Chapter 43 Chapter Two

Traveling to Cili County, Zhili Prefecture, Lizhou, we took a rest in a village. We were thirsty, so we asked for a bowl of tea at a fellow villager's house. At this time, the owner of the house asked the barrow to castrate a fierce boar, which means castration. You can often meet this kind of castrators in the countryside. They usually play a simple and sharp little flute, and people will know that the master who cuts pigs and chickens is coming. If there are piglets or chickens who want to castrate, please call He came to be castrated. There is a small leather bag on the waist of the castration craftsman for tools and a small bamboo basket. The severed testicles belong to him, and they are all put into the bamboo basket, and then sold to others for cooking soup.When I was a child, I witnessed the castration ceremony with my own eyes.During the operation, the castrator makes a cut under the belly of the pig and under the wing of the chicken, opens the cut with a small bow, cuts the testicles away from the abdominal cavity with a long hair like a small thread, scoops them out with a small spoon, and uses them after castration. Pig hair or chicken feather sticks the cut.The incision heals easily without sterilization and without stitches.This miraculous ancient method is said to have been passed down by Hua Tuo of the Three Kingdoms.

While we rested, we watched the barrow castrate. Several adult men pinned down the boar. The boar refused to give in easily, and tried its best to defend its testicles. It let out bursts of sharp howls, which made people's scalps go numb.Monk Liaokong closed his eyes and kept saying "sins, Amitabha". The barrow took out a sharp moon-shaped knife, and after a while, two huge things at the pig's tail were cut off.The barrow expertly poured cold water on the wound, and asked the men to let go of the pig. The pig stood up and ran away, but it was no longer as majestic as before, and only let out a few muffled screams.The barrow weighed a pair of huge contraptions in his hands, feeling very heavy, and then put them into the bamboo basket with a satisfied smile on his face, probably the pair of contraptions could fetch a good price.

After the castration is over, the master puts some groundnuts on the ground and brings out a large pot of grain wine to entertain the barrow and the men who help him.The host was very hospitable and asked us to sit down together.Monk Liaokong didn't drink and rested beside him. The few men who helped just now were drinking and complimenting the barrow's craftsmanship. The barrow said some modest and polite words, but his face was full of pride. "Master, have you ever eunuched?" Tian Gudao asked abruptly, and the others were a little dazed, probably because they were worried that the eunuch would be angry, and the wine in their mouths would be gone, so they rolled their eyes at Tian Gudao.

But the eunuch was not angry, and took up the quarrel: "I have never eunuched, but my master has eunuched quite a few, and they are all eunuchs who went to the palace." The others saw that the barrow was not angry, and brought up the topic of castrating the eunuch, so they all showed curiosity and echoed enthusiastically. "There are fewer eunuchs now. In my master's father's time, there were so many people scrambling to get into the palace. At that time, it was a very honorable thing to be a eunuch. Many people who had no money would not go to Shuntian Mansion. After being castrated at home, he ran to become a eunuch. My master is a well-known castrated craftsman in this area. Others gave him a well-known nickname "Two Swords", which means that he usually uses castrated pigs, chickens, and beasts. They live on things, but they can also castrate eunuchs. Most of the people who go to become eunuchs in this area are purified by his old man..." Speaking of his master, the barrow is full of respect.

"Then why don't you learn from eunuchs?" Tian Gudao asked persistently. "According to the rules, this kind of craftsmanship is only passed on to my own son, but my master has no children. We are all brothers, and the master only passed on to the elder brother. It is said that if there are too many people, the skill is not precious, and it is no good to grab each other's jobs. It is not conducive to the harmony of the same family." There was some regret in the barrow's tone. "Then how did you castrate the eunuch?" Everyone's curiosity arose and they asked in unison.

"I haven't seen it either. When the master castrates people, we can't get close except for the elder brother. But, I heard the elder brother say it." , urged him to speak quickly. "Before purifying, you must first establish a life and death certificate. If the castration dies, the castration master will not be responsible. Then lock the cleanser in an airtight house. During this period of confinement, let the cleanser clean up the excrement first. Absolutely no food or drink, so as not to contaminate the wound after the operation with excreted waste, which will worsen the wound and endanger life. After three or four days, the castration operation will be officially performed. Before castration, use a white cloth or bandage to tightly bind the eunuch's genitals The abdomen and the upper part of the double thigh are carefully washed with hot pepper water, and then cut off together with the scrotum and penis with a slightly curved sickle-shaped knife."

"The castration ceremony is usually divided into two steps: the first step is to cut the two balls below. A deep incision is made on the left and right sides of the balloon, and the tendons are cut to squeeze out the balls. This requires the castrated body to stand upright and the stomach to exert strength Drum out. After squeezing out the balls with all the strength of the whole body, the master will paste the sliced ​​pig gall on the left and right sides of the ball to stop the bleeding and reduce swelling. At this time, the castrated person will sweat all over his body and have no strength at all."

"The second step is to cut the penis. This requires a very high level of technology. If the cut is shallow, there will be some leeway. In the future, the brittle bones inside will bulge out, so you will have to suffer a second cut; if the cut is deep, you will go down in the future after recovery." It is inconvenient for a lifetime. Many eunuchs have the problem of peeing in the crotch, which is the sequelae left by castration. After cutting the meatballs, the cleanser sharpens the knife and then puts the thing The root of the penis is pinched tightly, and the assistant stuffs a cold and hard boiled egg into the mouth of the eunuch to block the throat, so as not to call mother and father. After the penis is cut off, a barley stalk is inserted, and then another Pig gall is split and spread on the wound in the shape of a butterfly. After the above procedures are completed, the patient is allowed to lie down after two or three hours of walking in the room with the help of two swordsmiths. They are allowed to drink water. It is said that due to thirst and pain, they have to endure great pain. After three days, the plug of the barley stalks was pulled out, and the urine gushed out like a spray of water.

After hearing the barrower's description, everyone clicked their tongues, with fearful but curious expressions on their faces.At this time, someone raised an objection: "I heard that eunuchs are usually children. When a child is castrated, his limbs must be fixed. After the child is fixed, he will tie the thing to the beam of the house and hang it up, and then wash it with cold water. With stimulation, after the stimulation reaches a certain level, it is suddenly cut off with a machete. There are several cutting methods, one is to squeeze out the two balls, and the other is to completely castrate him. It’s just digging out the whole thing! In the Ming Dynasty, there was also the rope-tying method for castration. The rope-tying method was used to tie a hemp rope from the root of the penis when the boy was young. Development. Over time, that stuff in boys loses its ability to function."

Seeing that his authority was being challenged, the barrow was displeased. Others feared that he would leave, so they didn't care to listen, so they blamed the talkative person, then comforted the barrow, and continued to listen to his nonsense. "There are not many such factories in Shuntian Prefecture. It is said that it is located outside the Xihua Gate of the Forbidden City. It is a relatively dilapidated hut. There are several knife makers who are in charge of purifying themselves. Although their profession is castration, they only obtained permission from the imperial court. There is no fixed salary, and you can charge six taels of silver per person for the operation fee of each castrated person, but you must be responsible until it is completely cured. My master never takes money from others for castration. Or a chicken, just add some wine. Of course, when the child develops in the palace, the family will not forget to thank you..."

A man next to him was fascinated by what he heard, and he didn't forget to ask: "Have you never tried to castrate people?" "I've thought about it, but no one is willing to let me experiment." The barrow's serious look doesn't allow you to doubt it. "Let him do the experiment for you." A few men next to him yelled, pushed the man who asked the question to the ground, and took off his pants. He, the last man uttered the most vicious curse, and everyone stopped. There were bursts of laughter in Pingli, Monk Liao Kong said again, "Sin, Amitabha", and the others laughed even more presumptuously. "May I ask your honored master's name?" After Pingli's intense emotions gradually stabilized, Tian Gudao also learned to ask politely. "My master is Dayong Yongding's Palace of Ox. He is famous and known to everyone in the local area." It turned out to be the Palace of Cows!According to the clues provided by Monk Kong, the eunuch we are going to chase this time is the cleansing operation performed by Niu Zhigong. It seems that the barrow did not lie, the Palace of Ox is really full of peaches and plums.When we turned back, we had to go to him and ask for the eunuch's "lifeblood" to be stitched up.