Abstract
This article examines the Chinese imperial body as “simultaneously part of nature and part of culture” and considers the interactions between the cultural body and physical body in sociological terms. The examination elaborates on the physical body as the manifestation of the demands of society mediated by cultural meanings. Bodily changes, such as castration, which Peng Liu argue is a trade between the physical body and cultural body in meeting the demands of Imperial Chinese society, affect the cultural embodiment of the body. This article examines the bodily actions of head eunuchs and how they interact with the emperor in the space of the Forbidden City during Imperial China. Eunuchs have undertaken an invasive physical operation to not only survive but thrive in imperial society. This reflects the constraints, struggles, and disciplining of the physically castrated and culturally embodied being.
Highlights
Human bodies are equipped with cultural and social capabilities that allow them to survive without further biological change (Elias, 1991, as cited in Shilling, 1993, p. 152)
As a potential contribution to the complexity and richness of the studies regarding bodily changes, I am interested in investigating a particular type of body and its actions as contextualized in Imperial China, namely, the eunuch, and I will consider how castration became a means to survive and even thrive in Chinese society, especially in the imperial court
Through the fictive scenarios as thought experiments, these bodies are positioned as the typical product of Confucianism and the imperial code so much so that their thoughts and actions align with the regulation and expectation of the space
Summary
Human bodies are equipped with cultural and social capabilities that allow them to survive without further biological change (Elias, 1991, as cited in Shilling, 1993, p. 152). Body studies has been developed extensively since the 1980s with a focus on body and embodiment, and it has spread into diverse disciplines in both humanities and science Correlated current issues, such as bodily changes, which “disrupt the way the body ‘normally’ functions as a silent backdrop for intentional actions” Castration resulted in the body’s sexual inability and affected its social acceptance and cultural embodiment in this hierarchical society— the head eunuchs.2 They knew how the imperial system worked; they had seen the emperor operating the system every day but were unable to do it themselves Castration resulted in the body’s sexual inability and affected its social acceptance and cultural embodiment in this hierarchical society— the head eunuchs. They knew how the imperial system worked; they had seen the emperor operating the system every day but were unable to do it themselves
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