Editing Castration (section)

===Vietnam===
The Vietnamese adopted the eunuch system and castration techniques from China. Records show that the Vietnamese performed castration in a painful procedure by removing the entire genitalia with both penis and testicles being cut off with a sharp knife or metal blade. The procedure was agonizing since the entire penis was cut off.<ref>{{cite news|title= Bí mật về thái giám trong cung triều Nguyễn|author= Theo Công An Nhân Dân|url= https://znews.vn/bi-mat-ve-thai-giam-trong-cung-trieu-nguyen-post336065.html|newspaper= Zing News|date= 18 July 2013|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130721110844/http://news.zing.vn/xa-hoi/bi-mat-ve-thai-giam-trong-cung-trieu-nguyen/a336065.html|archive-date= 21 July 2013|url-status= live}}</ref> The young man's thighs and abdomen would be tied, and others would pin him down on a table. The genitals would be washed with pepper water and then cut off. A tube would be then inserted into the urethra to allow urination during healing.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bí mật về thái giám trong cung triều Nguyễn|author=Theo Công An Nhân Dân|url=https://znews.vn/bi-mat-ve-thai-giam-trong-cung-trieu-nguyen-post336065.html|newspaper=Zing news|date=18 July 2013| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130721110844/http://news.zing.vn/xa-hoi/bi-mat-ve-thai-giam-trong-cung-trieu-nguyen/a336065.html|archive-date=21 July 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> Many Vietnamese eunuchs were products of self-castration in order to gain access to the palaces and power. In other cases, they might be paid to become eunuchs. They served in many capacities, from supervising public works, to investigating crimes, to reading public proclamations.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=K. W. |title=A history of the Vietnamese |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521875868 |page=121}}</ref>

[[Lý Thường Kiệt]] was a prominent eunuch general during the [[Lý dynasty]] (1009–1225).

The [[Trần dynasty]] sent Vietnamese boy eunuchs as tribute to Ming dynasty China several times, in 1383, 1384 and 1385<ref name="Tsai 1996 p. 15">Tsai (1996), p. 15 {{Google books|Ka6jNJcX_ygC|The Eunuchs in the Ming dynasty (Ming Tai Huan Kuan)|page=15}}</ref> Nguyen Dao, Nguyen Toan, Tru Ca, and Ngo Tin were among several Vietnamese eunuchs sent to China.<ref>Nguyẽ̂n (2008), p. 169 {{Google books|tUN8tC0ftJcC|The History Buddhism in Vietnam, Vol. IIID.5|page=169}}</ref>

During the [[Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam]], the Ming Chinese under the [[Yongle Emperor]] castrated many young Vietnamese boys, choosing them for their handsomeness and ability, and brought them to Nanjing to serve as eunuchs. Among them were the architect-engineer [[Nguyễn An]]<ref>Wang (2000), p. 135 {{Google books|CdJKLd2jJq0C|Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China|page=135}}</ref> and [[Nguyen Lang]] ({{lang|vi-Hani|阮浪}}).<ref>Goodrich (1976), p. 691 {{Google books|067On0JgItAC|Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644|page=691}}</ref> Vietnamese were among the many eunuchs of different origins found at Yongle's court.<ref>Campbell (2009), p. 147 {{Google books|S3Y2PTI_vYYC|Children in Slavery Through the Ages|page=147}}</ref> Among the eunuchs in charge of the Capital Battalions of [[Beijing]] was Xing An, a Vietnamese.<ref>Tran (2006), p. 116 {{Google books|tzh1fQEEFPAC|Việt Nam: Borderless Histories|page= 116}}</ref>

In the [[Lê dynasty]] the Vietnamese Emperor [[Lê Thánh Tông]] was aggressive in his relations with foreign countries including China. A large amount of trade between Guangdong and Vietnam happened during his reign. Early accounts recorded that the Vietnamese captured Chinese whose ships had blown off course and detained them. Young Chinese men were selected by the Vietnamese for castration to become eunuch slaves to the Vietnamese. It has been speculated by modern historians that the Chinese who were captured and castrated by the Vietnamese were involved in trade between China and Vietnam instead of actually being blown off course by the wind and they were punished as part of a crackdown on foreign trade by Vietnam.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/miscellaneouspa00irelgoog|title=Miscellaneous papers relating to Indo-China: reprinted for the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society from Dalrymple's "Oriental Repertory," and the "Asiatic Researches" and "Journal" of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume 1|author=Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Straits Branch, Reinhold Rost|publisher=Trübner & Co.|year=1887|location=LONDON|page=[https://archive.org/details/miscellaneouspa00irelgoog/page/n278 252]}}</ref>

Several Malay envoys from the [[Malacca sultanate]] were attacked and captured in 1469 by the Lê dynasty of Annam (Vietnam) as they were returning to Malacca from China. The Vietnamese enslaved and castrated the young from among the captured.<ref name="Tsai 1996 p. 15"/><ref>Rost (1887), p. 252 {{Google books|utZMAAAAYAAJ|Miscellaneous papers relating to Indo-China and Indian archipelage: reprinted for the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Second Series, Volume 1| page= 252}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Wade|2005|pp=3785–3786}}</ref>

A 1472 entry in the [[Ming Shilu]] reported that when some Chinese from [[Nanhai District|Nanhai county]] escaped back to China after their ship had been blown off course into Vietnam, where they had been forced to serve as soldiers in Vietnam's military. The escapees also reported that they found out up to 100 Chinese men remained captives in Vietnam after they were caught and castrated by the Vietnamese after their ships were blown off course into Vietnam. The Chinese Ministry of Revenue responded by ordering Chinese civilians and soldiers to stop going abroad to foreign countries.<ref>{{harvnb|Wade|2005|pp=2078–2079}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Chinese State at the Borders |year=2007 |publisher=UBC Press |isbn=978-0774813334 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/chinesestateatbo0000unse/page/92 |author=Leo K. Shin |edition=illustrated |chapter=Ming China and Its Border with Annam |editor=Diana Lary |access-date=5 January 2013 |page=[https://archive.org/details/chinesestateatbo0000unse/page/92 92] }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=明實錄 (Ming Shilu)|chapter-url=http://wenxian.fanren8.com/06/03/49/106.htm|access-date=5 January 2013|language=zh|chapter=首页 > 06史藏-1725部 > 03别史-100部 > 49-明实录宪宗实录-- > 106-明宪宗纯皇帝实录卷之一百六|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921053755/http://wenxian.fanren8.com/06/03/49/106.htm|archive-date=21 September 2013}}</ref><ref>《明宪宗实录》卷一百六，成化八年七月癸亥</ref> China's relations with Vietnam during this period were marked by the punishment of prisoners by castration.<ref>Tsai (1996), p. 16 {{Google books|Ka6jNJcX_ygC|The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty (Ming Tai Huan Kuan)|page=16}}</ref><ref>Tsai (1996), p. 245 {{Google books|Ka6jNJcX_ygC|The Eunuchs in the Ming dynasty (Ming Tai Huan Kuan)|page=245}}</ref>

A 1499 entry in the Ming Shilu recorded that 13 Chinese men from [[Wenchang]] including a young man named Wu Rui were captured by the Vietnamese after their ship was blown off course while traveling from [[Hainan]] to [[Guangdong]]'s Qin subprefecture ([[Qinzhou]]), after which they ended up near the coast of Vietnam, during the [[Chenghua Emperor]]'s rule (1447–1487). Twelve of them were enslaved to work as agricultural laborers, while the youngest, [[Wu Rui (eunuch)|Wu Rui]] was selected for castration since he was the only young man and he became a eunuch attendant at the [[Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long|Vietnamese imperial palace in Thang Long]]. After years of service, he was promoted at the death of the Vietnamese ruler in 1497 to a military position in northern Vietnam. A soldier told him of an escape route back to China and Wu Rui escaped to [[Longzhou County|Longzhou]]. The local chief planned to sell him back to the Vietnamese, but Wu was rescued by the [[Pingxiang, Guangxi|Pingxiang]] magistrate and then was sent to Beijing to work as a eunuch in the palace.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Chinese State at the Borders |year=2007 |publisher=UBC Press |isbn=978-0774813334 |url=https://archive.org/details/chinesestateatbo0000unse/page/91 |author=Leo K. Shin |edition=illustrated |author-link=Ming China and Its Border with Annam |editor=Diana Lary |access-date=5 January 2013 |page=[https://archive.org/details/chinesestateatbo0000unse/page/91 91] }}</ref>

The ''[[Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư]]'' records that in 1467 in An Bang province of Dai Viet (now [[Quảng Ninh Province]]) a Chinese ship blew off course onto the shore. The Chinese were detained and not allowed to return to China as ordered by Le Thanh Tong.<ref>Cooke (2011), p. 108 {{Google books|7mlKjn3FfoMC|The Tongking Gulf Through History|page=108}}</ref> This incident may be the same one where Wu Rui was captured.<ref name="Cooke 2011 p. 109">Cooke (2011), p. 109 {{Google books|7mlKjn3FfoMC|The Tongking Gulf Through History|page=109}}</ref>

In the [[Nguyễn dynasty]] the poet [[Hồ Xuân Hương]] mocked eunuchs in her poem as a stand-in for criticizing the government.<ref>Chandler (1987), p. 129 {{Google books|jzUz9lKn6PEC|In Search of Southeast Asia: A Modern History|page=129}}</ref>

Commoners were banned from undergoing castration in Vietnam; only adult men of high social rank could be castrated. Most eunuchs were born as such with a congenital abnormality. The Vietnamese government mandated that boys born with defective genitalia were to be reported to officials, in exchange for the town being freed from mandatory labor requirements. The boy would have the option of serving as a eunuch official or serving the palace women when he became ten years old.<ref>Andaya (2006), p. 177 {{Google books|tClCMl7hswQC|The Flaming Womb: Repositioning Women in Early Modern Southeast Asia|page=177}}</ref> This law was put in place in 1838 during the Nguyễn dynasty.<ref>Woodside (1971), p. 66 {{Google books|0LgSI9UQNpwC|Vietnam and the Chinese Model: A Comparative Study of Nguyen and Ch'ing Civil Government in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century|page=66}}</ref> The only males allowed inside the Forbidden City at [[Huế]] were the Emperor and his eunuchs.<ref>Fodor's (2012), p. 31 {{Google books|j6EtDnQnnvAC|Fodor's See It Vietnam, 3rd Edition|page=31}}</ref>

The presence of eunuchs in Vietnam was used by the French colonizers to degrade the Vietnamese.<ref>Stearns (2006), p. 1 {{Google books|oJFrN5tRlCgC|Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China|page=1}}</ref>