Unsurprisingly, I have been researching the topic of eunuchs in Chinese history a lot in the last few weeks... ;-)
It really is a fascinating and complex topic, complicated further by much of the information being conveyed through the lens of Western culture, and so of course irredeemably distorted. But as far as I have been able to glean so far, eunuchs did have to contend with some prejudices - though not necessarily the ones we'd expect today.
Certainly the idea of "the four evil eunuchs" reminds me strongly of female rulers who were typified as "evil".
That might have played into it to some extent... and there also seems to be a basic revulsion against the idea of anyone having more power than the emperor, or power *over* the emperor - which some eunuchs did have, at several points in Chinese history. And when something bad happened in such a time, it was of course because of the evil despicable eunuch, when - if there had been no eunuchs involved - it might have just been bad luck, or an unfortunate/short-sighted/whatever decision by a (non-evil) emperor. And in some times, as a result, the idea of any eunuch holding a lot of power ever seems to have become something alarming and somewhat revolting.
It's really fascinating. The historical Wang Zhi is, too. As is that entire period of history in general, really! Sleuth has brought me to learn a lot of Chinese history. :-)
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Date: 2020-05-26 09:06 pm (UTC)It really is a fascinating and complex topic, complicated further by much of the information being conveyed through the lens of Western culture, and so of course irredeemably distorted. But as far as I have been able to glean so far, eunuchs did have to contend with some prejudices - though not necessarily the ones we'd expect today.
Certainly the idea of "the four evil eunuchs" reminds me strongly of female rulers who were typified as "evil".
That might have played into it to some extent... and there also seems to be a basic revulsion against the idea of anyone having more power than the emperor, or power *over* the emperor - which some eunuchs did have, at several points in Chinese history. And when something bad happened in such a time, it was of course because of the evil despicable eunuch, when - if there had been no eunuchs involved - it might have just been bad luck, or an unfortunate/short-sighted/whatever decision by a (non-evil) emperor. And in some times, as a result, the idea of any eunuch holding a lot of power ever seems to have become something alarming and somewhat revolting.
It's really fascinating. The historical Wang Zhi is, too. As is that entire period of history in general, really! Sleuth has brought me to learn a lot of Chinese history. :-)