In 548 the ruler of Ts'i was assassinated
by a eunuch who would not even grant his master permission to
commit suicide decently in the ancestral hall; (see p. 62). A year
later, the succeeding ruler under urgent circumstances secured the
services of a eunuch as coachman. In contrast to these traitors,
in 481 a faithful eunuch tries to save the ruler of Ts'i from
assassination by one of the supplanting great families: this was
the case that so horrified Confucius that he died soon after, in
despair of ever seeing "divine right" regain the upper hand in
China. In 544 B.C. the ruler of Wei was assassinated by a eunuch
door-keeper. In 537 the King of Ts'u conceived the idea of
castrating and cutting the feet off the two Tsin envoys for use as
a palace gate-keeper and for service in his harem; but he was
prudently dissuaded by his chief counsellor from incurring the
risks consequent upon such an international outrage; (see p. 46).
Three centuries later, in the year 239, the First August Emperor's
(real) father, for his own spying purposes, got a sham eunuch
appointed to a post in the service of the ex-concubine made over,
as explained in the last chapter, to the First Emperor's father;
by the dowager-queen, as she then was, the supposed eunuch had
two sons.
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