宫刑如何进行术后护理？ 第1页

以前看过一篇国外的相关文章，大致编译了一下，发在这篇博文里。这里再粘贴一下吧：

太监可以说是中国古代文化的一道独特且无法避免的风景线。通过史籍或是影视，我们都见过许多栩栩如生的太监形象。我们都知道太监为去势之人，可去了哪些势、如何去了势我却一直无从得悉。近日在wiki百科闲逛，却无意发现了这一太监制造的详细内幕。老祖宗的国粹却要通过西人的描述来获知，真是惭愧。

为太监入职者去势是一项父子相传的职业，他们居于皇宫门外，被称为刀手（knifer）。执行手术时，未来太监倚靠在一板凳上，使用秘方先行对外阴麻醉。由两个人把住其岔开双腿，另一人按住胳膊。主刀大夫站在其两腿之间，手持图中A式样的弯刀，其刃长约9公分，柄长5公分，另一只手握住其阴囊和阴茎，然后问这位候选人或其长辈是否同意执行。一俟得到肯定答复，一刀挥下，阴囊、阴茎、睾丸全部切去。正所谓“双手劈开生死路，一刀割断是非根”。

接下来， 使用如图中B所示的销子插入尿道口中，以防尿道缩窄情况发生。伤口用胡椒水洗过三遍，然后覆以软湿纸。在两个助手的搀扶下，新生太监要走上2、3个小时。接下来的3天，他不能喝水、小解。第四天，除去包扎及销子。如果他能排尿，则手术大功告成。

已经去掉的零零碎碎被称为“宝”，被泡在酒精中由刀手或太监本人保存。每次太监升迁，这些“宝”都要被拿出来作为当年的完税证明。待太监故去，“宝”则与其主人合葬，以盼其来生能成为“完人”。

看完这段描述，我才明白原来成为一个太监要经过这么痛苦的过程。估计这段经历才使许多太监的性格发生变异，在其掌得权柄之后大加发泄，或残酷对待他人、或大肆搜刮钱财。如今，生理去势的太监们已经退出了历史，而我们的身边还是不时能看到或对下属百姓颐指气使，或贪污受贿成瘾之辈。究其原因，怕在其爬升的道路上，大约也经历漫长的心理去势过程，被其头上的皇帝去掉了心理上的宝贝。之后的所做作为，也就不足为奇了。

相关文章：

The eunuchs of the Chinese court

The practice of employing eunuchs as court functionaries in China and in other oriental countries goes back into prehistory. The procedure by which the Chinese court eunuchs were castrated in the late 19th century during the Qing dynasty was described in some detail by Stent in 1878 , and subsequent descriptions of the practice, including those by Korasow, Matignon, and Wong and Wu, appear to be paraphrases of Stent. However, on the basis of published interviews of surviving eunuchs, the surgical procedure appears to have been essentially the same in the later days of the dynasty. Possession and employment of eunuchs as servants in China were reserved for the imperial family and the 8 hereditary princes. The emperor maintained approximately 2000 in his service, the imperial princes and princesses each had about 30, and various family members were allowed 10 or so eunuchs each. On occasion, the castration was punitive, as in prisoners of war, but most were performed voluntarily in adults who, because of poverty or laziness, underwent castration to gain employment (usually as young adults, but sometimes in men after having born children) or in children under compulsion who were sold by their parents for the purpose of castration.

Specialists (termed knifers) performed the operation in an establishment maintained outside one of the palace gates in the imperial city, and the trade was handed down from father to son. The subject reclined on a broad bench, and the genitalia were anaesthetized with a secret agent known only to the surgeon. Two assistants held the spread legs, and a third assistant secured the arms. The surgeon stood between the legs armed with a curved knife (Fig. 2a), grasped the scrotum and penis with his left hand, and asked the candidate or his parents to consent to the procedure. If the answer was yes, the genitalia (scrotum, penis, and testes) were removed with a single cut. A plug made of pewter (Fig. 2b) was introduced into the urethra to prevent stricture formation. The wound was washed three times with a solution of boiled pepper and covered with a piece of soft, moistened paper. With the support of two assistants the subject was made to walk around the room for 2–3 h. For the following 3 days, the subject was not allowed to drink liquids or to urinate. On the fourth day, the dressing and plug were removed, and if the subject was able to urinate the operation was considered a success. Healing took approximately 100 days, and eventually all that was left was a contracted scar (Fig. 3). Urinary retention was treated with drugs, and if it persisted the surgeon beat the patient on each visit. Complications included hemorrhage, infection, and extravasation of urine, but death was rare (estimated at around 2%). Until convalescence was completed the pewter plug was only removed to allow urination. With time the opening of the urethra could become narrowed despite the use of dilators, resulting in urinary dribbling or retention, urinary tract infection, and bladder stones. Urinary incontinence was said to be common and caused a characteristic odor in the unfortunate victims. The stoma sometimes required dilatation long after the castration. [According to Wagenseil, other castration techniques were sometimes used, each involving the removal of all the external genitalia .]

The amputated penis, testes, and scrotum, termed "the precious" or "the treasures," were preserved in alcohol and either stored by the knifer or kept by the subject. Genitalia retained by the knifers were kept in jars labeled to indicate from whom they came and when the amputation was performed. The eunuchs were required to show the preserved genitalia to a special court official at each promotion ("inspection of the precious") to document the completeness of the operation, and eunuchs who, through carelessness or misadventure, lost the items had to borrow or rent them for display at the time of promotion. Each eunuch was buried with the preserved genitalia, because of the religious need to be as complete as possible when departing into another world.