Eunuchs, castrated males in the ancient court, the imperial palaces of the Ming and Qing dynasties once used a large number of eunuchs and palace women, taking care of the lives of the emperor and the concubines of the harem, according to historical records, the number of internal prisoners during the Ming Dynasty exceeded 10,000, which should be the peak of the entire feudal social period. In the Qing Dynasty, the number of eunuchs decreased, about 2800 during the Qianlong period, and then basically lasted about 2000, until the second year of the Republic of China (1913), there were more than 1500 people.
A group photo of Concubine Jin (Princess Duankang) and the eunuchs
On the evening of June 27, 1923, the Jianfu Palace in the Forbidden City suddenly caught fire, a large number of houses were burned down, and all the precious literary paintings and rare treasures treasured by the Jiaqing Emperor in the Jianfu Palace were also reduced to ashes, which greatly annoyed Puyi, and he suspected that the eunuchs had set fires because someone had stolen the treasures of the Jianfu Palace for fear of being found. Since then, there have been incidents of eunuchs committing murder in the palace, so Puyi, after careful consideration, ordered the expulsion of all eunuchs from the palace for his personal safety.
Sun Yaoting Youth: Serve Wanrong and Puyi closely
Later known as "China's last eunuch", Sun Yaoting also left the Forbidden City for 7 years at this time and returned to his hometown in Jinghai, Tianjin, but not long after, Emperor Duankang remembered this clever little eunuch who had served her, and sent someone to recall Sun Yaoting from his hometown to the palace, and when he met Puyi by chance, he was left to serve Wanrong and Puyi closely, at this time Sun Yaoting felt that he had reached the peak of his life, because the ultimate goal of every eunuch was to serve the emperor and empress.
Sun Yaoting talked about how he felt when he was left behind by Puyi
In 1924, Feng Yuxiang defected to Beijing and ordered Lu Zhonglin to drive Puyi and others out of the Forbidden City, of course, including all the palace women and a few eunuchs, Sun Yaoting continued to follow Wanrong to serve in the home of the regent Zaifeng after leaving the palace, and only a month later, Wanrong followed Puyi to Tianjin, and Sun Yaoting was completely "unemployed" from then on.
At this time, Sun Yaoting had nowhere to go, he could only return to his hometown in Tianjin again, he had been a eunuch for 8 years, he could not adapt to the living environment of his hometown at all, let alone work in the field, completely relying on the brother's help to barely survive, for a long time, even the brothers began to dislike him, Sun Yaoting could not stay in his hometown any longer.
Sun Yaoting
Sun Yaoting middle-aged: To settle down at the Xinglong Temple where the eunuchs gathered
In 1926, Sun Yaoting heard that Puyi and Wanrong were in Tianjin, he went to look for it with excitement, tried to return to the master's side, and it was difficult to find out Puyi's residence, the police at the door did not even let the door in, he had to wander around, there was no love, and he had no choice but to come to the old place of the eunuchs in the past: Xinglong Temple.
Xinglong Temple was once very famous among the eunuchs who left the palace, and any eunuch who wanted to stay here had very strict conditions, not only needed to pay a certain amount of fees before leaving the palace, but also needed to do miscellaneous service here for four years after leaving the palace, and at the same time, no bad behavior was allowed to finally be "admitted". In the late Qing Dynasty, most of the Xinglong Temple was a very wealthy eunuch, and after Puyi drove the eunuchs out of the palace, a large number of eunuchs who had no place to live poured in here.
Although the Xinglong Temple is full of people with the same disease, it will still be divided into three, six, and nine according to the amount of wealth they have, and the rich eunuchs can spend money to hire poor eunuchs to serve, and even marry their wives here. Sun Yaoting came here penniless and was cared for by another eunuch, Ma Deqing, before settling down.
Sun Yaoting took a group photo with the visitors
Sun Yaoting in his later years: In order to retain his dignity, he did not bathe for 30 years
After liberation, Xinglong Temple became a public place, at this time the whole of Beijing is still alive more than 30 eunuchs are all concentrated here, the government in order to help them, each person pays 16 yuan of living expenses per month, winter can also be more than 8 pieces of coal and fire fees, Sun Yaoting because he can write and calculate, become the management of the temple, the positive work attitude so that Sun Yaoting not only increased his salary to 35 yuan, but also became a member of the whole Beijing temple management team.
At the end of the 1970s, Sun Yaoting moved from Xinglong Temple to Guanghua Temple, and within a few years, Ma Deqing, an old eunuch who had taken care of Sun Yaoting, died at Guanghua Temple, and Sun Yaoting, who was old, became the last living eunuch in China, and also became the only witness to the demise of the Qing Dynasty and the disappearance of the eunuch group from history.
In his later years, Sun Yaoting was taken care of by many people in life and lived a very comfortable life, but when he was young, he took a bath once a few days, but he did not take a bath again in the last 30 years of his life, because he understood the difference between himself and a normal man, and in order to retain the last dignity, he could only do this.
Pu Jie is the preface to Sun Yaoting's autobiography
As a "living history" of Sun Yaoting, in the 90s of the last century, he was interviewed by many people, he always knew everything about the past in the palace, and very warmly received every visitor, some writers wrote "The Secret Story of the Last Eunuch——— The Biography of Sun Yaoting" according to his self-description, and found the last emperor Puyi's brother Pujie inscription, which made Sun Yaoting very excited, he said: "I really dare not think, the second master can write a preface to this book." We used to be slaves! This is really famous in one fell swoop."
On the evening of December 17, 1996, Sun Yaoting, the last eunuch in China, completed his life at The Guanghua Temple, at the age of 94.
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