DOI Artikel:
Mittler, Barbara: Transboundary Bodies: Eunuchs, Humanity, and Historiography in China
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16708#0168
10 Transboundary Bodies
151
This only happens after their regulär encounters with foreigners from afar since
the early 19th Century. Along with this came the adaptation not only of foreign ma-
chinery, weapons and goods, but of concepts and ideas as well. Evolutionist his-
torical thought superseded the cyclical model of historiography and this became
the moment when eunuchs were fmally given a voice, when they were no longer
exclusively and generally maligned but portrayed, at least in part, with sympathy:
they became unbounded, demystified bodies, humans again.
The loathsome reputation of the eunuch is easy to explain: through his emascu-
lation, he gave up his means to procreate and to continue the family line, thus com-
mitting the most heinous unfilial act. Indeed, "genital mutilation severed more than
body parts," it simultaneously "symbolically destroyed former familial and social
bonds." (Dale 2000: 2) By his very being, then, the eunuch challenged established
notions of morality and for this lack he became excluded, a marginal existence wit-
hin the Chinese universe: no longer could he act as the affiliate human being that he,
as anyone (male) in the Chinese universe, was expected to be (Fryslie 2001: 207).
At the same time, this marginality, the fact that only a sexless being had the
possibility to live and work so close to the emperor and his entourage, gave him
an immense potential to wield influence and power. And this is why eunuchs have
been made responsible for many an event that would cause the fall of a dynasty. For
centuries they became useful tools in the writing of cyclical history for a class of
people authoring these histories who were their direct rivals wooing for the emp-
eror's favours: the literati officials. To portray the eunuchs as borders of humanity
would elevate their rivals' human identity. This essay presents the "textual eunuch"
as Matthew Fryslie calls him in a recent study on eunuch representations in the
Ming History (Fryslie 2001). Textual eunuchs, as they come into being in the rhe-
torics of Chinese official histories, appear quite consistently as exotic, inhumane,
even monstrous figures (Fryslie 2001: 439).5
This essay consists of three parts. It begins, first, with a lengthy introduction
which presents an event crucial to the history of eunuchdom in China, a palace fire
taking place in the Forbidden City in Beijing in 1923, and a problem with it: why
was it "obviously" the eunuch's fault? Second, the main body of the paper con-
textualizes the derogatory discourse about eunuch involvement in the 1923 fire by
comparing it with official writings on eunuchs throughout Chinese history. Third, I
will end with a short conclusion which presents some thoughts on real and imagined
powers of eunuchs and the relationship of these powers with the type of discourse
used to describe them.6 The essay attempts to show that fateful events, such as a
5 Fryslie 2001: 11: "Eunuchs have been a continuous presence in the received texts of the Chinese
tradition since its beginnings, first appearing in such early canonical texts as the Zuozhuan (The
Chronicles of Zuo) and the Shijing (The Classic of Poetry) almost three thousand years ago. Furt-
hermore, it is clear from these texts that the use of eunuchs to guard the seraglio was already an
established institution at the time of the Zhou dynasty (1121-249 BC)."
6 Eunuchs have been a hot topic of research since the 1980s when many (Chinese) scholars, some
of them prompted by the imminent disappearance of eunuchs, began to rediscover and recons-
truct the private as well as official lives of eunuchs. Much important scholarship on their social
and political functions as well as on their private lives has been conducted. Here, 1 only mention
151
This only happens after their regulär encounters with foreigners from afar since
the early 19th Century. Along with this came the adaptation not only of foreign ma-
chinery, weapons and goods, but of concepts and ideas as well. Evolutionist his-
torical thought superseded the cyclical model of historiography and this became
the moment when eunuchs were fmally given a voice, when they were no longer
exclusively and generally maligned but portrayed, at least in part, with sympathy:
they became unbounded, demystified bodies, humans again.
The loathsome reputation of the eunuch is easy to explain: through his emascu-
lation, he gave up his means to procreate and to continue the family line, thus com-
mitting the most heinous unfilial act. Indeed, "genital mutilation severed more than
body parts," it simultaneously "symbolically destroyed former familial and social
bonds." (Dale 2000: 2) By his very being, then, the eunuch challenged established
notions of morality and for this lack he became excluded, a marginal existence wit-
hin the Chinese universe: no longer could he act as the affiliate human being that he,
as anyone (male) in the Chinese universe, was expected to be (Fryslie 2001: 207).
At the same time, this marginality, the fact that only a sexless being had the
possibility to live and work so close to the emperor and his entourage, gave him
an immense potential to wield influence and power. And this is why eunuchs have
been made responsible for many an event that would cause the fall of a dynasty. For
centuries they became useful tools in the writing of cyclical history for a class of
people authoring these histories who were their direct rivals wooing for the emp-
eror's favours: the literati officials. To portray the eunuchs as borders of humanity
would elevate their rivals' human identity. This essay presents the "textual eunuch"
as Matthew Fryslie calls him in a recent study on eunuch representations in the
Ming History (Fryslie 2001). Textual eunuchs, as they come into being in the rhe-
torics of Chinese official histories, appear quite consistently as exotic, inhumane,
even monstrous figures (Fryslie 2001: 439).5
This essay consists of three parts. It begins, first, with a lengthy introduction
which presents an event crucial to the history of eunuchdom in China, a palace fire
taking place in the Forbidden City in Beijing in 1923, and a problem with it: why
was it "obviously" the eunuch's fault? Second, the main body of the paper con-
textualizes the derogatory discourse about eunuch involvement in the 1923 fire by
comparing it with official writings on eunuchs throughout Chinese history. Third, I
will end with a short conclusion which presents some thoughts on real and imagined
powers of eunuchs and the relationship of these powers with the type of discourse
used to describe them.6 The essay attempts to show that fateful events, such as a
5 Fryslie 2001: 11: "Eunuchs have been a continuous presence in the received texts of the Chinese
tradition since its beginnings, first appearing in such early canonical texts as the Zuozhuan (The
Chronicles of Zuo) and the Shijing (The Classic of Poetry) almost three thousand years ago. Furt-
hermore, it is clear from these texts that the use of eunuchs to guard the seraglio was already an
established institution at the time of the Zhou dynasty (1121-249 BC)."
6 Eunuchs have been a hot topic of research since the 1980s when many (Chinese) scholars, some
of them prompted by the imminent disappearance of eunuchs, began to rediscover and recons-
truct the private as well as official lives of eunuchs. Much important scholarship on their social
and political functions as well as on their private lives has been conducted. Here, 1 only mention