Why were they employed across so many cultures and such a long period of time? I mean, I can get the idea of wanting a eunuch for say, a guard for the king's harem, no chance of him siring a bastard and supplanting your line on the throne.
But what makes someone think
>Hmm, I need someone to help me with the kingdom's finances.
>Make sure that when you hire someone, he doesn't have balls, that'll make him a better accountant!
>>895675
nepotism played a part in many disasters
>>895675
It was thought that because they couldn't start dynasties that they would be less ambitious, more manageable. So, they would be good bureaucrats and political aids.
They were also employed as personal aids and harem guards.
>>895675
>Hmm, I need someone to help me with the kingdom's finances
>As such, he will be living in close quarters with me and my family, and will probably form close relationships with them
>To ensure that my line won't be broken by an illegitimate child, I will make sure that my accountant cannot reproduce with my daughters and concubines
>>895675
>Hmm, I need someone to help me with the kingdom's finances.
>to reduce the possibility that he will try to get his useless relatives into positions of power, perhaps creating an entrenched family of useless nobles, I will cut his balls off
It was crazy, but it did the job. This is the same reason the Catholic Church made priests take vows of celibacy, so they wouldn't create dynasties.
One day a king thought it would be funny to see if anyone would actually cut their own balls off for a position at court, and the other kings were like "haha we should do that too"
how did most people become eunuchs back in the day? was it done to them as punishment for a crime or were they just insane prototrannies?
>>895819
Mostly taken from their families at a young age and forcibly castrated.
>>895675
>Hmm, I need someone to help me with the kingdom's finances.
>Make sure that when you hire someone, he doesn't have balls, that'll make him a better accountant!
This isn't the case at all.
In many eunuch-using (kek) places, the eunuchs don't just spend all day running after harem ladies and their children. Shitloads of freetime or serving under powerful individuals meant that they have other things to do and some utilized it to learn from their superiors in civil administration or the military.
Some even became military commanders (i.e. Narses, Zheng He).
But generally all Eunuchs began their careers as house-servants. Its only later when one rises from the ranks that they could be noticed by the monarch and was used in some capacity.
>>895799
the entirety of human history in one post
>>895675
Aside from all of the practical, fertility and lineage-based reasons mentioned throughout this thread, there were biological reasons as well.
As >>895823 pointed out, most eunuchs were castrated at a fairly young age. Since this regularly took place before puberty, the development of a eunuch was noticeably different than their peers. Having your testicles removed will change all sorts of things in your body and as a result, ancient rulers basically produced loyal autists without much drive or any alpha qualities to them. Perfect people to have around you when you're living in uncertain times.
Some of them still licked puss though. Those harem bitches were thirsty and some of those eunuchs still had it in them.
---
Anyone have info on different castration techniques between civilizations? Until this moment I've assumed that they chopped everything off, but now I realize it was probably just the testicles in most instances.
>>895819
In China, Eunuchry started in the Zhou period as punishment for rebelling nobles or as a way to humiliate defeated, capture nobles. You often did this to their youngest sons who have yet to have children.
During the Imperial Era, it became voluntary. Government service was a high paying job in China but not many people can afford the training or have the connections to get employed.
It's either you
1) Do the gruelling academy training & civil service exams
or
2) Join military
or
3) Start your own paramilitary group, do civic work, hope to get noticed,
All 3 are very hard to do. And expensive.
But then, hey! You can work in the Imperial Palace itself as a domestic male servant! Pay's good, but you're balls ought to go.
And there's no end of desperate poor people willing to do that.
Although it remained a method of punishment for high-class rebels and offenders in Imperial China- usually their sons. A lot of the Yuan Mongol aristocracy's sons found themselves testicless during the overthrow of the Yuan and the rise of the Ming.
>>895850
Imperial Paranoia in mid-Imperial Chinese history led to everything going off.
They cut you with a heated curved knife balls and dick and quickly inserted a sparrow's feather on the remains of your urethra and you're given blood clotting drugs.
