Chapter 10 five eunuchs

When talking about my childhood life, the eunuch is indispensable.They serve me to eat, dress and sleep, play games with me, serve me to school, tell me stories, receive my rewards and be beaten by me.Others still have time away from me, but they stay around me all day long.They were the chief companions of my infancy, my slaves, and my earliest teachers. When the history of serving eunuchs began, I can't say for sure, but I know the day when it ended was the day when I won the Second World War and I fell off the imperial throne for the third time. At that time, there were probably the fewest eunuchs. , only about ten.It is said that the Ming Dynasty had the largest number of people, reaching 100,000.The use of eunuchs in the Qing Dynasty was limited in terms of positions and numbers, but there were still more than 3,000 eunuchs in the time of the Queen Mother.After 1911, a large number of eunuchs fled. Although the conditions of preferential treatment stipulated that eunuchs were not allowed to be recruited, the Ministry of Internal Affairs still secretly hired them.According to the statistics I recently saw on the 14th year of Xuantong (that is, 1922), there are still 1,137 people in the first month and the second month of the small construction allowance.Two years later, after I was dismissed, there were about 200 people left, most of whom served the concubine and my wife (they still had nearly a hundred court ladies, who remained largely unchanged).From then on, only a much smaller number of guards and male servants called squires were used at the court.

In the past, within the Forbidden City, every day at a certain time, except for the guards of the Qianqing Palace on duty, from the princes and ministers down to the most humble servant Su La, everyone left cleanly, except for the emperor's own family.Not a single real male again.The duties of eunuchs are very extensive. In addition to serving daily meals, serving people around, holding umbrellas and carrying stoves, etc., in the words of "Palace Rules", they also include: propagating edicts, leading and summoning ministers, and undertaking tasks. Inscription events; carrying out the transfer of documents from various yamen of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, recovering money and food from external treasuries, and inspecting fire candles; collecting books in the study room, antique calligraphy and paintings, crown robes and tracks, shotguns and bows and arrows; Dried and fresh fruits; lead the imperial physicians to call for pulses in various palaces, and outside craftsmen to build all objects; enshrine the recorded hadiths of the ancestors, incense candles in front of the emperor's face and in front of the gods; inspect the entry and exit of ministers and workers of all sizes; register the entry value of the Hanlin and the list of guards on duty; Observing the possession of imperial treasures; publishing notes on daily life; whipping court ladies and eunuchs; raising various animals; cleaning palaces and gardens; checking the time of chiming bells; sending out; decocting medicine; singing opera; acting as a Taoist priest to recite scriptures and burn incense in the Town God's Temple; acting as a substitute for the emperor Acting as a lama in Lama Temple, etc.

According to the system, the eunuchs in the palace can be roughly divided into two categories, one is the eunuchs around the queen mother, emperor, empress, and concubine, and the other is the eunuchs in other places.No matter what kind of eunuch, there are strict grades, which can be roughly divided into general manager, leader, and general eunuch.The empress dowager and the empress have managers and leaders around them, and the concubine's palace has only leaders.The highest rank is the third rank, but starting from Li Lianying, there has been a rule of rewarding the second rank top wear, so Zhang Qianhe, the chief manager I used, also received this honor.The third-rank Hua Ling is the chief attendant, the highest leader of the eunuchs in all places, in charge of the forty-eight eunuchs in the palace. From the fourth rank to the ninth rank, there are also no ranks, and the following are ordinary eunuchs.Generally, the lowest rank among the eunuchs is the eunuch in the cleaning department, and the eunuch who made a mistake was sent here to serve as hard labor.According to regulations, the maximum amount of monthly silver for eunuchs is eight taels of silver, eight catties of rice, and three hundred yuan for making money, and the minimum monthly silver is two taels, one and a half catties of rice, and six hundred for making money.For most eunuchs, especially the upper-level eunuchs, this is just a nominal requirement. In fact, they all have various, group or personal, legal or illegal extra money, which is higher than the nominal monthly silver. I don't know how many times more.For example, Zhang Lande, the chief eunuch of the Empress Dowager Longyu, nicknamed Xiao De Zhang, is known to everyone as the so-called noble enemy prince and rich emperor.Ruan Jinshou, the second manager I used, changed into a fur robe every winter, such as mink feather eyes, mink claws, and mink neck, and I didn't wear heavy ones.Just the suede Quanhailong leather jacket he wore on New Year's Day was enough for a small Beijing official to eat for a lifetime.The other chief eunuchs and some chief eunuchs in the palace all have their own small kitchens, and each has some young eunuchs to serve them, and some even have family members in outhouses, including mothers and maids.The low-level eunuchs are particularly hard-working. They endure hardships, beatings and crimes all year round. They have no one to rely on until they grow old. They can only live on a very limited reward. .

The eunuchs I have the most contact with are the eunuchs in the Hall of Mental Cultivation. The closest one is the little imperial eunuch who waits on me to dress and eat.The so-called palace eunuch who is in charge of cleaning also has a leader.These two kinds of eunuchs were all under the management of Zhang Qianhe, the chief supervisor, and Ruan Jinshou, the second chief supervisor. When the Empress Dowager Longyu was alive, Zhang Dean, the eunuch who was in charge of the capital, was appointed as my Zhuda. This job was to take care of my life, teach me all palace etiquette and so on.But my feelings and trust for him are far less than Zhang Qianhe.Zhang Qianhe was a hunchbacked old eunuch in his fifties at the time, and he was my actual first teacher.Before I went to Yuqing Palace to study, he was ordered by the Empress Dowager to teach me how to recognize characters first, and he taught me to read the "Three Character Classic" and "Hundred Family Surnames".After I entered Yuqing Palace, he would stand outside my bedroom every morning and read to me yesterday's homework to help me remember.Like any emperor's chief eunuch, he always took advantage of any opportunity to show his loyalty and deep affection to his master.Therefore, amidst his endless chatter, before I entered Yuqing Palace, I understood Yuan Shikai's hatred, Sun Wen's horror, and the fact that the Republic of China was handed over by the Qing Dynasty, and most of the high officials in the Republic of China were former ministers of the Qing Emperor etc.Changes in the current situation outside are often conveyed to me through his emotional changes in sorrow and joy.I can even tell from the voice of his endorsement every morning whether he is worried about me or happy for me.

Zhang Qianhe was also one of my earliest playmates.In competitive games with him, I will always win.I remember one time during Chinese New Year, Concubine Jingyi asked me to play betting, and Zhang Qianhe was in the dealership. Whichever one I bet on, I was sure to win, but in the end I always won all the money from the dealer.He didn't care, anyway, the money belonged to the concubine. Like other children, I loved listening to stories when I was young.The stories told by Zhang Qianhe and many other eunuchs are always inseparable from two categories: one is the nonsense in the palace;In short, they are all ghost stories. If I could write them all down, they would be thicker than a Liaozhai.According to them, any object in the palace, such as copper cranes, golden vats, water animals, trees, wells, stones, etc., are all perfect and supernatural. Not to mention the statues of clay sculptures and wood carvings.From those stories that I never tire of hearing, I got such a belief at a very young age: All ghosts and gods are flattering to the emperor, and some even can't flatter them, so the emperor is the most honorable.According to the eunuchs, the bronze crane with a dent on the left leg in the Chuxiu Palace became a spirit when Lord Qianlong went to Jiangnan, and ran to Jiangnan to escort him, but was shot by Qianlong and killed It was boring, so I had to slip back to the original place and stand there.The red and rusty dent on the left leg was the arrow wound shot by Qianlong.It is also said that there is an ancient pine tree near the wall near the West Fish Pond in the Imperial Garden. When Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, he covered the sun all the way. After Qianlong returned to Beijing, he gave this pine tree a poem on the wall.The illiterate eunuch didn't care what Qianlong said in his own poem.

On the steps in the northwest corner of the Qin'an Hall in the Imperial Garden, there used to be a brick, and there was a footprint-like dent under the brick.The eunuchs said that there was a fire in the Qianqing Palace during the Qianlong period. Emperor Zhenwu walked out of the palace gate, stood on the steps and pointed in the direction of the fire, and the flames stopped. This footprint was made by Emperor Zhenwu when fighting the fire.This is of course nonsense. When I was young, there was a stone pillow on the steps of the west wing of the Changchun Palace. According to an eunuch’s explanation, because of the four golden dragons on the top of the nearby Zhongzheng Hall, one of them used to drink water from the big golden tank in the Changchun Palace at night. I don’t know where it came from. A generation of emperors built this stone pillow for the golden dragon to rest on.I also enjoy hearing such nonsense.

A large bead on the emperor's hat also has mythology.It is said that one day Qianlong was walking by a small river in Yuanmingyuan and found light shining in the river. He shot a shot with a shotgun, and the light disappeared. This big pearl.He also said that after this bead was made into a hat bead, he often went out privately and flew back and forth. Later, according to the guidance of an expert, he drilled a hole in the bead and put a golden top on it, and then it was stabilized.Regarding this bead, there are other legends in "Yuewei Thatched Cottage Notes", which are all nonsense.I used to wear the bead crown made of this bead, but it was lost in Dalizigou in Tonghua when the Puppet Manchukuo collapsed.

In my childhood, I completely believed in such stories and various explanations of eunuchs.The degree of belief is illustrated by the following story.When I was eight or nine years old, Zhang Qianhe brought me a purple pill when I felt a little unwell.I asked him what kind of medicine it was, and he said: I was sleeping just now, and dreamed of an old man with a white beard, holding a pill in his hand, saying that this is the elixir of immortality, and he came here specially to honor the Lord Long Live.I was overjoyed when I heard what he said, and I even forgot that I was not feeling well. In addition, at this time, I was reminded of the story of Twenty-Four Filial Piety from the fairy tale, so I took this elixir of immortality to the four concubines and asked them to share it too. try some.These four mothers probably got the cue from Zhang Qianhe first, and they all laughed happily and praised my filial piety.After a period of time, I accidentally went to the imperial pharmacy to look for medicine, and accidentally found the purple gold ingot here, which was exactly the same as the elixir of immortality. I still refuse to admit that the story of me delivering the medicine was fabricated.

On the one hand, the eunuchs' ghost stories caused me to be arrogant, and on the other hand, I also developed my fear of ghosts since I was a child.According to the eunuchs, ghosts and spirits are everywhere in the Forbidden City.The alley behind the Yonghe Palace is a place where ghosts choke their necks; a well outside Jinghe Gate is home to a group of female ghosts. Fortunately, there is an iron plate on the Jinghe Gate, otherwise they can come out every day; Jinaoyu in the middle of the three seas Every three years, there must be a pedestrian being dragged down by a ghost under the bridge. The more you listen to this kind of story, the more frightened you become, and the more frightened you are, the more you want to hear it.After I was twelve years old, I became fascinated by the books of strange powers and gods (the eunuchs bought them for me). In addition, there were constant activities in the palace, such as worshiping gods and worshiping Buddhas, shamans dancing gods, etc., which made me suspicious all day long. It is dark, afraid of thunder, afraid of lightning, afraid of no one in the house.

Whenever the sun goes down and the Forbidden City enters the twilight and all the people who enter the palace to do business have left, there will be a mournful cry from the Qianqing Palace in the quiet center of the Forbidden City: Unlock the bar, and send money and food【1】 , Be careful with the lights, following the lingering sound at the end, echoes of the eunuch on duty echoed one after another in every corner of the Forbidden City.This was a routine prescribed by Emperor Kangxi for the eunuchs to keep them vigilant.This kind of routine made the Forbidden City full of ghosts.At this time, I didn't dare to go out of the house anymore, and felt that all the ghosts in the story had gathered outside my window.

The eunuchs fed me these nonsense, not all with the intention of flattering and frightening me, they were very superstitious themselves.Zhang Qianhe is such a person. Whenever he has any doubts, he always has to read "The Story of the Jade Box" to make up his mind.Ordinary eunuchs also devoutly enshrined the temple gods, namely the four animals: worms, foxes, weasels and hedgehogs.Originally, there were many gods enshrined in the palace, besides Buddha, Taoism, and Confucianism, there were also Wang Daddy and Wang Mama, as well as the gods outside Kunning Palace, the horses from Shangsiyuan, the silkworms from some other palace, the sun, the moon, the stars, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, etc. , all of which are offered, but only the temple god is the protector of the eunuchs, and is not included in the royal family's offerings.According to the eunuchs, the temple god is a second-rank immortal family conferred by the emperor.A eunuch told me that one night, when he was walking on Danbi in the Qianqing Palace, a man wearing a second-rank top wearing a boa robe and mending gown suddenly came from behind, grabbed him and threw him under Danbi. temple god.The eunuchs don't eat beef. According to one eunuch, eating beef is a big five crimes. The temple god will punish them by rubbing their mouths on the bark until the skin is broken and bleeding.If the eunuch enters the hall where no one goes, he must first shout to open the hall!Only then did he go to open the door, lest he accidentally meet the temple god and be punished.The eunuchs would make offerings to the temple gods every first and fifteenth day of the new year, usually with eggs and dried tofu.Shochu and a kind of dim sum called two-five eyes, whole pigs and sheep and a lot of fruits are used during the New Year's festival. For the low-income eunuchs, although it is a burden to share the cost of offerings, they are willing to do so, because these are the most common The low-level eunuchs who were beaten and resentful all hoped that the temple god would bless them, so that they would suffer less suffering in the unpredictable future. Eunuchs have many ways to obtain extra income.It has been described in operas and novels that Guangxu had to spend money to the chief eunuch of the Empress Dowager's Palace, otherwise Li Lianying would make things difficult for him, and he would not be notified when he asked for peace. In fact, this would never happen.As for eunuchs ripping off ministers, I have heard a lot.It is said that when Tongzhi got married, the Ministry of Internal Affairs managed all the eunuchs, but one place was missed. On the day of the wedding, the eunuch from this place called the Tang Lang of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and said that a piece of glass in the palace was cracked with a streak.According to the rules, the secretary of the House of Internal Affairs is not allowed to go to Danbi without being summoned. The Tang Langzhong just stood below and looked at it from a distance, and he saw stripes on the glass.The officer was so frightened that he had such a broken image on a happy day, which made the Queen Mother know that it must be a disaster.At this time, the eunuch said that he didn't need to find a craftsman, he could quietly find a way to exchange a piece.The people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs knew that this was a scam, but they had no choice but to send a sum of money.As soon as the silver arrived, the glass was also replaced.The glass wasn't actually cracked, the streak was just a hair stuck on it.When Shixu's father, Chonglun, was the minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, once because of some errands, the money was not fully delivered, and the eunuch who was not full, waited on Chonglun on the way to meet the queen mother, and waited for Chonglun to pass by. He deliberately poured a basin of wash water from the room, splashing Chonglun's mink coat with water.The eunuch pretended to be panicked and pleaded guilty.Chonglun knew that this was not the time to lose his temper, because the queen mother was waiting for him to go to see him, so he was very anxious to ask the eunuch to find a way.The eunuch then took out a ready-made sable coat and said: We need to entrust the blessing of the adults in this miserable place, so kind.It turned out that the eunuchs usually prepared all kinds of court clothes and crowns, which were rented out for the temporary use of officials. This time, Chong Lun had to ask them to extort a fortune and spent a considerable amount of money for renting clothes. According to an old person from the Ministry of Internal Affairs who told me later, when I got married, the Ministry of Internal Affairs once asked my chief executive (who had just been promoted in place of Zhang Qianhe) Ruan Jinshou to make a big deal.Because I stipulated the amount of marriage expenses in advance, which should not exceed 360,000 yuan. The Ministry of Internal Affairs can distribute the actual amount according to this amount, and then it can be distributed to eunuchs. The amount is not much, so it was not approved by the chief executive, and the matter froze. up.For this reason, Zhong Kai, the hall doctor, went to the place where Ruan Jinshou lived. There was Master Ruan on the left and Master Ruan on the right. After begging for a long time, Ruan Jinshou didn't agree.That friend was present at the time. He was too young and had just started studying, so he couldn't understand many jargons. So he didn't know how much extra money Ruan Jinshou got. But I believe that masters like Zhang Qianhe and Ruan Jinshou are far behind Xiaode Zhang in all aspects.When I was in Tianjin, Xiao Dezhang also lived in Tianjin.He had a luxurious mansion in the British Concession, served by several concubines and a large group of servants, and his prestige was no less than that of a warlord.It is said that because an aunt could not stand his abuse, she fled to the British police station and asked for protection.Xiao De Zhang Qian was able to communicate with God, not only did the patrol house not protect the woman, but sent her back to the Palace of the King of Hades, only to be beaten to death by Xiao De Zhang.After the woman died, no one dared to touch him. [1] Xiaqianliang may be Xiaqianliang, which means Xiasuo, and the word lock is taboo in the palace, so Xiaqianliang was replaced; Xiasuo was later misrepresented as Xiaqianliang.In short, no one can tell.author