In feudal Chinese society, the eunuchs were a unique group that played a humble and humiliating role.
They are seen as inferior, deprived of their dignity and rights as men. However, under this seemingly absurd feudal system, they have the unexpected task of bathing the concubines. In ancient times, whether it was a slave society or a feudal society, people were divided into three, six, nine and so on, and the lower class needed to be dominated and enslaved by the upper class. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the male ** who served the Son of Heaven only appeared, and they were forbidden to marry and have children, and they were bound by the Son of Heaven for life. These minions have inevitably accumulated too many desires due to their long lives in the palace.
In order to facilitate management, the Son of Heaven imposed palace punishments on male slaves, making them eunuchs. Although eunuchs were no longer considered men, they still had seven emotions and six desires. In the midst of heavy labor and strict management, they crave to be released. However, they are deprived of their fertility and lose their dignity and rights as men. In the imperial palace, eunuchs were of a humble status and were not seen as complete individuals. In the royal palace, all the heavy work was done by eunuchs. They have no status and are no longer considered men. Surprisingly, however, the process of bathing the concubine also required the participation of the eunuchs. Some people may think that this is against ethics, but in fact, in feudal society, ethics and morality were only used to bind ordinary people.
In the palace, anything can happen. The process of bathing a concubine is very tedious and requires several steps. Start by boiling the water and then pour the hot water into the tub. In order to maintain the temperature in the tub, hot water needs to be added constantly. This task could only be done by eunuchs, who had enough strength to carry large amounts of water. During the bathing process, the concubine needs someone to massage her to relax her muscles and relax her body. Male eunuchs are the best candidates because of their strength and skillful massage skills. However, in order to prevent the eunuchs from peeking at the concubine's body, they needed to massage the concubine on their knees.
This required the eunuchs to endure long periods of kneeling and fatigue. Bathing a concubine is a very hard task. Eunuchs need to stay in a kneeling position for a long time, and the massage process also requires a lot of physical energy. In addition, they need to be vigilant in case something goes wrong. In feudal society, the situation of the eunuchs was very difficult. They face both physical and mental stress, and the slightest carelessness can result in punishment or even loss of life. However, even if the eunuchs performed well, true trust was hard to come by. In the case of the great eunuch Li Lianying, the reason why he was favored by the Empress Dowager Cixi was because he combed Cixi's hair the best.
Such an opportunity was very scarce for most eunuchs. In the royal palace, eunuchs were replaced very quickly, as they needed to constantly serve their concubines in order to keep things fresh. This required the eunuchs to constantly learn new techniques and skills Xi meet the needs of their concubines. In general, the eunuchs faced both physical and mental pressure in ancient Chinese feudal society, and lost their dignity and rights as men. In the royal palace, they lived a humble and hard life, falling victim to feudal society, a phenomenon that was both cruel and absurd.