Not Man Enough to be a Soldier? Eunuchs in the Tang Military and Their Critics

Since this volume is on “entanglements between Byzantium and the Orient,” I shall start with a brief outline of how Byzantium, or what with distinct likelihood was Byzantium, is portrayed in Medieval Chinese sources. This requires a note on what is meant more or less exactly by “Medieval China”. My personal interest rests with the Tang 唐 Dynasty (618–907) that coexisted with Byzantium for almost three centuries. But not only did these two polities coexist temporarily; moreover, the bureaucracies of Tang China and Byzantium show remarkable similarities that deserve closer scrutiny. One of these is the employment of eunuchs in high military ranks, which emerged in China during the first period of disunion between the Han (206 BC–AD 220) and Sui (589–618) Dynasties, in particular during the Northern or Tuoba Wei (386–534). After reviewing the evidence for knowledge or at least awareness of the Eastern Mediterranean from Chinese sources, I will outline the role of eunuchs in the late Tang. While eunuchs were a major political factor in almost every dynasty of Imperial China from 221 BC to 1911 AD, they only assumed military offices twice, in the latter half of the Tang and in the Ming 明 (1368–1644) Dynasties. I will round off this chapter with reflections on some transcultural and anthropological factors lurking behind the military career of eunuchs in Medieval China, which may not be applicable to Byzantium, but certainly add new colours to the puzzle why only certain societies – those we call “oriental” – relied on eunuchs, and not others.