Why did ancient emperors have to use eunuchs to serve themselves? Isn't it fragrant to use all the palace girls?
This is an interesting question.
Before answering this question, we must clearly define several concepts.
1. Emperor. He is the lord of a country or even the lord of the world, who has the power to kill thousands of people within the scope of the notice.
2, eunuchs. The prospective man after castration has no fertility, but has the same physical strength and intelligence as a normal man.
3, palace maid. Most of the women between the ages of 10 and 30 come from poor families and have low social status.
When you clarify these three concepts, you will find that the emperor is simply too clever to create eunuchs to serve himself in a cruel way! It would be foolish to replace them all with palace maids without a single eunuch!
First of all, from the emperor's point of view, no eunuch is equivalent to seeking his own death!
First, the emperor's search for the palace maid was so reckless that he could be maimed to death.
The emperor may be a strong boy in his twenties and thirties, a 3-year-old child, or more likely an elderly man in his fifties and sixties. These three kinds of people may face the entanglement of the palace women's all-out "seeking dragon species and seeking favors". If it is an old man, it is a big deal to die immediately. If it is a lean boy in his twenties and thirties, he may have weak legs, dizzy eyes and lack of energy after a few days. The most tragic is the 3-year-old child, who was played badly at a young age, and when he grows up, he is a veritable infertile emperor!
In fact, there are many emperors in history who have been killed by concubines. For example, Zhao Feiyan Zhao Hede's husband, Emperor Hancheng, died in the palace. Another example is Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who did not have the protection of eunuchs at a young age, was played badly by the palace women, and did not have children of his own in his life.
Second, if there are conspirators among the palace women, the emperor will have no power to fight back.
Although women are not as strong as men, they can't stand up to many people. Imagine if an emperor had done something to offend the concubines and concubines, would these lowly people have risen up, assassinated the emperor, or even falsely passed on the holy will to control the palace? This may not have happened, but the makers of the court system must guard against any hidden dangers to the security of the royal family.
In fact, during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there were cases of palace women assassinating the emperor. The Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi was addicted to Taoism and wanted to live forever, forcing the palace ladies to collect dew every day, but did not give the corresponding welfare treatment and protection. More than a dozen palace women united and launched an assassination attempt on Jiajing. However, this assassination, because the palace women were inexperienced, someone whistleblowed and eventually failed, which was a pity.
Third, if the palace ladies are too beautiful, or if the plot is too deep, the palace will cause great chaos at any time.
In the imperial palace, there was a strict hierarchical order, but this hierarchical order was often contrary to the power of the emperor himself. If the emperor liked the palace maid, he would often promote her out of the ordinary, and if he spoiled her, he would be able to ascend to heaven one step at a time. Imagine if there were no such an objective third party as eunuchs in the palace, the palace ladies would find ways to use the emperor's power to promote themselves, and even find ways to share the imperial power. In this case, the palace will be in a state of instability for a long time.
In addition, there were thousands of palace ladies in the palace, most of whom could not be satisfied. These women may take advantage of the opportunity to leave the palace to steal men, put green hats on the emperor, and may even cause the imperial power to fall.
Look at the eunuch again. Role is essential.
First, the eunuchs were neither male nor female, which had a good effect of isolating the emperor and the palace women.
Eunuchs were not men, so they would not consider the matter entirely on the side of the emperor. Eunuchs were not women, and it was even more impossible to form a united front with the palace women. Therefore, eunuchs can handle the relationship between men and women in the court more objectively. What is more interesting is that the eunuch isolated the emperor from the palace maid, so that the emperor would not be killed by the palace maid's indistinct search, and also undertook some heavy physical labor that originally had to be undertaken by the palace maid. To some extent, eunuchs and palace women are the positive and negative sides of the internal ecology of the palace, and the two form a delicate balance. What is more interesting is that the open Ming Dynasty court actually popularized the phenomenon of "eating" between eunuchs and palace women.
Second, the eunuchs had no relatives and no reason, and became the most loyal group to the royal family inside and outside the palace.
Whether eunuchs are the most loyal to the royal family, objectively speaking, this is so. However, the eunuch was only loyal to the royal family and one surname, not loyal to Li Mincangsheng, so the reputation left by the eunuch in history was not good. However, when we observe the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty, we will find that Zheng He went to the West and the Wanli Emperor sent eunuchs to collect industrial and commercial taxes, which were all ways to consolidate the royal wealth and power. A person loyal to the emperor is a traitor, and a loyal person loyal to Li Min Cangsheng is a loyal subject. Eunuchs were the best tool for the royal family. This is true outside the palace, and it is also true inside the palace.
Third, eunuchs could work outside the home, the most serious of which was corruption and abuse of the people, which was not harmful to the emperor.
The royal palace, especially the harem, cannot be without contact with the outside world. If this contact work is done by the palace maid, it will cause the evil consequence of wearing a green hat for the emperor. Therefore, the only people who enter and leave the palace can be eunuchs, not palace women. The eunuch's connection with the Great Inner Guard, the Eunuch, the Minister, and the Vegetable Market formed the basis for the survival of the entire imperial palace. However, the eunuch's departure from the palace inevitably caused the phenomenon of corruption and abuse of the people like the "charcoal seller", although it ruined the royal reputation, but it did not seem to affect the life of the emperor himself.
All in all, under the authoritarian centralized system, the emperor is above ten thousand people, and the eunuch system is a good safeguard and a natural ally of the emperor. And the concubines, palace women, and foreign ministers, whether in loyalty or closeness, are far inferior to eunuchs.
By the way, to clarify, not all eunuch eunuchs are eunuchs. Eunuchs were the heads of the various prisons of the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, the court had three external prisons, namely guozijian, Qin Tianjian, and ShanglinYuan. Guozijian is the highest institution of learning in the country, Qin Tianjian is the department that manages meteorological weather, and Shanglinyuanjian is the department that manages animal husbandry and planting. In addition to the three prisons, there are the inner twelve supervisors, the ceremonial supervisor, the internal official supervisor, the division supervisor, the imperial horse supervisor, the Shang Shan supervisor, the royal use supervisor, the straight temple supervisor, the seal supervisor, the Shangyi supervisor, the Duzhi supervisor, the shrine supervisor, and the Shangbao supervisor, and these twelve prisons are all managed by eunuchs. These 12 supervisors were the 12 functional departments of the central government of the Ming Dynasty, and the most powerful of them were the eunuchs in charge of the Yin eunuchs, the Bingbi eunuchs, etc., to put it bluntly, they were the prime ministers in the palace!
Because the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty were so famous, the Qing Dynasty people took the "eunuch", the "internal official prime minister", as the collective name of all eunuch eunuchs in order to appease the eunuchs.
If before the Ming Dynasty, you called a eunuch "dead eunuch", he would have gone crazy with joy!
It must be seen that most eunuchs are slaves of the court, poor people who have lost every insult. In this regard, eunuchs and palace ladies are the same.