The feudal system brutalized countless people, including eunuchs who served members of the royal family, and the eunuch Sun Yaoting, who entered the palace at the fall of the Qing Dynasty, was particularly pitiful.
He imagined his career as a eunuch after entering the palace, but he was unexpectedly abandoned by the lingering late Qing Dynasty and lived an extremely sloppy life. It was not until the founding of New China that Sun Yaoting was able to have a living guarantee and was able to write an autobiography, "The Last Eunuch in China", which recounted his humiliating and bitter past when he served the emperor and empress.
In order to seek wealth, enter the palace purely
In 1902, Sun Yaoting was born in a poor peasant family in Jinghai, Tianjin. At that time, the world was in turmoil, because the family was poor and had no backing, the fields were forcibly occupied by bullies, and the family of six had no food or clothing. Sun Yaoting, the second in line, is eager to raise his eyebrows and change the plight of his family, but he does not have much culture, and there is only one way in front of him - to enter the palace as a eunuch.
In Sun Yaoting's hometown, there was a eunuch chief named Xiao Dezhang, who was once a red man around Cixi Lafayette, and the beautiful battle of returning to his hometown made him envious. Therefore, Sun Yaoting ignored the objections of his parents and insisted on taking the road of eunuchs. Of course, his father did not agree, but the current situation of the family was in front of him, and entering the palace as a eunuch could eat and drink without worry, and he could also reduce the burden of money in the family. Sun Yaoting's parents could only acquiesce in the end that he embarked on this humiliating way out.
At that time, the fee for cleaning the body in Beijing was extremely expensive, and in order to save this money, Sun Yaoting asked relatives to help clean up at home. The soil method of the private automatic knife is very risky, very easy to infect, and even painful to the point of death on the spot. But people are at a loss for words, and they have to do so. Fortunately, Sun Yaoting was subjected to the painful purification process.
But what no one expected was that in the year of his purification, that is, in 1912, the Qing Emperor announced his abdication and the Qing Dynasty died. Sun Yaoting, who heard the news, almost collapsed. If the emperor is gone, there is no need to serve the eunuch, so he will not cut off the root of his life in vain. At that time, the Nationalist government had preferential treatment for the Qing royal family, and Puyi still lived in the Forbidden City and retained some royal privileges. Under such circumstances, Sun Yaoting was able to enter the palace to serve.
The royal family survives and humiliates the past
When he first entered the palace, Sun Yaoting was assigned to serve an old eunuch in the food, clothing and living, day and night to do the most tiring rough work. Sun Yaoting endured the hard work and asked the people around him for advice as much as possible while protecting himself. Gradually, with his cleverness, he mixed with the lowest eunuchs to empress Wanrong's side to serve, which can be described as a eunuch with a head and a face.
But serving the royal family and nobles seems to be beautiful, but behind the scenes, they suffer a lot. The elderly Sun Yaoting recalled that he only felt that the feudal imperial power had forced people to humiliate people.
For example, for a concubine bathing, in addition to serving the palace maid close to her, she also asked the eunuch to serve next to her. The water temperature directly affects the mood of the concubines, and the eunuchs have to quickly mix cold water or hot water to adjust the temperature, and once they are slow, they will be punished.
The water temperature is still secondary, and the most important thing is to serve the concubine to take a bath. You know, although these noble figures under the imperial power are not willing to do it themselves, they are very picky. The strength of the bath and the back is not light, it is not heavy, and the dirt must be removed, once it hurts the mother-in-law, wait for the board to pass. In addition to having to follow a fixed procedure, the eunuch also had to close his eyes the whole time, which greatly increased the difficulty.
When the vigil for Emperor Puyi began, Sun Yaoting would be punished for dozing off when he was found. In order to prevent drowsiness, he learned other eunuchs to put a few sharp ears in their shoes, and once the snooze relaxed, the pain would immediately wake people up. In this way, even if you walk at night, you will make a lighter noise because you tiptoe, so as not to wake the emperor.
Displaced and reborn
Sun Yaoting had served the royal family members for more than ten years, accustomed to struggling to survive under the feudal imperial power, and thought that his life could continue to go down like this. But the wheel of history is always moving forward. In 1924, the warlord Feng Yuxiang invaded Beiping, expelled Puyi and other members of the imperial family from the Forbidden City, revoked the royal privileges, and dismissed the eunuch palace women, including Sun Yaoting.
At that time, although Sun Yaoting was only 22 years old, his long career as a eunuch made him incompatible with the personalities around him. Psychological distortions can be alleviated in a calm life, but physical disabilities can never be changed.
Not long after returning to his hometown in Tianjin, Sun Yaoting moved back to Beijing because he could not stand the discussion of his neighbors. But he had no long belongings, and he was too weak to do heavy work, so he could only live in the Wanshou Xinglong Temple, huddled together with dozens of eunuchs for warmth, and lived by walking the streets and alleys to pick up waste, and life was extremely difficult.
After the founding of New China, in the face of a monthly relief allowance of 16 yuan, Sun Yaoting sensed that the state treated these eunuchs who had not been respected in the past as equals, and he was grateful. Later, he refused the allowance and chose to work in the religious administration office, mainly dealing with the temple. Although the salary is not high, Sun Yaoting is more practical and comfortable than ever. In 1996, Sun Yaoting died at Guangji Temple at the age of 94.
epilogue:
Sun Yaoting was able to live a peaceful life under the protection of New China, and in his later years wrote an autobiography recalling the life of a eunuch. The humiliation of waiting for concubines to bathe is written in the book, which is a microcosm of the oppression of human rights by the feudal system. He should not be discriminated against, after all, in the late Qing Dynasty, where the torrent of history is over, people at the bottom can only hope to sell themselves to the royal family to gain a little security.