We read all the lead to present a different history.
On November 5, the thirteenth year of the Republic of China (1924 AD), after the northwestern warlord Feng Yuxiang led his troops to imprison Cao Kun, he led soldiers to "see Puyi", who was still living in the Forbidden City at this time, and demanded that the latter move away immediately within an hour. Looking at this situation, Puyi had to immediately send someone to pack up and leave the Forbidden City on the same day.
▲ Puyi lived in ZhangYuan period stills
At first, Puyi directly returned to the palace of his father Zaifeng the Prince of Alcohol, but due to disagreement with the latter's philosophy, coupled with his restoration ambitions and the support of the Manchu Qing widows, Puyi soon moved to Zhangyuan in the Tianjin Concession. Zhang Yuan is not one of the ancient Chinese-style buildings where Puyi used to live, but a standard small Western-style building with a fully Westernized interior that keeps up with the trend.
▲Interior view of Zhang Garden
To say that this Puyi is to love to swing the score, have abdicated for so long, but also the whole set of the feudal era, for example, when puyi eats, the scene is still very spectacular - the huge Eight Immortals table is filled with dozens of dishes with their own characteristics, and the rice and porridge eaten add up to more than ten kinds. This is not nothing, before Puyi started, he would still follow the ancient law, and several personal eunuchs and close attendants who came out of the Qing Palace would first use silver needles to touch the vegetables for poison testing to ensure the safety of the "emperor's" life.
In ancient times, when the emperor was eating, there were special people dancing and playing music, and when he arrived at Puyi, he specially invited a Western band to play for him. What is even more bizarre is that when Puyi wants to eat vegetables, he does not have to speak, just look at the next dish and then look at the waiter, and the crowd will clip the dishes directly to Puyi's mouth, and each dish can only eat a maximum of three bites - still following the old rules in the Qing Palace.
▲Billboard of Tianjin Concession Western Restaurant
However, in terms of eating, Puyi did not fully abide by the ancestral system. Because Tianjin is near the sea and was opened as a treaty port during the Xianfeng years, the area around Jinmen is not at all full of traditional culture like Beijing City, but has a strong Western flavor. When Puyi lived in Zhang Yuan, he fell in love with eating Western food and using Western utensils. In order to eat authentic Western food, he also specially invited some Western chefs to go to Chongyang to cook for him. For a time, Puyi's kitchen was a combination of Chinese and Western, and Western tableware and Chinese tableware each accounted for half of the country.
▲Puyi and Wanrong stills
In addition to the main meal, The Sun Emperor Puyi was also infected by foreigners, especially like to eat some after-dinner desserts, and the favorite was ice cream. According to Puyi's own account, every day he would let people buy two large barrels of ice cream in the famous Western restaurant in Jinmen, and sometimes he was in a good mood and would personally take the "queen" and "imperial princess" to the Western restaurant to enjoy ice cream. Whenever he ate a new ice cream, he would also buy dozens of barrels to give to those Manchu Qing widows who were seven or eighty years old, so that they could also taste the early, "bathing in the imperial grace". Although for these Manchu Qing widows, although they are too old to eat raw and cold things, Puyi's love for ice cream is also evident.
▲Changchun Puppet Manchu Imperial Palace
On November 10, the twentieth year of the Republic of China (1931 AD), on the seventh anniversary of Puyi's expulsion from the Forbidden City, he once again set out on the road of restoration and went to his new "palace". From that day on, Puyi completely broke with the past, officially went north to join the Japanese Kou, and even abandoned those remnants of the Qing Dynasty in order to become emperor again. Sometimes it is a bad taste to think that the northeast is so cold, ice cream must be more delicious to eat.
bibliography:
"The First Half of My Life"