Hidden Power

Thousands of years of Chinese history, from Kublai Khan to the Last Emperor, are skewed here to make the point that eunuchs often played a decisive role in the rise and fall of politicians and rulers. Not distinguishing between the trivial and the significant, Anderson, who lived in China for over 20 years, packs 375 pages with details of the manipulations at court of these neutered servants and slaves whose initial work was to guard the women's quarters and serve royalty faithfully. The result is a more-than-ordinarily confusing account of China's small and large wars, obscure and important emperors, uprisings and downputttings, tax and land policies, treatment of women, reform movements, and corruptions. There are sexual intriques and fetishes, murders and other crimes; and in all of these events, eunuchs are shown to have played a part. That they had access to information no one else had, and used it often to manipulate their masters and mistresses, and blackmailed, stole, killed, and otherwise affected events is an interesting footnote to Chinese history, but its emphasis here to make a point muddles its significance. Anderson's sources, for a work that covers so much ground, are skimpy and often inadequately identified; but she seems to have gone through newspaper clips, folklore, encyclopedias, recorded gossip, travelers' reports, and secondary modern western works for any references to eunuchs, and presented them rather indiscriminately. For a committed Chinese scholar, there are some intriguing nuggets here drawn from more original works; for a lay reader, the book presents an unbalanced and distorted account of the sweep of Chinese history. (Kirkus Reviews)