A Chinese Castration
Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 3:48 pm
Three years ago I posted a short essay about Howard Chiang's analysis of G. Carter Stent's famous description of the castration of eunuchs in China. Chiang's research demonstrated that Stent's description was, at best, inaccurate (though it is the basis for the diorama at the Eunuch Museum in Beijing). You can see that essay at:
Chinese Eunuchs (G. Carter Stent) (http://forums.eunuch.org/showthread.php ... r-Stent%29)
http://forums.eunuch.org/showthread.php ... ter-Stent)
More recently Chinese historian Hsieh Bao Hua has published a condensed and translated description from another account of the castration of a Chinese court eunuch. I am copying it below exactly as in the original, complete with infelicitous wording and strange grammar from a non-native speaker of English. The meaning is all there:
*´¨`*.¸¸.*´¨`*.¸¸.*´¨`*
While Ming primary sources are limited in their discussion on the procedure of castration, the Qing scholarly accounts supply essential but random information, and foreigners, such as British official report based on the investigation in Beijing, are also valuable for this study. A conscientious portrayal in The Memoir of a Palace Maid is comprehensive not only in the procedure of castration, but also the emotions of the castrati. This memoir of maid He Ronger was illustrated by Jin Yi and Shen Yiling based on their conversations with Ronger throughout their long-term friendship. The referenced castrato might not be Zhang Fu as the authors initially suspected; however, they were confident the procedure of castration was reliable because Ronger herself was married to a eunuch, and Zhang Fu was her mentor and close friend while she served in the inner palace.
Zhang Fu's mother died soon after he was delivered. He was the youngest, and the extra son, as he always said, of his family in an extremely deprived village in Hejian prefecture in south Hebei, which was the hometown of many eunuchs. Grain could not be grown in that area due to the salty soils. At age seven, he carried one month of supplies (wheat, corn cobs, and wood), which his neighbors had donated, on his slim shoulder, following his father to a technician's house. He understood that he was not going there as a guest. He was ordered by the technician to cook a soup of hemp leaves he picked up in the open field, and to seal the windows of a slanting hut which was normally used as a hothouse for growing potato sprouts. His tears were never dry while he prepared for his own surgery. It was late spring and early summer, the ideal season for surgery; temperatures were mild, and mosquitoes and flies were few. The surgery was accomplished in the warm hut. After a couple of day's fasting and then cleaning his own lower body, he was tied on the wooden bed and his eyes were covered by a piece of black cloth. He felt anesthetized after drinking hemp soup.
To prevent serious infection during the surgery under primitive medical conditions, the technician only made a small cut on each side of Zhang Fu's abdomen through which to disconnect his testicles from other organs. Then Zhang Fu was forced to breath hard, while his mouth was full with an overcooked egg, to push the testicles out of his body through the opened wounds. After his testicles were removed, his penis was skillfully cut off from its root. Another overcooked egg was squeezed into his mouth to prevent him from screaming because of unbearable pain, while his wounded areas were treated with sliced pig gall to control bleeding, and a wheat straw was inserted into his urinary canal to let out his urine. His discharges passed through a hole on his bed and dropped onto straw placed on a brick base about five inches beneath the wooden bed. He was allowed to use a straw to sip some rice soup the day after surgery, and to continuously drink hemp soup for three days. He then was forced to move his legs three times a day without the assistance of a nurse. He had to lie on the wooden bed for another month for recovery. His removed testicles and penis, covered by lime powder, were dried and preserved in a jar together with his written contract, which was protected by a piece of waterproof paper. The jar, well sealed and wrapped in a piece of red cloth, was saved on the roof pole under the eaves. Red color indicated luck and the jar's high position symbolized elevation to success. Those treasured parts thereafter belonged to the technician who became Zhang Fu's master.
The redemption of his man parts was Zhang Fu's ultimate wish before he died. Like all other eunuchs who were over forty, he adopted a son to perform his ritual obligation to his ancestors, and to carry out the redemption ceremony for him. A respected village elder represented Zhang Fu to negotiate with his master, who demanded a handsome price as reward for cooperating in the ceremony, which had to be performed like a formal wedding ceremony. On the designated day, Zhang Fu's adopted son arrived at the master's house in a sedan-chair. In the reception room, he received congratulations from Zhang Fu's lineage elder and family friends, presented handsome gifts to the master, paid the price, picked up the jar, and delivered it to Zhang Fu who was waiting at his ancestor's cemetery. He kneeled down in front of his parents' tombs, and burned his written contract in front of many junior relatives, while crying loud with tears for his reunion with his ancestors. His man parts would be placed with his remains after he died, and together they would be accepted for burial in his family's graveyard. As apparent in the redemption ceremony, even if the physical pain of castration could be overcome, the psychological damage was a permanent impairment. All castrati worshipped the god of medicine and celebrated his birthday on April 28; they were grateful for their survival after the surgery, or for a secure job, even though the suffering they endured was not equivalent to their material rewards.
_______
Hsieh Bao Hua. (2014). Concubinage and Servitude in Late Imperial China. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 217-218.
Condensed and translated from:
Jin Yi 金易 & Shen Yiling 沈義羚 (1992). Gongnü tanwanglu 宮女談往録 (The Memoir of a Palace Maid). Beijing: Zijincheng chubanshe, pp. 102-113.
Chinese Eunuchs (G. Carter Stent) (http://forums.eunuch.org/showthread.php ... r-Stent%29)
http://forums.eunuch.org/showthread.php ... ter-Stent)
More recently Chinese historian Hsieh Bao Hua has published a condensed and translated description from another account of the castration of a Chinese court eunuch. I am copying it below exactly as in the original, complete with infelicitous wording and strange grammar from a non-native speaker of English. The meaning is all there:
*´¨`*.¸¸.*´¨`*.¸¸.*´¨`*
While Ming primary sources are limited in their discussion on the procedure of castration, the Qing scholarly accounts supply essential but random information, and foreigners, such as British official report based on the investigation in Beijing, are also valuable for this study. A conscientious portrayal in The Memoir of a Palace Maid is comprehensive not only in the procedure of castration, but also the emotions of the castrati. This memoir of maid He Ronger was illustrated by Jin Yi and Shen Yiling based on their conversations with Ronger throughout their long-term friendship. The referenced castrato might not be Zhang Fu as the authors initially suspected; however, they were confident the procedure of castration was reliable because Ronger herself was married to a eunuch, and Zhang Fu was her mentor and close friend while she served in the inner palace.
Zhang Fu's mother died soon after he was delivered. He was the youngest, and the extra son, as he always said, of his family in an extremely deprived village in Hejian prefecture in south Hebei, which was the hometown of many eunuchs. Grain could not be grown in that area due to the salty soils. At age seven, he carried one month of supplies (wheat, corn cobs, and wood), which his neighbors had donated, on his slim shoulder, following his father to a technician's house. He understood that he was not going there as a guest. He was ordered by the technician to cook a soup of hemp leaves he picked up in the open field, and to seal the windows of a slanting hut which was normally used as a hothouse for growing potato sprouts. His tears were never dry while he prepared for his own surgery. It was late spring and early summer, the ideal season for surgery; temperatures were mild, and mosquitoes and flies were few. The surgery was accomplished in the warm hut. After a couple of day's fasting and then cleaning his own lower body, he was tied on the wooden bed and his eyes were covered by a piece of black cloth. He felt anesthetized after drinking hemp soup.
To prevent serious infection during the surgery under primitive medical conditions, the technician only made a small cut on each side of Zhang Fu's abdomen through which to disconnect his testicles from other organs. Then Zhang Fu was forced to breath hard, while his mouth was full with an overcooked egg, to push the testicles out of his body through the opened wounds. After his testicles were removed, his penis was skillfully cut off from its root. Another overcooked egg was squeezed into his mouth to prevent him from screaming because of unbearable pain, while his wounded areas were treated with sliced pig gall to control bleeding, and a wheat straw was inserted into his urinary canal to let out his urine. His discharges passed through a hole on his bed and dropped onto straw placed on a brick base about five inches beneath the wooden bed. He was allowed to use a straw to sip some rice soup the day after surgery, and to continuously drink hemp soup for three days. He then was forced to move his legs three times a day without the assistance of a nurse. He had to lie on the wooden bed for another month for recovery. His removed testicles and penis, covered by lime powder, were dried and preserved in a jar together with his written contract, which was protected by a piece of waterproof paper. The jar, well sealed and wrapped in a piece of red cloth, was saved on the roof pole under the eaves. Red color indicated luck and the jar's high position symbolized elevation to success. Those treasured parts thereafter belonged to the technician who became Zhang Fu's master.
The redemption of his man parts was Zhang Fu's ultimate wish before he died. Like all other eunuchs who were over forty, he adopted a son to perform his ritual obligation to his ancestors, and to carry out the redemption ceremony for him. A respected village elder represented Zhang Fu to negotiate with his master, who demanded a handsome price as reward for cooperating in the ceremony, which had to be performed like a formal wedding ceremony. On the designated day, Zhang Fu's adopted son arrived at the master's house in a sedan-chair. In the reception room, he received congratulations from Zhang Fu's lineage elder and family friends, presented handsome gifts to the master, paid the price, picked up the jar, and delivered it to Zhang Fu who was waiting at his ancestor's cemetery. He kneeled down in front of his parents' tombs, and burned his written contract in front of many junior relatives, while crying loud with tears for his reunion with his ancestors. His man parts would be placed with his remains after he died, and together they would be accepted for burial in his family's graveyard. As apparent in the redemption ceremony, even if the physical pain of castration could be overcome, the psychological damage was a permanent impairment. All castrati worshipped the god of medicine and celebrated his birthday on April 28; they were grateful for their survival after the surgery, or for a secure job, even though the suffering they endured was not equivalent to their material rewards.
_______
Hsieh Bao Hua. (2014). Concubinage and Servitude in Late Imperial China. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 217-218.
Condensed and translated from:
Jin Yi 金易 & Shen Yiling 沈義羚 (1992). Gongnü tanwanglu 宮女談往録 (The Memoir of a Palace Maid). Beijing: Zijincheng chubanshe, pp. 102-113.