Reviews
"Norman Kutcher has written an erudite, ground-breaking and richly documented study that walks us through the community of eunuchs in Beijing as they moved in and out of the Forbidden City, princely households, and the Old Summer Palace in the 17th and 18th centuries . . . Generalists and specialists will discover in Kutcher's study many other fascinating topics, and these include the personalities of the Qing emperors, the physiology of eunuchs, medical history of castration, and the poignant narratives of eunuch survival and suicide."—China Quarterly
"Norman A. Kutcher provides an insightful, historically sympathetic analysis of the institution of the eunuch in Qing China by investigating the emperors’ efforts to use and control both this institution and the individual eunuchs’ lived experiences. . . . This book is a significant, important contribution to the scholarship on Qing emperorship and eunuch history."—American Historical Review
"The interpretive analogy suggested by the author presents a realistic and detailed must-read answer to the question of what it meant to be a eunuch during the Qing."—China Review International
“Norman A. Kutcher takes the eunuch establishment seriously by treating it as a central institution of government.
Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule is an important book: it is by far the best study of Chinese eunuchs to date (in any language) and a major contribution to our understanding of the court politics and central government of the Qing dynasty.”—Matthew Sommer, Professor of Chinese History, Stanford University
“Kutcher makes the eunuchs a topic not of curiosity, titillation, or cultural subversion, but of economy, statecraft, and ideology. He reminds historians that court edicts are not reportage; his case study of the eunuchs shows that policy in the early and middle Qing period was far more negotiated, far more tentative, far more subject to intervention by interest groups than we might believe.”—Pamela Kyle Crossley, Charles and Elfriede Collis Professor of History, Dartmouth College
“The wide range of sources used by Kutcher makes for a compelling narrative of eunuchs coming from all levels of popular society and serving at all levels of the imperial government. We learn, for the first time, why they were essential for the inner and outer courts to function.”—Benjamin A. Elman, Professor Emeritus of East Asian Studies and History, Princeton University
“Kutcher’s study of palace eunuchs and emperors provides fascinating glimpses of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Qing court life, revealing persistent tensions in the master-servant relationship that challenged the social order.”—Evelyn S. Rawski, Distinguished University Professor Emerita of History, University of Pittsburgh
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