In China, since ancient times, there have been sayings and customs of the deceased "returning to the roots of the fallen leaves and entering the soil for safety", and funeral rites have always been a major embodiment of customs and customs, not to mention the family of the emperor.
At the end of the 1960s, Puyi, the "last Chinese emperor of the feudal era", after his ups and downs of life, how to hold his funeral became a big problem that troubled people at that time. Or do they follow the arrangements of the State and the Party Central Committee for cremation?
Because Puyi's identity is very unusual, after his death, no one dared to make a claim on the disposal of the body and the funeral ceremony, and considering this, his family also reflected this problem to the higher authorities.
At that time, after learning of this matter, Premier Zhou, after some careful consideration, decided to break the rules:
Everything is handled according to the old etiquette of the Aisin Kyora family.
1. Son of the Prince
So, why did Puyi's death cause such concern? Does his funeral even need to be decided by the national leadership? We know that Puyi, as the last emperor of the late Qing Dynasty, had great ups and downs in his life, witnessing the demise of feudalism in China, the reality of the decline of the family, and the tragedy of being wrapped up in the Japanese Kwantung Army and becoming a puppet.
I have to say that although Puyi's life was extremely extraordinary, the label on his body has never been forgotten from beginning to end - he is the representative of the remnants of Chinese feudalism and the last emperor who oppressed the people.
Strictly speaking, Ai Xin Jue Luo Puyi did not live a life of pampering and pampering from the moment he landed on the ground like other emperors in the history of the Qing Dynasty, and even his true identity has been questioned.
The reason why this situation occurs is because Puyi is actually not a royal concubine bloodline, his father is only a prince, and his mother once served as Cixi's maid, so why would such a person with a relatively low status eventually become the emperor of the late Qing Dynasty? The reason lies in a wish of Cixi.
In 1908, Cixi, who was already terminally ill, did not forget to murder the Guangxu Emperor before his death, and after Guangxu's death, Cixi also died in a hurry after appointing an heir, and it was the young Puyi who was designated by Cixi as the new heir of the empire, and in that year, Puyi was only three years old.
How could an age that had not yet formed consciousness be able to lead a vast East Asian empire in the twilight mountains? Despite all the difficulties in front of her, no one dared to disobey Cixi's orders, even though she had already died.
More than half a month later, Puyi inherited the unification in a wave of doubts. Externally, the invasion of the great powers intensified, the people in the country who had been in war for many years were not happy, and internally, the entire late Qing court was in a miasma, and all kinds of conspiracies were everywhere, and a large group of elders of the DPRK headed by the regent were dissatisfied with Puyi, and were full of hostility to this child whose name was unjust and smelled. The situation was so dangerous that the situation of the parties further divided the cohesion of the imperial court and the last trace of dignity.
2. Walk out of the Forbidden City
This chaotic situation, 3 years later with the emergence of a person and the earth-shaking changes, in 1911, the radical revolutionary Sun Yat-sen led the uprising in Wuchang to overthrow Puyi and the late Qing court, the Wuchang uprising was like a spark, lighting firewood, after that, the uprising and revolution against the Qing Dynasty broke out all over the country, poor once brilliant Qing Dynasty, at this time there was no extra energy to deal with, and finally, after struggling for a moment, Puyi could only accept the warlord Yuan Shikai's proposal." Renounce the throne and the right to rule" condition in order to save life and family.
Although Puyi gave up the throne, the feudal remnants under his command did not want to easily obey, they formed gangs and factions, and even launched a coup d'état to support Puyi's second ascension to the throne, unfortunately, this farce was soon hit by the revolutionaries.
The "second ascension to the throne" incident made the warlords and revolutionary parties see that the remnants of feudal thieves did not die, and Feng Yuxiang believed that as long as Puyi was still in Beiping for one day, China would never have a peaceful day. In order to dispel the illusion of eradicating the feudal remnants of restoration, Feng Yuxiang launched a coup d'état in 1924, abolishing Puyi permanently, and throwing him out of the Forbidden City.
This incident taught the young Puyi a harsh lesson: if you want to defeat the warlords, you must have the support of powerful forces, although Puyi has been driven out of Beiping, but his heart is still not willing, so he tried to contact the forces in various places that are willing to serve him, not only that, but also actively colluded with the great powers, hoping that the powerful forces such as Europe, the United States and Japan would help him restore himself and revitalize the Qing Dynasty.
Among all the great powers, Japan expressed great concern about this matter, and they actively approached Puyi, who even attended Japanese military parades and cultural activities many times despite opposition, which caused great dissatisfaction and resistance among the domestic people.
In 1931, after the "918 Incident", the Japanese Kwantung Army, which had already controlled northeast China, "invited" Puyi to become the emperor of "Manchukuo", Puyi woke up like a dream at this moment, and found that he was completely put together by the Japanese, but under the obscene authority of the Japanese Kwantung Army, Puyi not only lost his freedom and dignity in life, but also became the target of everyone, and had to bear the identity of a "traitor" who betrayed the country and sought glory.
This kind of captivity did not change until 1945, when Japan was about to be defeated and the Soviet army entered the northeast, but although the shameless Kwantung Army was gone, the new master was not much better for this emaciated puppet emperor, and in the Soviet prisoner of war camp, Puyi's physical and psychological condition deteriorated.
In 1946, at the Far East Military Tribunal, Puyi attended the trial of Japanese war criminals, and for the first time, he stood in front of reporters from all over the world and exposed the various horrific atrocities of the Japanese invaders, which had a great effect and impact on the sentencing of Japanese war criminals in the future.
However, although Puyi made the right choice, he still did not dare to return to China, and in the prisoner of war camp, Puyi repeatedly begged the Soviet government not to extradite himself back to China.
However, all this changed with the founding of New China, and as the first country to recognize the international status of New China, the Soviet Union naturally hoped to have a strong partner in the socialist camp, so it completely agreed to the conditions put forward by New China for Puyi's extradition.
Third, return to China
In order to gain official Soviet approval as soon as possible, Chairman Mao even personally went to Moscow. Finally, in early August 1950, Puyi, who had been pointed out by thousands of people, once again set foot on the hot land of China, and his first stop would be the cold Fushun Prison in Liaoning.
Puyi, who was full of despair, did not expect that in New China, not only did he not receive the inhuman treatment he expected, but he also received the care of him by the state leaders, who also promised that if Puyi was willing to actively reform and repent, accept the baptism of socialist ideology, and live a good life in prison, he could consider appropriately reducing his sentence.
In the cell, Puyi is always the most special one, because of the habit of clothes to reach out, food to open the mouth of life, Puyi's life self-care ability is very poor, even to their own clothes to button such things need to be learned, such a person, naturally also caused the rest of the prison ruthless ridicule.
Once, Commander He Long came to Fushun Prison to inspect, when receiving Puyi, found that the latter did not even wear clothes and stood trembling in front of the door, which made He Long very shocked, before leaving, He Long instructed the prison staff to take good care of Puyi, to help him restore self-confidence in life, and to help him take care of his own life.
In prison, Puyi has always become the object of ridicule by others, but there is a Japanese war criminal who is full of gratitude to him, it turns out that this Japanese war criminal once received Puyi's help, so he has great respect for him, which has become Puyi's only little joy in prison life.
In 1955, Puyi met a rare guest - Li Yuqin, Li Yuqin was Puyi's former wife, in 1943, Li Yuqin was selected as Puyi's wife, and then due to the war and the arrival of the Soviets, Li Yuqin had to be separated from Puyi, 7 years later, after many visits and inquiries, finally learned about Puyi's imprisonment in Liaoning, so he came here only to see her husband.
However, Puyi, who was already a prisoner of labor reform, had long lost his image in Li Yuqin's mind, and Puyi's physical health and psychology had great problems, and Li Yuqin, who could not bear it, submitted a divorce application to the government in 1957.
In 1959, Puyi was finally released on bail, and after that, under the care of the party and the state, he not only found a decent job, but also met another partner in his life, the young Li Shuxian met the depressed Puyi. The two soon met under the arrangement of the central comrades, although the age difference between the two was relatively large, but still rubbed out the spark of love, in 1962, under the witness of everyone, Puyi and Li Shuxian entered the palace of marriage.
After getting married, Puyi was reinvigorated for a while, but years of tragic experience had brought irreversible damage to his body.
In 1964, Puyi's physical condition took a sharp turn for the worse, and he was only diagnosed with kidney cancer after being sent to the hospital, when New China was in ruins and the medical level was relatively backward, Puyi could only wait quietly in his hospital bed for the final judgment of fate.
In 1967, after three years of fighting the disease, Puyi finally failed to survive, and after his death, how to deal with the remains became a problem that plagued his family and the outside world.
This matter is not trivial, if Puyi is just an ordinary person and it is easy to handle, his identity and experience are too legendary. Later, Premier Zhou learned of his family's distress, so he agreed to give the right to dispose of the body to his family, not only that, Premier Zhou also allowed Puyi to hold a traditional funeral ceremony for the Ai Xin Jue Luo family. Soon after, Puyi's ashes were moved to Babaoshan Cemetery.