The Secret Relationship Between Eunuchs and Concubines in Ancient China

Inside the Forbidden City, one rule mattered above all: no man but the emperor could touch the women of the harem. So the dynasty filled it with eunuchs to enforce that rule. What happened instead was never supposed to exist. This documentary uncovers the hidden relationships between eunuchs and palace women in Ming and Qing China: the informal "vegetarian couple" marriages known as duishi, the brutal economics of cold-palace duty, and how secret bonds between eunuchs and powerful women decided the fate of emperors. From Consort Wan's eunuch spy network, to Wei Zhongxian's rise from broke gambler to dictator through his alliance with the emperor's wet nurse, to the night the Pearl Consort was drowned in a palace well on Cixi's order.