This article is divided into two parts. Part One deals with the different factors which led to the rise of the eunuchs to a prominent position at court and the establishment of a eunuch-controlled imperial household in the years 780 to 820 A.D., and its effects upon T'ang history. Part Two traces the origins of the Shen-ts'e Army, the most important weapon of the eunuchs, the course of its development into one of the mightiest armies in the Empire, and the causes of its subsequent decline in Te-tsung and Hsien-tsung's reigns.