Cutting time short or long? Castration, developmental timing, and longevity in imperial China
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 31, 2026
Murine Prostate Micro-dissection and Surgical Castration
Published on: May 11, 2016
1Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Background:
Life-history theory predicts a trade-off between reproduction and longevity. Castration has been proposed to extend male lifespan by reducing androgen-related costs, but evidence from human populations remains limited.
Aim:
This study examined whether eunuchs in imperial China had a survival advantage over comparable non-castrated men and whether earlier-life castration was associated with greater longevity.
Subjects And Methods:
Biographical records of eunuchs and non-castrated bureaucrats from the Tang (618-907 CE) and Ming (1368-1644 CE) dynasties were analysed. Hypothesis 1 compared age at death between eunuchs and bureaucrats within each dynasty using bootstrapped regression models controlling for birth year. Hypothesis 2 analysed a subset of 160 Ming eunuchs with age at court entry, using both linear regression and puberty-threshold models, with age at court entry used as a proxy for age at castration.
Results:
Tang eunuchs showed a modest but statistically significant advantage over bureaucrats (+3.02 years, p = 0.005), whereas no significant difference was observed in the Ming sample. Earlier court entry did not predict greater longevity in either the linear regression or puberty-threshold models.
Conclusion:
The survival effects of castration in humans appeared modest and context-dependent rather than uniformly beneficial and were shaped by broader biosocial and mortality conditions.
