The World Created by Qianlong and His Eunuchs

This chapter observes the consequences of Qianlong’s palace management. Making use of his flawed system of oversight, his eunuchs exercised greater control over their lives and over the space of the palace and even the city of Beijing itself. With their salaries lowered (by Qianlong’s new rules), they turned to new paths to enrichment. They became involved in moneylending, pawnshop ownership, and jockeyed for positions in the palace that would earn them extra tips and cartage fees. Qianlong looked the other way, because while he felt compelled to be hard on them in his rhetoric, he quietly wished to make their jobs more appealing, so that more men would be encouraged to join palace service.

Introduction

This book explores the complex relationship between eunuchs and the emperors who ruled them, during the first 150 years of Qing rule. Eunuchs (such as the notorious Wei Zhongxian) have been blamed for the falls of dynasties, which writers since ancient times attributed to their great skill at flattery, which they used to slowly usurp power. As essentially yin (feminine) beings, they, along with women, were considered to be dangerous when allowed to take part in government affairs. These same writers warned rulers repeatedly of the dangers of trusting eunuchs. This chapter introduces these clichéd notions of the dynastic cycle and eunuchs’ place in it. It also considers issues of eunuch biology and identity.

Conclusion

Besides reviewing the chapter themes, the Conclusion reflects on the power dynamic between emperor and eunuch. Emperors were the most powerful men in their world, and they occasionally exercised total power over their eunuchs, but in general imperial power over eunuchs was tempered by factors such as palace opinion, and the responsibilities imposed by the gold standard described in Chapter 1. The Conclusion also points to the consequences of Qianlong’s management style late in his reign, and in subsequent Qing reigns (such as that of the Daoguang emperor), when eunuchs grew in arrogance, sense of entitlement, and independence. They also developed rich lives outside the palace, buying homes, living on their own, and pursuing romantic connections with those on the outside. They never achieved the political power of Ming eunuchs, but they became wealthy and powerful in Beijing and beyond.

The Influence of Eunuchs in Kangxi’s Inner Circle

While the Kangxi emperor is traditionally considered to have sternly cracked down on the sprouts of eunuch power in the Qing, his own proximity to the Ming dynasty meant he would draw on Ming models more than he himself realized. Thus it was that he allowed a small number of eunuchs to become among his chief advisors. These included Gu Wenxing, Li Yu, Liang Jiugong, Chen Fu and Wei Zhu. They played key roles in diplomatic exchanges, and even in the process of succession.

The Shunzhi Emperor and His Eunuchs

This chapter explores the reign of the Shunzhi emperor, the first Qing ruler to inhabit the Forbidden City (Zijincheng). Historians have long debated whether Shunzhi fell into the same trap as had emperors of the preceding Ming dynasty, placing trust in eunuchs and eventually allowing them into government. Debate has centered on his creation of a series of inner-court eunuch agencies known as the Thirteen Yamen, and on whether he ceded power to the eunuch Wu Liangfu. This chapter settles the debate by examining: Shunzhi’s reconstruction of Qianqing Gong, a major palace building; the draft of an edict of 1653; the role of eunuch Wang Jinshan. These unequivocally demonstrate that Shunzhi was indeed headed toward a government with eunuchs at the center.

Qianlong’s Flawed System of Oversight

This chapter examines the system of imperial oversight that Qianlong developed to watch over his eunuchs. Its four components: the Careful Punishments Office (Shenxing Si), system of eunuch hierarchy and responsibility, Inner Police Bureau (Fanyi Chu), and punishment mechanisms had in common that each was flawed and unable to discover or discourage the activities of his eunuchs. At a fundamental level, the Imperial Household Department was unable or unwilling to keep track of its eunuchs, with personnel files rarely consulted, and eunuchs themselves largely indistinguishable one from the other.

The Qianlong Emperor

When the Qianlong emperor came to the throne, he abrogated his father’s compassionate and rational system for eunuch management. Qianlong saw his father’s innovations as a dangerous departure from the gold standard of eunuch management. Qianlong would lower eunuchs’ status, cut their salaries, eviscerate their system of ranks, and reduce their education levels. In so doing, he came to perpetuate a series of myths about his eunuchs meant to perpetuate the notion that he was strict on them. He asserted that they only performed menial tasks, never left the palace, had no wives or children, were few in number in his palaces, and were carefully watched over by him personally. In truth, he was quietly allowing them new opportunities to come and go as they pleased, and to develop business interests on the outside. He did this because he faced a growing shortage of eunuchs to staff his ever-burgeoning number of palaces, including Yuanming Yuan.

Eunuch Loyalties in the Yongzheng Emperor’s Troubled Succession

This chapter explores the tumultuous succession to power of the Yongzheng emperor, and the role eunuchs played in it as foot soldiers and rumormongers. Eunuchs in the princely households of Yūnreng, Yūntang, and Yūnsy worked on behalf of the princes they served, sometimes luring them into further wrongdoing. Several of these eunuchs became notorious for corruption, bribery, and the kidnapping of children.

“A Time of Pure Yin”

This chapter explores the thought of three famous thinkers who lived through the fall of the Ming dynasty and rise of the Qing. Each of them: Wang Fuzhi, Huang Zongxi, and Gu Yanwu, had personally experienced the horrors of Ming eunuch power, and used their writings, and strategies of evidential research (kaozhengxue), to analyze it. Relying on writings by earlier thinkers, particularly Wang Shizhen and Mao Yigong, Wang, Huang, and Gu articulated a gold standard for eunuch management. Their ideas about the dangers of eunuch literacy, the importance the emperor limiting his numbers of eunuchs, and the need for separation between inner and outer realms of government and the palace would impact the emperors studied in this book

Yongzheng’s Innovative Rules for Regulating Eunuchs

Influenced by the succession struggle, Yongzheng set about creating a system for eunuch management that would keep eunuchs from having undue influence on the princes and their households. He worried about one of his sons in particular, Hongjeo, whose brother would become the Qianlong emperor. Yongzheng sought to ensure that this son would be kept insulated from the harmful effects of eunuchs. Yongzheng also sought to rationalize eunuch management and render it more compassionate. He created a rainy day fund for eunuchs, doubled their salaries, awarded them a cemetery west of Beijing (Enjizhuang), and sought to find ways to use ranks and salary to incentivize them to work harder.