Mentioning eunuchs, people often think of "eunuchs" and "eunuchs". In order to prevent harem wives and concubines from contacting ordinary men in order to maintain blood orthodox, the ruler used a lot of eunuchs in the palace, and the disabled eunuchs were first placed in the palace. Low, and the whole society will always receive strange eyes.
But it is precisely because of their incomplete body that they can gain the emperor’s unique exclusive trust. Gradually, eunuchs have become necessary official positions in the past dynasties. Regardless of their position, once they are in power, they will often harm the country and the people, and will not benefit the country. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the two major eunuch groups, the "Wuhou" and the "Shichang Shi" successively controlled the government and acted in a nonsense. The Tang Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, etc., all had the disaster of eunuchs ruining the country.
Beginning in the Eastern Han Dynasty, eunuchs were castrated, and eunuchs were also officials, and they lived in the emperor's domain. They naturally had the ability to make waves in the dynasty. In the pre-Qin and Western Han dynasties, the eunuchs were not all eunuchs. Originally, this group of people were officials dedicated to the emperor, monarch and their clan servants, but the rulers were worried about their ancestry and castrated them. With the changes of history, They became a unique group of the feudal dynasty. Zhao Gao of the Qin Dynasty started from an eunuch. There may be many people who think he is an eunuch. In fact, it is not. According to legend, Zhao Gao has a daughter, but some people think that she is an adopted daughter. Today I will discuss whether Zhao Gao is an eunuch. ?
The famous figure of the Qin Dynasty Zhao Gao has mixed reputation in history. The often mentioned "referring to the deer as the horse" originated from Zhao Gao. Zhao Gao, who was the prime minister, assumed the power in the court and was in front of hundreds of civil and military officials. , Even pointed to a deer called a horse, and forced Hu Hai and courtiers to follow his nonsense. The reason why Zhao Gao was able to hold a high position was that he was a rare talent in the Qin court.
Zhao Gao has been in charge for more than 20 years, so that everyone will only remember what he did in the court and ignore his humble background. "The Biography of Meng Tian" says: Zhao Gaozhe, Zhu Zhao also belongs to Shu. Zhao Gaokun had several people, all of whom were born in a hidden palace. His mother was tortured and was humble throughout the ages. The "Historical Records of Li Si Lie" records that Zhao Gao is an "eunuch" and has an "eunuch".
There are very few records about Zhao Gao in historical materials. The few sentences in the "Historical Records" are also ambiguous and cannot be correctly interpreted by later generations. Some people later interpreted the "Hanging Palace" as Zhao Gao's brothers who had been imprisoned. The word "Hidden" means that after being castrated, men tend to cultivate for a period of time in a confined "Jamhouse" to avoid complications such as tetanus. Therefore, later scholars understood "Hidden Palace" as Zhao Gao's torture. However, the "Hidden Palace" was a place in the Qin Dynasty. It refers to a place where people working for the imperial palace gathered. It can also refer to laborers. They have only a higher status than slaves and worse than civilians, so they are often Called "Untouchables".
"The Book of the First Emperor of Qin" records the construction of the Afang Palace, the imprisonment of more than seven hundred thousand people in the Hermitage Palace. The Hermitage Palace in the same period must represent the same meaning. According to the later imperial sentence, these 700,000 people were castrated, and there were hundreds of thousands of eunuchs in the palace. This is simply impossible. Even though the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty were very popular, there were not so many. Quantity. In addition, this sentence can be interpreted as saying that Zhao Gao’s mother was admitted to the "Hidden Palace" for violating the criminal law. The Zhao Gao brothers were all born here. They inherited their mother’s humble status,
and in the "Historical Li Si Biography" The "eunuchs" and "eunuchs" in "Eunuchs" and "Eunuchs" also cannot make a final conclusion on the identity of Zhao Gao. As mentioned earlier, eunuchs were generally eunuchs since the Eastern Han Dynasty. The eunuchs before this were not specifically eunuchs. It is understood that "eunuchs" are servants in the house, and they are officials dedicated to royal servants. They are different from the hundreds of civil and military officials in the court. In "Mandarin·Yueyu", it is recorded that the king of Yue Goujian "has entered the Wu with Fan Li." It is impossible for the king of Yue Goujian to be sentenced to imperial punishment. They became servants of the King of Wu and suffered humiliation, but they had not yet reached the point of castration.
"The Book of the Later Han · Biography of the Eunuch" records: "Han Xing, still attacked the Qin system, placed in the standing servant... the backyard of the emperor's feast, or hidden away from the hall , So please play an occasion, and use eunuchs as the master." The eunuch here is the emperorMost of the ministers appointed by the emperor worked directly for the emperor in the palace. There is also a record: "At the beginning of Zhongxing, the eunuchs used eunuchs, and it is not complicated to transfer other eunuchs." It seems that eunuchs and eunuchs are actually The difference is that the former refers to people who are "official officials", and the latter refers to eunuchs. However, in later generations, these two terms are often confused. Zhao Gao was called an "eunuch". According to this understanding, Zhao Gao was not a castrated eunuch.
"Eunuch" is even further away from the eunuch. It refers to the books and documents that record the names of officials. This can show that Zhao Gao is an official official, but it cannot prove that Zhao Gao is a castrated official. "Historical Records: The Book of Emperor Qin Shihuang" clearly mentions that Zhao Gao had a son-in-law Yan Le, so he should have a daughter, not a "tian eunuch." But there will still be scholars of later generations who suspect that it was the daughter adopted by Zhao Gao, or on the grounds that the tormented person may not have no children. Sima Qian is an example to prove that Zhao Gao is an eunuch.
Whether Zhao Gao is an eunuch or not is still inconclusive. Even if there are records in historical data, it cannot be a strong evidence because it is too old and contradictory. Many claims of "Hangong" are understood from different angles, each with its own arguments, and it is really impossible to judge which one is true. In any case, Zhao Gao has become a piece of loess. It does not have much practical significance to investigate whether he is a eunuch, but this represents the persevering spirit of scholars and deserves recognition.
