Cutting Down the Workforce: Eunuchs and Early Administrative Management
梳理了宦官在前现代官僚体系中作用的文献，并以中国经验检验了阉割能增强忠诚和控制力的结论，发现文化因素比去性化更重要。
The literature that exists on the role of eunuchs in pre-modern bureaucracies suggests that purposive castration was a means of securing subordinate commitment and maintaining organizational control. This paper briefly summarizes this literature, and tests these conclusions against the Chinese experience. It finds that cultural factors were more important than the simple fact of desexualization in determining the role and behaviour of eunuchs, and that in many cases castration did not engender loyalty or commitment, or facilitate control.