General Research Fund (GRF)/Early Career Scheme (ECS)
Award year: 2016
Category:
Other Award
Type:
Awarding organization:
University Grants Committee Hong Kong
Out of the Inner Quarters: A Study of Funerary Writings for Eunuchs of the Mid- to Late Tang (ca. 755–903)
This project is a study of the marriage networks and chronic militarism of eunuchs in medieval China, from the emergence of eunuch marriages under the Easter Han (25–220 AD) and the rise of eunuch officers under the Northern Dynasties (386–581) to the dominance of the court and military by eunuchs under the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Eunuch militarism became possible through kinship networks between eunuchs and the military elite. Past research has relied on traditional sources and focused on the moral character or eunuchs, depicting them as corrupt and subversive. This study applies close reading strategies to recently discovered epigraphic materials and reconstructs the kinship networks of eunuchs, their concepts of masculinity in a culture that valued literary (wen) over military (wu) pursuits, and their role in stabilizing the imperial state in times of crisis. It further utilizes hitherto ignored literary sources to examine the homosocial bonds between eunuchs and other elites. As this study will show, those bonds were not all fraught with tension, but often characterized by friendship and common cultural (religious and literary) pursuits. Thus, this study breaks new ground in examining eunuchs as a social group with its own interest and agency.
Awardee
