Key Takeaways
A global institution, many local meanings
From Assyria and Achaemenid Persia to Byzantium, the Islamic courts, and imperial China, eunuchs were trusted gatekeepers, administrators, soldiers, tutors, and ritual officials whose authority flowed from proximity to sovereigns and from social rules that framed them as “safe” within women’s quarters. [1][2][3][4]
Words that shaped a role
The English “eunuch” traces to Ancient Greek eunouchos, commonly glossed as “bed guardian,” a label reflecting court work rather than anatomy alone; Near Eastern titles like Akkadian ša rēši (“of the head,” later “eunuch”) show how status, not just surgery, defined the category. [1][5][6]
Culture oscillated between trust and suspicion
Literature and chronicles alternately cast eunuchs as faithful stewards and dangerous power brokers, from Wei Zhongxian in late Ming China to the Chief Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman harem. Modern writing reframes them as complex political actors rather than caricatures. [1][3][7]
Body, technique, and risk
Practices ranged from partial (removal of testes) to total emasculation (penis and testes), often done in childhood; historic Chinese methods used a stent to keep the urethra patent during healing—procedures that could leave lifelong urinary complications. [8]
Beginnings and endings resist a single date
Castration appears in the ancient Near East and classical texts; formal court systems continued into the twentieth century, with the Chinese palace abolishing eunuch service in November 1924 and a widely reported “last imperial eunuch,” Sun Yaoting, dying in 1996. [2][4]
Story & Details
The many courts of the “bed guardian”
The institution of the eunuch took root wherever rulers wanted loyal staff detached from ordinary dynastic ambitions. In the Neo-Assyrian world, titles like rab ša rēši (“chief eunuch”) marked top military-bureaucratic rank. A Middle Assyrian seal even shows a beardless officer identified as a royal eunuch and governor, embedding the role in governance rather than mere domestic surveillance. [6]
Across Achaemenid Persia, Greek writers singled out eunuchs as intimate court officers—Herodotus tells of Hermotimus, a Carian eunuch at the Persian court, to illustrate their singular status among “barbarians.” While colored by Greek perspective, such stories point to elite proximity and trust as defining features. [5]
Byzantium institutionalized eunuchs in church and state, while in the Islamicate world they staffed palaces and sanctuaries. The Ottoman Empire refined two hierarchies—white eunuchs in the outer palace and black eunuchs in the harem—culminating in the Chief Harem Eunuch (Kızlar Ağa), who controlled access to the sultan, oversaw charitable endowments for Mecca and Medina, and could sway appointments and policy. Scholarship shows the office crystallized in the late sixteenth century and endured, with far-reaching influence in Cairo and the Holy Cities. [3][7]
In East Asia, imperial China relied on eunuchs for inner-court management for two millennia. Their power waxed and waned; late Ming chronicles vilify Wei Zhongxian as an archetype of court overreach, while modern research contextualizes eunuchs as tightly regulated workers subject to corporal discipline, collective liability, and elaborate bureaucratic oversight—necessary yet mistrusted. The system finally ended after the expulsion of the deposed emperor Puyi from the Forbidden City in November 1924. [1][2][4]
Language and etymology, beyond one word
The usual derivation of eunouchos as “bed guardian” reflects a function—control of bedchambers and household gates—more than a medical description. In Akkadian, ša rēši (“[one] of the head/royal person”) evolved to denote the eunuch category, reminding us that titles could precede, or even substitute for, anatomy in practice and perception. [1][6]
Cultural perception: from liminal to indispensable
Eunuchs were liminal—neither fully within the male honor code nor outside courtly hierarchies. That ambiguity justified their presence in guarded female spaces and precipitated cycles of trust and fear in chronicles. Modern historians, notably those working on the Ottoman Chief Eunuch and Qing palace life, emphasize networks, law, and administration over myth. In popular culture, the term “eunuch” migrated metaphorically (e.g., Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch) to critique social power, even as the historical subject is far more specific. [1][3][7]
Methods, selection, age, and bodily consequences
How castration was performed. Historical practices ranged from orchidectomy (testes only) to total emasculation. In late imperial China, boys underwent total removal; practitioners inserted a plug or tube to keep the urethra open during healing. The risk of urethral stricture and urinary retention was significant, and modern urological case reports document late complications attributable to historic techniques. [8]
Who was selected and at what age. Pathways included enslavement, penal punishment in some codes, voluntary (often desperate) family decisions for boys in hopes of secure palace income, and recruitment through court networks. Ages skewed to childhood to align the body and voice with court ideals and to ensure lifelong service. [1][4][6][7]
How urination worked after castration. After total emasculation, a stent maintained flow during initial healing; later, men urinated through a narrowed meatus that could scar, explaining recurrent strictures reported in clinical literature. [8]
Chronology: firsts, lasts, and abolition
Earliest attestations. Explicit references appear in Near Eastern legal and administrative texts and in Greek historiography—far too dispersed to identify a single “first” eunuch with confidence. The title ša rēši and the high Assyrian office of rab ša rēši anchor the practice by the first millennium BCE. [5][6]
Formal endings. As a court system, Chinese eunuch service ended when Puyi was forced to leave the Forbidden City in November 1924; numbers had already dwindled by 1912. Reports widely identify Sun Yaoting as the last imperial eunuch; he died in the 1990s, often cited as 1996 in English-language accounts. [2][4]
Why abolition came. Republican and reformist agendas reframed court households, abolished harems, and targeted hereditary or servile offices. In the Ottoman world, nineteenth-century reforms reduced palace centrality and restructured religious endowments, curbing the Chief Eunuch’s administrative reach. In China, the fall of the dynasty and the expulsion from the palace severed the institution’s material base. [2][3][7]
Literature, media, and modern memory
Wei Zhongxian remains a stock figure of late-Ming decline in reference works; twentieth-century journalism and biography brought testimonies of final generations, including English translations of Sun Yaoting’s life. Contemporary scholarship, museum lectures, and university talks reframe eunuchs as pivotal connectors—administrative, religious, and diplomatic—rather than as curiosities. [1][2][4][7]
Conclusions
A role made by proximity, stabilized by paperwork
Across regions, eunuchs endured because they solved sovereign problems: trusted access, disciplined service, and household continuity. Titles, rules, and endowments—not just surgery—made the office.
The body as institution
Castration created social possibilities and medical vulnerabilities. Techniques aimed to prevent paternity and enable specific work; they also produced lifelong clinical consequences that echo in today’s medical literature.
Memory needs context
Sensational stories obscure bureaucratic realities. Recent research across Assyriology, Ottoman studies, and Qing social history yields a clearer picture: eunuchs as professional elites embedded in law, finance, and ritual—an institution that faded only when palaces themselves lost political centrality.
Selected References
[1] Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Eunuch.” https://www.britannica.com/topic/eunuch
[2] Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Puyi.” (Expulsion date and context.) https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pu-yi
[3] Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Jane Hathaway, “The Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Harem.” https://www.ias.edu/ideas/2017/hathaway-chief-eunuch
[4] Hong Kong University Press (PDF preview), Melissa S. Dale, Inside the World of the Eunuch (Qing China). https://hkupress.hku.hk/image/catalog/pdf-preview/9789888455751.pdf
[5] Perseus/Scaife Reader, Herodotus, Histories 8.105 (Hermotimus). https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-grc2:8.105.2/
[6] Heidelberg University Propylaeum (PDF), Beate Faist, “Kingship and Institutional Development in the Middle Assyrian Period” (on rab ša rēši). https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/2006/1/Faist_Kingship_and_institutional_development_2010.pdf
[7] Cambridge University Press page, Jane Hathaway, The Chief Eunuch of the Ottoman Harem: From African Slave to Power-Broker. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/chief-eunuch-of-the-ottoman-harem/chief-eunuch-of-the-ottoman-harem/97A38D92E528302C7A7291B41F07E402
[8] U.S. National Library of Medicine (PMC), “Chronic urinary retention in eunuchs” (late complications). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2721615/
[9] Los Angeles Times, Barbara Demick, “Last Chinese eunuch’s inside view of history” (Sun Yaoting). https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-mar-06-fg-china-eunuchs6-story.html
[10] Princeton NES, book blurb for Hathaway (institutional overview). https://nes.princeton.edu/publications/chief-eunuch-ottoman-harem-african-slave-power-broker
[11] YouTube — Penn Museum lecture (institutional), “Great Voyages: Zheng He.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le7r93whykg
Appendix
A–Z mini-definitions
Achaemenid Persia. First Persian Empire (sixth–fourth centuries BCE) where Greek authors recorded eunuchs as high court officials; sources reflect external perspectives.
Byzantium. Eastern Roman Empire where eunuchs served in church and state hierarchies, often reaching senior ranks.
Castration. Surgical removal of reproductive organs; historically ranged from orchidectomy (testes only) to total emasculation (penis and testes).
Chief Eunuch (Ottoman). The Kızlar Ağa, head of the black eunuchs, controlling access to the sultan and overseeing holy endowments; a political broker.
Etymology (eunuch). From Greek eunouchos, commonly glossed “bed guardian,” indicating function as chamber guardian more than anatomy.
Eunuch. A man rendered infertile by surgery or injury who, in many courts, held trusted domestic, administrative, or military posts.
Hermotimus. A Carian eunuch in Herodotus’s Histories, emblematic of the role’s prestige (and Greek fascination).
Kızlar Ağa. Ottoman Turkish for “Agha of the girls,” the Chief Harem Eunuch; the office crystallized in the late sixteenth century.
Puyi. China’s last emperor; his expulsion from the Forbidden City in November 1924 ended the palace eunuch system’s formal employment.
Selection (for castration). Historical routes included enslavement, penal punishment, family decision for boys, and palace recruitment; ages often pre-pubertal.
Sun Yaoting. Frequently cited as the last imperial eunuch of China; his twentieth-century life was documented in biography and journalism.
Urethral stent. A plug or tube placed after total emasculation to maintain urine flow during healing; scarring later caused strictures documented clinically.
Wei Zhongxian. Powerful late-Ming eunuch often portrayed as emblem of court excess in reference works.
Zheng He. Ming admiral and court eunuch who led early fifteenth-century Indian Ocean voyages; a public, institutional touchpoint for understanding eunuch careers.
My Diary - Leonardo Cardillo 