After the Xinhai Revolution, the Qing government collapsed, but the Ai Xin Jue Luo family did not move out of the Forbidden City until October 21, 1924, when Feng Yuxiang launched the "Beijing Coup", which overthrew Cao Kun and established it as a temporary internal one. During this period, Feng Yuxiang also proposed to expel Puyi from the Forbidden City.
The bill was quickly passed, and on the morning of November 5, Feng Yuxiang led his troops to surround the Forbidden City, set up cannons on Jingshan Mountain, and ordered Puyi to move out of the Forbidden City within twenty minutes, otherwise he would directly shell it.
It was also too hurried, Puyi couldn't take care of anything, so he fled with the old and small emperor in the palace. The palace ladies and eunuchs were also dissolved on the spot, and Puyi had promised to give them a severance and resettlement fee, but it also became a blank piece of paper.
Because Puyi's promise was not fulfilled, this group of palace women and eunuchs left the Forbidden City and were completely out of touch with the outside world. Without social skills and without a little survival cost in their pockets, many of them directly chose to jump the moat and end their tragic lives.
Puyi has always felt guilty about the old people in these palaces. In 1988, a book called "The Last Eunuch in China" was published, which told the story of this group of people in a documentary literary way.
The last eunuch of the Qing government was called Sun Yaoting, and in that year, in order to enter the palace for food, Sun Yaoting's father made up his mind to castrate his son by himself, and because he did not apply anesthesia, Sun Yaoting passed out in pain. Unexpectedly, when I woke up 3 days later, I had already changed the dynasty and the Qing government had perished.
In the end, Sun Yaoting still entered the palace to serve Puyi, until he was driven away by Feng Yuxiang in 1924. After that, Sun Yaoting did not choose to commit suicide by throwing himself into the river like other eunuchs, and he found a new place for himself, at the Wanshou Xinglong Temple on Beijing's North Long Street. Since this place used to be the temporary residence of the old eunuch after leaving the palace, Here Sun Yaoting met many of his former colleagues and became a place for the group of eunuchs to warm up.
In this way, this group of eunuchs who lived their lives in the chaotic world witnessed the founding of New China. Of course, Puyi also witnessed it. After coming out of the Forbidden City, he traveled all over the north and went to Pseudo-Manchuria to once again pass the emperor's addiction. After the end of World War II, he was also arrested and imprisoned in the Soviet Union for several years. It was not until later that he was extradited back to China and underwent socialist ideological reform.
By chance, Puyi learned that the old people in the palace were still stubbornly surviving in this small corner of the Xinglong Temple in Beijing. With years of guilt for them, in 1959, Puyi deliberately left to visit.
Perhaps the remnants of feudal thoughts on the eunuchs were too heavy, and after seeing Puyi, they all knelt on the ground to bow to Puyi, and the old tearfully said, "Emperor! ”。 These 2 words frightened Puyi into a chill in his back and sweat on his back, after all, he had received socialist ideological transformation and had long since gotten rid of the feudal set. The panicked Puyi hurriedly leaned down and said to the group of eunuchs, "I can't do it!" No way! ”
The scene was awkward for a while, and of course, it wasn't either side's fault. To blame, we can only blame the decaying feudal society. Puyi expressed deep apologies to these eunuchs during this visit, especially for the last eunuch, Sun Yaoting, Puyi even held his hand and did not speak for a long time.
Sun Yaoting died in 1996, accompanied by the death of the last eunuch in China, and the last traces of the Qing Dynasty's life disappeared completely. In history, there is only one long sigh.