When we look at the film and television dramas of the Qing Dynasty now, eunuchs have great power and can go out of Beijing to pass on orders from the emperor to officials at all levels, and even supervise specific affairs for the emperor. In particular, some Of the Qing Dynasty TV dramas filmed in Hong Kong have shots of eunuchs doing their best, but they are all fake and are not at all consistent with the eunuch system of the Qing Dynasty.
The eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty taught a profound lesson for the misfortune, and the eunuchs mastered the East Factory and the West Factory, which was light and chaotic, and led to the destruction of the country. Therefore, after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, it attached great importance to controlling eunuchs, resolutely not giving eunuchs power and not allowing eunuchs to get involved in political affairs. Long before the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, Nurhaci and Huang Taiji learned the lessons of history and did not have eunuchs. In the tenth year of Shunzhi, because of the needs of the actual situation, eunuchs began to be established. The Shunzhi Emperor set up the Thirteen Gates as an internal court institution to manage the affairs of the court and serve the emperor and his family.
The Thirteen Gates, also known as the Thirteen Paths, consisted mainly of eunuchs. The following are: Si Li Supervisor, Imperial Household Supervisor, Imperial Horse Supervisor, Internal Official Supervisor (Xuanhui Yuan), Shang Yi Supervisor, Shang Shan Supervisor, Shang Bao Supervisor (Shang Bao Division), Division Establishment Supervisor, Shang Fang Supervisor (Shang Fang Yuan), Xi Salary Division, Bell and Drum Division (Ceremonial Supervisor, Ceremonial Yuan), Military Staff Bureau, Weaving and Dyeing Bureau (Economic Bureau).
Although the Shunzhi Emperor set up eunuchs, he did not let them go, and ordered the Ministry of Works to erect an iron plate, strictly prohibiting eunuchs from interfering in political affairs, and those who violated them were executed. The chief eunuch of the thirteen gates was the eunuch Wu Liangfu, and in the fifteenth year of Shunzhi, there was a case of bribery and collusion between eunuchs and officials, and Wu Liangfu was involved, but the Shunzhi Emperor protected him and did not punish him according to his own edict prohibiting eunuchs from interfering in politics. However, after the death of the Shunzhi Emperor, Empress Xiaozhuang decreed that she should be sentenced to death for the crime of "changing the ancestral system" to warn future generations.
After the Kangxi Dynasty, the thirteen yamen were changed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was composed of the slaves belonging to the Three Banners (i.e., the Yellow, Zhenghuang, and Zhengbai Banners), and the general manager of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was the Minister of internal affairs, which belonged to zhengerpin, and was concurrently held by the Manchu princes, and the grand superintendent and the palace women belonged to the officials of the ministry of internal affairs. And the establishment of a system for eunuchs will never be reused, from the rank, clothing, authority are restricted. Therefore, in the final 268 years of the Qing Dynasty, there was no eunuch disaster, and the eunuchs of the Qing Dynasty could not go out of Beijing to pass on the instructions to the governors of the provinces, let alone supervise specific matters for the emperor.
There was only one exception, that is, the emperor rewarded the princes and ministers with ordinary annual goods, and eunuchs could be sent to carry the goods, but this situation was limited to the city of Beijing. In fact, Mo said that the capital, even the Forbidden City, was not allowed, and the emperor usually had important edicts that needed to be delivered to the officials themselves, and they must send relevant officials to Xiaoshe. During the Tongzhi period, there was a famous "mutual beating of eunuchs in the army", which was caused by the eunuchs who did not have a certificate to leave the palace and were prevented by the palace guards.
In the final Qing Dynasty, only one eunuch went to Beijing to run errands, and it was a local official who was killed, that is, the beheaded eunuch An Dehai. An Dehai entered the palace at the age of eight or nine, clever and clever, good at flattery, and he soon gained the favor of the Xianfeng Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi. After Xianfeng's death, An Dehai became a confidant of Empress Dowager Cixi, interfering in imperial politics and suppressing Prince Gong. In the eighth year of Tongzhi, he was ordered by Empress Dowager Cixi to go to Jiangnan to collect costumes, went to Shandong, and was captured and executed by Inspector Ding Baozhen.
Therefore, the eunuchs in the film and television drama who go out of the capital to promulgate the emperor's decree are inconsistent with the Qing Dynasty system and cannot happen at all. Even if Li Lianying and Xiaode Zhang Quan fell in favor of The Late Cixi Dynasty, they did not reach the point of interfering in the government of the dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty film and television drama, the eunuch ran around beijing from the beginning of "Jia Wu Fengyun", the eunuch went to Tianjin on the order of the emperor to pass on the message to Li Hongzhang, and there were more and more later film and television dramas.