Eunuque

One calls eunuque a castrated man. The Castration is generally limited to the ablation of the Testicule S but it happens that it also relates to the Pénis, known then under the name of Pénectomie (often with a tube inserted to keep the open Urètre).

As of the beginning of the history, there are references to the eunuques ones.

The word comes from the old Greek : εὐνή eunê (“reads”) and ἔχω ekhô (“to keep”), is “guard of the bed” (in Latin cubicularius ) - what attests the traditional role of eunuque as guard of the Harem.

History

In the old China, castration was at the same time a traditional punishment (until the Dynastie Sui) and a means of obtaining an employment in the imperial service. At the end of the Dynastie Ming there were 70.000 eunuques (宦官 huàn' guān , or 太監 tàijiān ) in the prohibited Cité. The value of such a station was important because it could make it possible to obtain an immense capacity which exceeded that of the Prime Minister; however, castration by itself was finally prohibited. The number of eunuques was not any more but of 470 in 1912, when the function was abolished. The justification of this obligation for the civils servant of high ranking was the following one: since they could not procreate, they would not be tempted to seize the power to found a dynasty. At certain periods, a similar system existed with the Vietnam and in India.

In the Ottoman Empire and other Moslem grounds , the eunuques ones were assigned to the guard and the administration of the Harem S or seraglios, i.e. of the deprived dwelling in which the wives of an important man were placed and kept away of the world. A man not châtré other that the host could not have been allowed in such an enclosure, for fear it does not maintain a connection with one the wives. It was thought that castration removed the sexual desires and the possibility of Coït. If one believes Voltaire of it, it was far from being always the case, since he says to us in the Dictionnaire philosophique with the article “Joseph”: “le kisler-aga, eunuque perfect, to which one very crossed, has a seraglio in Constantinople today: one left him his eyes and his hands, and nature did not lose its rights in its heart. The other eunuques ones, to which one cut only the two accompaniments of the body of the generation, still often employ this organe. ” That one reads also letter IX of the Letters Persians.

The practice of castration was also installed in Europe among the Greeks and Romans, but not for the servants of the court. It rather related to the religious field. Those which venerated the goddess Cybèle for example practiced the ritual ones of car castration, sanguinaria .
Even at the time Christian woman the practice remained; as the women were not authorized to sing in the churches, their place was taken by the Castrat S. the practice remained popular until the XVIIIe century and partly at the XIXe century. The most famous Italian castrato died only at the beginning of the XXe century.

The Russian sect of the XVIIIe century, Skoptzy ( скопцы ), is an example of worship of castration. Its members saw that like a way to give up the sins of the flesh. At the XXe century, several members of the worship of the Porte of the Paradise égalemement were égalemement found castrated - apparently voluntarily - for the same reasons.

Eunuques the " as of the belly of their mère"

There is many evidence which indicates that the old and medieval cultures employed the “eunuque” word in a way very different from that which one knows nowadays. In the collection of the civil law of Rome Old, created by Justinien in the Life century and known as Digeste or Pandects, the eunuques ones are described like “not sick or defective” and like able physically of procreation (Digeste 21.1.6.2) -- i.e., unless necessary” of their anatomy they do not miss a “part (D 21.1.7). That implies that some eunuques has a complete body. It is said that the “eunuque” word is a general designation which includes eunuques the “natural ones” as long as those which had suffered some physical wound (D 50.16.128). The eunuques ones are distinguished from the Castrati in the law of Rome: the eunuques ones, so not castrated, could marry women (D 23.3.39.1), institute hériters (D 28.2.6), and adopt the children (Institutions of Justinien 1.11.9); however, the castrati were excluded from each one of these rights. In its test, " Living room in the Shadows: Eunuchs and Gender in Byzantium, " Kathryn Mr. Ringrose shows that the eunuques companies did not include only the men castrated but also the homosexual ones, the transgenres, the ascetists, the single people, and a very large line of the men who impotent or were satisfied of the women for various reasons. In India, for example, a recent study (Quotation) of “eunuques” revealed that only 8% were really castrated, and less than 1% was intersexés (hermaphrodites). The majority of eunuques the studied Indians were the homosexual ones effeminatized or transvestites transgenres, which pushes several historians to wonder whether such a reality also did not exist in other “eunuques” cultures. If this is true, that would give new prospects to verse 12 of the 19th chapter of the Évangile according to Matthieu:

“Because there are the eunuques ones which are it as of the belly of their mother; there are some who became it by the men; and there are some who went such themselves, because of the kingdom of heaven. That which can understand includes/understands. ”

Pathology

The pathological relation with the body characterized by the desire to be eunuque is called the Syndrome skoptic, named according to the Skopty sect. This desire is still present in the contemporary population, as certain forums Internet prove it on the subject. There would be underground grids making it possible to carry out castration without medical license.

The acts of autocastration remain extremely rare and occur most of the time on a ground psychotic or secondarily following an abuse drug or alcohol. They are potentially serious of share the sexual and urinary complications which they can involve. The first scientific description of a autocastration was made in 1901, and since the cases published in the literature are rare.

Legends

According to the dictionary of the bad information of Tom Burnham, the eunuques ones could not have coitus with the women of the harem which they supervised. However if castration intervenes after puberty, which was most frequent for the servants, it can have erection and thus coitus there, but without being able to fertilize. Always according to Burnham, much of women prefer to have these eunuques as lovers because they do not ejaculate and can hold erection longer.

Chinese Eunuques famous

intrigant eunuque Shu Diao which was responsible for the civil war of succession in the feudal state of IQ.
Cai Lun (v. 50 - v. 121) looked by convention like the inventor of the Paper in 105,
Zhao Gao (death into -210)
Zhang Rang head from infamous “the 10 Changshi” of the dynasty of the Han of the East
Huang Hao appears in the Histoire of the Three Kingdoms
Li Fuguo a friend of confidence and honest of the emperor Xuanzong of the Tang
Yu Chao' in supervising army
Tong Guan of the Dynasty Song; also appears in the novel At the edge of water
Zheng He (1371 - 1435), exploring
Wang Zhen first Ming to see Bataille of the fortress Toumou
Liu Jin another despot celebrates
Wei Zhongxian the eunuque one with the worst reputation in the Chinese Histoire.
eunuque Year Dehai corrupted of the Dynasty Qing - Favorite of the widowed empress Cixi.
Li Lianying another despot of the Dynasty Qing.

References

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