(While the date of this mutiny was not recorded in historical sources, the mutiny was reported to Emperor Xianzong by the imperial eunuch stationed at Weibo on November 17, 812.)

Then-reigning Emperor Zhaozong (Emperor Xizong's brother and successor) tried to send imperial eunuchs to mediate, but the mediation was not successful.

On a day when Wang and the imperial eunuch were meeting him, he had some several soldiers proclaim, "Who is this Wang Dan who dares to give orders?"

When the soldiers dragged the imperial eunuch out, Li Qi pretended to be surprised and personally went to rescue the eunuch.

In China, for example, the last imperial eunuch only recently died, and in rural villages elderly women whose feet were bound as infants can still be found, relics of another time.

Soon, the Qing dynasty collapses, Liu failed to become an imperial eunuch and was sent to Beijing to study opera.

Mr. Barme cited "Li Lianying," a film about a famous imperial eunuch, and "Bloody Dawn," about the murder of a village schoolteacher who is suspected of having an affair with a local woman.

There was likewise a reference to the last emperor's consort, but since a good deal of his power had already been usurped by the imperial eunuchs and he was thus considered by many Chinese scholars to be unimportant, her name was not mentioned.

But amid the ensembles that periodically invade the stage (imperial eunuchs, Chinese Nationalists, Communist Red Guards, Japanese and Russian officers) there is an obvious attempt by Mr. Eagling to evoke an emotional situation in distilled terms.

When they are married, an imperial eunuch informs Tzu Hsi that she is no longer herself or even half of a couple: "You have become part of His Majesty."