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Xiao Huangmen

Role for a eunuch in the Han dynasty

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 29, 2024
Entity authorityQ85879083 ↗
Source-derived summary

The role of Xiao Huangmen (Chinese: 小黃門) was a role for a eunuch in the Han dynasty. The position, with a salary-rank of 600 shi or dan, involved delivering and receiving messages between the imperial palace apartments and the outside court.

A Xiao Huangmen's responsibilities were to follow the emperor, receive Shangshu memorials, preach the emperor's orders, and handle communication between the emperor and the harem inside and outside the palace.

The position's responsibilities and level of authority changed over time.

Noted Xiao Huangmen

Cai Lun (c. 50–121 CE)

Ten Attendants (mid-second century CE)

Cao Jie (fl.125–181 CE)

Notes

References

Sources

Bielenstein, Hans (1980). The Bureaucracy of Han Times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22510-6.

de Crespigny, Rafe (2007). A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Xiao Huangmen” as role for a eunuch in the Han dynasty. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Xiao, Huangmen and Role.

Editorial reviewA useful synthesis for locating the documentary relationships between formal authority, participants and affected communities. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1980, 2007—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Xiao, Huangmen and Role providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Xiao Huangmen”, the useful work is to connect “role for a eunuch in the Han dynasty” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 29, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q85879083. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1980 and 2007.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
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Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Xiao Huangmen”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Xiao Huangmen primary sources, Xiao Huangmen archive and Xiao research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Xiao Huangmen”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Xiao Huangmen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.