Eunuchs and Rulership in Late Imperial China

A lecture by Norman Alan Kutcher, Associate Professor of History, Syracuse University

Wesleyan University's Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies will present a lecture entitled, "Eunuchs and Rulership in Late Imperial China" with Norman Alan Kutcher, Professor of History at Syracuse University. The lecture will take place at the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies, Seminar Room, 343 Washington Terrace in Middletown, on Thursday, November 12th beginning at 4:30 p.m.

Professor Kutcher, a distinguished alumus of Wesleyan's History Department, holds both a JD degree (1985) as well as a Ph.D. (1991) in Chinese History from Yale University. At Wesleyan, his B.A. thesis on Christian education in Hunan won both High Honors and University Honors. At Syracuse University, Professor Kutcher has served in many different capacities, including Chair of the History Department and Director of Graduate Study.

He is the author of the well received study, Mourning in Imperial China: Filial Piety and the State (Cambridge University Press 1999), as well as numerous essays on AIDS policies and lineage history.

Professor Kutcher will discuss how eunuchs--castrated male servants of the ruler and his family--were a prominent feature of Chinese court life. Some eunuchs became extremely powerful, eclipsing high level officials and even, in one case, the emperor himself. Using fresh sources that include Imperial Household documents, stele inscriptions, and published miscellanies, Kutcher will explore the complexities of the eunuch-emperor relationship.

This event is free and open to the public.