Preface
Compared with the guards, many people should know more about the position of eunuchs, eunuchs enjoy special duties and treatment due to their special status as "palace attendants", and can enter and exit the harem more freely.
Because after the eunuch was purified, it was objectively impossible to cause the result of "fornication harem", and it was impossible to pose a threat to the bloodline of the royal family, the majesty of the imperial power, and the purity of the bloodline of the clan.
The feudal emperor was naturally not afraid of the eunuchs cuckolding him. However, the same guards who operated in the palace were very different, they were mainly responsible for the personal security of the emperor, so they had to maintain their masculine characteristics in order to better serve the emperor.
Why should eunuchs be purified
The term eunuch now refers to all castrated, castrated, special men who serve the inner court in the feudal palace. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, men in this position did not have to be castrated,
In the Zhou Li, this official who served in the emperor's inner court was called "temple people", and "temple" means official office, that is, it usually works in a certain official office within the imperial court. With the development of the times, in the Qin and Han dynasties, the title of "temple man" gradually merged with "eunuch".
At that time, the eunuchs did not require all castration, and the management of eunuchs was not strict, but this also laid a hidden danger for the political turmoil, the most typical example is the story of Chang Yu and Ying Zheng's mother Zhao Ji.
According to the "Historical Records of Qin Shi Huang Benji", Qin Shi Huang's mother Zhao Ji and Xiangguo Lü Buwei had an affair, Lü Buwei saw that Qin Shi Huang was becoming more and more shrewd and capable, so he was worried that the matter would be revealed in the end and he would be ruined, so he thought of a way to find someone from the people-Chang Yu, and asked him to pretend to be a eunuch, so as to blend into the palace.
In Sima Qian's words, Chang Yu is a "big yin person", which is tantamount to a long drought for Zhao Ji, and after a private meeting with Chang Yu, he has been out of control since then, and gradually he has more and more trust in Chang Yu, and named him "Changxin Hou".
But people's desires are endless, probably because Chang Yu felt that he had an affair with Yingzheng's mother, which gave him an unparalleled sense of control, so that he secretly accumulated his own power, and his desire for power further expanded, and there were even thousands of child servants and guests in the family, and finally he even gave birth to two children with Zhao Ji.
As Lü Buwei feared, in the ninth year of the reign of King Qin (238 years ago), Chang Yu fornicated with the east window of the harem, at this time Chang Yu planned to strike first, so he launched a coup d'état in the Qin King's Qi Nian Palace, known as the "Qi Nian Palace Change", but was finally defeated by the King of Qin, sentenced to the punishment of car splitting, and sat on the clan.
The incident of Chang Yu's affair with Zhao Ji shows that the eunuch system at this time is obviously not perfect enough. At that time, the new Qin Empire was preparing to attack, like a full bow, and all its forces were used to seize the unified world, but it also ignored the deadly danger behind it.
In view of this, Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty, attached great importance to the eunuch system, and he established the system that eunuchs must be eunuchs, which also marked that from the Eastern Han Dynasty, eunuchs who wanted to serve in the inner court must be castrated.
In ancient times, castration generally referred to the removal of the entire male reproductive system, making it less aggressive, more gentle, and naturally completely infertile. After all, the emperor can rest assured that he has completely lost his fertility.
For the emperor, only eunuchs who cannot reproduce can serve the royal family without polluting the bloodline of the royal family, and can completely ensure the purity of the royal family, just like the male lion in nature after occupying a lion group, he must kill the lion cubs, the purpose is to ensure the continuation of his bloodline, to ensure the reproduction and survival of his offspring.
Men are not like women, they can instinctively know whose kind of seed women are carrying in their wombs, so they can only ensure that the situation of doves occupying magpies' nests will not occur to the greatest extent, so eunuch purification is absolutely necessary for ancient emperors.
As another important position in the palace, the guard, there is no need to purify the body at all, and the emperor does not have to worry about them fornicating in the harem.
One of the important reasons for this is the limitation of the scope of the squire's own authority. In the long-term practice, the feudal empire developed a pattern of facing the front and sleeping behind.
The former dynasty is the place where the emperor deals with government affairs, and the back bedroom is the inner court of the harem, where the concubines and concubines live. The scope of the former dynasty is the outer dynasty, which mainly includes three major halls (Taihe Palace, Zhonghe Palace, Baohe Palace) and Wenhua Hall and Wuying Hall in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
And the most important is the Qianqing Gate, which is the dividing line between the front dynasty and the back bed, and it is also the official entrance to the harem.
On the other side of the door, is the area under the jurisdiction of the eunuchs, the Qing Dynasty clarified the specific responsibilities of the eunuchs in this field, established a 24-hour duty system, and implemented a strict inspection system.
All officials who are out of the forbidden door must be inspected by the stalls, which also plays a role in preventing the guards from entering the harem without authorization.
Some people will think, isn't it okay to bribe the eunuch and sneak in? In fact, it seems that it is just entering a door, but the meaning is completely different.
From the moment the guards violated the rules and stepped into the harem, the gears of fate began to turn, and he was betting on the glory and wealth he currently enjoyed, his future and fate, and the lives of himself and his family.
In the previous dynasty, the tall and mighty guards were the loyal and reliable servants of the emperor, but once the guards stepped into the land of the harem, they were trampling on the majesty of the imperial power and challenging the authority of the imperial family, which was absolutely intolerable to the feudal emperor.
The second is that the risks and benefits are completely disproportionate.
Taking the Qing Dynasty as an example, once selected as a guard, it means supreme honor and real money, especially ordinary people are selected as guards, which is a matter of green smoke on the ancestral tomb, absolutely loyal, grateful to the royal family.
Different from the identity of the eunuch "palace clerk", the guard is a civil servant, and in the Qing Dynasty guard hierarchy, it is generally divided into first-class guards (Zheng 3 pin), second class guards (Zheng 4 pin), third class guards (Zheng 5 pin), Lan Ling guards (Zheng 6 or 5 pins), imperial guards, Qianqing gate guards, clan guards, and special leading guards and ministers (Zheng Yi Pin).
Take the lower-grade Lan Ling guards as an example, the annual income is roughly about 60 taels to 75 taels, and the well-known great writer Pu Songling, his income as a private teacher in the village at that time was only four taels of silver a year, and the gap can be described as extremely large, not to mention those low-level people who live in dire straits.
Especially as a first-class guard, and a special imperial guard and the minister of the guard, their salary is as high as 100 taels, not including all kinds of additional money, the imperial guard and the Qianqing gate guard also enjoy special economic treatment, and the household department also allocates 10,000 taels of food every year.
Enjoying such a good treatment, having a social and economic status a hundred times and a thousand times higher than that of a eunuch, and being a proud guard in the eyes of his own people, there is no need to risk losing everything and getting involved in the harem and challenging the authority of the emperor who gave him everything.
If you want to get involved in the harem, there are just two reasons, one is for sex, and the other is for power. The social resources and political status of the guards make it easy to obtain and power in the harsh feudal society, which are two resources that men can't stop, so there is no need to purify themselves as guards.
The last reason is probably physiological. As a guard, protecting the safety of the emperor is the most important thing, especially the imperial guard, the post is extremely important, and it is the essence of the Qing Dynasty guard system, directly responsible for the safety of the emperor and his family.
Therefore, it is necessary to have a strong body, alert judgment, once there is no male hormone involvement, the body will undergo a series of changes, the voice will become thinner, the bones will become lighter, the breasts may also develop, and the lower body may still reveal a fishy smell from time to time after castration.
Imagine that when the emperor travels, there are screaming eunuchs on the left and right, and the smell of the lower body is carrying a knife, tilting his head and looking at people carefully, which is extremely funny. Such a situation will make the majesty of the emperor disappear, and it will never happen.
Therefore, whether it is the castration of eunuchs or the retention of the body of the guard male, in the final analysis, it is to serve the centralized power, and under the mighty wheel of history, it is just a speck of dust of the times.
Reference: "Historical Records: The Records of Qin Shi Huang"
"Weekly Rites"
"Qing History Microscopic Examination" Issue 01
Yearbook of the People's Republic of China