>>9575064,43 >>9575064,44 >>9575064,45During the reign of the Chinese Emperor Qianlong (reigned 1736–1795), China reached the greatest territorial extent in its long history. During this period it was easily the most populous and the most prosperous nation on earth.
The emperor declared that his Summer Palace (actually the 840 acre palace from which he ruled) would be staffed by “young eunuchs” and that older eunuchs would be sent to other posts, including the “Forbidden City” in Beijing. For years there was a shortage of young eunuchs to staff the many positions at the Summer Palace. Eunuchs were required as gardeners, kitchen help, maintainers of the imperial wardrobe, document handlers, archers, servers of tea, waiters to serve food, etc. A staff of 80 eunuchs was required just to accompany the emperor on travel between palaces where there was a resident staff of eunuchs in each.
The shortage was finally resolved by a new policy promulgated in 1789,which declared that the sons of murderers and of rebels who were younger than 15 were to be castrated and serve in the palace. This was the time of the Lin Shuangwen Rebellion on Taiwan and it resulted in a surplus of young eunuchs that could be shared with other imperial institutions. One memorial alone lists forty boys, ranging in age from three to fourteen, who were sent to the Imperial Household Department for castration.
(Excerpted from Unspoken Collusions: The Empowerment of Yuanming yuan Eunuchs in the Qianlong Period, by Norman A. Kutcher. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 70 (2010), no. 2, pp. 449-495)
