The History of the Ming Dynasty has experienced several serious "castrations". Under the emperor's connivance and protection, the Ming Dynasty produced four major eunuchs, Wang Jin, Liu Jin, Wang Zhi, and Wei Zhongxian, who were falsely arrogant, took advantage of the emperor's trust, formed cliques, framed Zhongliang, bent the law, monopolized power and abused the government, and brought calamity to the country and the people, causing the Ming Dynasty to slip step by step to the brink of collapse, causing irreparable heavy losses and losses to the Ming Dynasty.
After the Entry of the Qing Dynasty, successive emperors, in view of the bitter lessons of the fall of the Ming Dynasty, carried out drastic abolition and innovation of many shortcomings left over from the Ming Dynasty. The phenomenon of eunuch dictatorship was also one of the key targets of the Qing emperor. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Dolgun and Shunzhi issued three orders and five affirmations, and among the eunuchs of the internal ministers, "those who violated the law and interfered in government affairs, stole power and paid bribes, instructed the internal and external governmentmen, befriended officials, were better at foreign affairs, and those who spoke to officials and officials were virtuous, that is, they were executed and they were not allowed to take loans."
The emperors of the Qing Dynasty strictly observed this iron law and strictly restricted the suppression of eunuchs, so that there was no large-scale castration in the history of the Qing Dynasty as the Ming Dynasty. However, with the passage of time, in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, this situation began to change unconsciously, and the eunuch cluster rose rapidly, and many eunuchs appeared.
The initiator of the Qing Dynasty eunuchs on the stage of history was Cixi. In the eleventh year of Xianfeng, after the death of the Xianfeng Emperor, sharp contradictions arose between Empress Dowager Cixi and Sushun and other auxiliary ministers. Cixi became the ultimate victor of this struggle, and in this thrilling power struggle, Cixi's confidant eunuch An Dehai played an important role, he was loyal to Cixi, and went around inquiring for news for his son, contacting up and down, rushing to deliver letters, and doing his best.
After Cixi took power, he repaid the favor with peach, and under her support, An Dehai was temporarily powerful and became cixi's spokesman, and hundreds of civil and military officials flocked to him. Andehai also did not know how to restrain himself, taking the opportunity to amass wealth in a big way, interfering in the appointment and dismissal of officials, and acting willfully. His excessive behavior aroused strong dissatisfaction from the conservative forces led by Empress Dowager Ci'an and Prince Gong. In the eighth year of Tongzhi, during the period of going out to purchase dragon robes, An Dehai flaunted the city to harass the localities, and was executed by Ding Baozhen, the inspector of Shandong, for the crime of "violating the ancestral system", and died at the age of 25.
The 25-year-old An de Hai is young and handsome, and it is rumored that he is a false eunuch who has not been purified. The 34-year-old Cixi was in a widowhood period at the time, so there were many rumors in private among the government and the public, and it was said that the relationship between An Dehai and Cixi was unclear, and it was likely that he had done ugly things that hurt customs and customs. Is there innocence between the two?
Beside Cixi, there was a personal maid named He Rong'er, who followed Cixi for eight years, was one of Cixi's most trusted confidants, and was one of the few people who could enter and leave Cixi's palace at any time, and she knew a lot about this experience between Cixi and An Dehai. In her memoirs dictated in her later years, "The Tale of the Palace Women's Past", she told this fact.
It turned out that when eunuchs of the Qing Dynasty entered the palace, they had to go through an extremely strict set of procedures. If the children of poor families are desperate and want to enter the palace as eunuchs, they must find the official purification master who is the default at that time to do "surgery", and if they want to enter the palace after they are healed, they must find a reliable "guarantor" and introduce them to the eunuchs in the palace, and only after permission can they enter the palace as an errand boy.
Every year in the spring and autumn, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Qing Dynasty conducted a strict "physical examination" of the eunuchs in the palace, just to prevent someone from passing through the customs or the phenomenon of "impurity" of the purification. Once discovered, from the purifier, the guarantor, and the eunuch who approved the entry into the palace, it was a sin to lose his head. Therefore, if Anderhai wants to enter the palace without impurity, the possibility is zero. Even if he was willing to spend a lot of money, no one dared to play with his head. Moreover, before Anderhai entered the palace, he was still a poor boy who was very poor, where there was a large amount of silver to open up the relationship and enter the palace.
Moreover, according to the rules of the palace, Empress Dowager Cixi's status is noble, and every time she goes to bed at night, inside and outside the palace, from the bedroom to the outer room and the door, there are eight maids on duty at every step of the night, and they do not sleep all night. Night and night are like this every year, without exception. Not to mention during the day, even if she had a bunch of people waiting around her, in such an environment, between Cixi and An Dehai, there was no chance to do anything unclear, leaving aside the character and merit of the two people, the relationship between the two was indeed innocent.
References: "The Record of the Palace Women", "The Record of the Ancestors of the Qing Dynasty"