26. This Great Chinese Emperor Raised Perverted Monsters
Emperor Jing (reigned 157 BC – 141 BC) was among the great rulers of China’s Han Dynasty. He consolidated imperial control by crushing feudal aristocrats who tried to run their fiefdoms as de facto independent realms. His reign was seen as a good one, and he governed with a light hand. He lowered taxes and lifted other burdens from commoners, and paved the way for the Han Dynasty to reach a pinnacle under his successors. Unfortunately, in his own household, Emperor Jing raised monsters.
First of those was prince Tuan, who had some sexual hangups. One of the main tasks of a royal prince was to sire sons to ensure the dynasty’s continuity. However, Prince Tuan could not get it up with his wives and concubines, and suffered what Chinese texts described as a “withering of his potency”. Tuan became physically ill whenever he approached a woman. In itself, that was just unfortunate. How he dealt with it, though, was savage.