Norman A. Kutcher, "Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule" (U California Press, 2018)

Beyond the Margins: The University of California Press Podcast · Mar 23, 2020 · 1h 11m

Eunuchs. Nobody liked them, everybody seems to have hated them, but, even so, they were an essential part of many states – even in the Qing. Norman A. Kutcher's book Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule (University of California Press, 2018) looks at these little-acknowledged eunuchs, focusing on how the first Qing emperors managed their eunuchs, and in turn what their various management styles reveals about them. Drawing on case reports of crimes committed by eunuchs, official documents, and imperially-commissioned works, Kutcher explores both the rhetoric and reality of eunuch…