“Yellow Sky”: Crisis for the Han Dynasty sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne

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Cao Cao and Xu Yòu laughed a little too loud, prompting Zhang Miao to hiss, “Be quiet! Please, both of you!”
Cao Cao and Xu Yòu smiled apologetically.
“…I thought I was caught!” a fourth youth wheezed as he reached his three friends. “When Cao said-”
“You follow others too often, Wei Zi,” Zhang Miao scolded. “If you hadn’t agreed with Cao Cao, then-”
“Then you and poor Xu Yòu wouldn’t have felt like you had to join me too…?” Cao Cao teased. “If you must blame someone else for your weakness, Zhang Miao, then don’t blame him, blame me.”
“I do blame you,” Zhang Miao grumbled.
“Well, what now…?” Cao Cao asked plainly. “We’re not gonna go home now, are we? There’s still plenty of things that we can do!”
“Yeah, yeah… hey, isn’t that…?” Wei Zi said as he pointed toward a slim figure at the other end of one of the streets.
“…Yeah, it’s…!” Cao Cao said with a smile. “Hey, lets-”
But before the boys could hail the young man - a university student that they knew as an approachable trainee tutor - he was surrounded by soldiers and dragged away.
“What…? …B-but…!” Cao Cao stammered.
“…We have to run,” Xu Yòu suggested.
Cao Cao agreed; the four parted company and fled toward their homes.

The court of Emperor Huan was a place of great upheaval. Over many years, the power at court had split into two factions: one was spearheaded by many of the land’s most respected figures, and the other by a small clique of the palace eunuchs and their families, bloodline and adopted. As with every court, there were exceptions to the rules: members of eunuchs’ families - or eunuchs themselves - could decide to ally themselves with the intellectuals and decry the corruption, whilst families that were looking to advance their status could demonstrate loyalty to the eunuchs in exchange for official posts or government contracts.

     A eunuch’s life was a paradox; in most cases, they were youths chosen by their families for court service, and if they were not lucky enough to be chosen as a scholar, warrior or similar position reserved for men of status or talent, then they would undergo the process of full emasculation - removal of the whole male genitalia - and join the ranks of the domestic attendants or certain ranks of palace guards. If they survived the excruciating pain and massive blood loss that were part of the process - performed with a butcher or surgeon’s knife, and usually without any form of anaesthesia - then their life as a man was over, and their life as a creature that would be considered as genderless or feminine - either way, inferior - would begin. The attendants’ roles were intimate within the palace, performing duties deemed unfit for either gender, and in addition to dressing in a different manner to ‘proper men’, they were expected to show no strength, acting in an ingratiating and pathetic a manner that befitted their status. The guard eunuchs, by contrast, were allowed to bear arms and served as defenders of areas where men were not permitted to go.
     This ignominious fate did, however, have its advantages: as eunuchs were not men in the eyes of the court, they were not perceived as a threat, and could therefore earn trust or even power that no man could ever hope for.

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