Discoverers of silk, inventors of gunpowder, and practitioners of philosophy.
China is one of the longest lasting civilizations of the world. But not everything about Ancient
China was as lovely and beautiful as the silk they produced. Welcome to Nutty History,
and today let’s find out what creepy things were normal in Ancient China.
Being jobless in the modern economy is a downright survival hazard. Basic living needs
have become so expensive that the world needs a revolution to secure a decent minimum wage.
You might not want to believe this but things were not much different in Ancient China.
In fact, they were so desperate to get a job they were willing to get rid of their manhood for it.
Yes, you heard us right, the Chinese poor were willing to let go of their jewels for the best
job in entire China. Eunuchs were in high demand in Chinese palaces as well as brothels because of
the inability to impregnate emperor’s concubines. However, as these were high profile jobs with
better than decent living and wages, this was the best shot any poor person had to have a better
life without waddling through the mud of social hierarchy. What makes it more disturbing is that
a lot of parents would castrate their children at birth themselves. However, if your parents didn’t
think ahead for your “smooth” career, it was a decent and fairly popular trend among grown men to
castrate themselves. Ironically, it was a ballsy move by them. The eunuchs also had an opportunity
to rise to higher ranks. For example, the duties and jobs of eunuchs gradually changed in the Ming
dynasty. Eventually, unified Eunuchs grew so much in authority that empires became wary
of their power and influence. Moreover, eunuchs were also responsible for babysitting, teaching,
training, and serving emperor’s sons who would eventually become emperors. That gave them
enough control over future kings and eunuchs became the real centre of power in China.
These eunuchs had their eyes and ears everywhere and just like Lord Varys from Game of Thrones,
they were real-life Lord of Whispers who could make or break the kingdoms with their
immense knowledge and impact on ancient China’s politics. Things got so bad with eunuchs that
in the Hongwu Emperor's time, the emperor decreed that the eunuchs were to be kept in small numbers
and of minimal literacy to prevent them from seizing power. Still desperate and willing
to chop their manhood off, people were castrating “left and left” in China. During the Ming dynasty,
the number of eunuchs in the empire had rocketed over a hundred thousand.
With so many sacrificing their stick and balls, the government was forced to intervene and had
to regulate this madness. There was an application process set up to control the anti-phallus mania
and for 200 copper coins, you could get your name on a list of eunuch applicants.
250 people on that list would get to work for the emperor, out of thousands of applicants.
Most of these ex-men wouldn’t get the job and end up begging in the streets. Sadly,
they spent the rest of their lives knowing that they got nothing for thinking with their penises.
Ancient China’s history is filled with bloody conflicts that were horrifying and downright
inhumane. Chinese fought battles on the “Total War” principle which means to do anything to
win the war and annihilate the enemy. It was quite normal for soldiers in Ancient China to
slaughter enemy soldiers and civilians with no mercy. For example, Bai Qi of Qin killed
enemy soldiers by burying them alive. But Fu Deng, Emperor Gao of Qin in the fourth century took it a
step further. Leading his troops to battle against the Qiang dynasty, he ordered his soldiers to not
carry food-related stuff or rations. Instead, he asked his soldiers to earn their meals.
“Fight in the morning, and in the evening, you can stuff yourselves on meat, you don’t have to worry
about going hungry!” was Fu Deng’s mantra for his army. So how did he manage to feed thousands of
soldiers without provisions? Simple, as soldiers were asked to earn their meal, the only prize
they had were the dead or captured enemy soldiers. Fu Deng’s soldiers would cook any enemy soldier,
no matter deceased or living, to fill their bellies after every day of fighting. If that
doesn’t get your stomach churning, wait till you hear what King Zhou did. When King Zhou of Shang
defeated King Wen of Zhou, King Zhou killed King Wen’s son and used the dead son’s meat to make
soup for King Wen. Humiliated and humbled, King Wen was so mortified of King Zhou’s power that
he ate all of the soup, despite being aware that the soup was made of his son’s remains. What???
The Chinese civilization began on the shores of the Yellow river and the northern banks of
the river where water is freezing. It was common among ancient Chinese people to bathe very little,
especially not at all during winters. Later, thanks to the spread of Taoism, bathing became
even less prevalent in ancient China. The religion made people believe that bathing
often can lead to sickness. This caused a lot of odor issues for Chinese people of all classes.
Smelly issues aside, the superstition around bathing was also the cause of massive lice
infestation in Chinese people’s scalps. However, according to doctors and healers of ancient China,
lice were a sign of good health among common folks. These healers will also determine the
survival chances of a patient from lice on their patient’s body. If the lice were
crawling all over the patient’s body, an early Chinese medical document says, he will survive.
If the lice are scrambling off his body like rats fleeing a sinking ship, he will
die. Interestingly, it's debatable if lice were feeding off poor chinese or the other way around.
The poor were used to being covered in lice and many would compulsively pluck them off their hair
and eat them. This happened so much that they had remedies to help people who ate
too much of their own lice. They would be fed ashes and boiled water from old combs.
The next time they visited the bathroom, the doctors promised, they would pass a belly full
of lice. Apart from lice, human excrements were quite popular among healers and the poor alike.
Crystal urine and yellow soup made of human feces were some of the most popular medicines among
all doctors on the shores of Yellow River back in the day. Human urine, specifically peed by people
under the age of 10 was the most popular among ancient Chinese for marinating eggs and pickles.
What I am about to tell you is arguably one of the most agonizing acts of cruelty against women
in the history of the world. Medieval foot binding was the scourge of women in old China.
And when we say medieval, we meant rather figuratively than literally. But the tradition
carried on to the modern world and survived for more than a millennium. Chinese women, whether
rich or poor, were encouraged to bind their feet as tightly as humanly possible. Often breaking
the feet structure in the process. The goal was to keep your foot less than 4 inches long.
This inhumane practice left the foot a crushed, mutilated mound of flesh they called a “lotus
foot.” This wasn’t just something a few people did. At its peak, almost every upper-class woman
and 50 percent of the lower-class bound their feet in 10th century China.
And the most creepy and perverse part about this atrocious mutilation was how men felt
about it. To ancient Chinese men, these deformed lotus feet were the sexiest things on earth.
Foreplay, in ancient China, was meant to start with a man fondling his partner’s broken foot,
and they put a lot of thought into it. During the Qing Dynasty, they even released a coitus manual
with 48 different ways to fondle a mutilated foot. To make it worse, they didn’t just consider
it appealing, in records, ancient Chinese men found these broken feet the sexiest part of a
woman’s body. According to their literature, women shouldn’t be shy about showing any part of their
body to their lovers except the broken foot. Women were encouraged to “tease” their lovers about
revealing their feet and play with their emotions. A bare lotus foot was considered quite more erotic
and what we call an NSFW today in ancient Chinese literature. Erotic we doubt it, but NSFW?
We totally agree! Now don't forget to SMASH that like button. Tell us what you think in the
comments. And if you would like to watch more creepy facts about the ancient civilizations,
check out our Ancient Egypt or Greece videos! And thanks for watching Nutty History.