The chief eunuch in 'The Boy Fortune Hunters in China' (1909)

The Boy Fortune Hunters is a series by L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, writing under the pseudonym Floyd Akers. The fourth volume, The Boy Fortune Hunters in China, was published in 1909 by the Reilly and Britton Co.

In this story, set in 1908, three American boys — Sam Steele of Chelsea, Mass., age 18, the narrator; Archie Ackley, "about my age"; and Joseph Herring, "a little younger" and "rich" — sail across the Pacific to China and conspire to steal a royal treasure from the palace of a dead prince, out from under the nose of the ever-loyal chief eunuch. They travel with two South Sea Islanders, Nux and Bryonia, who had been rescued at sea by Sam's uncle. The uncle then renamed them after the medicines he used to save their lives. They were subsequently "devoted" to this man, and they learned English from him. "Indeed, I had come to regard both Nux and Bry," Sam says, "as my own personal followers, and well had they proven their claim to this title. They were nearly as dark as Africans, but very intelligent and faithful in every emergency." Nux and Bry follow Sam, Archie, and Joe everywhere, but they do not direct the action and they do not seem to be considered full members of the adventure club.

Skipping the first thirteen chapters, I will focus on the action involving the Chief Eunuch Wi-to.

Chapter XIV introduces the Chief Eunuch. After traveling for weeks in northwestern China, emerging from "a dark and gloomy teak forest" on the backs of elephants and arriving in Kwang-Kai-Nong, the adventurers receive a dinner invitation from "the noble governor [Mai Lo] and the great Wi-to." Wi-to is the "Chief Eunuch and the Supreme Ruler of the palace of Price Kai," second in power only to the governor. He speaks serviceable English and is friendly to the adventurers. When they first meet, he "gave us a whimsical look and raised a pair of bright, intelligent eyes to meet our own."

Sam says: "My notion of eunuchs had been that they were fierce creatures of powerful build, usually Ethiopians, and greatly to e feared. I had heard tales of their absolute power in the palaces of the nobles, and that even the mighty Empress Tsi An had failed to curb the influence of her palace eunuchs. So it pleased me to find Wi-to more agreeable in manner and speech than the imperturbable governor..." Sam informs the eunuch that their party intends "to escort the remains of your master [the late Prince Kai, who had taught the eunuch English] and our beloved friend to his old home."

"I did not know whether it was proper to address the Chief Eunuch as 'your Highness' or not; but perhaps the compliment pleased him, for he smiled, then screwed up his face into a semblance of grief, then smiled again."

'We are deeply grieved and inconsolable,' said he, cheerfully.

It turns out that "the shrewd eunuch" was eager to learn that one of the adventurers, Sam, had been acquainted with Prince Kai.

Wi-to oddly claims that English, which for him is a second language, "is an excellent language to converse in, and easier than our own...for it is much more simple."

In Chapter XV, there is a funeral procession to the capital, Kai-Nong. Wi-to's elephant brings up the rear behind the adventurers' elephants. They arrive at the palace walls and enter the gardens.

"Sixty gorgeously appareled men, armed with scimitars and broad axes, formed a circle around the elephant that bore the casket and prepared to guard it. They were stalwart, erect fellows, of proud bearing but evil and ferocious countenances, and each wore a yellow turban coiled upon his head, with a golden clasp, in effigy of the Sacred Ape, fastening the folds just above the forehead.

These were the eunuchs, the palace guards, or servants and attendants of the harem.

* * *

We all dismounted here, and the mahouts led away the elephants. Some of the eunuchs bore the casket of the Prince up the broad steps of the terrace, while Wi-to bowed low, first to the Governor and then to us, and welcomed us to the Royal House of Kai."

In Chapter XVI, "The Governor Shows His Teeth," left alone with Mai Lo and Wi-to, Sam says, "we seemed quite alone with these two natives, one of whom we knew distrusted and hated us." Wi-to "looked at us shrewdly and with an expression more grave and reserved than he had yet shown us," and leaves. "We were much annoyed at this discourteous treatment" at mid-afternoon, as they felt that Wi-to owed them lunch.

The palace entrance is flanked by two bronze statues "of the Sacred Ape, its grinning jaws filled with ivory teeth and its eyes set with immense rubies." One of the adventure boys, Archie, says: "Looks as if they had allowed us to come this far so that they might murder us." Sam replies: "We've got to win the good will of the eunuch or we're done for." Mai Lo returns and tells them he is not bound to honor the late Prince Kai's hospitality toward them; they must immediately leave for Shanghai or they will be killed. The boys object. Mai Lo blows a whistle, and Sam"motioned to Nux and Bry. Instantly my blacks had pounced upon the governor and drawn him behind us, holding him secure, while from a dozen nooks about the hall sprang eunuchs with drawn scimitars, who ran swiftly toward us."

Sam stops this onslaught by yelling "Stop!" even though the assailants "knew no English" and, moreover, do not answer to him. His comrade Archie, armed with a revolver, addresses the governor Mai Lo as "you yellow monkey" and demands that he call off his army "or I'll put a bullet through your head!" Sam shows Prince Kai's ring to the eunuchs "and said sternly: 'Wi-to!'" which for some reason causes them to bow low and summon Wi-to, who also kneels at the sight of Prince Kai's ring.

In Chapter XVII, "Wi-to Proves Faithful," the boy adventurers show Wi-to a letter written by Prince Kai, documenting that Prince Kai had given his ring to the boys and not to the governor Mai Lo. Sam presents his theory that Mai Lo is an opportunist who has returned to the city only to steal Prince Kai's treasure, and not to commit suicide according to what he says would be Shinto tradition. Wi-to, surprised and agitated, says: "You must be right." But, he asks, "you think I will side with you against the powerful governor?...I can destroy you foreigners with a word, and sweep you from my path. Then I can make an alliance with Mai Lo and together we could rob the ancestral halls and escape to some other country to enjoy the wealth." He adds that he is "of lowly birth, and as a child my parents sold me to the House of Kai to become a eunuch. My consent was not asked. Why should I be faithful to my masters?" Joe, one of the boy adventurers, says: "It's your nature," and adds, "A eunuch is of no use in the world outside of his own province. Here you have power. In Europe you would be despised and insulted." Wi-to agrees that they are right — he has been loyal for these reasons in the past. He adds that, if he stays, he is likely to remain in his current position and "be the real master here," so he doesn't need to steal anything from the palace.

Wi-to says he'll protect the boys from Mai Lo as long as they remain in the palace. "With that he clapped his hands together and two eunuchs stepped forward from behind a screen, so silently that their appearance startled me." One of the eunuchs, called Tun, will be their personal servant. Unlike the majority of the palace eunuchs, he speaks a little English. Wi-to says "he is a Manchu and will be faithful."

In Chapter XVIII, the boys became aware of an increasing number of palace eunuchs who are "invariably respectful and even humble, but they were an ill-looking crew, and we were never at ease in their presence." Wi-to then shows them the Sacred Apes who are actual beasts in a cage, one of whom is considered King Ape because he ate an imperial ancestor and thus is considered to contain the man's spirit.

In Chapter XIX, Wi-to explains that there is a harem and that the Prince's sister will soon be presented to the Emperor. Sam says that this sounds "almost as horrible as the story of the King Ape." Wi-to supposes that American women belong to American men and the men must not care about their property very much given that they allow the women so much freedom.

In Chapter XX, Sam continues to remind Wi-to that Mai Lo might try to steal the treasure. In private, Sam explains to Joe: "I want him to get suspicious of Mai Lo, and watch that old fox so carefully that he won't get a chance to steal anything until we get through. Besides, it will relieve us of any suspicions...he's crafty enough to believe that we wouldn't talk about robbing the Ancestral Halls if we had any idea of doing it ourselves."

In Chapter XXI, the boys risk their lives to have a casual conversation with three pretty girls. Sam, in his narrative voice, insists (though no one asked him) that when he falls in love someday, "it will be with an American girl, and it won't matter much whether she is beautiful or not, so long as I love her." He only chatted with the Chinese girls insofar as "every well regulated young fellow is fond of chatting with nice girls," and the Chinese girls offered "a pleasant change" from their dangerous adventures.

In Chapter XXII, they trespass into a vault and discover the jewels. One of the boys takes a handful of pearls.

In Chapter XXIII, Sam says, "Often we passed the magnificently attired household eunuchs, singly or in groups; but we had now become familiar sights to these creatures, and they merely touched their yellow turbans respectfully and passed on." The boys become aware that Mai Lo has discovered their trespass.

In Chapter XXIV, Wi-to is drunken and uncharacteristically babbling. "His face was haggard and worn, his eyes puffy and bloodshot and his person untidy." The boys find a cabinet with jewel-encrusted weapons but are not prepared to steal anything yet.

In Chapter XXV, a newly sober Wi-to personally slays a eunuch who shirked his work while Wi-to had been drunk: "it taught us how little human life was valued in this strange land." Mai Lo surprises the boys while they are chatting illicitly with the girls. Archie offers to shoot Mai Lo, but Sam tells him to stand down. Meanwhile, Sam wonders why Bry, who had been standing guard outside the pavilion, "was still silent. What could have become of our faithful black?" It then occurs to Sam that Mai Lo had simply approached from another direction. Mai Lo orders the boys to leave immediately for Shanghai or die. They refuse, so he whistles and a dozen eunuchs armed with scimitars run out. "Three revolvers cracked and three of the eunuchs fell," and the boys take their opportunity to run away, whereupon they are joined by "a rescue party, consisting of Nux and Bry at the head of a band of eunuchs led by Wi-to himself." Wi-to says, however, that he cannot protect the boys any longer now that they have violated the harem.

In Chapter XXVI, Sam begins by bemoaning that Wi-to's "oriental education and surroundings had saturated his otherwise liberal mind with the conventions and prejudices of his people; and he had a supreme contempt for women and could not tolerate such an unwarranted act as we had committed; in other words, making the acquaintance of three pretty and interesting girls who were inmates of harems." The eunuch apparently feels torn, "in one breath condemning us to horrible tortures and in the next trying to figure out a way to save us." The boys "could not bring ourselves to realize that we had merited punishment." The boys realize it's their last opportunity to steal treasure before they are kicked out of the palace.

In Chapter XXVII, they realize they must find a way to escape with their lives and their treasure.

In Chapter XXVIII, Mai Lo meets his death at the hands of the Sacred Ape.

In Chapter XXIX, they take possession of Mai Lo's severed head and debate how they will convince everyone else of their story that Mai Lo committed suicide by confronting the escaped ape.

In Chapter XXX, Wi-to agrees to endorse the boys' story about Mai Lo's death, as he is mainly glad that his enemy is dead. The boys escape with their treasure. "The eunuchs carried down our heavy cases and loaded them upon the elephants, and while the bearers must have thought them tremendously heavy they dared not complain, and the Chief Eunuch's suspicions were in no way aroused. Wi-to seemed really grieved to lose his guests, and we thanked him cordially..." Sam muses, "I have often wondered if...the treasure we abstracted...[was] ever missed."

Charles Pettit's 'Son of the Grand Eunuch' (1927) and the Rodgers & Hart adaptation 'Chee-Chee' (1928)

In Charles Pettit's early 20th-century novel Son of the Grand Eunuch, "His Excellency the Grand Eunuch, Li Pi Siao," is the powerful character whose commands incite all the action. A footnote suggests a historical basis:

Li Pi Siao's predecessor was named Ngan Te Hai and was nicknamed Siao Ngan Eul. He was assassinated at Tsentsin in 1864 by order of the Empress of the East, Tsen Ngan. He was the favorite of the Empress of the West, Twen Hi, and had been despatched by her on a mission to buy her gowns. His murder occasioned a lifelong feud between the two Empresses. (p. 22)

Pettit seems to be referring to the eunuch An Dehai who served Empress Dowager Cixi and was executed in 1869 with the consent of Empress Dowager Ci'an. His successor as the chief eunuch — whose character apparently is heavily fictionalized in this novel — was Li Lianying.

Character

On the opening pages, he is introduced wearing "long yellow gown" with "green dragons with scarlet maws" and "his official headdress, square in shape but surmounted by a species of folded peak of black satin" from which dangle ribbons with "two scarlet pompoms at the level of the clavicles." He has oiled his "long pigtail" that ends with a "fine tassel of black silk." He carried a "fly-whisk, official attribute of his honorable situation!"

The long sleeves of his robe flapped like ghostly wings in the evening breeze! Within their voluminous folds, like spiders in their lairs, appeared the restless hands, the length of the lean fingers almost doubled by nails of extraordinary dimensions, enclosed in pointed sheaths. A green jade ring worn on the left thumb suggested a great scarab held captive by one of the spiders.

Moreover:

His head swayed gracefully upon his heron-like neck and his face, hairless and wrinkled, resembled that of a highly respectable old lady.

A sallow fleshiness weighed down with dignity his flabby cheeks on either side of his pointed chin and between his narrow lids the brilliant glance of two little oblique black eyes like squashed fleas seemed constantly prying into every corner.

His nose was a "little mound" and he wore "enormous tortoiseshell spectacles such as are affected by all self-respecting scholars, but these were always removed, as decreed by court ritual, the moment he found himself in the presence of His Majesty the Holy Man, Son of Heaven." He was "the most deserving and the most estimable of Grand Eunuchs that anyone could desire. He was moreover of a fine intelligence, crafty of spirit and vengeful of heart." He also had fattened himself through his fondness for food — as Buddhist monks typically did, thus the emperor excused his "disfigurement" — which seemed in "singular contrast to the falsetto modulations of his shrill and strident voice."

Action

Hs first act in this novel is to ask the emperor to choose a concubine for the evening. The jade tablets with their names were on the Table of the Golden Dragon. The emperor picked one randomly. Li Pi Siao has "avoided the useless mental effort of memorizing the literary names of eighty and one concubines" so he refers to a notebook to find the number of her dwelling. He tells her to prepare herself: "to cause the Holy Man to wait for you would be of an unthinkable impropriety, even though His Majesty doubtless awaits your impending visit with the most complete and haughty indifference!" When she is beautified, he "summoned a gigantic eunuch" to carry her, as her feet had been deliberately "broken in infancy," to the emperor.

In the second chapter, armed eunuchs guard the ramparts overnight. Outside Li Pi Siao's pavilion are bronze lions. When he hears a tomcat calling to a female cat, he seems envious, as the cat's yowling is "so unpleasantly evocative of the harmonies of his own name," and he yells back to the cat: "within these walls the Holy Man alone has license or power to love." Eunuchs appear and chase away the cat. Then he sits down to dinner with other eunuchs. The conversation includes his own insistence that food is better than sex. In response to this topic, a young eunuch, taken by self-pity, keeps moaning "Women..." so Li Pi Siao, annoyed by his ingratitude and ill humor, banishes him from the palace to work as a rural swineherder.

Li Pi Siao's relative and predecessor, Ngan Te Hai (nicknamed Siao Ngan Eul), was favored by the Empress of the West, Twen Hi. He was murdered in 1864 on orders of the Empress of the East, Tsen Ngan.

Li Pi Siao was formerly married. His eldest son, Li Pi Tchou, is to become Grand Eunuch succeeding his father. However, Li Pi Tchou is married to his beloved Chti and refuses the position, which upsets his father. The Grand Eunuch gives his son a large sum of gold in one last gesture of tenderness but angrily tells him to go away with his wife. Li Pi Siao's second son is thrilled to accept the mantle in his brother's place.

The novel occupies itself in the farce of Li Pi Tchou's misadventures. He is repeatedly beaten by other men who have sex with his wife, which she enjoys. At the apex of violence, monks want to roast him alive to make him a saint unless he can find a man to volunteer to take his place. He encounters the exiled eunuch, the one who missed women, and they identify themselves to each other. Li Pi Tchou escapes being roasted alive, but he does eventually have to be castrated, and his father suddenly beheads Chti. (p. 130) From the father's perspective, "It was needful to be revenged upon all those who had profaned the estimable name of Li." (p. 131)

Musical adaptation

A year after its publication, this story was made into a Rodgers and Hart musical called "Chee-Chee." The book was by Herbert Fields and the lyrics were by Lorenz Hart. The storyline is loosely adapted from the novel's. According to Thomas S. Hischak's The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia (see the entry online), Li-Pi Tchou (played by William Williams) and his wife Chee-Chee (Helen Ford) “hatch a plot to inherit the Grand Eunuch position without his losing his manhood. They have a friend kidnap the royal surgeon and substitute himself as the replacement” and they “play dominoes while the supposed emasculation takes place.” The Grand Eunuch was played by George Hassell. It was only performed 31 times over one month in 1928.

Upon the entrance of the Grand Eunuch at the beginning of the play, the eunuchs exclaim:

The most majestic of domestic officials
The Great G.E., we fear his mighty initials!

But the Tartar chief, not realizing he's speaking to the grand eunuch, refers to him as a "pompous old capon".

"No. 7: Food Solo" praises the concubine Li Li Wee — here, the daughter of Li Pi Siao — by comparing her body parts to "licorice," "peas," "Edam cheese," "hominy," wine," "roast beef," "oranges," "eel," "lamb," and "pig's feet."

Another ditty, "No. 20: Better Be Good To Me," has lyrics that sound like they belong in a popular song 50 years in the future:

I was once a glad boy.
Something tells me you soon will say
He was not a bad boy.
This has got to stop. Maybe I'll pop.
Love is like TNT.
Better be good to me.

Scene 4, "The Gallery of Torments," does not correspond to the book at all. It has the stage direction: "against a black drop are wax figures representing Theft...Lust...Avarice...Drunkenness...Murder...Infidelity. The figure Infidelity is modeled in the likeness of Chti herself. These figures are not seen because of the darkness in the chamber until she lights each one separately with her candle. All figures except Infidelity are male."

Book

Charles Pettit. The Son of the Grand Eunuch. (1927) New York: Avon, 1949.

Eunuchs in 'The Prisoners of Fate' by Jeremy Han

This fictionalization of a 15th-century Ming dynasty rebellion of the palace eunuchs features many eunuch characters. It is a long action story with combat descriptions like “the arterial spray sullied the wall” and dialogue like: "You fool! Do you know who I work for? I am the Emperor’s personal eunuch! He is afraid of the smell coming from the burnt animals rotting, so the Empress Dowager wants me to personally make sure the Pit of Hair and Blood is cleaned. Do you understand?"

It is the second book in a trilogy, sequel to The Emperor's Prey.

Political context of the palace eunuch system

At the beginning, Grand Eunuch Kong Wei, “vice-director of the Office of Ceremonies and one of the highest ranking eunuchs in the empire,” plots against the boy emperor. Kong asks a younger eunuch to spy on the Empress Dowager. "Punishment for spying was swift, but Kong could turn his life into a living hell within the vast world of eunuch slavery, where having a patron, or an enemy, could make all the difference."

“The fear of government officers colluding or military commanders conspiring was deeply entrenched, so the [Ming] monarchs introduced a third element into the system of governance: the eunuchs. Grand eunuchs held as much power as a government minister or a general. Sometimes powerful castrates held dual appointments such as military and civilian. This had led to systemic rivalry between the three institutions – the civil service, the military and the eunuchs. The eunuchs were personally appointed by emperors and thus were not accountable to the official hierarchy of the government.”

Emperor Yong Le’s son Emperor Hong Xi had given formal education to the eunuchs. This increased their power. But they were still slaves. “The power of the castrates was not usually formalized, but depended largely on their relationship to the royal family.”

Grand Eunuch Kong Wei wears “the uniform of a high-ranking eunuch.” He watches the scribes issuing edicts, actually given by the Empress Dowager, but given the seal of the Emperor. He thinks to himself: “I am a slave, a highly prized animal in a gilded cage.” He goes on to reflect:

“He had seen how eunuchs rose and fell, good, dependable men who served with distinction discarded as political scapegoats. Often emperors put blame on their most loyal of servants, the eunuchs, to appease the military or the civil service. If they were lucky, they were demoted to become the ordain of tombs and if not, they were imprisoned and executed after years of dedication. In his mind eunuchs were the most dedicated simply because they had nowhere else to go. Their fate rose and fell with an emperor’s favor, hence they always worked hard to gain it. But emperors were political creatures who had to balance the military and the bureaucracy and sometimes the Son of Heaven had to throw his hunting dogs a bone to appease them. Few grand eunuchs had died holding their post. The grand admiral Zheng He who died at sea was a rare example.”

Physical appearance

One eunuch is described as "lean and tall," and when he is considered together with another eunuch, it is said that "both of them had smooth cheeks that hardly ever needed to be shaved once their bodies had been altered by castration. They were both high ranking and powerful taipans ‘castrates’, and as they spoke their voices sounded too high for ordinary men.” Referring to someone as wearing the uniform of a "purple tunic" was understood to indicate that he was a eunuch.

At the end of the novel, one of the eunuchs killed in combat is said to have an “Adam’s apple.” It is worth noting that the Adam's apple of a male castrated before puberty would typically resemble a female's.

Feelings

One eunuch reflects on how he “had seen how eunuchs were treated as emotionless creatures just because they were sexually neutered.”

Ten-year-old Wang Zhen equates being "made castrate" not with his physical castration but with his social emasculation:

“He was sold. He had failed to protect his brother. He had been weak and defenseless.

He was made castrate.”

Eunuchs do not have romantic or sexual relationships in this novel. The only brief mentions of the topic are contradictory. In one place: “Contrary to popular belief, castration did not eliminate a eunuch’s sex drive, the mutilation merely preventing them from impregnating woman. [sic] Some of the devious ‘half-men’ used their positions to extract [sexual] favours from desperate concubines.” Later, Grand Eunuch Kong’s speech: “We may not feel sexual desire anymore but we yearn to have families too.”

Rebellion

When the carnage begins in earnest:

“All the corpses bore the same mutilation: their body structure was clearly male but they had no genitals. Their pubic area bore pink, rough scarring, a sign that the flesh there had healed from a hideous wound. They had a hole to pass urine, but it was not finely shaped and delicate like a woman’s vagina. The opening was rough, deformed and had a wooden plug inserted to prevent urine leaking. It was a known fact that castration damaged the genital nerves, rendering the victim incontinent. It was the only thing that gave a clue to who they were. In fact, it was conclusive. Such a mutilation was reserved for only one class of people in society.

They were eunuchs. Sold at a young age into a life of humiliation, the deceased were people who had suffered in life, and they had not chosen the path that led to their dying tonight. Zhao and Li did not miss the significance of the disfigurement as they observed the dead bodies.”

The dead eunuchs are called huanguan (‘half-male servants’) by those standing over their bodies. The massacre is seen as an indication that the palace believes that eunuchs are plotting against the whole Eastern Depot and ultimately the emperor.

Ji Gang, commander of the Eastern Depot, explained that the Empress wanted “a strong regent to bring stability, someone who is not tainted by the influence of the eunuchs. The past emperors were firm, and the castrates, though powerful, behaved.” With the death of Jian Wen, “there is no longer a soft option to deal with the eunuchs.” They might have to be massacred to the last man. “But the eunuchs are so entrenched in the system it is like a disease. To fight them, you may have to destroy vital organs in the process.”

On a boat, Ji Gang says “Bring all the eunuchs before me.” Four men are brought before him. He commands them: “Strip,” and three are revealed to be castrated. He ordered them pushed overboard. They protest: “What have we done? Spare us! We are good sailors," but they are tossed over nonetheless. A man challenges his decision immediately after the fact: “There are thousands of eunuchs. Is every one of them your enemy?” Ji Gang replies: “I do not know if they are innocent or not, but I cannot take that risk. I must assume any one of them could snitch and reveal your identities.”

To fight back, the Western Depot forms its own eunuch army of "secret police" trained in combat and sorcery. Ji Gang comments, “Just because they don’t have balls does not mean they can’t fight. But what makes them deadly is their utter loyalty to [Grand Eunuch] Kong.”

It should not come as a historical surprise that the Ming Dynasty prevails over the eunuch rebellion.

Beautiful but secretly imperfect: Li Chung, the lethal eunuch

"You didn't live a good part of your life with the cagey conniving eunuchs in the Forbidden City. I learned a lot there," admonishes Li Chung, the star of Beverley Jackson's The Beautiful Lady Was a Palace Eunuch. The novel, published in 2011, is set during the end of the Qing dynasty in early twentieth-century China.

Li's mother, desperate to keep her son from starving, brings him at the tender age of six to a hut outside the Forbidden City where he is castrated with only pepper-water as anesthetic. He is formally asked for his consent but is too young to know exactly what he is consenting to. The surgeons force him to walk for three hours and deprive him of water for three days. His mother is not allowed to stay with him, and he never sees her again.

Shortly after his recovery, Li's feet are bound, initiating a painful process that takes years. Foot-binding was a custom among Han Chinese women that involved gradually breaking the arch of the foot. A "dreadful old eunuch" tells the young Li about the procedure for the first time as he simultaneously performs it on the child "with absolutely no sensitivity or compassion."

Li undergoes this procedure because, as a eunuch, he will be trained to play women's roles in Chinese operas, such as the leading role in Spring Romance (Mou Tan T'ing). The author indicates that foot-binding was not customary within the Forbidden City, which was under Manchu, not Han, influence, and thus Li's feet will distinguish him within the palace even as they will help him pass as an ordinary poor woman outside the palace. Li sings, dances, plays a string instrument called the ching hu, and becomes skilled in martial arts – particularly a French art of kicking called Savate – despite the handicap of his bound feet.

There are over three thousand eunuchs in the Forbidden City when Li enters it in 1904. The high-ranking eunuchs are "splendidly dressed, their mustard color robes of silk adorned with embroidered clouds and Buddhist and Confucian symbols, and stripes of many colors representing the sea. Their sleeves hung well over their hands." However, while outwardly beautiful, the Forbidden City is full of "lonely unhappy people."

Word of seven-year-old Li's talents reach the Empress Dowager Ts'u Hsi, who rewards him with a luxurious private room apart from the other eunuch boys and one of her own Pekinese puppies accompanied by its own eunuch caretaker. "Happiness," Li addresses the dog by name, "you are mine, you are mine. I'm not alone anymore. And you are neutered just like me." For good reason, Li is particularly drawn to jewels that contain flaws: "beautiful, but secretly imperfect," like himself.

Following the Republican revolution, the Empress Dowager Longyu signs an abdication declaration in early 1912, ending the Qing dynasty. Among its Articles of Favorable Treatment is a statement ending the recruitment of palace eunuchs: "The services of all the persons of various grades hitherto employed in the Palace may be retained, but in future no eunuchs are to be added to the staff." Eunuchs react by looting the palace and exiting with lamentations. They go on to live "sad lives of poverty, [as] bad smelling unkempt old men with squeaky voices, generally looked upon with disdain."

Li vows to earn his own wealth legitimately through performance art. He has permission to come and go from the Forbidden City as he wishes. When he leaves, he always presents as the lady Lily Ying; no one outside the palace knows he is a eunuch.

The narrator announces that "Li had become a woman, the way he moved, talked, even the way he thought," followed by the oddly placed line, "He steered clear of everything political." It is not demonstrated how Li thinks as a woman, rather than as a man or a eunuch (whatever this would mean). The author always uses masculine pronouns for Li. There is almost no mention of how Li psychologically manages his dual-gendered life, except that he is in the habit of wearing gowns while bathing in the manner of European nuns, although this is less for modesty and more for the protection of his privacy against possible intruders. He also remains thoroughly chaste. That is not for lack of opportunity, but rather to maintain his dignity.

The most amusing part of the tale is that Li sets himself up as an early-twentieth-century Dexter: a hit man who targets only evil people. His three-and-one-half-inch bound feet in their silk lotus shoes are deadly when he feels inspired to kick someone in the head. He styles himself as a defender of vulnerable young eunuchs who have been brutally raped and of Chinese babies slaughtered by Japanese soldiers. He perpetrates his superhero antics in secret, of course, not wishing to appear to the world as a serial killer.

The narrative is rough in a few places. When his friend Kai has an emergency requiring financial support, Li pinches the six pearls entrusted to him by the costumers of his opera, and after some time, the pearls (or symbolic substitutes) are returned by Kai in the form of a necklace that Li wears every day. Why would Li flaunt pearls that he stole? Furthermore, when the two friends meet in a crowded banquet hall after a long separation, Li divulges the details of one of his killings, and the author doesn't suggest that Li so much as lowers his voice when revealing this sensitive information. This is a little disorienting for the reader and makes it difficult to infer the characters' serious thoughts and feelings.

Such hiccups aside, the story is entertaining. The author helpfully grounds the story for readers unfamiliar with Chinese history, using background information describing settings such as "the same ballroom of the Majestic Hotel where Mei-ling Soong and Chiang Kai-shek had been married on December 1, 1927." The story is framed by imperial characters who were also real people.

Li's story continues through an outbreak of war with Japan in 1937 when he attempts to evacuate the country by boat. This was a time of rapid change for China, seen in this book through the eyes of a fancifully creative fictional character.

Originally posted Aug. 27, 2012 to Helium Network.

Photo: Unknown. From the Smithsonian Institution Archives. © No known copyright restrictions. Flickr.

The origin of the Chinese saying ‘point to a deer and call it a horse’

A version of the fable of "the emperor's new clothes" is attributed to the eunuch Zhao Gao in the third century B.C.E. This article was originally posted to Helium Network on July 11, 2011.

Zhao Gao was born in the third century B.C.E. to a low-ranking, condemned woman in the Chinese palace. Through his legal studies and persuasive personality, he rose through the ranks, becoming the Director of Palace Coach-houses and keeper of the imperial seal. He served Qin Shihuangdi (known as the "First Emperor" of the Qin dynasty, r. 249-209 B.C.E.).

When Qin Shihuangdi died, only one of his sons, Huhai, and a half-dozen eunuchs, including Zhao Gao, were immediately aware. They concealed the emperor's body in a carriage and masked the odor with salted fish, claiming he wanted some time alone. According to the "Historical Records," written a century later by Sima Qian, who was himself a eunuch (quoted here in a translation by Raymond Dawson), Zhao Gao told Huhai: "Just at this moment authority over the Empire and its salvation or destruction depend upon you, sir, and me, together with the Chief Minister [Li Si], and nobody else..."

Through a forged document, Zhao Gao established Huhai as crown prince, who then became the second Qin emperor. The dead emperor was buried along with "all palace ladies who had not borne him a child," according to Mary Anderson in "Hidden Power: The Palace Eunuchs of Imperial China." His children, too, were probably executed. Anderson writes: "Archaeologists recently have found a tomb near the First Emperor’s tumulus containing a group of small skeletons believed to be those of the Second Emperor’s young brothers and sisters."

The young Huhai allowed the powerful eunuch Zhao Gao to conduct his business and heartily defended him against detractors. Sima Qian (again in Dawson's translation) described Huhai as having once said:

"This Gao has long been an eunuch, but he has not given scope to ambition for the sake of his own security, and he has not changed his mind because of danger. By keeping his behaviour clean and practising his skills, he has enabled himself to attain this position. Through loyalty he has obtained access to me, and through good faith he has preserved his position. We truly consider him a man of quality, so why do you, sir, doubt him?"

Zhao Gao, promoted to manage the agency that oversaw all palace eunuchs (see Shih-shan Henry Tsai's "Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty"), proved to be ruthless and anything but loyal. He flogged Li Si a thousand times until he made a false confession, then sliced him in half at the waist, and thus was able to succeed him as prime minister.

Huhai did not survive long as emperor with Zhao Gao around. His downfall became a legend and a cautionary tale to monarchs. In 206 B.C.E., Zhao Gao brought a deer to the palace and prodded other courtiers to insist it was a horse, executing those who truthfully maintained it was a deer. Huhai was confused by this, and the Grand Diviner convinced him that he was mistaken - the animal was indeed a horse - and advised him to propitiate the gods until they allowed him to see that it was truly a horse. After this, Sima Qian includes two slightly divergent versions of the story: either the emperor offended the gods by killing an innocent man while he was supposed to be fasting, or else he requested a dream interpretation and wished to plan a sacrifice. In either case, he was encouraged to stay in another palace. Zhao Gao seized the opportunity of the emperor's absence. He faked an edict telling the palace attendants to arm themselves against marauding bandits who had allegedly stormed the palace where the emperor was staying. He then sent an official to charge the palace with a thousand men. The emperor naturally believed the army had turned against him, and Zhao Gao convinced him, as the unfortunate emperor stood there with only one surviving eunuch by his side, to kill himself. 

Zhao Gao hung the imperial seal from his own belt but he was not accepted as the ruler, so he gave the seal to the Qin Shihuangdi's younger brother, Ziying, whose first major order of business was instructing another eunuch to fatally stab Zhao Gao and to kill all his relatives. Soon afterward, Ziying fell and the capital was destroyed, ending the Qin dynasty.

“Forever afterwards," Anderson writes of Zhao Gao, "his despised name would be held up to Chinese emperors as a dire warning against allowing eunuchs any influence over them.”

The historian Sima Qian, writing in detail about Zhao Gao, keenly felt this animosity against eunuchs on a personal level. Having been sentenced to death for political reasons, Sima Qian elected to commute his sentence to three years of imprisonment followed by castration and palace service so that he could continue writing his historical records. He complained (translated by Burton Watson, "Records of the Grand Historian of China") that "there is no defilement so great as castration. One who has undergone this punishment is nowhere counted as a man."

Photo: White-tailed deer in Raleigh, N.C., taken by Clay Heaton. © Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Wikimedia Commons.