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Origen (c. 185–c. 253): early Christian theologian, allegedly castrated himself based on his reading of the Gospel of Matthew 19:12 ("For there are eunuchs, who were born so from their mother's womb: and there are eunuchs, who were made so by men: and there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can ...
Castration", in China, meant the severing of the penis in addition to the testicles, after which male offenders were sentenced to work in the palace as eunuchs. The punishment was called gōngxíng (宫刑), which meant "palace punishment", since castrated men would be enslaved to work in the harem of the palace.
Muslim and Mongol eunuchs were present in the Ming court, [72]: 14 such as the ones captured from Mongol-controlled Yunnan in 1381, and among them was the great Ming maritime explorer Zheng He, [72]: 14ff [76] who served Yongle. [77] Muslim eunuchs were sent as ambassadors to the Timurids. [78]
One reason why recipients willingly underwent emasculation is that they saw employment as a palace eunuch as a way to acquire wealth and power. Alternatively, poverty was a reason why fathers forced their sons to undergo emasculation, and the desire for financial benefit motivated human traffickers to force emasculation on their victims.
The Khitan were a nomadic Mongolic people and originally did not have eunuchs as part of their culture. [37] When the Khitan founded the Liao dynasty they developed a harem system with concubines and wives and adopted eunuchs as part of it. All of the eunuchs captured were ethnic Chinese from the Central Plains that came from two
Eusebius claims that, as a young man, following a literal reading of Matthew 19:12, in which Jesus is presented as saying "there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven", [46] Origen either castrated himself or had someone else castrate him in order to ensure his reputation as a respectable tutor to ...
The metaphor of Christians as eunuchs is found in the New Testament ("For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others — and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven", Mt 19:12). Accordingly, Christian writers often viewed male saints as ...
The Saqaliba were also imported as eunuchs and concubines to Muslim states. [16] The slavery of eunuchs in the Muslim world however was expensive and they thus were given as gifts by rulers. The Saqaliba eunuchs were prominent at the court of Aghlabids and later Fatimids who imported them from Spain and Portugal.