Ministers › Statesman / Official
Li Lianying
Palace eunuch from Zhili who served Empress Dowager Cixi for over four decades as her chief attendant and was granted second-rank insignia
In the courtyard of a district government hall, a line of petitioners waits before a raised bench with a long table and document boxes; a blue umbrella stands beside it, a large drum stands at the gate where a few people wait, and a lake with sailboats lies beyond.
Also known as Li Yingtai
- Roles
- Statesman / Official
Li Lianying, born Li Yingtai in 1848 in Dacheng county, Hejian prefecture, Zhili, was castrated as a child and entered the palace in 1856 under the name Li Jinxi. He rose steadily, and after Cixi's favourite eunuch An Dehai was executed in 1869 he became her most trusted attendant; Cixi renamed him Lianying, a name later commonly written with the character for lotus. For many years he was head eunuch of her Chuxiu Palace household, and under Guangxu he was granted the insignia of the second rank, breaking the Qing rule that eunuchs could not rise above the fourth. After Cixi died in 1908 he left the palace the following year, and he died in Beijing in 1911; he was buried in the eunuchs' cemetery at Enjizhuang in Haidian.
Life and times
Dates 1848 CE–1911 CE