In 1987, a Qing Palace costume film called "China's Last Eunuch" was released, which was set in the great era of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty, telling the story of the last eunuch in China who came to the palace to taste the humiliation of humility, see the ups and downs of the late Qing Dynasty and the world, and depict the tragic fate of a lowly and lowly "little person" for most of his life from a focused perspective.
In real life, the last eunuch in China is named Sun Yaoting, who is the prototype of the protagonist of the film "The Last Eunuch in China", "Laixi".
Sun Yaoting was a direct subordinate at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and when he was a teenager, because his family was poor and miserable, he reluctantly accepted the fate of being "purified" by his father and then entering the Forbidden City as a eunuch.
After the founding of New China, Sun Yaoting was criticized for being a "slave of the emperor". It was not until his later years that Sun Yaoting was discovered his unique value as a "witness of history", and was valued and respected by society.
Born in 1902, Sun Yaoting is a native of Xishuangtang Village, Jinghai District, Tianjin, whose original name was Sun Liujin. Sun Yaoting came from a poor peasant family, his parents had 4 sons, and Sun Yaoting was the second child in the family. Sun Yaoting's family is very poor, the whole family of 6 people has less than 1 acre of grain land, because the family conditions have been extremely poor for a long time, so many rural villains dare to bully the Sun family.
Later, a bully in the village forcibly occupied the grain field of Sun Yaoting's family and set fire to Sun Yaoting's home. His father, who was unable to fight back, came up with a way to take revenge in the future - to purify Xiao Yaoting and send him to the palace as a eunuch, and when Sun Yaoting gained power in the future, he would come back to clean up the fierce and rampant bully.
As a result, the little Sun Yaoting thus became a victim of "revenge for the family", and the penniless sun father was unable to send his son to the skilled purification master to complete the process of purifying his son' body, so he took matters into his own hands and cleansed Sun Yaoting at home. Because the conditions and health were not up to standard, Sun Yaoting also had a high fever for 3 days and 3 nights, and almost died.
Just when Sun Yaoting was about to be sent to Beijing by his father, Yuan Shikai, who served in the Provisional Government of Nanjing, in order to become the president at an early date, said softly and hard that he could provide favorable conditions for the Qing court, but the emperor had to make it clear to the outside world and declare that he would completely renounce the right to rule China.
Soon after, Empress Longyu and Emperor Puyi issued an abdication edict, and in an instant, the feudal imperial system of the Qing Dynasty died out, and the emperor lost the real power of Longwei, so would he still retain those eunuch palace women?! Thinking of this, Sun Yaoting, who has paid a huge price for his family, can't help but shed tears of sadness.
Subsequently, in order to show that there was still a sense of respect and compassion for the Qing imperial family, the Nationalist government immediately issued a statement: although the Qing Emperor had abdicated, the honorific title must still be retained, and can be temporarily residing in the Forbidden City as usual, and later moved to the Summer Palace, and the palace guards will remain as usual.
Hearing such good news, Sun Father immediately began to send Sun Yaoting to the city of Beijing, and entrusted an old eunuch who had worked as an errand boy in prince's palace to unblock the relationship, and it took a lot of trouble to send Sun Yaoting to the Forbidden City. After he was registered in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Sun Yaoting officially became a small miscellaneous eunuch in the Forbidden City.
At first, Sun Yaoting was assigned to the side of Ren Dexiang, the deputy governor of the Nine Halls, who was the chief eunuch at the time, and was also a eunuch, who had both status and prestige in the palace. Sun Yaoting, who had just entered the palace, had no name, so he carefully served Ren Dexiang as an "apprentice".
At that time, Sun Yaoting's heart was very humble and cowardly, afraid that the waiter would not be careful and provoke the "master" Ren Dexiang to be angry. Therefore, Sun Yaoting has always been respectful and cautious, carefully serving tea and water for Ren Dexiang, lighting cigarettes and pouring wine, taking care of his living, and even responsible for brushing the toilet for Ren Dexiang.
After years and years, Ren Dexiang was very satisfied with Sun Yaoting' "little apprentice", and praised Sun Yaoting for being sensible and obedient, observing the color, and doing things cleanly and neatly.
Soon, even Princess Duankang knew that there was a clever and clever little eunuch under Ren Dexiang, and she also took the opportunity to set up a stage rehearsal in the palace to let Sun Yaoting join the royal drama team.
Sun Yaoting knew that his opportunity had come, so he spent money to entrust him to the "Sifang" after 10 months - the eunuchs in the Sifang had the opportunity to meet the emperor and the concubines, Sun Yaoting ended his history as a low-level eunuch, and he got the opportunity to be promoted by relying on the courtesy and the resignation, and finally transferred to Puyi and Wanrong's side to serve with orders, which can also be regarded as surviving.
In fact, Sun Yaoting's learning to look up to people's sniffles and practice a set of good skills in serving people is not a talent, but a hard work.
Since entering the palace, Sun Yaoting has kept the rules of the palace firmly in mind, secretly observing the actions of other eunuchs around him at any time and anywhere, and even trying to establish good relations with the old eunuchs so that he can ask them for advice from time to time.
The work of serving the master in the palace must always be attentive, must maintain a respectful attitude, must be thoughtful, since entering the palace, Sun Yaoting, who has always been humble and cautious in his heart, has won a good reputation by virtue of such a creed, and step by step obtained the rank of a relatively high-ranking eunuch such as "deputy attendant".
At that time, Sun Yaoting hung up the title of "attendant" and served the masters of the palaces in the palaces of concubines, even at night, so that the masters could be sent at any time.
Sun Yaoting is also just an ordinary person, sleepiness at night will inevitably doze off, but also because of this has been punished, but punishment can not prevent no longer doze off, Sun Yaoting often feel distressed about this.
One day, Sun Yaoting and an old eunuch were chatting about wine, Sun Yaoting asked the old eunuch how to always be energetic when he was on night duty, and the old eunuch looked at Sun Yaoting and smiled, saying: I will tell you this secret later. After saying this, the old eunuch was overwhelmed by alcohol and fell into a deep sleep.
The old eunuch was still on duty at night, so he fell asleep while he was drunk, but Sun Yaoting couldn't sleep, and he wanted to know the secret of not dozing off at night. Sun Yaoting couldn't help but start observing and pondering the old eunuch who was already asleep.
Soon, the sharp-eyed and careful-eyed man found the answer in the shoes that the old eunuch had taken off--it turned out that every night when he was on duty, the old eunuch would put a few grains of ears in his shoes in advance, and the ears were surrounded by thorns, and anyone who stepped on them would feel a kind of pain and irritation, so that those who wanted to doze off could only endure a bit, and they could all be energetic and listen to the poor at night.
Sun Yaoting originally thought that he had spent his life in the life of serving his master, but in 1924, the great warlord Feng Yuxiang drove Puyi and his royal family out of the Forbidden City, and Puyi could not do anything.
Sun Yaoting, who had to dismiss the palace maid and eunuchs and left the Forbidden City homeless, bought several plots of land with several eunuchs he knew, and barely made a living by collecting rent.
After the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo, Puyi's living life still needed palace women and eunuchs to serve, so Sun Yaoting returned to Puyi's side as an errand boy.
Soon after the founding of New China, Sun Yaoting was criticized for having been a "slave of the emperor", and he expressed his willingness to accept reform, and later the government arranged a job for him to solve the problem of sun Yaoting's food and clothing. In 1996, at the age of 94, Sun Yaoting died in Beijing.
Having no wife and no children all his life, and having been sent by others for most of his life, it can be said that Sun Yaoting's life was not happy, and it can be described as sad.
As the last eunuch in China, the grand eunuch Sun Yaoting was both a victim of the feudal dynasty and the feudal system, and a witness to the alternation of the old and the new in history.