Eunuchs and the Consolidation of the North-Eastern Frontier
during the Period of Yongle (1403-1424)
明永樂年間的東北經營與宦官
Abstract
Emperor Yongle 永樂 (Zhu Di 朱棣, 1360-1424) usurped the throne of his
nephew, Emperor Jianwen 建文 (Zhu Yunwen 朱允炆, 1377-1402？) in 1402
after a civil war that lasted for four years. The usurpation was condemned by
Confucians as it was in breach of the hierarchical concept of Confucianism in
which the throne should only pass to the eldest son, or the eldest grandson if the
prince died before the king, born of the queen or the concubine of the king. To
divert the attention of these “stubborn” scholars and to prove his ability to rule the
empire better than Emperor Jianwen, the ambitious Emperor Yongle determined to
accomplish the unfinished plan of Emperor Hongwu 洪武 (Zhu Yuanzhang 朱元
璋, 1328-1398) to extend the effective rule to northeast China which was under
the sovereignty of Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) and still controlled by the Mongols
in early Hongwu period.
Emperor Yongle achieved this aim by leading the army personally across the
Great Wall to chase and attack the Mongols in the northern grasslands and to send
envoys to the north-eastern frontier to establish the Nurkal (or Nu’ergan)奴兒干
Regional Military Commission and to persuade the Nuchens 女真 to form a
number of military guards and battalions to jointly protect the vast land in
northeast against the Mongols and the Choson Korea.
Eunuchs played a key role in these military and diplomatic ventures,
including Wang Yan 王彥, Ishiha 亦失哈, Zhang Tong’er 張童兒, Liu Tong 劉通,
Liu Shun 劉順, Huang Yan 黃儼 and Hai Shou 海壽. Emperor Yongle did not
trust the court ministers or the generals because he feared that they remained loyal
to Emperor Jianwen. He found the eunuchs to be the one to trust with. These
eunuchs, in particular those came from China’s peripheral regions, fought bravely
in the civil war and saved his life in several battles. Moreover, most of them were
uneducated and had no relations with the outside world, Emperor Yongle was the
only one they could rely on for survival and authority. Emperor Yongle
disregarded the iron signpost placed in the palace by his father which said that
“Eunuchs are forbidden to interfere with government affairs. Those who attempt
to do so will be subjected to capital punishment.”, he assigned political, military,
diplomatic and economic duties to the eunuchs. He even set up a spy agency with
eunuchs to monitor and investigate the wrongdoings of ministers.
It cannot be denied that the devilries of eunuchs was a major cause to the fall
of the Ming dynasty and eunuchs’ rise to power can be traced back to the Yongle
period. However, when we praise Yongle period as one of the greatest Han
empires in the Chinese history, we shall not neglect the contributions made by
Yongle eunuchs in conquering hostile tribes and building up cordial relationships
with neighbouring states. The contributions of Yongle eunuchs is not limited to
the great maritime explorer Zheng He 鄭和, the efforts of Wang Yan and Ishiha in
consolidating the north-eastern frontier shall equally be valued.
A common feature of the Ming eunuchs involved in the consolidation of
north-eastern frontier is worth to highlight. Emperor Yongle tended to send
eunuchs of Nuchen origin to Nuchen area, while most eunuchs engaged in
diplomatic missions to Choson Korea were castrated Chosons. The choice of the
emperor may be based on several considerations. Firstly, eunuch envoys of the
same origin can eliminate language barrier and cultural gap. Secondly, besides
diplomatic and ritual duties, these eunuchs also had a role to spy on the allegiance
and military maneuver of Nuchens and Choson Korea, so it is necessary to know
their dialects. Finally, the eunuchs had hidden assignments to request for castrated
boys, virgins, maidservants, rare animals and birds from Choson Korea, eunuchs
of foreign origin helped to keep the missions secret.