Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule

Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule PDF Author: Norman A. Kutcher
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520969847
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule offers a new interpretation of eunuchs and their connection to imperial rule in the first century and a half of the Qing dynasty (1644–1800). This period encompassed the reigns of three of China’s most important emperors, men who were deeply affected by the great eunuch corruption of the fallen Ming dynasty. In this groundbreaking and deeply researched book, the author explores how Qing emperors sought to prevent a return of the harmful excesses of eunuchs and how eunuchs flourished in the face of the restrictions imposed upon them. We meet powerful eunuchs who faithfully served, and in some cases ultimately betrayed, their emperors. We also meet ordinary eunuchs whose lives, punctuated by dramas large and small, provide a fascinating perspective on the Qing palace world.

Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule

Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule PDF Author: Norman A. Kutcher
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520969847
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Get Book

Book Description
Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule offers a new interpretation of eunuchs and their connection to imperial rule in the first century and a half of the Qing dynasty (1644–1800). This period encompassed the reigns of three of China’s most important emperors, men who were deeply affected by the great eunuch corruption of the fallen Ming dynasty. In this groundbreaking and deeply researched book, the author explores how Qing emperors sought to prevent a return of the harmful excesses of eunuchs and how eunuchs flourished in the face of the restrictions imposed upon them. We meet powerful eunuchs who faithfully served, and in some cases ultimately betrayed, their emperors. We also meet ordinary eunuchs whose lives, punctuated by dramas large and small, provide a fascinating perspective on the Qing palace world.

Inside the World of the Eunuch

Inside the World of the Eunuch PDF Author: Melissa S. Dale
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN: 9888455753
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
The history of Qing palace eunuchs is defined by a tension between the role eunuchs were meant to play and the life they intended to live. This study tells the story of how a complicated and much-maligned group of people struggled to insert a degree of agency into their lives. Rulers of the Qing dynasty were determined to ensure the eunuchs’ subservience and to limit their influence by imposing a management style based upon strict rules, corporal punishment, and collective responsibility. Few eunuchs wielded significant political power or lived in a lavish style during the Qing dynasty. Emasculation and employment in the palace placed eunuchs at the center of the empire, yet also subjected them to servile status and marginalization by society. Seeking more control over their lives, eunuchs serving the Qing repeatedly tested the boundaries of subservience to the emperor and the imperial court. This portrait of eunuch society reveals that Qing palace eunuchs operated within two parallel realms, one revolving around the emperor and the court by day and another among the eunuchs themselves by night where they recreated the social bonds—through drinking, gambling, and opium smoking—denied them by their palace service. Far from being the ideal servants, eunuchs proved to be a constant source of anxiety and labor challenges for the Qing court. For a long time eunuchs have simply been cast as villains in Chinese history. Inside the World of the Eunuch goes beyond this misleadingly one-dimensional depiction to show how eunuchs actually lived during the Qing dynasty. “This book is a thorough and responsible account of eunuch life during the Qing dynasty, which takes us deep inside the Forbidden City and introduces the often underclass families who provided servants to the Qing monarchs.” —R. Kent Guy, University of Washington “This is a unique study of Chinese eunuchs, in which Melissa Dale proves that they were a necessary and vital presence in the palace of the last dynasty in China. She explores all aspects of their life to the end of their existence, while avoiding the temptation to sensationalize them.” —Keith McMahon, University of Kansas

Great Eunuch

Great Eunuch PDF Author: Tian ShanXue
Publisher: Funstory
ISBN: 1636891802
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 1126

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Book Description
There was a fake eunuch who was exceptionally intelligent and called the foolish Emperor brother to him. He possessed both civil and martial skills, and he had actually managed to accomplish such a great feat. To defend the frontier, to fight for power, to fight for power, to fight for power, to fight against corruption, to fight against the King, to rule over the troubled times, to open the territory, to fight against the pirates and to punish the wicked

Chinese Eunuchs

Chinese Eunuchs PDF Author: Taisuke Mitamura
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
This book traces the history of eunuchism from its very early days until November 5, 1924, when the system was finally banned and hundreds of eunuchs, "crying pitifully in high-pitched, feminine voices," were expelled from Tzu Chin Palace, thus ending a system that had endured over 2, 000 years and through 25 dynasties.

Eunuch

Eunuch PDF Author: Len Lustgarten
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1935278916
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Young Mohammed Nasser is kidnapped by Arabic raiders and brutally castrated in order to oversee a bizarre and wealthy princes harem in a Persian Gulf oil emirate. Nasser grows into adulthood during his enslavement and eventually escapes with a beautiful member of the harem. A now much older Mohammed Nasser brings his 10 year old son, Osama, to consult with a well known New York doctor. Dr. Lewin wonders why Nasser wants fertility testing on a 10 year old boy. Nasser reveals that his son was cloned. He then begins relating his fascinating life story which begins in a tiny Muslim village by the Red Sea, moves to the Persian Gulf, then to France, and finally to the United States. Dr. Lewin is enthralled as Nasser details his rise to influence in the United Nations and political power in Eritrea. The doctor agrees to the testing and Osama places his future in the hands of physicians who later discover that the cloning process has caused irreversible damage. Nasser questions whether his bloodline will continue while Osama simultaneously battles uncertainty and the difficult challenges and celebrity that lie ahead for the worlds first cloned human being.

The Persian Boy

The Persian Boy PDF Author: Mary Renault
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1480432377
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 818

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Book Description
A New York Times–bestselling novel of the ancient king of Macedon and his lover by the author Hilary Mantel calls “a shining light.” The Persian Boy centers on the most tempestuous years of Alexander the Great’s life, as seen through the eyes of his lover and most faithful attendant, Bagoas. When Bagoas is very young, his father is murdered and he is sold as a slave to King Darius of Persia. Then, when Alexander conquers the land, he is given Bagoas as a gift, and the boy is besotted. This passion comes at a time when much is at stake—Alexander has two wives, conflicts are ablaze, and plots on the Macedon king’s life abound. The result is a riveting account of a great conqueror’s years of triumph and, ultimately, heartbreak. The Persian Boy is the second volume of the Novels of Alexander the Great trilogy, which also includes Fire from Heaven and Funeral Games. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary Renault including rare images of the author. “Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us.” —Hilary Mantel

Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch

Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch PDF Author: Christopher Harris
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Captured and castrated as a boy, Zeno is sold into slavery in Constantinople. Bought by the greatest scholar of the age, he is soon drawn into a labyrinth of sex, heresy, murder and intrigue. Though the empire is threatened by a heretic uprising and a barbarian invasion, its rulers think only of themselves. In the cruel and glittering city of Constantinople, a ruthless general, a bisexual boy-emperor, a worldly patriarch, a peasant usurper and a half-Viking empress all vie for power. Unknown to them, the real power lies elsewhere, among the devious and decadent eunuchs of the palace. Zeno conspires, deceives, manipulates and murders, his divided loyalties leading him deeper into danger until he is forced to betray those he loves.

The Female Eunuch

The Female Eunuch PDF Author: Germaine Greer
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061972800
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 541

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Book Description
The publication of Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch in 1970 was a landmark event, raising eyebrows and ire while creating a shock wave of recognition in women around the world with its steadfast assertion that sexual liberation is the key to women's liberation. Today, Greer's searing examination of the oppression of women in contemporary society is both an important historical record of where we've been and a shockingly relevant treatise on what still remains to be achieved.

The Perfect Servant

The Perfect Servant PDF Author: Kathryn M. Ringrose
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226720160
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
The Perfect Servant reevaluates the place of eunuchs in Byzantium. Kathryn Ringrose uses the modern concept of gender as a social construct to identify eunuchs as a distinct gender and to illustrate how gender was defined in the Byzantine world. At the same time she explores the changing role of the eunuch in Byzantium from 600 to 1100. Accepted for generations as a legitimate and functional part of Byzantine civilization, eunuchs were prominent in both the imperial court and the church. They were distinctive in physical appearance, dress, and manner and were considered uniquely suited for important roles in Byzantine life. Transcending conventional notions of male and female, eunuchs lived outside of normal patterns of procreation and inheritance and were assigned a unique capacity for mediating across social and spiritual boundaries. This allowed them to perform tasks from which prominent men and women were constrained, making them, in essence, perfect servants. Written with precision and meticulously researched, The Perfect Servant will immediately take its place as a major study on Byzantium and the history of gender.

Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond

Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond PDF Author: Shaun Tougher
Publisher: Classical Press of Wales
ISBN: 1914535065
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Eunuchism was a subject which both intrigued and embarrassed the ancient world. The special virtue attributed to the castrated male at court, of undistracted loyalty to his ruler, aided the promotion of numerous eunuchs to positions of great power. A literary discourse developed, reviling and sometimes defending the eminence of these 'half-men'. Here, thirteen new studies from an international cast explore how eunuchs were perceived, and also reconstruct the realities of eunuchs' lives in Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Eastern culture.