Puyi (; 7 February 190617 October 1967) was the last emperor of China, having reigned as the Xuantong Emperor of the Qing dynasty (1908–1912, with a brief restoration in 1917) and later as the Kangde Emperor of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state during World War II. After the war, he was held as a war criminal in the Soviet Union and China until 1959, when the Chinese Communist Party granted him amnesty and presented him as a model of successful reeducation.
In 1908, chosen by Empress Dowager Cixi to succeed the childless Guangxu Emperor, Puyi ascended the throne at age two with his father Prince Chun as regent. Following the Xinhai Revolution, Empress Dowager Longyu signed the abdication edict on Puyi's behalf; in return, the Articles of Favorable Treatment allowed him to retain his imperial title and remain in the Forbidden City. From 1 to 12 July 1917, the loyalist general Zhang Xun restored him to the throne. In 1924, warlord Feng Yuxiang expelled him from the palace, and Puyi took refuge in Tianjin.
Following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Puyi was installed as chief executive of Manchukuo in 1932 and he was crowned emperor of Manchukuo in 1934. At the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945, he was captured by the Soviet Red Army, testified at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal in 1946, and he was repatriated to the People's Republic of China in 1950. After his release in 1959, Puyi published an autobiography (ghostwritten by Li Wenda) and he worked as a gardener before he became a researcher at the Central Research Institute of Culture and History. In 1964, he was selected as a member of 4th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. After the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966, he was protected by Zhou Enlai, and he died without issue in 1967.
Childhood and reign (1908–1912)
Puyi was born on 7 February 1906 in Beijing. His father was Zaifeng, the Prince Chun. Zaifeng was a Manchu prince His great-grandfather was the Daoguang Emperor, his great-uncle was the Xianfeng Emperor, and his grandfather was Yixuan, the first person to hold the title of Prince Chun. Puyi's uncle, the Guangxu Emperor, was Puyi's immediate predecessor.
Puyi's mother was Youlan, of the Manchu Plain White Banner Gūwalgiya clan. Her father was Ronglu, who held the minor rank of Qiduyu in the nobility, and who was a close ally of Empress Dowager Cixi. He held a number of important positions in the government, including Minister of War and Chief Grand Councillor (1895–1898). He was also commandant of the Peking Field Force (1870–1879) and Beiping Police (1877–1879), a lieutenant-general of the Plain White Banner (1887), and chamberlain of the Imperial Bodyguard (1888). In 1895, he founded the Army of North China, the dominant military force in China until 1927. Zaifeng married Youlan in 1902.
Chosen by Empress Dowager Cixi, Puyi became emperor at the age of 2 years 10 months and 25 days in December 1908 after the Guangxu Emperor, Puyi'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. Wang Lianshou, Puyi's wet nurse, was the only person from the Northern Mansion allowed to go with him. Upon arriving at the Forbidden City, Puyi was taken to see Cixi. Puyi later wrote:
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 December 1908, the 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 wrote in his autobiography:
Puyi did not see his biological mother, Princess Consort Chun, for 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 Manchukuo, to 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 kowtow, averting their eyes until he passed. 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. 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."
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 13. Their leader was the autocratic Empress Dowager Longyu, who 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." Empress dowager Longyu ruled with paramount authority over the Qing imperial court, and though she was not the de jure "regent", she was the de facto ruler of the Qing empire.
Puyi had a standard Confucian education, being taught the various Chinese classics and nothing else. He later wrote: "I learnt nothing of mathematics, let alone science, and for a long time I had no idea where Peking was situated". When Puyi was 13, he met his parents and siblings, all of whom had to kowtow before him as he sat upon the Dragon Throne. 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". Pujie told the journalist Edward Behr his image of Puyi prior to meeting him was that of "a venerable old man with a beard. I couldn't believe it when I saw this boy in yellow robes sitting solemnly on the throne". Although Puyi could now see his family again, this happened rarely, and always under the stifling rules of imperial etiquette. The consequence was that the relationship of the emperor with his parents was distant. Later, Puyi began to receive visits from his brothers and cousins, who provided a certain air of normality to his unique childhood.
Abdication
On 10 October 1911, the army garrison in Wuhan mutinied, sparking a widespread revolt in the Yangtze river valley and beyond, demanding the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, which had ruled China since 1644. The strongman general Yuan Shikai was dispatched by the court to crush the revolution, but was unable to, as by 1911 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. Puyi's father, Prince Chun, resigned as regent on 6 December, when Empress Dowager Longyu took over with Yuan Shikai as Prime Minister.
Empress Dowager Longyu endorsed the "Imperial Edict of the Abdication of the Qing Emperor" on 12 February 1912, under a deal brokered by Yuan with the imperial court in Beijing and the Republicans in southern China. Puyi recalled in his autobiography the meeting between Longyu and Yuan:
Life in the Forbidden City (1912–1924)
Under the "Articles of Favourable Treatment of the Great Qing Emperor after His Abdication", signed with the new Republic of China, Puyi 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. An 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 1912 that his reign had ended and China was now a republic, and continued to believe that he was still emperor for some time. In 1913, when 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 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. In 1915, Yuan proclaimed himself as emperor, and he was planning to marry his daughter to Puyi, but had to abdicate in the face of popular opposition.
Brief restoration (1917)
In 1917, the warlord Zhang Xun restored Puyi to the throne from 1 to 12 July. Zhang Xun ordered his army to keep their queues to display loyalty to the emperor. However, the then-Premier of the Republic of China, Duan Qirui, ordered a Caudron Type D plane, piloted by Pan Shizhong () with bombardier Du Yuyuan () from Nanyuan airfield, to drop three bombs over the Forbidden City as a show of force against Zhang Xun, causing the death of a eunuch, but otherwise inflicting minor damage.Stone of Heaven, Levy, Scott-Clark p. 184 This is the first aerial bombardment recorded by a Chinese Air Force, and the restoration failed due to extensive opposition across China.
Relationship with Reginald Johnston
On 3 March 1919, the Scottish scholar and diplomat Reginald Johnston arrived in the Forbidden City to serve as Puyi's tutor. President Xu Shichang believed the monarchy would eventually be restored, and to prepare Puyi for the challenges of the modern world had hired Johnston to teach Puyi "subjects such as political science, constitutional history and English". Johnston was allowed only five texts in English to give Puyi to read: Alice in Wonderland and translations into English of the "Four Great Books" of Confucianism; the Analects, the Mencius, the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean. But he disregarded the rules, and taught Puyi about world history with a special focus on British history. Besides history, Johnston taught Puyi philosophy and about what he saw as the superiority of monarchies to republics. Puyi remembered that his tutor's piercing blue eyes "made me feel uneasy ... 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 I did with my other Chinese tutors".