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Castration of vietnamese general Lý Thường Kiệt
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Michael73 View Drop Down
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Posts: 3 		  Quote Michael73 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Castration of vietnamese general Lý Thường Kiệt
    Posted: 28-Apr-2010 at 09:29
I read that General Lý Thường Kiệt served in the imperial guard as a eunuch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%BD_Th%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Dng_Ki%E1%BB%87t

He was 23 years old when he was promoted to this position. I have several questions.

Was he already castrated as a boy to help his carreer or did he undergo emasculation at 23 to qualify for his new position?

Was he forced to be castrated or did he volunteer for castration?

In Vietnam, what was cut off? Just the testicles or testicles and penis?

Thanks if someone knows about vietnamese eunuchs
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Shield-of-Dardania View Drop Down
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Posts: 357 		  Quote Shield-of-Dardania Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Apr-2010 at 01:23
Good Gosh! I never knew that. All I know is that he was a brilliant Viet strategos in the 11th century, leading a 100,000-strong Viet army on the offensive in an attack on China, and winning the encounter.
 
I don't really believe that any normally sexually inclined young man would voluntarily give himself in for castration, no matter how ambitious he might be. It would be just against his human-animal nature. What would have likely happened was that his poor parents offered him as a gift to the emperor, at a young age, for some monetary reward. The gift of a son or daughter would be considered the ultimate gift.
 
Then he becomes the absolute property of the emperor, to do as he pleases. Of course, the advantage of a eunuch warrior is that he's freed from the temptations of female flesh.
 
Additionally, the emperor then becomes the eunuch's sole raisson d'etre. His whole life, post castration, would be absolutely, totally defined by his service to the emperor. Nothing else matters.


Edited by Shield-of-Dardania - 29-Apr-2010 at 01:52
History makes everything. Everything is history in the making.
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Michael73 View Drop Down
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Posts: 3 		  Quote Michael73 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Apr-2010 at 07:58
Lý Thường Kiệt father was a general too. Therefore money was probably not important, but loyalty to the emperor could have been the reason for Lý Thường Kiệt unmanning.

Just don`t know if it was his father that sacrified his sons manhood or he himself.
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Shield-of-Dardania View Drop Down
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Posts: 357 		  Quote Shield-of-Dardania Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-May-2010 at 08:35
Then his father must've been a mad nut!
 
If himself could rise to the position of general without sacrificing his dikk, then he shouldn't have allowed that to happen to his son.
 
No man should. If I was Lý Thường Kiệt I would have killed my own father if he had willingly allowed something like that to happen to me. Darn it. It's the freakin pits of human experience. 
History makes everything. Everything is history in the making.
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Saciel View Drop Down
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Posts: 1 		  Quote Saciel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-Mar-2017 at 13:43
This thread is quite old but I found it interesting and found an answer.

His father died when he was 13 years old, so he was in the care of mother and uncle.

He was talented and rose in the ranks but had to become an eunuch to be appointed head of the royal guard.

See, that position was very different from just a general in the outer regions, because as head of the royal guard he had access to the imperial inner quarters, no non-eunuch was allowed there because it could compromise the royal lineage.
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Sander View Drop Down
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Posts: 597 		  Quote Sander Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04-Mar-2017 at 17:41
Great you gave an answer but it would be even better if you can provide some source.

That still leaves another question. Was it just the crown jewels or was it more? Anybody?

Welcome to AE btw.

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Pickled Polly View Drop Down
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Posts: 19 		  Quote Pickled Polly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-Mar-2017 at 20:00
Could it be that some men of the time chose castration as a means of demonstrating their focus and determination to reach the top?

The thought could have been that to choose castration would impress the King/Emporer of their devotion.

There certainly have been some strange points of view through history, or at least, strange to us.
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