In 1996, Xinhua News Agency issued a message stating that Sun
Yaoting, China's last eunuch, had passed away. The relics he
donated have become an important collection in the eunuch culture
museum.
China's last eunuch Sun Yaoting (left)
together with the abbot of?Beijing's Guanghua Temple. The
photo was taken in 1994.
Sun was born in Jinghai County in north China's Tianjin city. In
the past, Jinghai was a backward place and people lived desperate
lives. If a poor man wanted to live a better life, being a eunuch
was considered a shortcut to prosperity. Fathers often would
castrate their sons so that they could enter service in the
imperial palace. Sun’s father thought that this was the only way
possible for Sun Yaoting to earn a living.?
In 1916, Pu Yi, China's last emperor albeit abdicated, recruited
eunuchs openly in the countryside. Via a middleman called Ren
Dexiang, Sun Yaoting finally enrolled into Palace service.
His luck held all the way from his entry into the Forbidden
City. Sun was promoted to serve Wan Rong, the country's last
empress. In 1924, during the war between warlords, the imperial
family and Sun were expelled from the Palace. Soon afterwards Sun
concluded his career as a palace eunuch.
Being as a eunuch for eight years, Sun Yaoting could do nothing
but act as a servant. He failed to find a job in rural areas and
was forced to rely on his brothers' assistance.?
He escaped from the discrimination in the countryside and
returned to Beijing two years later. There he settled down at the
Xinglong Temple where over 40 eunuchs lived. Sun grubbed for a
living by picking up coal cinders and waste on the streets.
Although life was difficult, he experienced less
discrimination.
After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the
government began to provide a monthly subsidy, 16 yuan, to eunuchs
as their living expenses. Soon, Sun was given a job in a temple as
a cashier. He worked there for six years with a monthly wage of 35
yuan, later it increased to 45 yuan.?
In 1996, Sun died at age 96.
(China.org.cn December 7, 2007)
