Puyi wrote in "The First Half of My Life": "Clothes do not have to be too exquisite, but politeness is very important. If drinking coffee is like boiling water, eating a snack as a meal, or a fork and spoon clanging, it is broken. In britain, eating snacks and drinking coffee is revival, not eating..."
When it comes to Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, most people will think of feudal despotism and imperial restoration, and some people blame him for the demise of the Qing Dynasty and the humiliation of the nation. But in fact, at a time when the feudal autocracy of the Qing Dynasty was in decline and the nation was humiliated, Puyi was still just a young and ignorant child, not a sinner of history.
The young Puyi also did not have too many things about the court regime in his heart, and what he had was more of a childishness and curiosity in an ordinary teenager. As mentioned in the historical records, Puyi at that time was very curious about the novelties coming from the West and had an open and inclusive mind. In fact, in Puyi's many likes to play, bicycles are a special existence, for this reason, Puyi even collected more than 20 bicycles, so why does Puyi prefer bicycles?
The abdicated emperor, the curious teenager
Puyi's preference for bicycles was related to the situation of the Qing Dynasty at that time.
On January 1, 1912, a party represented by Sun Yat-sen established the Republic of China in Nanjing, and the Republic of China marked the complete demise of the Qing Dynasty. On February 12, 1912, the Qing Dynasty Empress Dowager Longyu issued an abdication edict, which ended the life of the Qing Empire.
At this time, it was only three short years since Puyi ascended the throne, and he was only a six-year-old child, who had already witnessed the collapse of a great Qing Dynasty. But for Puyi, there is not much difference, because the emperor is a puppet and still ignorant, and after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, he can still continue to live in the palace according to the conditions proposed by the Republic of China government to give preferential treatment to the Qing dynasty royal family.
As the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, although Puyi did not have any political achievements, he was doomed to the responsibility he had to shoulder. On the surface, Puyi is dressed in fine clothes and jade, with countless glory and wealth, but he has to pay for the freedom he grew up with.
As we all know, the Qing Dynasty was fought on horseback by Qing Taizu and subsequent generations of emperors, so the skill on horseback is the most necessary skill in the back of the Qing Dynasty' clan room, and as the emperor who leads the way, he naturally has to be proficient. Therefore, for Puyi, the manchu ministers and nobles still believed that it was necessary to master the art of riding and shooting.
But Puyi was not a child who had been raised with a traditional Manchu education, he had received a professor from a Western teacher from overseas early on, and had seen advanced western weapons, so naturally he was unwilling to bother to learn the less powerful riding and shooting.
Therefore, Puyi tried his best to teach the teacher of riding archery, and finally avoided the homework of riding and shooting. For a child, the nature is to love to play, although he knows his identity and responsibilities, he still yearns to have fun.
Although Puyi is very disliked for riding horses, he is very enthusiastic about cycling, and once did many surprising things, and looked at the story between Puyi and the bicycle.
Second, the story of Puyi and the bicycle
Before talking about the story of the bicycle and Puyi, I have to mention the origin of the bicycle.
The earliest recorded bicycle in the historical record originated from the Kangxi Dynasty, a Craftsman of the Qing Dynasty, Huang Luzhuang, who painstakingly developed a bicycle, and the bicycle he made was composed of a wheel and a handshaft in front and back.
Around the next 100 years, in 1790, the Frenchman Sifla restrained himself from making wooden bicycles. In 1866, in the first foreign expedition sent by the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Deyi mentioned bicycles. Since then, with the continuous improvement of technology, there have been other names for bicycles, bicycles, etc.
In fact, the Qing Dynasty and the bicycle has the deepest relationship is Puyi.
At that time, when the bicycle was first introduced to China, because it was a novelty that people had never seen before, the scope of dissemination was very limited, and most of the users were missionaries from the West. Coupled with the fact that the cost of bicycles is quite expensive and ordinary people cannot consume them, bicycles have become the toys of the nobles, rather than a means of transportation.
At the wedding ceremony of Puyi and Empress Wanrong in 1922, Puyi had her first bicycle, which was a new wedding gift from her cousin Pujia to Puyi, which was a three-gun bicycle that had just been introduced to China.
And Puyi was happy when he first saw the bicycle, and Pujia once recorded that "because he had never ridden a bicycle, he was very happy to see it, and he began to practice." Unexpectedly, when Chen Baochen learned of this, he reprimanded me fiercely: "The emperor is the honor of ten thousand multiplications, and if he breaks it, it will be repaid." In the future, do not bring these dangerous things into the emperor. He also advised Puyi not to ride, fortunately Puyi did not fall and was injured, and after practicing for a few days, he would be able to do it. ”
When Puyi learned to ride a bicycle in the second year, a fire just happened in the palace, and Jianfu Palace and its nearby Jingyixuan, Jicui Pavilion, Yanchun Pavilion and other places have been burned down. Puyi not only did not rebuild the palace, but built a simple sports field after cleaning, so that there was a place for bicycles. Later, because of the suspicion that the threshold in the palace hindered cycling, he ordered people to remove the threshold of many palaces, which caused the dissatisfaction of Empress Longyu and many nobles.
But how could Puyi care about their dissatisfaction? On the bicycle, Puyi still has a great desire to collect. According to records, Puyi has a total of more than 20 bicycles, including famous brands such as the British "Three Guns", the German "Blue" brand, and the French "Goose" brand. For these bicycles, he also deliberately set up a garage in the Royal Garden Daixuexuan to store his bicycles.
The reason why Puyi collects so many bicycles is naturally not for his own riding, of course, cycling is accompanied by someone to have fun. Therefore, Puyi also let Empress Wanrong, Wanrong's younger brother Runqi, and his sisters in his palace ride together. It can be said that there was a wave of cycling in the Forbidden City at that time.
So what kind of value do the more than twenty bicycles collected by Puyi at that time have today?
3. Priceless "antiques"
Let's take a look at the price of Puyi's bicycle.
According to the data, in 1903, a batch of French women's bicycles imported from Tianjin was sold for 84 silver dollars, and according to the purchasing power at that time, a silver dollar was at least 500 yuan now, that is to say, a women's bicycle at that time was worth 42,000 yuan today.
It is enough to see that the value of bicycles at that time was already an expensive luxury in modern times.
This is only measured by the purchasing power of money, in fact, from the Republic of China to the present, many bicycles have collectible properties, naturally added a lot of value. As the last emperor Puyi used the bicycle, it is naturally more valuable.
But at that time, Puyi did not know what would happen in the future, he just enjoyed the last glory that belonged to him.
As mentioned earlier, although the Republic of China was founded and the Qing Dynasty was declared extinct, the Qing Dynasty royal family and Puyi did not suffer bad treatment, but continued to live in the Forbidden City, and Puyi continued to be worshiped by the old courtiers, so he had a big hand and arbitrary behavior on the bicycle.
However, such a good time is not long. In 1924, Feng Yuxiang expelled puyi and the Qing dynasty royal family from the city of Beijing.
Ten years later, Puyi still has a soft spot for bicycles, but he is no longer the fun-loving teenager.
On the one hand, Puyi's love for bicycles is actually no different from the general hobbies of many people, but he has more capital, so that this hobby has become a topic of people's talk. It may be just a common hobby to like something at first, but over time, it can also become an inseparable part of your own existence, career or life.
On the other hand, Puyi, who was keen on bicycles at that time, was just a playful teenager. At that time, he was not at fault, he was wrong to cooperate with the Japanese, to establish a puppet Manchurian government to fuel the ambitions of the Japanese, and his life was not a simple merit to judge, and people needed to look at the last emperor more comprehensively.
Reference: The First Half of My Life
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