Literary and historical sources assumed ulterior, even diabolical, motives in the man who voluntarily became a eunuch. If he was lucky, he could serve the ruler himself, become his confidant, and perhaps even usurp imperial power. Focusing on Wei Zhongxian (1568-1627) and others from the Ming and Qing, this talk will address key questions that lurk in the portrayal of eunuch: How and why did a man become a eunuch? What were his motives, as far as can be learned from historical cases; and what did storytellers and other writers think his motives were? In the case of powerful and influential eunuchs, the question also becomes: how, after his act of self-destruction, did the eunuch reconstruct himself? How did he recreate himself as a newly potent man?

Image: Waist tag for eunuch of the imperial stables, Ming dynasty (Haidian District Museum, Beijing)