Transboundary Bodies

Zusammenfassung

Next to women, eunuchs are arguably the most reviled group in Chinese historical writing. The dynastic histories are replete with constant complaints about them. Creatures caught between two sexes, they are depicted as sycophants, traitors, profiteers, spendthrifts and sex-addicts. They are considered extraordinary beings, not quite human, borders in their own right. They are continually forced to occupy positions of included exclusion: they are attributed with the most negative traits to be found both in men and in women. And yet, while everyone condemns eunuchs unanimously for their wickedness, no one ever invokes their permanent elimination.

What were then the causes for the loathsome reputation of the eunuch? His humanity was at stake: through emasculation, he gave up his means to procreate and to continue the family line, thus committing the most heinous unfilial act. A eunuch, by his very being, thus challenged established notions of morality and became a marginal existence within the Chinese moral universe. At the same time, this marginality, the fact that only a sexless being had the possibility to live and work so close to the emperor, gave him an immense potential to wield influence and power. And this is why eunuchs have been made responsible for many an event that would cause the fall of a dynasty. For centuries they became whipping boys and useful tools in the writing of cylical history.

This paper aims to present a backward reading of eunuchs as transboundary bodies in Chinese history by looking at their changing image after another border-crossing: with the intrusion of foreigners into China since the early 19^th century came along the adaptation not only of foreign machinery, weapons and goods, but of concepts and ideas as well. Linear and evolutionist historical thought superseded the cyclical model of history writing and this became the moment when eunuchs were finally given a voice, when they were no longer exclusively and generally maligned but portrayed, at least in part, with sympathy: they became unbounded bodies, regained humanity again.

It is my contention that the very representation of eunuchs as marginal characters in China’s premodern historiography can be read as a fearful acknowledgement of their strengths. Eunuchs became (in)famous for their perversities because this was—according to Chinese historiography—the very secret to their powers. I will argue, however, that it is in the minds of China’s traditional historiographers, alone, that eunuchs could actually function as borders of humanity and thus make and break event history in China.

I would like to thank my research assistants, Xiong Jingjing and Ann Kathrin Dethlefson, for their ever patient and prompt replies to all of my requests for locating materials I needed and taking over most of the formatting work on this article.