Since I was a child, I grew up in the Dongcheng area of Beijing, and I have not only come into contact with eunuchs, but also heard many anecdotes in this regard. Most of the remaining eunuchs at that time lived in temples, and most of them were old. In the morning, I often saw them going out to bask in the sun in front of the oil and salt shop, and chat with the people on the street about the Qing Palace. Since then, I have become interested in the mysterious life of the court and eunuchs in the late Qing Dynasty.
In the early 1980s, the old eunuch Ma Deqing, who lived in the Guanghua Temple in the capital, passed away, and Sun Yaoting became the only surviving person among the last eunuchs, and as a "treasure" under the key protection of the state, the old man no longer accepted interviews. However, I became an exception, and maintained a close relationship with him as an old friend. In the meantime, we talked about everything. In the "Silent Zen Forest" (mr. Sun Yaoting), he talked to me about many palace events and secrets of eunuchs in the late Qing Dynasty.
For the elderly Sun Yaoting, there are only two memories that will bring tears to his eyes — the day his father cut off his genitals; and the day during the Cultural Revolution when his family threw away his preserved genitals to avoid danger, making it impossible for him to return to being a "complete man" when he was buried after death.
Sun Yaoting tasted all the sour, sweet and bitter in his life, and he served the Duankang Emperor Guifei and the "Empress" Wanrong, and also had a lot of contact with Puyi. In the small imperial court where the "emperor" abdicated, he witnessed various insider stories in the palace and also experienced the moment when Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City. In his later years, he thought about it carefully, and every experience made him unforgettable.
Sun Yaoting (left) took a group photo with the abbot of Guanghua Temple in his later years
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > given the name of the imperial concubine </h1>
In the 28th year of Guangxu (1902), Sun Yaoting was born into a poor peasant family in Jinghai County, Tianjin. As a child, their parents became beggars and, forced to make a living, decided to send their son to become a eunuch.
Sun Yaoting endured the greatest insult of personality when he was 8 years old and was purified by his father. However, it was not until 1916 that he was introduced to the palace by a man named Ren Dexiang. Ren Dexiang was also a eunuch and had some status in the palace. After Sun Yaoting entered the palace, he could not use his own name, nor did he have any number, he served Ren Dexiang all day as an apprentice, serving food for him, pouring and urine.
In the second month of the lunar calendar of the following year, When Duan Kang, the imperial concubine of Guangxu, was watching a rehearsal, she heard that there was a clever person under Ren Dexiang, who somehow opened the favor and ordered Sun Yaoting to participate in the drama class. For a low-level eunuch who does rough work and has no name, this is simply "one step to the heavens"! Although the popular saying at the beginning not only classified "drama" into the "lower nine streams", but also belonged to the last class of "soap, subordination, prostitution, and excellence", it was still a good errand in the palace, and it was not ready to get the "favor" of the emperor or which concubine. Sun Yaoting felt that "this finally has hope", as a small eunuch who was selected to enter the drama team, he got up early and was greedy, practicing basic skills hard, and looking forward to the arrival of opportunities.
Duankang Imperial Concubine
Fate was worthy of him. In the late spring, by dotting Zhang Anji, the second chief eunuch of the Yonghe Palace, he once again met the imperial concubine Duan Kang. Duan Kang gave him the name "Wang Chengxiang", and a few careless words changed Sun Yaoting's fate. He had a "name"—although not his real name, he finally became a eunuch in the palace who ate "imperial food" in a serious way.
As the days went on, Sun Yaoting knew more about Duan Kang. Although she is a mediocre woman who has no patience, she wants to imitate Cixi and Longyu in every move. After Guangxu's death, her concubine became the "Imperial Concubine", but it was impossible to "bow the curtain and listen to the government", nor could she personally take over the imperial power, and Puyi had become the "Sun Emperor". But in life, Duankang is extremely luxurious, a meal is still placed on more than 20 dishes, chicken, duck, fish, meat all kinds of must be on the table, even if not eaten, it must be put on the table, commonly known as "pendulum".
Duankang Emperor Guifei (middle) and others enjoyed fish at the Yanxi Palace
Although the "emperor" had abdicated, Duan Kang still wanted to control the "Xuan Unification" who had abdicated the throne and had no power. Every day, Duan Kang asked the little eunuch to go to her place to report Puyi's every move, including his clothes, food, shelter, and travel, no matter how big or small, in order to envelop Puyi, Duan Kang often asked him to go to Yonghe Palace to see her. Puyi is a teenager, he doesn't understand anything, and when he mentions seeing her, his heart is chu. Because Puyi was not very sensible, his eunuch Li Chang'an often gave him advice.
Puyi liked to wear fashionable clothes, and Li Chang'an gave him a suit, leather shoes, foreign socks, and a set of Western-style uniforms. Puyi was happy at first sight, took turns to change clothes, and walked around the palace. Who knew that the eunuch who stood on the shift immediately reported to Duan Kang, and she was furious after hearing it, "Is there still Wang Fa!" ”
"I heard that this was Li Chang'an's idea." The eunuch told her. This time, Li Chang'an was bitter, he was dragged down, ripped off his pants and beat him up, beaten to the skin, and then dragged up by several eunuchs to thank Duan Kang. Li Chang'an was punished, which deepened the contradiction between Puyi and Duan Kang. The two sides do not directly clash, but they are secretly fighting. Among them, some eunuchs, such as the eunuchs sent by Duan Kang, provoked on both sides and spread the words of both sides. As a result, the contradiction between Puyi and Duan Kang is deeper. The longer he was in the palace, the more Sun Yaoting understood the "way of survival" here. He quickly adapted to this life of a court slave who looked up to others and flattered. A few years later, he was lucky again and was promoted to serve under Puyi's empress Dowager Wanrong.
Crown Princess Duankang (left) and Empress Wanrong (right)
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > the quirk of grace in the palace</h1>
Since becoming a small eunuch who served Wanrong, Sun Yaoting moved to the West Side Hall of Weifu Palace. In his impression, WanRong was still young at that time, a horse, a few years younger than him. Sun Yaoting often played with her, and everything she was happy with always did with her.
Wan Rong and Pu Yi
"She washes her hands, and I have to kneel to hold the basin; she wants to smoke, and I have to kneel and hand it over; she wants to blow soot, and I have to use the basin to continue; she goes up and down the steps, and I have to hold her carefully. Because I served well, she treated me well. But I have to look at the face. I was also scared when she got angry. ”
Among the several people who served Wanrong, Sun Yaoting was the smartest and the most well-received. On weekdays, he and Zhao Xingzhen and four other people take turns to sit at night for Wanrong (meaning on duty). Except for the eunuchs, Wan Rong could not see any other "men". Sun Yaoting once recalled: "Probably due to excessive loneliness, she was not cold to eunuchs like her own. Imagine she was only eighteen or nineteen years old! ”
Usually, Wanrong sleeps at night without even closing the door, just symbolically hanging down a curtain. Only at night, Puyi occasionally came to the Wanrong house, and the palace maids in the side room withdrew, leaving only the eunuchs in the outhouse to "listen to the poor". Only then did WanRong let the eunuch close the door. But this situation has not been repeated several times in total. It can be said that the poor empress spent most of her days in the company of palace maids and eunuchs.
In Sun Yaoting's view, there were many strange things in the empress's palace. For example, there is no toilet, she defecates in the house, and the palace maid in the lower house pours her a toilet at any time. In the eunuch pile, it is more interesting to talk about the queen bathing. Usually, wanrong took a bath, and in the room where she combed her hair, she picked two older palace girls to wipe her back, scrub her bath, rub her feet, cut her nails, and no matter what, she sat there, never moving.
The large porcelain bath is the most conspicuous thing in the room of WanRong side. She was very harsh, asking the palace maid to scrub every day, and if she found a slight impurity, she had to be severely punished. Both palace ladies and eunuchs knew that after Wanrong had taken a bath, she often sat naked by the porcelain bathtub for a long time, looking herself up and down. The palace maid whispered behind her back that she was naked and "lonely and self-congratulatory". Almost everyone around Wanrong knew that Puyi rarely spent the night here with her, and even if she came, she would stay a little while and leave, and there was no conjugal life between the two, which was an open secret.
Wanrong (middle)
WanRong's appearance and posture became the content of the private chat between the palace maid and the eunuch: "You don't know, the queen's skin and flesh are white and tender, and she is born a beautiful billet!" "How did I not know?" Every time I bathed her, I had to look at her a few times. ”
However, Wanrong has a quirk, unwilling to let the young palace maid scrub and wash her body for her, and always summons the older palace maid. This further stimulated the curiosity of eunuchs and palace women, and even some eunuchs and good palace women occasionally debated whether the queen was beautifully dressed or naked. It is taboo in the palace, but among these young palace women and eunuchs, it has become a deformed "hot" topic.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > the privacy of "Shengshang"</h1>
Since the big wedding, Puyi has rarely spent the night here in Wanrong. Occasionally come once or twice, get up in the morning is also to pat your ass and leave, neither that kind of husband and wife between me and me, nor the slightest hatred and resentment. And Wanrong's expression is even more decadent, and Bo Shi Fandai's face often has tear marks.
At first, the relationship between the two was not too detected by outsiders, and once Puyi and Wanrong stomped away, the palace was boiling for a while. Especially among the well-informed eunuchs, there were many rumors, and some of them were even gods. A eunuch on duty in Puyi's palace had a good relationship with Sun Yaoting, and talked about this matter behind his back, shaking his head and whispering that the private affairs of the "emperor" had other hidden feelings.
As a member of the eunuchs in the palace, Sun Yaoting was reluctant to talk much about those affairs in those years, especially the acts related to "Long Live Grandpa", and he was even more cautious and rarely mentioned. But in this matter, he did not deny it, saying that Puyi had a "beautiful child" among the eunuchs around him- Wang Fengchi, with fine skin and tender flesh, plus no beard, looking like a woman who still had charm. He was Puyi's palace eunuch, only a few years older than Puyi, and his temper was good, and for a while he was inseparable from Puyi and became a pair of deformed figures in the palace.
Group photo of the eunuchs in the late Qing Dynasty, the second from the right is Wang Fengchi
In the whirlpool of this deformed life, the relationship between Puyi and Wanrong naturally cannot be normal. As time went on, WanRong was also aware. She was extremely distressed, ashamed to speak to others, and unable to balance her heart, so she had to find her own so-called pleasure - trapping people in the quagmire of opium smoking.
All kinds of troubles in the palace made Puyi's temper become extremely strange, and if he was slightly unhappy, he scolded the eunuchs and used them as pumps. Sun Yaoting will never forget that once, when he was in the room discussing something in the palace with several other small eunuchs, he happened to be overheard by Puyi who was passing by. Pu Yi burst in, fiercely twisting Sun Yaoting's ears and taking him to the Yangxin Hall.
Sun Yaoting knew that things were not good, so he could not avoid a reprimand and knelt down to beg for forgiveness. Who knew that Puyi suddenly opened the drawer, pulled out a pistol, slammed it on the table, and shouted: "You are so bold, you dare to talk about gossip behind your back!" Today, I'm going to kill you! ”
"Long live Grandpa spare your life!" Long live Grandpa spare your life! Sun Yaoting trembled and cried, and kept prostrating his head: "I have great courage, and I don't dare to say long live Grandpa!" Puyi looked at this slave who was kneeling on the ground, and suddenly laughed loudly: "Go!" Not next time. Sun Yaoting was so frightened that he didn't dare to lift his head, and left the Yangxin Hall in a cold sweat. Recalling this incident, Sun Yaoting still has palpitations in his heart; "Puyi is a moody person, and I am afraid of him. ”
As a eunuch, Sun Yaoting lived cautiously in the palace, because he knew that if he made a mistake once, he would have to land on the ground.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > happy old age </h1>
In 1924, during the Second Zhifeng War, Feng Yuxiang entered Beijing and expelled the last emperor Puyi from the Forbidden City. Puyi hid in his aunt's house and later entered the Japanese Embassy in China. After Sun Yaoting left the palace, he continued to serve Wanrong at the home of the regent Zaifeng. It wasn't until a month later, when Wanrong went to find Puyi, that he completely ended his career as a eunuch.
In 1926, Sun Yaoting returned to the Wanshou Xinglong Temple, the residence of the eunuchs in Beichangjie, Beijing, where more than 40 eunuchs who shared his fate lived. "After liberation, we eunuchs had a happy life." Sun Yaoting's words were full of joy and gratitude. Initially, the government gave them 16 yuan per month for living expenses, and later Sun Yaoting joined the work and was responsible for the management of temples throughout the city. He also worked as a cashier for 6 years, earning $35 a month.
After the Cultural Revolution, Sun Yaoting lived in Guanghua Temple until his death in 1996, at the age of 94. At the age of 91, he wrote a banner that read, "The country is righteous and the heavens are smooth, and the officials and the people are at ease" to express his feelings. His autobiography, The Last Eunuch in China, was adapted into a film in 1988. As a close confidant of the Emperor's concubines and a participant in court politics, he witnessed the last court luxuries, experienced the final dynastic collapse, and became a unique "living history". It was not until his later years that Sun Yaoting enjoyed his dignity as a human being.
Jia Yinghua dictated