STARRETT, VINCENT — Oriental Encounters Two Essays in Bad Taste
Chicago, IL: Normandie House, 1938. Limited Edition; 1st Printing. Hardcover. SIGNED EDITION. This edition limited to 249 copies, signed by the author. This book is in Very Good+ condition and was issued without a dust jacket, but was issued with a slipcase. The slipcase for this copy is lacking. There is some beginning fading to the spine of the book. The text pages are clean and bright. Laid-in is a photograph of the "Last Two Eunuchs", (photo taken by Starrett). Photograph has been signed by Starrett on the reverse. There is a previous owner's bookplate on the front pastedown page. The two essays deal with things that happened while Starrett was in China - the first being his visit with the two remaining Eunuchs "In China, castration included removal of the penis as well as the testicles (see emasculation). Both organs were cut off with a knife at the same time. Eunuchs have existed in China since about 146 AD during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han, and were common as civil servants by the time of the Qin dynasty. From those ancient times until the Sui dynasty, castration was both a traditional punishment (one of the Five Punishments) and a means of gaining employment in the Imperial service. Certain eunuchs gained immense power that occasionally superseded that of even the Grand Secretaries such as the Ming dynasty official Zheng He. Self-castration was a common practice, although it was not always performed completely, which led to it being made illegal. It is said that the justification for the employment of eunuchs as high-ranking civil servants was that, since they were incapable of having children, they would not be tempted to seize power and start a dynasty. In many cases, eunuchs were considered more reliable than the scholar-officials. As a symbolic assignment of heavenly authority to the palace system, a constellation of stars was designated as the Emperor's, and, to the west of it, four stars were identified as his "eunuchs." " ; Signed by Author. Very Good+ .
