Eunuchs are a large and extremely special group in the ancient history of our country, and their long-term existence has affected the political, economic, cultural and diplomatic development of different dynasties to a certain extent. Eunuchs had repeatedly served as auxiliary forces to accompany courtiers on missions to other countries, but their numbers and scale were very limited, and they did not have a profound impact on society.
Since the Ming Dynasty, eunuch envoys have become a norm, and even formed into "eunuch diplomacy". Due to the practical needs of politics, eunuchs played a very important role in the relations between the Ming Dynasty and the vassal states.
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the rulers strengthened the centralization of power internally, developed the domestic economy, and maintained social stability; externally, they committed themselves to developing friendly diplomatic relations with surrounding countries, and no longer adopted the foreign policy of the Yuan Dynasty' expansion. Ming Taizu sent envoys to Goryeo, Japan and other countries many times, and through the diplomatic efforts of successive Ming emperors, a total of 148 countries from all over the world came to pay tribute. Ming Taizu always adhered to the principle of paying tribute to the tributary countries, and some small vassal states frequently sent envoys to pay tribute for high interests, which increased the economic burden of the Ming Dynasty, so Ming Taizu ordered that the conditions for tribute were required, which discouraged the enthusiasm of neighboring countries. After Ming Chengzu ascended the throne, in the face of the diplomatic situation of the tribute, he lifted all restrictions on tribute, so during the Yongle years, tribute envoys from various countries flooded the imperial court. The Ming Dynasty's frequent tributary exchanges with surrounding countries provided an opportunity for eunuchs to send envoys to other countries, and eunuchs began to perform diplomatic duties as official diplomatic envoys of the state, together with other envoys.
During the Hongwu dynasty, the diplomatic envoys of the Ming Dynasty were all held by Hanlin, and there was no special agency responsible for foreign affairs, until the Pedestrian Department was later established to take over foreign affairs, and the envoys were sent by him. The biggest purpose of Ming Taizu's envoys was to promote national prestige, but the Pedestrian Division was only a nine-pin yamen, there were not many officials within the organization, and there was an extreme lack of diplomatic talents, which was completely unable to cope with the needs of diplomacy. In order to train competent envoys, pedestrians must be trained to ensure that there are no mistakes in the mission process. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, in order to repair relations with neighboring countries as soon as possible, the rulers needed a large number of diplomatic envoys to other countries, but the number of pedestrians in this period was limited, coupled with the lack of understanding of the language, the mission encountered great obstacles. However, many eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty came from ethnic minorities and neighboring countries, they had no language barrier, and they also solved the problem of insufficient numbers, so the imperial court appointed these eunuchs as diplomatic envoys, laying the groundwork for the phenomenon of "eunuch diplomacy" in the Ming Dynasty.
From the subjective point of view, eunuchs have various conditions for envoys. First, the eunuchs were loyal to the emperor. The eunuch group knew themselves very clearly, they were essentially slaves, they only needed to obey the orders of their masters and complete their work diligently. In the Ariake generation, the eunuch's loyalty to his master was more prominent. In the Ming Dynasty, the folk customs of the palace were prevalent, and some boys from poor families preferred to endure the pain of cutting off their children and grandchildren to enter the palace, and they wanted to become eunuchs to seek wealth, so once these eunuchs entered the palace to serve their masters, their purposes were also achieved, and they naturally obeyed the masters. The long life in the palace improved the ability of the eunuchs to work, and coupled with their loyalty, the emperor trusted this group so much that it was not surprising to send eunuchs on missions to other countries.
The Records of ming Taizu once recorded: "The eunuch temple is practiced, the office is swept away, the envoy is supplied, and there is no disaster for the eunuch temple if the military handle is not false." ”
In Ming Taizu's view, as long as eunuchs were not given military power, then they would not endanger the politics of the country, so from the very beginning, the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty had the right to "give envoys". Eunuchs can not only convey envoys in the inner palace, but also serve as the emperor's chin to pronounce government decrees and reward officials. Because eunuchs had this power, it gradually became the norm to send envoys.
The eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty all had a certain level of education, and the eunuchs were educated through the establishment of the Inner Book Hall in the palace, so they could read and hyphenate and send foreign envoys to convey the emperor's edicts. At the same time, foreign eunuchs have favorable conditions for envoys, many of the Ming eunuchs come from foreign tributes and castrated prisoners of war, these foreign eunuchs provide favorable conditions for the Ming eunuchs to send envoys, they come from foreign countries, they are familiar with the local customs and customs, coupled with their own language advantages, they can easily complete the mission tasks assigned by the emperor.
Eunuch diplomacy in the Ming Dynasty was the inevitable result of the interaction between objective and subjective conditions at that time. The eunuch envoys met the practical needs of the Ming Dynasty's frequent exchanges with neighboring countries, and at the same time, the eunuchs themselves had the conditions for envoys, they were loyal to the emperor, and they had a certain ability and cultural level, and they were good candidates for envoys to other countries. The eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty played an important role in Sino-foreign exchanges, which on the one hand reflected the strengthening of the feudal autocratic system, and on the other hand, out of political needs, so that the situation of eunuch diplomacy that was famous in history was formed.
bibliography:
Records of Ming Taizu