Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, was also a victim of a feudal dynasty.
Born into a crumbling manchu imperial family, he became a political victim at the age of three and was propelled to the throne by Cixi, supporting the dying feudal dynasty.
He was called "Emperor" three times in his life, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor of Zhang Xun's restoration, and the emperor of puppet Manchuria. Although he was an emperor, he never had real power in his life, and even his birth mother could only swallow his anger when he committed suicide.
As the Ninth Five-Year Lord, he did not have a harem of three thousand, on the contrary, the concubine ran away from home and reported a divorce, and the empress and the bodyguard had a child fornication, and he became the only emperor in history to be so humiliated by women.
He was a sinner and a poor man, and his life recorded an "unprecedented" and amazing historical miracle, which is also the epitome of the evolution of history in the past hundred years since the late Qing Dynasty.
He ascended the throne in a vacuum and abdicated
On November 13, 1908, Empress Dowager Cixi appointed Zaifeng the Prince of Alcohol as regent, and her son Puyi also became emperor at the same time, preparing to take over the throne of the Guangxu Emperor, who was already bedridden.
Why did he make Puyi his heir? Cixi's starting point is very clear: first, Puyi's grandmother is her own sister; second, Puyi's birth mother, Guarjia, is the daughter of the favored minister Ronglu; third, Puyi is a child who has not yet understood things, which is convenient for control. Cixi thought so thoughtfully that she could guarantee that her authority would not be lost.
The family produced two emperors in a row, and between joy and fear, the mood fluctuated greatly. Zaifeng's birth mother, Liu Jiashi of Fujin, reacted the most violently, and the Qing jian Gangmu recorded two of her famous complaints: "First kill the son of the family (Zaifeng's brother Zai Xiang, that is, the Guangxu Emperor), and then come to kill the grandson of the family (Puyi)!" Giving an emperor a false name is actually equivalent to life imprisonment! ”
Facts have proved that the words of grandmother Liu Jiashi confirm Puyi's life.
On November 15, 1908, Cixi died. On December 2, Puyi ascended the throne and proclaimed his era name.
In this way, Puyi, who was only three years old, was forced to leave his mother's arms and come to a completely strange Forbidden City, although he had parents and an imperial concubine in the palace, he was more like an orphan, helpless.
During Puyi's three-year reign (December 1908 – February 1912), the Qing Dynasty's political power was in the hands of the regent Zaifeng and the Guangxu Empress, Empress Longyu. Later, under the exclusion of Yuan Shikai, Zaifeng was dismissed by Empress Longyu, ending his career as regent.
After that, the Qing court was left with only one "orphan" Puyi and a "widowed mother" Empress Longyu. Where Empress Longyu was Yuan Shikai's opponent, she could only be at the mercy of yuan shikai, not to mention Puyi, who had always been just a puppet.
On February 12, 1912, Empress Longyu, under the threat of Yuan Shikai, issued an edict on the abdication of emperor Xuantong. Puyi, who became emperor in a vacuum, ended his career as emperor in a vacuum. This year, he was only 6 years old.
After the Xinhai Revolution, the government of the Republic of China and the Qing court reached the "Preferential Conditions". According to the agreement between the two sides, the widows and widows of the feudal dynasty still retained a small imperial court in the Forbidden City, and Puyi was still the emperor. Since then, Puyi's position has become more embarrassing, and the former emperor, living in the Forbidden City, may be driven out at any time, or even killed.
On February 22, 1913, Empress Longyu collapsed in the Taiji Hall of Changchun Palace in grief and anger at the age of 45. Empress Longyu died, it was said that Puyi should raise his eyebrows, at least in the Forbidden City can be a word, unexpectedly, Guangxu's Concubine Jin and Tongzhi's Yu, Xun, and Yan Three Concubines stood up again, and the four concubines who had long been suppressed by Longyu once again played with the little "emperor" in the palm of their hands.
Since Puyi entered the palace at the age of 3, the only one who came to take care of him from home was his nursing mother Wang Jiaoshi. The existence of Wang Jiao's clan has alleviated Puyi's motherly feelings to a certain extent.
However, the four old concubines saw that the nursing mother and Puyi were inseparable and too closely related, deliberately looking for Qi'er, and under the pretext of other grandmothers quarreling with the eunuchs, they blasted out of the palace together with Wang Jiaoshi. Puyi's last bit of warmth in the palace was gone.
On September 30, 1921, dissatisfied with Puyi's repeated confrontations, Princess Jin actually let Puyi's mother and grandmother kneel outside the palace for a morning.
The arrogant Guarjia clan returned home and committed suicide in anger at the age of 37. After Puyi learned of this, the only thing he could do was to rush to the Palace of the Alcohol King, kneel down and bow his head solemnly in front of his mother's spirit.
This is the first time that Puyi has returned home in more than ten years since he entered the palace. In addition, he could neither give his mother a posthumous title, nor could he seek justice for his mother, but could only return to the palace.
An emperor in the hall, when he was so depressed, there was only Puyi.
Used as a puppet to become a prisoner of the order
In June 1917, Zhang Xun was restored. On July 1, Puyi, surrounded by everyone, once again became the emperor of the "Great Qing Empire", and the royal machine, which had been stagnant for five or six years, began to creak again.
Puyi, who re-ascended the throne, was somewhat fluttering, and on the day of the restoration alone, he issued 9 "edicts" in one breath, and rewarded those who had made meritorious contributions to the restoration.
But Puyi's throne was not stable. At this time, the Beiyang general Duan Qirui and others, who had heavy troops, had already begun to prepare a counterattack in Tianjin. A few days later, the news of the defeat of the Braided Army reached the palace, and Zhang Xun hid in the Dutch embassy early.
On July 12, Puyi announced his abdication. When he saw the Edict of Abdication, he burst into tears. Originally, he was looking forward to seeing all the Chinese support him to return to the throne, but in the end he knew that this was just a big dream in the Spring and Autumn.
What Puyi did not understand was that as a child, he was just a pawn in the adult world.
With the passage of time, Puyi is faced with marriage, and he finds that even if he is an adult, the marriage cannot be decided by himself, he is like an empty skin bag, at the mercy of others.
In 1922, Puyi got married and married the "empress" Wanrong and the "concubine" Wenxiu. The small imperial court took the opportunity of the big wedding to relive the so-called "royal style".
However, Puyi's good days soon came to an end. On November 5, 1924, he was chatting with Wanrong at Chuxiu Palace. Suddenly, the Minister of Internal Affairs Shao Ying ran in in a daze, bringing an official document calling for the abolition of the "Preferential Conditions" and an order issued by Feng Yuxiang's army to ask Puyi and others to withdraw from the palace within 3 hours.
Puyi was frightened and scattered, and hurriedly led Wanrong and Wenxiu to the car and went straight to the Palace of alcohol. At this point, the Forbidden City, a symbol of the supreme imperial power of the Ming and Qing dynasties and the crystallization of the wisdom of the working people, finally bid farewell to the emperor.
After Puyi was expelled from the palace, the relatives around him gradually left him. "Concubine" Wenxiu ran away from home and published a statement in the newspaper divorcing Puyi, shocking China and foreign countries. Puyi became the first emperor to be "suspended" by a concubine, and his face was completely lost, and he angered the "empress" Wanrong for this.
The long-term cold palace life caused Wanrong to feel depressed, fell in love with opium smoking, and was said to have begun to have an affair with the guards around her, and she was pregnant with a child. After the child's death, Wanrong completely collapsed and became a "crazy woman in the attic". In 1946, WanRong, who was abandoned by Puyi, died of illness.
Puyi was indifferent to this, and he was busy with the dream of restoration. After the 1931 "918" incident, he was taken hostage to the northeast occupied areas and established the Japanese-controlled puppet regime "Manchukuo", reliving the old dream of "emperor".
After the end of World War II, Puyi was captured by soviet troops on his way to escape, and underwent nearly 10 years of reform at the Fushun War Criminals Management Center, and was later pardoned by the central government of New China.
He married Li Shuxian and worked in the Beijing Botanical Garden and the Literature and History Research Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
If Puyi ever had a short-lived happiness, it was probably the happiness of an ordinary person after liberation.
Once, in an interview with reporters, Puyi humorously said: "I have been emperor 3 times. The first time was when he was 3 years old and inherited the throne of his ancestors. The second time was in 1917, when Zhang Xun was restored in Beijing and supported me as emperor for 10 days. The third time was in 1932, when the Japanese put me on the throne of puppet Manchukuo in the northeast, and this scene ended in 1945. Now I am a citizen of the People's Republic of China and have the full right to vote and to be elected. Now I am like the other Chinese as a 'collective emperor'. ”
On October 17, 1967, Puyi died of illness. He was first buried in the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing, and then moved to the Hualong Royal Cemetery next to the Qingxi Mausoleum in Yixian County, Hebei Province, and like his ancestors, it became a slowly distant history.
epilogue
Puyi's life has been wrapped in the trend of the times, and he has never had real freedom, pitiful and lamentable!
But at the same time, he was lucky, the last emperor of the previous dynasties ended up very dismal, Puyi, as the last emperor of the entire feudal society, should be pointed out by thousands of people, but he was treated favorably by new China, had a happy old age, and finally died peacefully, which may be the reward for Puyi's poor life.
Resources
[1] "Puyi, the last master of the Forbidden City". Century Figures
[2] "Puyi's birth mother committed suicide because she was angry". 100 pulpits
[3] Why Puyi was chosen by Empress Dowager Cixi. The last decade of the Qing Empire. Contemporary Book Publishers