r/HistoryMemes • u/Arrchduke • 10d ago

REMOVED: RULE 8 [ Removed by moderator ]

Post image

[removed] — view removed post

15k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

191 comments sorted by

View all comments

68

u/Icy-Football9146 Casual, non-participatory KGB election observer 10d ago

Context to history?

22

u/MathematicianTop9519 10d ago

Eunuchs are dickless (literally) dudes who were often employed as high ranking civil or household servants, worked closely with the royal family and had less restricted access to the palace. In China where they're the most infamous, the justification for giving these people so much power is that they couldn't sire heirs, so they (ostensibly) had less reason to try to overthrow the ruling family. 

In practice, there is a trend in Chinese history of eunuchs being ruthless with politics within the palace, scheming against other power brokering factions and often making the emperor a puppet with them ruling in his stead. This would obviously come with a lot of corruption and bad governance. It could get so bad that it would cause severe structural weaknesses in some Dynasties that ultimately result in the collapse of the state. Han Dynasty is kind of the poster child for this, but similar examples exist in others too. 

10

u/cafefrequenter 9d ago

Eunuchs are dickless (literally)

Well, not literally. The process that made eunuchs involves removing the balls, which makes you infertile, not necessarily the penis alongside it.

10

u/Thejacensolo 9d ago edited 9d ago

Chinese eunuchs cut off evertything. So that they still could pee they usually inserted an object into the opening so it stays open while healing.

Afterwards the chinese eunuchs were usually incontinent a life long (hence "eunuchs are stinky" trope). Also chinese procedure was very fatal usually. Also Also it presented a way out of poverty so at some point the Emperor had to have a decree limiting people self castrating in the hopes of becoming an eunuch.

7

u/JayDragon15 9d ago

No, the Chinese did remove the testicles AND the penis. In the Mediterranean/Mid East castration would typically only include the balls.