China's last imperial eunuch has died in Beijing at the age of 93 after a life that spanned the end of an imperial dynasty and a communist revolution.
Sun Yaoting, who served for seven years in the court of China's last emperor, died Tuesday evening at his home in a Beijing temple, his biographer Jia Yinghua said Thursday."He was the last eunuch in China," Jia said.
Sun, who was born on Dec. 29, 1902, near the northern port city of Tianjin, had his genitals sliced away eight years later by a father eager to wield power and influence through a son in the court of China's Qing emperors, Jia said.
Months later revolution swept away the Qing dynasty that had ruled China for almost three centuries, signaling the end of a system of promotion by emasculation that had supplied Chinese emperors with servants and agents for thousands of years.
Sun's remains were laid out in traditional style at Beijing's Guanghua temple Wednesday, with a gold cloth across his face, rings on his fingers and in a white silk shroud embroidered with imperial dragon and phoenix motifs, Jia said.
Sun had served China's Emperor Pu Yi during the final years of the last Qing ruler's residence in the Forbidden City after he was stripped of his imperial title in 1911.
He was appointed to administer Beijing's temples by the victorious communist revolutionaries after they swept to power in 1949, said Jia, author of "The Secrets of the Last Eunuch."
"He was a man of rare intelligence," Jia said, adding that when Sun revisited the Forbidden City in 1993 after a 70-year absence he had been able to point out historical inaccuracies in displays arranged by curators at the former home of China's emperors.
The eunuch's post-revolution security was shattered in 1966 when late Chairman Mao Tse-tung triggered 10 years of social ferment by launching the ultra-leftist Cultural Revolution.
Sun became an early victim of the radicalism embodied by the Red Guards, Mao's youthful socialist stormtroopers, who roamed China attacking anything seen as tainted by the feudal past.
Sun was sent back to his home village and in the chaos lost his precious genitals, which had been carefully preserved using traditional methods after his emascula-tion.
"They were thrown away by his family," Jia said. "They were afraid of being implicated if the genitals were found by the Red Guards."
According to Buddhist beliefs, a eunuch had to be buried with his penis to ensure successful reincarnation as a man.
"He used to joke about it," Jia said. "He said: "When I die I will come back as a cat or a dog.' "
Sun's adopted son and grandson were to take his remains to his home village for further ceremonies Friday before having them cremated in Beijing, Jia said.
The end of the imperial system was a source of lasting regret to Sun, who believed that - like many a talented eunuch of old - he would have come to wield huge power if Emperor Pu Yi had remained on the dragon throne, Jia said.
"That was the regret of his whole life," he said.