>>9529310This is what George Carter Stent, the British diplomat wrote about them when he was stationed in the Qing.
https://people.well.com/user/aquarius/stent-chineseeunuchs.htm>All eunuchs are considered pure (chên, 貞 or ch'ing, 清,) but boys who are made eunuchs when under ten years of age are termed " thoroughly pure" (t'ung-chên, 通貞). These are specially prized, and are employed by the ladies of the palace with as much freedom as if they were girls; performing such offices as ought only to be done by women—some of them of a nature it would be impossible to describe here. These boy eunuchs are supposed to be free from the least licentiousness— even in thought;—in fact, they are considered to be devoid of all feeling of that kind whatever. They are commonly called "little eunuchs" (Hsiao-t'ai-chien, 小太监); as they grow up they are not allowed such freedom of intercourse, being replaced by others younger than themselves, while they are employed in such duties as do not bring them into the more private apartments of the ladies.https://people.well.com/user/aquarius/section1.htm>There was a distinction between those who were deprived of their sex in childhood and tose who gave it up in their manhood. The latter were called ching or cheng, both words meaning 'pure of body,' and the former were called t'ung cheng, which meant 'pure from birth.' Favored by the court ladies, the t'ung cheng had no work assigned to them and behaved like young girls. Stent hesitates to say what their actual roles were in regard to the ladies, and this is left to the reader's imagination. They were replaced of course by younger ones when they grew older. 