess Duankang.
Later, Sun Yaoting spent money to buy a name of "Wang Chengxiang" and successfully entered the "Sifang" work of the imperial palace. Later, because of his reliable work and high emotional intelligence, Sun Yaoting successfully entered the eunuch team under Empress Wanrong and became one of the "red people in the palace" who served Wanrong's diet and living.
Did the life of the eunuchs in the palace under the empress make Sun Yaoting's life better? Not really. Sun Yaoting's life was still like walking on thin ice, because the harem ladies and ladies including the empress did not need to do anything themselves, and these palace women and eunuchs also needed to kneel and wait, nor could they look up at their masters, even lighting cigarettes and washing their hands needed to adjust the angle, and they could not let the ladies bend down and raise their hands, otherwise they would be scolded and punished.
Even when the ladies and ladies are bathing, the ladies do not need to do anything themselves, naturally there are a large number of palace women and eunuchs waiting on the side, adjusting the water temperature, so that they have always maintained the most comfortable state, and whether it is undressing before taking a bath or dressing after washing, it is also done by the palace women, and it is absolutely impossible to make the masters feel uncomfortable.
It can be seen from this that feudal society is so serious that people are insulted and squeezed, and if people work in this environment for a long time, then there will be serious problems whether it is physical or psychological.
After Sun Yaoting served Empress Wanrong for more than a year in his later years, Feng Yuxiang expelled Puyi from the Forbidden City, and Sun Yaoting's career as a eunuch also ended. With no farming skills or other means of making a living, Sun Yaoting was only able to accept the help of his brothers in his family, and then entered the Xinglong Temple, where many dismissed eunuchs gathered, where he struggled to live with other eunuchs. In addition to the meager rent and tenant rent, they also need to collect scrap and cinder to make ends meet.
This situation did not change until after liberation, when New China assigned jobs to the displaced eunuchs, who had been involved in the management of temples in Beijing and for a time as a cashier, with a salary to support themselves.
That is to say, it was not until his old age that the former eunuch lived a life of true human dignity. Later, he also wrote an autobiography of "The Last Eunuch in China", exposing the "cannibalistic" system of the feudal dynasty in the past.