On December 5, 1959, all major newspapers across the country made front-page headlines reporting that the mainland had granted amnesty to thirty-three war criminals. Among the thirty-three pardoned people announced, the name of the puppet Manchukuo Emperor Ai Xinjue Luo Puyi was the most eye-catching.
When the ten war criminals released from Beijing left Gongdelin and stayed en masse in the Chongnei Hotel, Puyi, from the Fushun War Criminals Management Center, arrived here in a dusty manner. According to Premier Zhou's instructions, the eleven people formed a special group, and the prime minister's secretary was responsible for their life and study. Under the sunshine of new China, emperors and generals of different eras have been reunited historically.
These former Kuomintang generals always had an indescribable feeling when they faced the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who was thin, tall, and wore yellow-rimmed glasses. People like Puyi are not only enemies of the Communist Party, but also enemies of the Kuomintang. In the Kuomintang soldiers, there are still different degrees of duality, and the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty was a complete feudal monarch, and there was almost no patriotic sentiment in his body. However, such people were eventually reformed by the Communist Party and released. In fact, the Communist Party's transformation of Puyi can be said to have been fruitful.
When Puyi had just arrived at the Chongnei Hotel and was talking with the former Kuomintang general in the same group, the hotel attendant handed him a large red paper envelope more than a foot long and invited him to go downstairs to meet the guests. Puyi took the envelope and was furious: "Tell them to roll!" Roll now! I don't see them! The ten former Kuomintang generals looked at each other and could not understand.
The waiter had already gone downstairs, Puyi was still angry, and shoved the big red paper envelope into Wang Yaowu's hand, and everyone fixed their eyes on it, "Gong Percussion Nian'an" four big words were in sight, and the payment was the head of the minister. The crowd managed to calm Puyi's anger, but unexpectedly a wave of uneven waves rose again. Downstairs, two former Qing elders wearing robes and horse coats rushed directly upstairs despite the waiter's resistance. Just after seeing Puyi, the two old men immediately stopped, clasped their hands, and knelt down on the stairs.
Puyi saw the situation, was furious, and raised his feet to kick the old man who was kowtowing to him. The "generals" next to them were quick in their eyes and pulled Puyi aside, and Puyi stretched out his finger at the two old men and loudly reprimanded: "I myself think that the past is too shameful, and you still have the intention to come here today to shame me!" Don't hurry up and roll me yet! The two old men hurriedly got up from the stairs, looked at each other, and then bent over and stepped back.
According to the central war criminals policy, after the amnesty, it is necessary to participate in one year of manual labor in order to adapt to the new social life and environment and build feelings for working people. Therefore, the first batch of amnesty Du Yuming and others were arranged to work in the Red Star Commune on the outskirts of Beijing. Originally, Puyi also wanted to go to the Red Star Commune with Du Yuming, but the organization remembered his body and arranged for him to go to the Xiangshan Botanical Garden to engage in some lighter labor.
After one year of labor, Puyi, together with Du Yuming, Song Xilian and others, was assigned to the Literature and History Research Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference as a commissioner of literature and history, and his salary rose from 60 yuan per month when working in the countryside to 100 yuan. This arrangement and treatment surprised everyone, and Puyi was very excited after hearing it and thanked him on the spot. In China at that time, the average person was paid a few tens of yuan to support a family, so for them, a salary of 100 yuan was already a very good life.
For Puyi, although he is over fifty years old, he has just begun to live on his own. The colleagues who worked with him for the AMN and the CPPCC soon found that the last emperor who ascended the throne at the age of 3 was clumsy and a little dazed in terms of treating people and things and living ability, but he was very sincere with people, and people who did not know the details would not think that he was the last emperor of China under any circumstances.
Puyi in the past was not as sincere as everyone saw. During the puppet Manchukuo period, Puyi described his life, in addition to eating and sleeping, which can be summarized in about eight words, namely: scolding, counting, taking medicine, and being afraid. He looks at the faces of Japanese devils on the outside and tries his best to flatter and greet them, while internally he is grumpy and often scolds his family servants. Every day, the violence of changing tricks, hitting palms, slapping, big butts, as well as pouring cool water, kneeling chains, passing electricity, standing in wooden cages, letting the whole house of people kneel and slap each other...
In addition, Puyi also asked for more than a dozen orphans from a so-called charity group in Changchun, and tortured these children to the extreme. According to Puyi's later recollection: "These orphans whose parents were killed by Japanese devils were tortured in my traitor's nest and grew up to be seventeen or eighteen years old or as short as a ten-year-old child." ”
Toward the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Dai to preside over the arrest of Puyi, the puppet emperor of the puppet state of northeastern Manchukuo, and his trusted ministers and other important members. In order to buy the hearts and minds of the people in the northeast, the Kuomintang government once planned to arrest Puyi, Pujie, and other important members of the puppet Manchus, that is, to conduct a public interrogation in Shenyang and then execute them. Later, because the Soviet Union sent troops to the northeast, arrested Puyi and others, and imprisoned them in Siberia, the matter was not resolved. After the founding of New China, Puyi and others were extradited back to China and reformed at the Fushun War Criminals Management Center, and after 10 years of reform, Puyi completely changed.
The amnesty personnel arranged in the Office of the Commissioner of Literature and History, except for Puyi and Pujie, were almost all Kuomintang military and political personnel who had led troops to fight, and their ability to live independently was relatively strong. Pujie studied at the Japanese Non-Commissioned Officer School for three years and traveled frequently, plus his Japanese wife, who came to Beijing from Tokyo shortly after his pardon, took good care of him. The most difficult thing is Puyi. Puyi was accustomed to the days when he was used to stretching out his hands and eating to open his mouth, and suddenly let him take care of his daily life, which became a big problem.
Taking this into account, the LEADERS of the CPPCC arranged for Puyi to live in a dormitory in the backyard of the CPPCC organs, and specially designated a staff member surnamed Zhao in the same hospital to take care of his life. However, in order to show that he has completely bid farewell to the past, Puyi always wants to do something himself. He would sometimes go to the canteen to open the water, but either it was too full and hot for his hands and feet, or after filling it, he left the plug of the warm kettle in the canteen.
For the first few days, Old Zhao had to entertain him for dinner at his own home. Later, Puyi saw that Du Yuming and others were going to eat in the canteen of the organ at noon, so he proposed to go to the canteen to eat himself, and Old Zhao helped him exchange the canteen meal tickets and meal tickets, telling him how to use it, but he was always confused. Every time he buys food and buys vegetables, Puyi always puts all the meal tickets and meal tickets to the window and lets the people in the canteen take them by themselves. Or buy a house and put it on the table, and then go to buy vegetables and come back and forget where to put it, there are a lot of foreign photos. Therefore, he often laughed at himself: "The emperor is the most useless person." ”
A year later, Shen Drunk also came to the Literature and History Data Room, he was only 48 years old at the time, he was strong, often riding his bicycle around, and in less than two months he almost ran through the beijing area. Puyi was very envious of this, and he also wanted to go everywhere to see, but if no one went out with him, he would not find a way back. It is said that once, Puyi went out with his relatives to visit him, and when he got on the bus, in order to show courtesy, he stood by the door and let the others get on first. When everyone went up, he thought the conductor was also a passenger, and let her go first. The conductor thought he had come to give it away, and when he went up, he closed the door. Therefore, Puyi usually never dared to go out alone.
In order to enrich Puyi's amateur life, the leaders of the Literature and History Data Room asked Du Yuming, Shen Drun, and a few other people who did not yet have family members to accompany Puyi to go out and play. Once, Du Yuming, Shen Drunk and others invited Puyi to visit the Forbidden City, because they usually listened to Puyi say that "he just closed his eyes and walked in the Forbidden City, and he also knew where he was going", and they could also listen to his explanations when they went to visit together. However, Puyi was a little reluctant to go, and Shen Drunken said, "Are you afraid of touching the scenery?" Puyi smiled bitterly: "Then go." ”
Puyi entered the palace at the age of 3, and when he was 19 years old, Feng Yuxiang forced the palace, and Lu Zhonglin rushed into the palace with a pistol team, limiting him to leave the palace within a few hours. They said that they had set up the cannon on Jingshan Mountain, and if they did not leave the palace at that time, they would open fire. Puyi was hurriedly driven out of the palace and went to Tianjin, where he was later loaded into a wooden box by the Japanese, hoisted to the ship like a cargo, and left Tianjin for the northeast. The year he left the palace was 1924, and Puyi had not returned for nearly 40 years.
When he came to the door of the Forbidden City, Shen Drunk went to the ticket window to buy tickets, and when he handed one of the tickets to Puyi, Puyi was surprised, he said: "Come here, I still have to buy tickets?" The others listened for a moment, but immediately understood his mood. In Puyi's subconscious, the Forbidden City is the home where he grew up, and now he has to buy tickets when he goes home to see, but emotionally it is a little difficult to accept.
Du Yuming explained to him: "Now that the Forbidden City is open to the public, all people who come here must buy tickets, and this income will be used to manage and repair the Forbidden City." After Puyi listened, Han Yan did not speak, and after entering the Forbidden City, he also meditated while walking. Someone asked him if he was uncomfortable sitting on the big dragon chair in the Golden Ruan Hall, Puyi smiled and said, "When I was a three-year-old child, how could I understand so much!" ”
After walking for a while, Puyi finally came out of contemplation, and the words slowly became more, and he explained with great interest to the people next to him about the cultural relics he saw along the way. Sure enough, as he himself said, wherever he went, he could say, to where he went from left to place, to where to right, where and when there were any major historical events, and so on. When everyone sat down to rest in the royal garden, someone actually recognized Puyi and gathered around to ask long and short questions.
Slowly, they walked to Jingshan Park. Puyi is still accustomed to calling "Jingshan" a "coal mountain", which he said is where the Forbidden City used to pile cinder. When he walked to the crooked neck tree where the Chongzhen Emperor was hanging in Jingshan Park, Puyi stopped and looked at the tree for a long time, did not say a word, stood for more than ten minutes, and then went to sit down on a stone next to him, lit a cigarette, and took a few long breaths.
After a little relief, Puyi thoughtfully said to the people around him: "In the past, no one would let me come here." Seeing this tree today, my heart is really full of emotions! The last emperors in Chinese history mostly ended up in a very tragic situation. Therefore, before the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide, he also personally used his sword to slash and kill his children, asking them not to reincarnate into the emperor's family in their lifetimes. It looked cruel, but in fact, Chongzhen's mood at that time could not be understood by people. ”
Shen Drunken comforted him: "Some of the last emperors also have good results!" ”
Puyi shook his head repeatedly: "Where is it?" After the Southern Tang Dynasty Li Hou lord was captured, only because he filled in a poem of "Yu Meiren" and wrote a sentence "Xiao Lou had the east wind last night, the country could not afford to look back at the moon and the middle of the moon", which caused the disaster of killing. If he was just a lyricist, I don't know how many wonderful good words would be filled in and passed on to future generations. Unfortunately, he was born into the wrong birth and was born in the imperial family. ”
Shen Drunk also wanted to continue to comfort, saying that Lord Li Hou was a typical ignorant of current affairs, how many good scenes of spring flowers and autumn moons could fill in the words, but he wanted to miss the ancient country, wasn't he looking for death? Unexpectedly, these words made Puyi angry, and he put his hat back and retorted: "After Liu Adou, the lord of The Shu Dynasty, was captured, not only did he not miss his homeland, but he also cheekily flattered, saying that 'he didn't think about Shu here', and he was killed differently? ”
Then, Puyi also gushed about the tragic fate of the last emperors of the Qin, Han, Sui, and other dynasties, and at the end of the day, he also said drunkenly, "You have not been an emperor, of course, you will not study this issue." After saying that, he stood up, put on his hat, and said with a smile: "It is really worth celebrating that I, the last emperor, can have such a good ending as I have now." ”
Puyi's life is a complete tragedy, some people say that he is the loneliest child in the world, but this "child" did not begin to take the first step of growth until the age of 44 (entering the prisoner of war), and at the age of 53 (pardoned) did he really find his own life. Until then, he had always been a puppet, a marionette, manipulating every move in the hands of others.
But for Puyi, the Communist Party showed a rare mind, regardless of previous suspicions, took good care of him, and could even be said to give him the opportunity to be reborn. In this regard, Puyi is lucky, throughout the history of the world, there has never been a last emperor who can completely transform into an ordinary citizen like Puyi.
Later, Puyi repeatedly mentioned his impressions of visiting Jingshan Park at the study meeting of the Office of the Commissioner of Literature and History. He felt that as a last emperor, it was impossible and meaningful to see the place where the last emperor of the previous dynasty hanged himself. Unfortunately, none of the people who were traveling at that time had a camera, and they could not take a picture of Puyi standing under the crooked neck tree in Jingshan Mountain.
Because of Puyi's special status in the past, journalists and international friends often come to interview and visit him. When some foreign heads of state and government officials visited China, they heard that the last emperor Puyi had been reformed and wanted to see him. Therefore, Puyi is often invited to meet foreign guests.
At this time, whenever the premier or the leader of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference introduced Puyi to foreign guests and said, "This is the emperor of Xuantong in China in the past", Puyi will always stand up and correct it very seriously.
"The past Puyi is dead, today is the newborn Puyi!"
"Today's glorious citizen of the People's Republic of China - Puyi!"
In 1962, Chairman Mao also received and hosted Puyi, and also left a precious group photo. Puyi cherished the six-inch black-and-white photo and hung it in the living room along with the group photo taken by Premier Zhou and others.