There is a very interesting plot in Mr. Jin Yong's martial arts novel "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu". The book describes that there is a mysterious martial arts secret book circulating in the jianghu, called "Sunflower Treasure Book". The author of the Sunflower Treasure Book is a eunuch of a certain dynasty, so there is a condition for wanting to cultivate this treasure book, that is, "you must first go to the palace", otherwise you will go into the fire and die.
This is because the author of the treasure book is a eunuch, so it is required that his own cultivators must also be like themselves, personally cutting off the roots of their descendants. The so-called "if you want to practice divine skills, you must first go to the palace" is naturally invented by the author, and in ancient times, "self-palace" was basically impossible. Ancient men shouldered the so-called "inheritance of generations" of the heavy responsibility, no after that is sorry for their parents and relatives. In ancient times, many families were too poor and had to let their sons enter the palace as eunuchs in order to make a living.
But if you want to enter the palace and become a eunuch, it is not so simple. In many novels or TV series, there is such a plot, men want to be eunuchs to find a way out, so they simply wield a knife from the palace. But in ancient times, it was not possible to enter the palace as a eunuch by wielding a sword from the palace. If you want to enter the palace as a eunuch, you have to take a legal path, and it is obviously illegal to be in the palace. Since the Ming Dynasty, there have been "knife makers" all over the country who specialize in helping people to perform surgery.
These knife smiths were registered in the government and had documents similar to today's "business licenses". If a man is determined to enter the palace as a eunuch, he must find a knife maker who will perform the operation for him. After the knife maker has operated on him, he will send him a certificate of his signature to prove that he has indeed undergone the operation and that he has lost his fertility. Then he took this voucher to the palace to report, so that he was eligible to enter the palace as a eunuch.
The knife maker asks for a lot of money for an operation, usually around 10 taels of silver. If you are really poor and can't come up with money, you can also use rice, noodles and other grain to top the account, wait until you enter the palace to earn monthly cases, and then repay the remaining surgical costs. The money was not spent unjustly, and before the operation, the man had to live in the knife maker's house. This time is usually about half a month, and the knife maker will first do a basic examination of his physical condition, just like today's preoperative hospitalization.
Then, after the surgery, he also continued to live in the knife maker's house. The knife maker would provide him with nutritious food and drink every day until his wounds were basically healed and he could walk freely. And the time of the operation is also very exquisite, and the general knife maker will only operate on these men in the winter. This is because in ancient times, medical technology was not developed, and the knife edge after surgery was very deep, and it was very easy to inflame in the summer.
Arranged in the winter, one is that the weather is conducive to recuperation, and the other is that they have just experienced the autumn harvest, and every household has a little surplus grain in their pockets, and it is easier for them to scrape together the money for surgery. In ancient times, only men who really had no way out would choose to be eunuchs. Knife smiths make a living by operating on them, a profession that may seem unattractive, but very profitable. Because in general, in a town, there is only one official knife smith who has registered in the official government, and this craft can also be hereditary, passed from father to son, son to son. Originally it was "no cost management", and naturally it was able to make money.