I recently found a copy of Richard Millant’s Les Eunuques à Travers les Âges (Paris: Vigot Fréres, 1908) on line and ordered it as my Xmas present to myself. While I had quickly skimmed the book in the Berkeley library, I will now have a chance to read it far more carefully. A couple of passages will show up in something that I write for publication.

On pages 97-98 there is a description of the use of castration as punishment for crimes in Qing Dynasty China.

En ces dernières années, la castration était aussi le châtiment infligé par les Chinois aux fils des rebelles.

Vers la fin de l’année 1856, un parti d’insurgés, parmi lesquels se trouvaient un grand nombre d’enfants, fut traduit devant une cour spéciale instituée par l’empereur Sien-Fou pour juger les crimes de cet ordre. Les adultes subirent la peine capitale; quant aux prisonniers qui n’avaient pas atteint leur quinzième année, ils furent émasculés et envoyés en esclavage.

Le même fait se produisit en 1877, lorsque le Turkestan devint, de nouveau, propriété du Céleste-Empire. Un grand nombre des membres de la famille de Yakoob-Beg, le chef redouté de l’Asie Centrale et des rebelles chinois, furent alors faits prisonniers. Quelques-uns moururent, on exécuta les autres. Les Chinois emprisonnèrent en même temps trois fils et un petit-fils du chef insurgé, des enfants encore, mais qui n’en furent pas moins condamnés comme criminels d’État. Remis entre les mains des officiers de la maison impériale pour subir la castration, ils furent, aussitôt après, dirigés sur les troupes frontières, aux confins du Turkestan.

Aux termes de la loi chinoise, la cruelle sentence n’est exécutoire que sur des enfants âgés d’au moins dix ans. C’est ainsi qu’à la fin de cette même année 1877, on émascula le fils d’un rebelle nommé Li-Liu, qui n’avait que six ans lorsque son père avait été fait prisonnier.

Pareille forme de mutilation a été fréquemment observée lors des grands mouvements populaires et l’on cite d’assez nombreux exemples de castrations effectuées en temps de guerre civile ou d’émeute. C’est ainsi qu’il y a quelques années, au cours d’une grève qui éclata dans le bassin d’Anzin, un contremaître fut émasculé.

My rough translation from the original French runs

In recent years, castration was also the punishment inflicted on the sons of Chinese rebels.

Towards the end of 1856 a party of insurgents, among whom were many children, was tried before a special court established by the Emperor Xianfeng to try crimes of this nature. Adults suffered the death penalty; detainees who had not reached their fifteenth year were castrated and sent into slavery.

The same thing happened in 1877 when Turkestan became again property of the Celestial Empire. Many family members of Yaqub Beg [1820-1877, Tajik ruler of Kashgaria], the leader of the feared Central Asian and Chinese rebels, were captured. Some died, others were executed. The Chinese imprisoned together three sons and a grand-son of the insurgent leader, children yet, but who were nevertheless condemned as state criminals. Handed over to officers of the imperial house to undergo castration, they were, soon after, taken by the troops on borders and confined to Turkestan.

Under Chinese law, this cruel sentence is enforceable only on children aged at least ten years. However at the end of that year 1877, the son of a rebel named Li-Liu, who was only six when his father was taken prisoner, was emasculated.

Such a form of mutilation was frequently observed at the time of popular movements and there are quite a few examples of castrations performed in time of war or civil disturbance. A few years ago, after a workers’ strike that broke out in the Anzin Basin, a leader of the strike was emasculated.

The description at the beginning about the castration of the children of a group of rebels is NOT the incident that is the focus of the Chinese film The Conqueror [征服者]. That film dramatized the end of the White Lotus Rebellion in 1804 when all of the adult males were decapitated and all of the boys castrated. The incident in 1856 was after one of the many battles during the Boxer Rebellion of 1850 to 1864. I will need to do more research on how often castration of the children of rebels was used as a punishment during that 14 year rebellion.

I have read elsewhere the account of Yaqub Beg, whose largely Uygur army conquered much of what is now Turkestan. As a side note, his daughters survived and one of Yaqub Beg’s great grandsons is currently a TV newscaster in Turkey.

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I had been trying to track down a better description of the large number of eunuchs produced in Golconda (in modern Hyderabad). Millant was cited as the source in a couple of the places where I found it mentioned, though I first saw mention of it in John Davenport’s strange book titled Curiositates Eroticae Physiologiae; or, Tabooed Subjects Freely Treated. in Six Essays (London: Privately Printed, 1875), where he wrote “Tavernire says that when he was in the kingdom of Golconda, in the year 1675, not less than twenty-two thousand individuals were castrated.” (pp. 135–36)

I have tried to track down the source in Tavernire’s works, but no U.S. library seems to have a copy of the relevant journal of his travels in India that I can get through interlibrary loan. Davenport says that Tavernire gives 1675 as the year, Millant gives 1659. I still need to do some research, though Millant was the more careful scholar and Tavernire’s diary (which I suspect is the source of the information) was published in 1676, making the earlier date much more likely.

Millant’s information on Golconda runs

Le nombre de ces eunuques était alors plus élevé peut-être qu’il ne l’est à l’heure actuelle. Et dans tout l’Orient, en Égypte, en Asie Mineure, aux Indes il n’était pas de particulier ayant quelque bien qui n’entretînt un ou deux eunuques attacheés à son harem.

Il en résultait un trafic des plus importants, et en l’année 1659 on émascula, dans le royaume de Golconde, jusqu’à vingt-deux mille individus. A la même époque, le roi de Boutan jetait chaque année plus de vingt mille mutilés sur les marchés d’esclaves. Seul de tous les princes indiens le Grand Mogol avait interdit cette barbarie dans ses États, mais il faisait venir des provinces voisines les eunuques dont il avait besoin.

La misère favoristait singulièrement le recrutement de ces malheureux. Lorsque la disette venait à sévir, c’était même le plus souvent le père ou la mère qui livrait l’enfant à des châtrèurs de profession.

Rough translation:

The number of eunuchs then (in the 17th century) was perhaps higher than it is today. And throughout the East – Egypt, Asia Minor, India – there was no individual with property who did not maintain one or two eunuchs attached to his harem.

This resulted in a major traffic in eunuchs, and in the year 1659, twenty-two thousand individuals were emasculated in the kingdom of Golconda. At the same time, the King of Bhutan cast over twenty thousand mutilated slaves onto the markets each year. Alone of all the Indian princes, the Great Mogul had banned this barbarism in his dominions, but neighboring states provided the eunuchs he needed.

Misery provided the recruitment of these unfortunates. When famine came to prevail, fathers and mothers even more frequently delivered their children to professional gelders.

The added information on Buddhist Bhutan as a source of eunuchs for Moslem India is also interesting as is the statement that parents sold their children directly to professional gelders, during times of famine, therefore knowing the fate that their sons would suffer.

I know that my French is very weak, having studied it for only a single semester in 1966. Any help in improving my translations would be greatly appreciated, Are any of the native speakers of French on the Archive able to help?

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Your translation looks very good to me.