Eunuchs, males who have been rendered sexually impotent by mutilation or removal of the external genitals, served as palace menials, harem watch-dogs, and spies for rulers in most of the ancient world kingdoms stretching from Rome, Greece, and North Africa, through the biblical lands, and on across the Man continent. Nor were castrati unknown in modern times. They were idolized in eigtheenth-century opera houses of Europe, having been emasculated as children to preserve their male soprano voices. The practice of using eunuchs for Vatican choir, was banned only ill 1878. Castrated aides attended the Great Moghul emperors of India, and the maharajas of Indian princely states under British rule well into the twentieth century. Nowhere, however, were eunuchs of such great and long-continuing historical significance as in the palaces of Imperial China.

Down through the centuries of China's dynastic rule, officials repeatedly memorialized the Dragon Throne, pleading that eunuch interference in state affairs be curbed. However, almost none recommended that the ancient eunuch system be abolished. This is but one indication of how deeply ingrained in Chinese thinking was the custom that allowed only sexless males to serve the Imperial Presence, the ladies of his royal family, and his thousands of' concubines, all amassed together in the "Great Within' behind forbidden palace doors.

It should be pointed out that Chinese dynastic histories were all written by mandarins, the educated elite who, as a class, despised the palace eunuchs. Mandarins alone were eligible to hold office in the bureaucracy, the "Great Without." Men qualified for coveted bureaucratic positions by passing grueling official examinations that required years of arduous study. The examinations were based on the philosophy of Confucius, the Great Sage, whose teachings became the backbone of Chinese culture. Records indicate that Confucius himself, some 5M years before Christ, gave his stamp of disapproval to eunuch assumption of power, thereby tending authority for centuries of Confucianists to defame all palace eunuchs. Some researchers suggest that the scholar-officials hated the eunuchs because, as personal attendants to the sovereign, the eunuchs always had his car, and so were in a better position than even the most powerful minister to curry favor, exercise influence, and accumulate wealth. Thus, when considering old Chinese accounts of eunuch treachery, allowance must be made for prejudice or exaggeration. Nonetheless, the bulk of evidence weighs so heavily against the eunuchs that few can doubt the harm they did the nation.

The use of eunuchs in Chinese courts was based in very old tradition, and no society clung more tenaciously to long-established custom than the Chinese. Court chronicles reveal that Chinese kings as early as the eighth century BC., and no doubt long before that, kept castrated servitors. Confucianism exalted all that was ancient, and admonished monarchs of every dynasty to meticulously follow precedents set not only by saintly historical kings of old, but also by god-kings glorified in China's legendary past.

Since remotest times, and especially after the advent of Confucianism, Chinese males, including rulers, demanded strict moral purity in their womenfolk. Hordes of sexually impotent men were needed to guard the chastity of imperial ladies languishing in the teeming women's quarters. The emperor kept the largest harem in the land not only to support his image as paramount personage of the realm, but also to ensure many heirs to the throne in a time of high infant mortality. If the emperor's queens failed to bear a living heir, sons of the highest ranking concubines could succeed to the throne. The presence of numerous ever-watchful eunuchs lurking in the recesses of the sprawling palace guaranteed that each child born therein was sired by the monarch. Non-eunuch males, even relatives of the ruler or of his consorts, were barred from the vicinity of the women's apartments on penalty of death.

Irrefutable royal paternity was essential to Chinese rulers, for the hoary cult of ancestor worship decreed that each emperor must perform the official sacrifices made to his deceased forebears as far back as the dynasty's near-deified founder. Each emperor, as Heaven's representative on earth, had to conduct the vital state religious rites necessary to maintain the harmonious balance between Heaven and the Chinese nation.

Eunuchs were also required to preserve the aura of sacredness and secrecy that surrounded the Imperial Presence. The Emperor of China1 was exalted as the recipient of the mystical Mandate of Heaven that sanctified his right to rule. Since it was believed that this Heaven-sent mandate could he rescinded if the emperor misgoverned or conducted himself unvirtuously, the personal life of the Son of Heaven was carefully shielded from ordinary mortals test they observe any human failings. Only the "effeminate, cringing eunuchs," slavishly dependent upon the emperor for their very lives, were considered cowed enough to be silent witnesses to his private foibles and weaknesses.