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The History of Yin Style Baguazhang

Dong Haichuan: The Eunuch Controversy

by

Rand Cardwell

There has been a fair amount of controversy on whether Dong Haichuan became a eunuch or not. This is one thing that the modern reader has difficulty in comprehending, but let us examine the practice, which was common among the servants of the Imperial Family. First, what exactly was a eunuch and why would any man in his right mind submit to becoming one? Eunuchs were servants of the Chinese Emperor, or one of the higher members of the royal family, that had been castrated. This barbaric practice was done in order to ensure that none of the staff members, who had been castrated, would be tempted by any of the royal concubines. It is reported that the Emperor kept three thousand eunuchs on his staff and he would assign a small contingent of them to other members of the royal family. The technique of castration was brutal, with the penis and scrotum being swiftly removed by one stroke of a sickle-shaped knife. It took about one hundred days for the wound to heal and approximately two percent of the procedures proved to be fatal. The majority of the men that submitted to this act did so in order to escape poverty. Eunuchs of the Imperial Family tended to do quite well financially in comparison to the general population. Those that became eunuchs later in life, meaning past puberty, would lose their facial and body hair, their voices would become higher pitched, and their muscles would atrophy. Basically, the lack of ability to naturally produce testosterone would cause them to start taking on feminine characteristics.

A young eunuch of the Imperial Court shows the site of his castration. Circa 1901

Another reason to submit to castration was to avoid the sentence of death after having committed a serious crime. In 1928, Wang Laisheng wrote in Notes on Wushu, “Dong Haichuan, after having committed a serious offence to the law, was submitted to castration. He later enrolled as a eunuch servant.” Another story relates that Dong had intervened during an injustice in his village and was later suspected for homicide. He then became an outlaw and was wanted for his supposed crime. On moving to Beijing, he submitted to castration as means to continue to hide from the law and gained employment in the palace of Prince Su. Neither of these stories have ever been validated and are only added as  plausible possibilities of why Haichuan would submit to castration.

If we make the assumption that Dong was indeed a eunuch, then we have to wonder for what reason did he submit to the practice? Was it to avoid poverty? This would be doubtful since his martial skills were at an extremely high level. That alone would have enabled him to be able to avoid a life of poverty. It was considered bad practice to charge for martial arts lessons during that time, but he could have easily gained employment as escort for rich merchants and families in the Beijing area. There is another theory that exists that provides a plausible answer to why he submitted to castration. The late Li Ziming, a renowned bagua man, stated in an article called Concerning the Enigma of Dong Haichuan’s Life Experiences,  “After mastering his art Dong Haichuan devoted himself in the Taiping Heavenly Secret Organization and to accomplish his mission to infiltrate Beijing, he had to serve as castrate servant in a famous mansion, being their secret agent and awaiting the opportunity to kill the King Xianfeng, later the Taiping Rebellion was defeated and the organization was dismantled, the King Xianfeng became ill and finally died, Dong decided to stay under his cover inside the walls of the Governing city.”

Dong serving as a eunuch is validated by the information that is engraved on the steles at his tomb. On the first stele, which was erected in 1883 by Yin Fu states, “Unexpectedly reaching middle age, he will be forced to follow the unorthodox way of Si Maqian to serve as a eunuch servant inside a palace.” Considering that Yin Fu is attributed as the first student of Dong Haichuan and that the stele was added at the time of Dong’s death, it is difficult to argue that he was not a eunuch given this evidence. It should be noted that the man mentioned in the passage, Si Maqian, was a noted poet and historian that submitted to castration.

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