Wu Rui was a Hainanese eunuch in 15th century Lê dynasty Đại Việt (modern Vietnam) during Emperor Le Thanh Tong's rule at the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long.
[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Records show that the Vietnamese performed castration in a painful procedure by removing the entire genitalia with both penis and testicles being cut off with a sharp knife or metal blade.
[17] The eunuchs served as slaves to the Vietnamese palace women in the harem like the consorts, concubines, maids, queen, and princesses, doing most of the work.
[24][25][26][27] A 1499 entry in the Ming Shilu recorded that Wu Rui was one of thirteen Chinese men from Wenchang who were captured by the Vietnamese after their ship was blown off course while traveling from Hainan to Guangdong's Qin subprefecture (modern-day Qinzhou in Guangxi), after which they ended up near the coast of Annam (Dai Viet or Vietnam), during the Chenghua Emperor's rule (1447–1487) .
Twelve of them were enslaved to work as agricultural laborers, but since he was the youngest, Wu Rui was selected for castration since he was the only young man and became a eunuch attendant at the Vietnamese imperial palace in Thang Long.
The local chief planned to sell him back to the Vietnamese, but Wu was rescued by the Pingxiang magistrate and then was sent to Beijing to work as a eunuch in the palace.