History is the memory of things that have been said and done. —Carl Baker
The eunuch system originated in the pre-Qin period, the Book of Poetry, the Book of Rites, and the Zhou Li have records about eunuchs, most of the Zhou Dynasty and various princely states have set up eunuchs, at first eunuchs are not necessarily eunuchs, and only after the Eastern Han Dynasty did eunuchs completely use eunuchs as eunuchs. Although eunuchs were mainly slaves in charge of court chores at first, and could not participate in government affairs, but in the public often got along with members of the royal family day and night, and could become the personal servants of the emperor and concubines, they could naturally gain the trust of those in power, so there were often eunuchs in power. After the Anshi Rebellion of the Tang Dynasty, the power of eunuchs expanded rapidly, and some eunuchs could even be made princes and ranked as third dukes.
Especially in the Ming Dynasty period, the West Factory was opened, the eunuchs served as the viceroy, mainly the rule of secret agents, the eunuchs' institutions expanded, there were bureaucratic henchmen led by eunuchs during the Ming Dynasty, and the most famous eunuch of the Ming Dynasty, Wei Zhongxian, was even called "Nine Thousand Years Old", which shows that his power and power are tilted towards the opposition, and his ambitions are directly approaching the most honorable position in the entire court.
Why did dynasties have so many eunuch powers? Mainly because they have physical defects, only because the emperor wants to keep a distance from the people, the palace needs slaves who can be "absolutely safe", they must ensure that they cannot reveal the misinnation in the palace, and normal men enter and leave the former harem, and there are the emperor's concubines in the harem, so many concubines in the three palaces and six courtyards, naturally there will be people who have never seen the emperor in their lives, so they can't stand loneliness and have an affair with other men, and the emperor makes eunuchs in order not to wear "green hats". And some emperors believe that if they are normal men, there are wives, children, and parents in the family, they must not give selflessly to themselves, and the eunuch is purified, that is, he has broken off contact with the family, and there will be no offspring, so the "eunuch" as a slave in the court is the best choice. And the physical defects of eunuchs are bound to make them psychologically abnormal, there will be people who despise eunuchs, eunuchs themselves will have a sense of inferiority, often mentioned by others about their defects, even if they are slaves who bow down to others, they will also have a rebellious psychology, they will make up for themselves from other places, the most direct is to interfere in politics, control the state financial power, so the history of the great treachery and evil eunuchs are not few.
However, among the many eunuchs who were in trouble, there were also good eunuchs who came out of the mud and were not stained, such as the eunuch Zhang Juhan from the end of the Tang Dynasty to the beginning of the Five Dynasties, who was ordered by Emperor Yizong of Tang to adopt Zhang Congmei as an adopted son and embark on a career path from Enyin, because he was serious and loyal, and was appreciated by Tang Zhaozong, and later he was ordered to go to Youzhou, and the festival of Youzhou made Liu Rengong get along very well, and for this reason, when he was transferred back to the capital by Tianzi, Liu Rengong asked the emperor to keep him in Youzhou, and Tang Renzong agreed.
In this way, when Zhu Quanzhong asked the emperor to order the execution of all the eunuchs who interfered in the affairs of the dynasty, Zhang Juhan was saved by Liu Rengong and escaped a disaster, but he also made great contributions when Tianyou attacked Cangzhou in the third year of Tianyou (906) when he was hiding in Youzhou, and li Sizhao would cooperate well with Zhang Juhan when he went out on the expedition, and Zhang Juhan was also praised by Emperor Zhuangzong of Tang. But he will not be proud of his own merits, but will keep a low profile.
In September of the third year of Tongguang, the Later Shu lord Wang Yan rebelled, and Tang Zhuangzong sent troops to suppress it, and later Wang Yan knew that he could not reach it, so he surrendered, and when Tang Zhuangzong heard about this, he ordered him to go to Luoyang, saying that since he had surrendered, he would give him a fief. Wang Yan and his party began to go to Beijing, and as a result, in April of the fourth year of Tongguang, Wang Yan had just arrived at Qinchuanyi (in present-day Shaanxi and Gansu), and Li Siyuan rebelled in Wei Prefecture (魏州, in present-day northeast Daming, Hebei), some people said that the treasury was now empty, and the emperor personally went on a crusade, if Wang Yan and his party took the opportunity to make trouble, the situation would be more chaotic, it was better to kill them, so as to avoid future troubles.
Emperor Zhuangzong of Tang thought that it was justified, so he sent a eunuch to Order Wang Yan to be killed, and said, "Wang Yan and his party should be killed." However, when Zhang Juhan reviewed the edict, he believed that Wang Yan had surrendered, and at this time, Tang Zhuangzong was rebelling, and it was unreasonable to behead him, so he changed the word "xing" on the edict to the word "home". Zhang Juhan could not bear to take the risk of killing his head to revise the edict, fortunately Xiang Yansi did not expect Zhang Juhan to have the courage to tamper with the edict, so he did not doubt the emperor's order, and at that time, Tang Zhuangzong himself was too busy to take care of himself, and he had no time to care about whether Wang Yan and his party were killed.
Therefore, the lives of more than a thousand people, including The Hundred Officials of Later Shu and Wang Yan's slaves, were saved by Zhang Juhan. After Emperor Zhuangzong of Tang was killed and Emperor Mingzong of Tang ascended the throne, Zhang Juhan requested to be relieved of his official duties and returned to his hometown, which was approved, and he was able to enjoy his old age in peace until the third year of Tiancheng (928) when he died of illness at the age of 71.