Research On The Historical Writing Of The Eunuch Group In The Northern Sung Dynasty

The situation and status of the eunuch in the Northern Sung dynasty were closely related to the understanding of the eunuch’s role.Kings have the need to open up territory,so this period of eunuchs are more prominent military "Gelding",the king advocates the rule of literature,so this period of eunuchs more love Confucianism,happy to imitate the literati.During the early period of the Northern Sung dynasty,Emperor Taizu used eunuchs to supervise the army,to supervise the army and to transmit imperial decrees.When Emperor Taizong and Emperor Zhenzong appointed eunuchs to station troops,the number and rank of eunuchs to join the army were greatly enriched and increased;In Emperor Renzong’s time,the border was stable,and the eunuchs were rich in imperial court.The courtiers made friends with foreign ministers and sent secrets,which caused a lot of internal and external affairs,and also aroused the dissatisfaction of the literati and officialdom groups;Emperor Shenzong used the eunuchs because of the need of reform;The eunuchs of the Zhenzong dynasty had different ends because of the conflict between the old and the new.On the whole,although the eunuch’s status in the Northern Sung dynasty was on the rise,it was under the control of the imperial power.Dong Du Shi Lue is the only biography-style history book in the trend of compiling annals-style history books in the Southern Sung dynasty.The Yuan dynasty compiled the history of the Sung dynasty on the basis of a large number of historical materials preserved in the History Museum of the Sung dynasty.Considering the content of the same eunuch in the two history books written in different periods,we can find that they have different emotional tendencies towards the eunuch group.Dong Du Shi Lue was written in the Southern Sung dynasty.The author Wang claimed that eunuchs were the main scourge that led to the downfall of the Northern Sung dynasty,so there were double standards for eunuchs.Most of the eunuchs in his works were negative images such as power manipulation,greed for money and being powerful,but few of them were positive ones.The history of Sung dynasty was written in the middle and later period of Yuan dynasty,the historiographers’ obsession to write the bad deeds of the eunuchs in Northern Sung dynasty had been weakened.Therefore,the eunuchs of the Northern Sung dynasty in the history of the Sung dynasty appeared in a positive image.Compared with Dong Du Shi Lue,the image of the same eunuch is more diverse in Sung history,and the ugly image of eunuch is diluted,and the description of eunuch "Confucianization" or’Scholar-bureaucrat’ is added.As another way to understand the image of the eunuch,the relationship and status gap between the eunuch and the scholar-bureaucrat were the main factors that influenced the literati to write the eunuch.In the early Northern Sung dynasty,although the emperor widely appointed eunuchs,implemented a lot of measures to limit the development of eunuchs’ power.In addition,the eunuchs at this time have good performance,so that the literati and eunuchs keep a good relationship,so the literati write eunuchs also appear in a positive image.By the beginning of the Emperor Renzong’s time,the relationship between the eunuchs and the scholars had taken a drastic turn for the worse.The officials began to suppress the eunuchs in politics.In the last years of the Northern Sung dynasty,the eunuchs who were favored by the Emperor did evil everywhere.Influenced by the general style of literature,most eunuchs in the Northern Sung dynasty longed for the status of literati and were happy to create their own literati images,which led to the emergence of a number of eunuchs with high level of knowledge and art.However,the main deeds of the artistic eunuchs have not been recorded more because of the restrictions imposed by the literati on the writing of the eunuchs,the description of its image is more around the scholar-bureaucrat "Punish evil and praise good","Praise and demote capital politics" of the writing theme.