Emperor pu yi biography

Puyi [ c ] 7 February — 17 October was the final emperor of Chinareigning as the eleventh monarch of the Qing dynasty from to Puyi's father, Zaifeng, Prince Chunserved as regent before Puyi was forced to abdicate as a result of the Xinhai Revolutionwhich ended two millennia of imperial rule and established the Republic of China. The Empress Dowager Longyu signed the Imperial Edict of the Abdication of the Qing Emperor on Puyi's behalf, and in return the royal family was offered the Articles of Favorable Treatmentwhich allowed him to retain his imperial title and continue to live in the Forbidden City.

From 1 to 12 JulyPuyi was briefly restored to the Qing throne by the loyalist general Zhang Xun. Inhe was expelled from the capital by warlord Feng Yuxiang after a coupafter which he found refuge in Tianjin and began to court both various warlords and the Japanese, who had long desired control of China. After the Japanese invaded Manchuria and established the puppet state of Manchukuo inthey installed Puyi as the state's chief executive.

InPuyi was declared emperor of Manchukuo and crowned under the era name "Kangde". He largely resided in the Manchukuo Imperial Palace in Changchunwhere his personal life was closely watched by the Japanese. He never held any real power, only able to sign edicts that the Japanese gave him. Puyi was then imprisoned and re-educated as a war criminal until his release in After his release, Puyi wrote an autobiography with the emperor pu yi biography of a ghostwriter and became a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

His time in prison greatly changed him, and he expressed deep regret for his actions while he was emperor. He died in and was ultimately buried near the Western Qing tombs in a commercial cemetery. Puyi married five times, but had no children. Chosen by Empress Dowager Cixi[ 1 ] Puyi became emperor at the age of 2 years and 10 months in December after the Guangxu EmperorPuyi's half-uncle, died childless on 14 November.

Titled the Xuantong Emperor, Puyi's introduction to the life of an emperor began when palace officials arrived at his family residence to take him. On the evening of 13 November, without any advance notice, a procession of eunuchs and guardsmen led by the palace chamberlain left the Forbidden City for the Northern Mansion to inform Prince Chun that they were taking away his two-year-old son Puyi to be the new emperor.

The toddler Puyi screamed and resisted as the officials ordered the eunuch attendants to pick him up. Puyi's parents said nothing when they learned that they were losing their son. As Puyi wept, screaming that he did not want to leave his parents, he was forced into a palanquin that took him to the Forbidden City. I still have a dim recollection of this meeting, the shock of which left a deep impression on my memory.

I remember suddenly finding myself surrounded by strangers, while before me was hung a drab curtain through which I could see an emaciated and terrifying hideous face. This was Cixi. It is said that I burst out into loud howls at the sight and started to tremble uncontrollably. Cixi told someone to give me some sweets, but I threw them on the floor and yelled "I want nanny, I want nanny", to her great displeasure.

Cixi died on 15 November, less than two days after the meeting. Puyi's father, Prince Chun, became Prince Regent. During Puyi's coronation in the Hall of Supreme Harmony on 2 Decemberthe young emperor was carried onto the Dragon Throne by his father. Puyi was frightened by the scene before him and the deafening sounds of ceremonial drums and music, and started crying.

His father could do nothing except quietly comfort him: "Don't cry, it'll be over soon. Puyi did not see his biological mother, Princess Consort Chunfor the next seven years. He developed a special bond with Wang and credited her as the only person who could control him. She was sent away when he was eight years old. After Puyi married, he would occasionally bring her to the Forbidden City, and later Manchukuoto visit him.

Growing up with scarcely any memory of a time when he was not indulged and revered, Puyi quickly became spoiled. The adults in his life, except for Wang, were all strangers, remote, distant, and unable to discipline him. Wherever he went, grown men would kneel down in a ritual kowtowaverting their eyes until he passed.

Emperor pu yi biography: When the Guangxu Emperor

Soon he discovered the absolute power he wielded over the eunuchs, and he frequently had them beaten for small transgressions. As an emperor, Puyi's every whim was catered to while no one ever said no to him, making him into a sadistic boy who loved to have his eunuchs flogged or forced to eat dirt. The Emperor was Divine. He could not be remonstrated with, or punished.

He could only be deferentially advised against ill-treating emperor pu yi biography eunuchs, and if he chose to fire air-gun pellets at them, that was his prerogative. Puyi later said, "Flogging eunuchs was part of my daily routine. My cruelty and love of wielding power were already too firmly set for persuasion to have any effect on me.

Wang was the only person capable of controlling Puyi; once, Puyi decided to "reward" a eunuch for a well-done puppet show by having a cake baked for him with iron filings in it, saying, "I want to see what he looks like when he eats it". With much difficulty, Wang talked Puyi out of this plan. Every day, Puyi had to visit five former imperial concubines, called his "mothers", to report on his progress.

He hated his "mothers", not least because they prevented him from seeing his real mother until he was Their leader was the autocratic Empress Dowager Longyuwho successfully conspired to have Puyi's beloved wet nurse Wang expelled from the Forbidden City when he was 8 on the grounds that Puyi was too old to be breast-fed. Puyi especially hated Longyu for that.

Puyi later wrote, "Although I had many mothers, I never knew any motherly love. Puyi had a standard Confucian education, being taught the various Chinese classics and nothing else. By this time, he had forgotten what his mother looked like. Such was the awe in which the emperor was held that his younger brother Pujie never heard his parents refer to Puyi as "your elder brother" but only as "The Emperor".

I couldn't believe it when I saw this boy in yellow robes sitting solemnly on the throne". The consequence was that the relationship of the emperor with his parents was distant and he found himself more attached to his nurse, Miss Wang who had accompanied him to the Forbidden City. Later, Puyi began to receive visits from his brothers and cousins, who provided a certain air of normality to his unique childhood.

Separated from his family, Puyi lived his childhood in a regime of virtual seclusion in the Forbidden City, surrounded by guards, eunuchs and other servants who treated him like a god. The emperor's upbringing was a mixture of pampering and mistreatment, as he was required to follow all the rules of rigid Chinese imperial protocol and was unable to behave like a normal child.

The eunuchs were virtual slaves who did all the work in the Forbidden City, such as cooking, gardening, cleaning, entertaining guests, and the bureaucratic work needed to govern a vast empire. They also served as the emperor's advisers. The Forbidden City was emperor pu yi biography of treasures that the eunuchs constantly stole and sold on the black market.

The business of government and of providing for the emperor created further opportunities for corruption, in which virtually all the eunuchs engaged. Puyi never had any privacy and had all his needs attended to at all times, having eunuchs open doors for him, dress him, wash him, and even blow air into his soup to cool it. At his meals, Puyi was always presented with a huge buffet containing every conceivable dish, the vast majority of which he did not eat, and every day he wore new clothing, as Chinese emperors never reused their clothing.

After his wedding, Puyi began to take control of the palace. He described "an orgy of looting" taking place that involved "everyone from the highest to the lowest". According to Puyi, by the end of his wedding ceremony, the pearls and jade in the empress's crown had been stolen. Puyi's next plan of action was to reform the Household Department.

In this period, he brought in more outsiders to replace the traditional aristocratic officers to improve accountability. But on 27 Junea fire destroyed the area around the Palace of Established Happiness, just at the moment when the emperor had ordered to carry out the inventory of one of the imperial warehouses. Puyi suspected it was arson to cover theft.

The emperor overheard conversations among the eunuchs that made him fear for his life. In response, a month after the fire, he evicted the eunuchs from the palace with the support of the Beiyang Army. The reform efforts did not last long before Puyi was forced out of the Forbidden City by Feng Yuxiang. On 10 Octoberthe army garrison in Wuhan mutiniedsparking a widespread revolt in the Yangtze river valley and beyond, demanding the overthrow of the Qing dynasty that had ruled China since The strongman general Yuan Shikai was dispatched by the court to crush the revolution, but was unable to, as by public opinion had turned decisively against the Qing, and many Chinese had no wish to fight for a dynasty that was seen as having lost the mandate of heaven.

The Dowager Empress was sitting on a kang [platform] in a side room of the Mind Nature Palace, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief as a fat old man [Yuan] knelt before her on a red cushion, tears streaming down his face. I was sitting to the right of the widow and wondering why both adults were crying. There was no one in the room other than the three of us and everything was very quiet; the fat man snorted as he spoke and I couldn't understand what he was saying This was the time when Yuan directly raised the question of abdication.

Under the " Articles of Favourable Treatment of the Great Qing Emperor after His Abdication ", signed with the new Republic of ChinaPuyi was to retain his imperial title and be treated by the government of the Republic with the protocol attached to a foreign monarch. Puyi and the imperial court were allowed to remain in the northern half of the Forbidden City the Private Apartments as well as in the Summer Palace.

A hefty annual subsidy of four million silver taels was granted by the Republic to the imperial household, although it was never fully paid and was abolished after just a few years. Puyi was not informed in February that his reign had ended and China was now a republic, and continued to believe that he was still emperor for some time.

Inwhen Empress Dowager Longyu died, President Yuan arrived at the Forbidden City to pay his respects, which Puyi's tutors told him meant that major changes were afoot. Puyi soon learned that the real reasons for the Articles of Favourable Settlement was that President Yuan was planning on restoring the monarchy with himself as the emperor of a new dynasty, and wanted to have Puyi as a sort of custodian of the Forbidden City until he could move in.

Puyi first learned of Yuan's plans to become emperor when he brought in army bands to serenade him whenever he had a meal, and he started on a decidedly imperial take on the presidency. Puyi spent hours staring at the Presidential Palace across from the Forbidden City and cursed Yuan whenever he saw him come and go in his car. Puyi loathed Yuan as a "traitor" and decided to sabotage his plans to become emperor by hiding the Imperial Seals, only to be told by his tutors that he would just make new ones.

InYuan proclaimed himself as emperorand he was planning to marry his daughter to Puyi, but had to abdicate in the face of popular opposition. Inthe warlord Zhang Xun restored Puyi to the throne from 1 to 12 July. Besides history, Johnston taught Puyi philosophy and about what he saw as the superiority of monarchies to republics. I found him very intimidating and studied English with him like a good boy, not daring to talk about other things when I got bored As the only person capable of controlling Puyi, Johnston had much more influence than his title of English tutor would suggest, as the eunuchs began to rely on him to steer Puyi away from his more capricious moods.

Under the Scotsman's influence, Puyi started to insist that his eunuchs address him as "Henry" and later his wife Wanrong as "Elizabeth" as Puyi began to speak " Chinglish ", a mixture of Mandarin and English that became his preferred mode of speech. Puyi recalled of Johnston: "I thought everything about him was first-rate. He made me feel that Westerners were the most intelligent and civilised people in the world and that he was the most learned of Westerners" and that "Johnston had become the major part of my soul".

For Puyi, the May Fourth Movement, which he asked Johnston about, was a revelation as it marked the first time in his life that he noticed that people outside the Forbidden City had concerns that were not about him. He appears to be physically robust and well developed for his age. He is a very "human" boy, with liveliness, intelligence and an enthusiastic sense of humour.

Furthermore, he has excellent manners and is totally free from arrogance Although the emperor does not seem to have been spoiled yet, from the nonsense and futility that surrounds him, I am afraid there is no hope that he will emerge unscathed from the moral dangers through of the next few years of his life very critical years necessarily for a boy in his early adolescenceunless he can be removed from the influence of the hordes of eunuchs and other useless officials who are now almost his only companions.

Emperor pu yi biography: Puyi (born February 7, ,

I am inclined to think that the best course of action to take in the interest of the boy himself would be to remove him from the harmful atmosphere of the "Forbidden City" and send him to the Summer Palace. There it would be possible for him to live a much less artificial and happier life than he can under the present conditions Puyi could not speak Manchu ; he only knew a single word in the language, yili 'arise'.

Despite studying Manchu for years, he admitted that it was his "worst" subject among everything he studied. Johnston was also the first to argue that Puyi needed glasses since he had developed myopiaas he was extremely near-sighted, and after much argument with Prince Chun, who thought it was undignified for an emperor, finally prevailed.

In Marchthe Dowager Consorts decided that Puyi should be married, and gave him a selection of photographs of aristocratic teenage girls to choose from. Puyi first chose Wenxiu as his wife, but was told that she was acceptable only as a concubineso he would have to choose again. Puyi later claimed that the faces were too small to distinguish between.

Emperor pu yi biography: Puyi was born into

On 15 Marchthe betrothal of Puyi and Wanrong was announced in the newspapers. On 17 March, Wanrong took the train to Beijing, and on 6 April, Puyi went to the Qing family shrine to inform his ancestors that he would be married to her later that year. Puyi did not meet Wanrong until their wedding. In an interview inPrince Pujie told Behr: "Puyi constantly talked about going to England and becoming an Oxford student, like Johnston.

Pujie said of Puyi's escape attempt: "Puyi's decision had nothing to do with the impending marriage. He felt cooped up, and wanted out. Pujie told Behr of Puyi's moods: "When he was in a good mood, everything was fine, and he was a charming companion. If something upset him, his dark side would emerge. Following Manchu traditions where weddings were conducted under moonlight for good luck, an enormous procession of palace guardsmen, eunuchs, and musicians carried the Princess Wanrong in a red sedan chair called the Phoenix Chair within the Forbidden City, where Puyi sat upon the Dragon Throne.

Later Wanrong kowtowed to him six times in her living quarters to symbolise her submission to her husband as the decree of their marriage was read out. Wanrong wore a mask in accordance with Chinese tradition and Puyi, who knew nothing of women, remembered: "I hardly thought about marriage and family. It was only when the Empress came into my field of vision with a crimson satin cloth embroidered with a dragon and a phoenix over her head that I felt at all curious about what she looked like.

Puyi, who was sexually inexperienced and timid, fled from the bridal chamber, leaving his wives to sleep in the Dragon Bed by themselves. It was perhaps too much to expect an adolescent, permanently surrounded by eunuchs, to show the sexual maturity of a normal seventeen-year-old.

Emperor pu yi biography: Puyi was the last emperor of

Neither the Dowager consorts nor Johnston himself had given him any advice on sexual matters — this sort of thing simply was not done, where emperors were concerned: it would have been an appalling breach of protocol. But the fact remains that a totally inexperienced, over-sheltered adolescent, if normal, could hardly have failed to be aroused by Wan Jung's [Wanrong's] unusual, sensual beauty.

The inference is, of course, that Pu Yi was either impotent, extraordinarily immature sexually, or already aware of his homosexual tendencies. He was given a bicycle by his Scottish tutor and arguably treasured it more than anything else he owned. He liked to ride it around the Forbidden City courtyards and is said to have removed doorstops in the Forbidden City so that he could cycle around.

During state affairs Puyi sat on a throne in front of his audience. Behind him was a screen that hid another throne where Cixi once sat and told the child emperors before Puyi what to do. Afterwards Manchu headgear, and anything else related to the Qings, was banned. In Hong Kong people celebrated wildly in the streets and radicals attacked the Chinese newspaper and bank, forcing them to remove Manchu imperial flags.

Ever since, students of the end of the imperial dynasty have puzzled over why she appeared so willing to do so. Now Jia Yinghua, a year-old historian and former government official, has discovered the answer: she was bribed with 20, taels, or lb, of silver, and warned she might end up being beheaded if she refused. The imperial court in the last days of the Qing dynasty was a shadow of its former self.

Foreign countries, particularly Britain, had humbled the Qing in emperor pu yi biography, carved out rich territories and extracted huge payments. Starved of income, the Qing court had even pawned the lavish silk robes of Puyi's predecessor, the Guangxu emperor, said Mr Jia. Outside the Forbidden City, uprisings were sweeping the land as citizens called for a republic.

In order to stabilise the situation, the court appointed Yuan Shikai, a general with influence over a powerful northern army, to be prime minister. But according to Mr Jia, Mr Yuan was determined to remove the last emperor from power, by turns cajoling, threatening and then bribing key figures at court. Not only did he bribe Puyi's adoptive mother, but he also corrupted her closest eunuch, Xiao Dezheng, and Prince Yikuang, one of the most powerful men at court, said Mr Jia.

He used it to build a house in Tianjin stuffed with treasures looted from the palace. In return, the eunuch told the Dowager Empress that she would be rich if she signed the emperor pu yi biography papers. Mr Yuan did not stop there. He put pressure on the court by masterminding a series of threatening letters. Mr Yuan also secretly authored a telegram from 44 army commanders calling for the empire to dissolve, according to the notes of his aide, Zeng Yujun.

After abdicating, Puyi was forced to leave the Forbidden City and briefly became a puppet ruler for the Japanese in a corner of North East China that they had conquered. Puyi lived in the Forbidden City until he was He took the name of Henry, spent much of his time watching Harold Lloyd movies and hanging out in the palace gardens. He was served by eunuchs, doctors and chefs.

During his last years in the Forbidden Palace, he and his large retinue supported themselves by selling of works of art. Some of Puyi's most trusted advisors and courtiers sold rare items from the imperial collection and replaced them with counterfeits. After more than 2, years as a monarchy, China was now a republic. He also overheard some eunuchs' conversation that made him fear for his life.

In response, he banished all the eunuchs from the palace. Inwarlord Feng Yuxiang forced the emperor to leave the Forbidden City. Pu-yi then asked his tutor Johnston to go to the British embassy and ask them to let the emperor to move to England. Unfortunately, the embassy refused his request. He then called the Japanese embassy and they agreed to escort him out of Beijing and move him to Tianjin.

After the Empire of Japan took over Manchuria inthey made Pu-yi the Emperor of their new puppet stateManchukuo. Despite being emperor, he practically had no power, but he was constantly manipulatedthreatenedand blackmailed by the Japanese government. Once again, the emperor found himself to be a prisoner in his own palace in the Manchukuo capital city of Changchun.

Chinese media and writers accused the Japanese and collaborators like Puyi of being homosexuals as an insult. For the next ten years, the former emperor was in a prison camp in Liaoning. After the prison guards said that he was reformed, he was freed from prison and was moved back to Beijing. He spent the rest of his life there as a common citizen.

He worked as a gardener and then an editor. He earned yuan a month. When he returned to the Forbidden City which was made into the Imperial Palace Museumhe had to buy a ticket to enter. At first, he worked as a gardener at the Beijing Botanical Gardens from Inhis second wife Wenxiu, the consort Shu, divorced him due to 'emptiness of life for nine years'.

Puyi vented on his anger at Wenxiu's divorce on Wanrong. Puyi's ignorance and hatred and the atrocities of the Japanese left Wanrong addicted to opium and her mental faculties gradually became abnormal. Finally, she died in in a prison in Yanji, Jilin after being arrested by Chinese Communist soldiers. Puyi lost his fertility. Puyi's autobiography recorded that eunuchs didn't want to take care of him at night, so they arranged maids to accompany Puyi when he slept.

Constant sex with maids in his early years, it is most strongly theorized, led to the loss of his sexual function and fertility, whether due to psychological damage or through a sexually transmitted disease, it is not known. Indulging in sex in his early years, it is theorized, made Puyi lose the ability to bear children, and more seriously, TCM theorists say, caused damage to his kidneys, stating depletion of kidney qi as the cause.

Though, possibly, his gradually failing kidneys caused his impotence. It artistically told the story of Aisin Gioro Puyi, the last emperor of China, who lived a tumultuous life spanning 60 years from the emperor to an ordinary citizen, though it glossed over some of the worst parts. This British-Italian epic biographical film produced in won nine Oscars at the 60th Academy Awards.

In Puyi's later years, he visited the Forbidden City with several good friends. Even though it was once his home, he needed to buy a ticket to visit it. When Puyi went to the palace where Emperor Guangxu lived, he found that the picture hanging on the wall was not Guangxu, so he reminded the staff: "This is not Emperor Guangxu, but Prince Chun — Zaifeng.

Then the staff called the experts. But these experts did not agree with Puyi's opinion, and said: "We are specialists in the study of history. Do you know better than we do? Surely we know who the person in this photo is? Puyi was very angry in turn. Pointing to the photo, he said: "That is my father!