| Spotlight On: The Rear Palaces Of Dynastic China (Part 3) |
[Dec. 29th, 2004|07:29 pm] |
Tsunami Appeal: Victims have now reached 60,000 - 70,000 and STILL climbing.
I'm doing a new variation on the second cover I posted up for "The Dreaming" - the one I originally conceived (the creepy hands was a suggestion of the art director) had a ring of hands around it too. Let's see how this one turns out first. I've also been ordered to stop inking until my editor gets her notes on Chapter 1 to me by Wednesday night (Thursday noon for me), so right now I'm working on a 10-page short story for an anthology contribution. It's called "Ten Years Ago Today", a demonstration again of my crap story-naming skills. Ah.
The Cold Palace
The "Cold Palace" is an abandoned part of the main palace, where unwanted concubines and deposed empresses are thrown into. The place is so named because the people there are expected to get by without basic necessities - not even firewood for winter. Once there, they can never return to the rear palace, and most commit suicide in despair, or go insane. The welfare of the women there are ignored by everyone in the main palace; only the eunuchs visit it sometimes to deliver food.
The Eunuchs
The eunuchs are the castrated male servants that are responsible for the emperor's welfare, the concubines and the running of the palace. They are inseparable from the rear palace. That is because there is no place in society for them - scorned as "half-men", without families and unable to start families, the only place where they find acceptance is with others like themselves.
Eunuchs are rarely "inducted" voluntarily - most are sold as orphans or prisoners-of-war into the rear palace at a very young age. Once there, they are placed in a ranked system, and is deferential to eunuchs of a higher rank. Depending on the rank of the eunuch, they may also have power of life and death over the other female servants in the rear palace, though their power cannot (theoretically) extend beyond certain ranked concubines. Once within this system, they can be promoted and demoted by the emperor; which also bars them from taking any positions as court officials. This law was placed in order to restrict the influence of eunuchs at court, which can be quite high due to their proximity to the emperor and hence knowledge of state affairs. However, it is also a double-edged sword. Since eunuchs have no "official" power over the state or the army, many emperors considered the head eunuch their best friend and confidant. What they can't tell other people with political connections, they tell the eunuchs; meaning a eunuch's opinion can often heavily influence the emperor's. This is exacerbated by the fact that eunuchs also serve as teachers to princes and princesses, including the crown prince, and may continue serving him when he becomes emperor. Hence, eunuchs can be factions as formidable in court as the concubines can be in the reign of a weak emperor. In extreme circumstances, eunuchs can even seize power upon the death of the emperor, by concealing his death and forging imperial edicts with the imperial seal. Few of these excursions last long - usually it results in the end of a dynasty, as the palace is overrun by powerful generals eager to kill the traitors and start their own dynasty.
Apart from serving the emperor, the eunuch's most important function is to facilitate every minute detail of the emperor's sex life. This ranges from keeping records of which concubine slept with the emperor at what day and hour, when each concubine gets their period, recording when a concubine falls pregnant, whether the emperor's semen is to be retained in the concubine after he sleeps with her, and et cetera. Reproduction is a deadly seriously business in the rear palace, and of utmost importance. It is the eunuchs' responsibility to ensure that nothing violates court ettique in the emperor's dealings with his concubines. If the emperor doesn't have a particularly favoured concubine, the eunuchs will choose one for him. As you can see, this can lead to alot of competition between concubines to bribe the eunuchs. The eunuchs gladly accept the bribes, as they have little else besides power to aspire to, and many eunuchs end up being rich enough to buy themselves luxurious mansions. However, as castrated men, no amount of money can buy them a wife or respect in the eyes of society. While eunuchs can adopt sons to inherit their wealth, they are doomed to a lifetime of scorn should they attempt to integrate into mainstream society.
To Be Continued... |
|
|
| Comments: |
I wish I could've donated to the relief... I think that my JA company though is sending all our commissions to it. I'm all for it, but the others might not be. ;_; My parents donated to it, which is really good though. | |
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
queeniechan's journal
