As we all know, the last emperor of China was Ai XinJueluo Puyi, but scholars have different opinions as to who is the last empress. Some people believe that the last empress should be Puyi's "right choice palace" - Guo Broshi Wanrong. However, more scholars believe that the status of Empress Wanrong does not actually live up to its name. By 1911, the Qing Dynasty had already perished, and China no longer had an emperor. And when Wanrong married Puyi, it was already 1922, and the emperor was gone, let alone the empress?
Therefore, since Wanrong was "sealed", she has been caught in a kind of identity confusion, that is, "whether I am the empress or not." And this identity confusion continues to be proud of Wanrong's heart, until it is driven into a mad demon. In 1926, Wanrong suffered an unprecedented "voyeurism" incident, which also made her identity rise to the peak.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" ></h1>
According to Puyi in his autobiography "The First Half of My Life", he believes that Wanrong attaches great importance to his identity as an "empress". He said:
"And Wanrong values her status as a queen, so she would rather be a nominal wife than lose this sign."
Also in 1934, Puyi called the puppet emperor of Manchukuo, accompanied by "empress" Wanrong. This time, the elegant dress that has always paid attention to appearance is extremely uncoordinated. While wearing a Western-style badge ribbon, he also wore a palace phoenix crown brocade robe in accordance with the old practice of the Qing Palace. From her dialogue with her subordinates, it can be clearly felt that she cherishes and attaches importance to the Empress Fengguan of the Great Qing Dynasty.
However, this kind of cherishing just happens to illustrate Wanrong's lack of self-confidence. Because since she was worshipped as a queen, society and people around her have constantly reminded her: "You are a false queen."
In 1924, Puyi, together with Wanrong, was expelled from the Forbidden City by Feng Yuxiang. In desperation, Puyi had to take a concubine and sneak to Tianjin to become a Yugong.
In the Forbidden City, Puyi and Wanrong can still unify behind closed doors, and can call themselves lonely and widowed, pretending to be a feudal monarch. But out of the Forbidden City, their "emperor" and "empress" prestige was not good.
In 1926, Tianjin's Beiyang Pictorial once recorded such a bizarre lawsuit. One morning of that year, after Wanrong got up, she did her routine and began to change her clothes and makeup. Just then, the back window suddenly opened. At first, Wanrong did not think anything of it and continued to dress up.
But when she looked back, she screamed in fright. It turned out that not far away, there was a pair of eyes looking at themselves with a straight hook, and their eyes were full of obscene breath. The man saw that his tracks were exposed, so he fled in a hurry.
First, Wanrong and Puyi angrily investigated their servants, ruling them out. So they suspected that the neighbor's subordinates had done such dirty things.
At that time, Puyi and his family were living in the villa of Zhang Biao, the ruler of the eighth town of Wuchang in the former Qing Dynasty. Next door to Zhang Yuan was the residence of Duan Qirui's brother-in-law, Wu Guangxin, the chief of the Beiyang government's army. The voyeur may be from the Wu Mansion.
So Wanrong, with the power of the "empress", angrily came to Xingshi to ask for guilt. Just then, a man in a blue coat sneakily hurried away. As soon as WanRong saw it, the fire came up: "This is this person!" ”
WanRong just wanted to send someone to arrest him, but the man in blue had already run into the backyard. So Puyi and Wanrong ordered the Wu family to hand over the voyeur. Who knew that the servants of wu province had formed a united front, but they refused to hand over people. Not only that, but the other servant also said with a straight face:
"Now that there are no queens in the Republic of China, you don't have to be mighty and blessed, so we are not afraid of you!"
You see, you see, when the Manchu Qing Emperor said nine words, followed the law, and destroyed others and nine ethnic groups in one sentence. If the Qing Dynasty were still there, the blue-robed servant would probably not be able to hide from the slashing. But in the Republic of China, a few servants in the area could scare Puyi and Wanrong without words.
Since you can't be private, you have to resort to the law in this way. In order to give Puyi some thin noodles, the japanese concession patrol went to Wu Mansion to arrest the blue-clad servants. But when they arrived at Wu Mansion, the patrols were dumbfounded. It turned out that the entire servants of the Wu Mansion had all been replaced by identical blue coats. this...... Who should this be arrested?
There is no monitoring, and no fingerprints can be checked, the prisoner naturally cannot be checked, and Wanrong has to swallow this dumb loss. After experiencing this humiliation, Wanrong finally understood that outside the Forbidden City, her "empress" position was worthless, and even the next person did not pay attention to it.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="28" > second, Wanrong is addicted to smoking</h1>
The voyeuristic incident was the first big loss that Wan Rong ate after leaving the Forbidden City. However, the humiliation suffered by Wanrong is far from over. This time, it was Wanrong's love enemy, Erdet Wenxiu.
Wen Xiu and Wan Rong entered the palace at the same time and were given the title of Lady Concubine, with a status lower than hers. There is one saying that the next person can be treated with grace and kindness. But for Wen Xiu, a love enemy, Wanrong shows her meanness and ruthlessness.
In front of Wen Xiu, WanRong set up the queen's shelf every day, commanded her, and constantly excluded her. Because Wanrong is more beautiful and has more similar interests to Puyi, she is also more favored by Puyi. Therefore, Wen Embroidery also often blows pillow wind to Puyi, saying that Wen Embroidery is not. After coming and going, Wen Xiu really fell out of favor.
The villain's graceful appearance became more and more rampant, and she wrote many letters to ridicule Wen Xiu. In the Archives of the Forbidden City, there was a letter written by Wan Rong to Wen Xiu, in which he harshly ridiculed Wen Xiu's loss of favor:
"Lady Ailian Huijian: I haven't seen her for several days, I don't know if Jun still cares about self-pity? Yu Jin even thought about buying a mirror in case gu Jun's shadow. Read a song to return the king's laughter.
Out of the Forbidden City, Wanrong's insult to Wenxiu intensified, according to Wenxiu's recollection:
"WanRong and Puyi live on the second floor, and I live in a room next to the Puyi reception hall downstairs. Although we lived in the same building, no one interacted with anyone, like strangers on the road. Wan Rong chengtian put up a big shelf of empresses, domineering. Puyi especially listened to her words, and I was treated coldly by them. My relationship with Puyi is also getting worse and worse every day. ”
Obviously, Wanrong was venting her depression on Wen Xiu. Perhaps only in front of Wen Xiu could she show the female style of the queen.
Persecution and insults finally awakened the clever literary embroidery. So Wen Xiu decided to have a showdown with Puyi and Wanrong, and told the truth that the two did not want to hear the most:
"The Xuantong Emperor is abolished, and the title of Empress dowager no longer exists. Now that it is the Republic of China, I hope to gain the same right to be a wife as Wanrong. ”
Wen Xiu's words pierced the tricks of Puyi and Wanrong to deceive themselves. Not surprisingly, both of them were furious, and Puyi beat Wen Xiu even harder. This time domestic violence made Wen Xiu completely die of heart. One day in 1931, Wen Xiu took the opportunity to escape from Puyi's residence and announced his divorce. And this groundbreaking event is also known as the "Shufei Revolution".
After Wen Xiu left, Puyi felt that his dignity had been seriously damaged, so he poured all his qi on Wanrong. In his opinion, it was Wanrong's jealousy that forced Wen Xiu away. Therefore, the feelings of Puyi and Wanrong tend to be cold day by day.
Losing her de facto status as empress, Wanrong felt more and more depressed. WanRong and Puyi do have husband and wife feelings, but they do not have the reality of husband and wife. As early as Puyi's childhood, he had already lost his fertility. In the Forbidden City, Puyi's inability to do male and female affairs was already an open secret. However, Puyi often covered his ears and stole the bell and personally came out to refute the rumors. As Sun Yaoting, a eunuch close to Wanrong, said:
"Once the emperor hugged the empress dowager on the kang and made love, he let me watch from the side."
Without a real married life, the marriage of Puyi and Wanrong has invisibly become a big prison. Wanrong often felt empty and lonely, and reading, writing and painting could not eliminate the depression in her heart, so she fell into the vice of opium smoking. During the Forbidden City period, Wanrong had to take a few sips after eating.
At first, Wanrong's addiction to smoking was not so heavy, but out of the Forbidden City, she was more and more inseparable from the comfort of big smoke. There is no power, no husband in the true sense, and the only thing that can comfort her is the big smoke. Watching the beautiful wanrong gradually become a big smoker, Puyi also became more and more disgusted with her. In the puppet Manchukuo period, WanRong, who had become the "empress" again, not only did not get better, but sent herself into an even more terrible abyss.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="50" >3. The "empress" of puppet Manchukuo was humiliated</h1>
After the "918 Incident", Puyi, who had long colluded with Japan, was ecstatic. Under the arrangement of the Kwantung Army, Puyi fled Tianjin on November 10, 1931, and arrived at Yingkou three days later to begin his puppet career. Wanrong, on the other hand, was temporarily left in Tianjin by him.
Just when Wanrong was worried and uneasy, the female traitor Kawashima Yoshiko used a trick to hide the sky and cross the sea to smuggle her from Tianjin to Changchun. On March 1, 1932, the puppet state of Manchukuo was formally established. Two years later, Puyi was promoted from ruling to emperor, and Wanrong was promoted from lady to empress.
According to the saying, Wanrong became the empress again, and her mood should improve. However, history proves that becoming the puppet empress of Manchukuo has plunged Wanrong into an even more irreparable abyss. WanRong's attitude toward Manchukuo is not explained by direct historical sources. But from many historical events, we can see the clues.
The first thing that dealt a huge blow to Wanrong happened when Yoshiko Kawashima sent her to Dalian. The Japanese officers accompanying him at that time were very kind to Wanrong. Wanrong's brother Runqi, who was another descendant, acquiesced to the Japanese officer entering the cabin at night and raping Wanrong. After this incident, Wanrong's spirit was greatly stimulated.
After arriving in Dalian, Wanrong, who was humiliated and confused on the ship, eagerly looked forward to seeing Puyi, and she hoped to be protected by her husband too much. However, the Kwantung Army had an order not to allow Wanrong to see Puyi in Lushun. Wanrong then thought that Puyi had been plotted by the Kwantung Army, so she cried and made a lot of noise, and finally got to see her.
From this point on, WanRong gradually realized that Puyi was under the control of the Japanese, and was not free to move and speak freely. So she hid her rape.
After the establishment of "Manchukuo", Wanrong cared about politics every day, and the study hall was full of more than ten newspapers such as Shengjing Daily and Datong Daily. All kinds of news, coupled with Puyi and a series of events she has experienced, makes Wanrong fully aware of the essence of the puppet of "Manchukuo".
Once, Puyi, Wanrong and their two younger sisters went to Datong Park to play. Who knew that as soon as they arrived at the entrance of the park, they were surrounded by Japanese gendarmes with bayonets. Under the pretext of safety, they forced Puyi and his party to turn back. This incident made Wanrong understand that her identity as "empress" was worthless.
As early as 1932, WanRong was constantly plotting to leave the northeast, a place of right and wrong. In May of that year, the League of Nations investigation team arrived in Dalian, and Wanrong sent someone disguised as an antique dealer to secretly meet Gu Weijun and ask him to take him out of the northeast. Although Gu Weijun expressed deep sympathy, he himself was also under heavy surveillance by the Kwantung Army, and could only express his love and helplessness.
In August and September 1933, the wife of Zhao Xinbo, then the "Manchukuo" and "Legislative Yuan", was preparing to go to Japan, and WanRong entrusted her to help her cross to Japan. However, this matter was soon discovered by Sangege in Japan at the time, and he wrote to inform Puyi of the matter, and Wanrong's escape plan once again became a failure. Since then, Wanrong has been imprisoned in the deep palace by Puyi and has no chance to escape.
Wanrong realized the falsehood of her "empress" identity, coupled with Puyi's increasingly cold to her, political snub, coupled with multiple mental and physical blows such as rape, so that Wanrong completely chose to degenerate.
As a husband, Puyi cannot protect Wanrong and can only allow her to be humiliated. Therefore, Wanrong decided to break the jar and break it, looking for comfort in drug use and stealing.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="73" > iv, death of the "queen"</h1>
One morning in the second half of 1934, Puyi found that there was a red mark on the mouth of the palace attendant Li Tiyu, which seemed to look like the mark of lipstick, so he began to have doubts in his heart, so he left a heart eye.
After a few days, Puyi was unwell and went to the pharmacy to find medicine to eat, only to find that Li Tiyu, who was responsible for playing in the palace, was not in his post and could not be found everywhere. Soon, Puyi seemed to realize something, so he hurried to Wanrong's residence.
At this moment, Li Tiyu hurriedly came up from downstairs with his pants in both hands, and Puyi immediately understood what was happening. After torture, Li Tiyu admitted that he and Wanrong had an affair. Later, Wanrong was examined and found that she was pregnant.
Puyi has long lost his fertility, and it is naturally self-evident who this child is. According to Puyi's attendant Li Guoxiong, Wanrong once gave birth to a girl. However, due to Wanrong's long-term drug use, the child died prematurely after birth. Later, the child's body was sent by Wanrong's brother to the boiler room near the south wall guard dormitory in the West Courtyard, where it was thrown into the hearth and burned.
After the palace scandal, Wanrong was completely beaten into the cold palace, which not only restricted her freedom, but also had an unprecedented degree of surveillance. Under the unbearable torture, Wanrong finally went crazy.
First of all, Wanrong's dependence on opium was even more frightening. According to Yu Ling's recollection, as long as you pass through Wanrong's residence, you can smell the stench of smoke from the crack in the door, which is really choking people.
Under the double destruction of spirit and opium, Wanrong also lost her flower appearance. Mr. Lee said he had met WanRong twice in 1936 and 1937. This meeting really startled him. She had her hair scattered, her face was blue and yellow, she hadn't washed her face for an unknown amount of time, and her mouth was muttering, not knowing what she was saying.
Not only that, but Also, Wanrong's temperament has changed. WanRong is very mean to Wen Embroidery, but it is still very good to the next person. Li Guoxiong once said:
Once, WanRong accompanied Puyi to dinner, it happened that I was on duty to serve food, when I was carrying a bowl of Japanese miso soup past Puyi and just put it on the table, Puyi was anxious: "Why don't you say a word, if I turn around and touch the sauce soup with my arm, won't I get my clothes dirty?" This sentence stunned me. At this moment, Wanrong came to the round field: "It doesn't matter! What does a little kid know? If you get your clothes dirty, it doesn't hurt to wear another one, so why get angry? ””
Who knew that Wanrong was kind enough to help, Puyi thought that the "empress" helped a subordinate to speak, so he did not ask qinghong and slapped Li Guoxiong hard.
It can be seen that although she attaches great importance to her identity as an "empress", she can interact with people equally and does not regard herself as the "queen master".
But when Li Guoxiong saw Wanrong again, he found that she had completely changed. Once, he passed by Wanrong's residence and found a young lady crying very sadly there. When I went forward to inquire, I learned that Wanrong had actually smeared the filth of the moon on the biscuit and forced her to eat it. Wanrong was crazy, already completely crazy.
Wan Rong's days to come are completely worthless. Sometimes being sober is a kind of torture, and wanrong is crazy and crazy, maybe it is still a relief for her.
Time passed, the War of Resistance was victorious, and without the protection of the Japanese masters, Puyi's "pseudo-Manchukuo" also collapsed in an instant. On the way to escape, Puyi and Wanrong were captured by the Soviets and were soon sent to the Eighth Route Army stationed in the northeast.
At this time, Wanrong has become a waste. The rich and noble Li Yuqin once saw Wanrong and described her as "skinny as a wood, not a person, not a ghost, a sluggish look, and a clean face." At this time, Wanrong was already like a walking dead, and only a shell was left.
She was later imprisoned in Yanji's prison, next door to her younger sister Saga Hiroshi (Pujie's wife, Japanese). Comrade Yao Dianjun, who was in charge at that time, recalled:
"She couldn't walk at the time, and the food she was sent to her was not too late, all left in the cell."
At that time, Wanrong was ill, mentally disturbed, and had to endure the torture of smoking addiction at all times. Although Saga Hiroshi is Japanese, she has a good heart, and she is always relieved of the safety of Wanrong, and from time to time she asks the soldiers on duty:
"I'm very relieved that Empress Wanrong can you let me go and see her?"
The soldiers of the Eighth Route Army were very reasonable: "All right! You go and have a look."
Saga Hao went in to take a look and was shocked to see Wanrong fall from the bed on the cement floor, unable to move. The room stinks, at all. Apparently, Wanrong had become incontinent.
After Saga Hiroshi entered the room, he scrubbed Wanrong's body and cleaned the room very clean. Later, Saga Hiroshi entrusted the warrior to take more care of Wanrong. In the days that followed, the warrior cleaned Wanrong's house every day. At this time, Wanrong was still in a frenzy, thinking that she was still an empress, she saw Saga Hao bring her food, and thought that she was a palace girl, so she smiled and said:
"Bring your handbag, haven't you put the bath water away yet?"
Then Wanrong squeezed out a bright smile: "Bring your clothes quickly, and everyone should prepare early!" ”
On June 20, 1946, WanRong Xiang died, ending her sad life. To this day, exactly where she was buried is still a mystery. It is said that after hearing the news of Wanrong's illness and death, Puyi's mood did not fluctuate at all.
If Wanrong wasn't the Empress, would her life experience be different? In my opinion, this is for sure. Born in a wealthy family, she could have lived a free, rich and comfortable life, and she could have become a modern girl from time to time.
But what is frustrating is that she is too vain and keen on fame and fortune. After becoming the "queen", she was attracted by this "false" name for a lifetime, and tortured for a lifetime. Zweig once said: "All the gifts of fate have long been priced." Wanrong got the false name of "Queen", but she could never touch its essence, just like a mirror flower and water moon.
But even though she was expelled from the Forbidden City, spied on by neighboring servants, and controlled by the Japanese, she was still not awakened from the dream of the "queen", and eventually lost her love, lost her health, lost her freedom, lost her sanity, and even lost her life. Her life was pathetic and even more pathetic.