A self-description from the last emperor
In 1908, I was appointed by Cixi to inherit the throne, and since then I have become the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty on the eve of the collapse of the feudal autocracy, the Xuantong Emperor.
Three years later, the Xinhai Revolution broke out and they stormed the Forbidden City. The following year, I abdicated the throne. In 1917, Zhang Xun supported my restoration, so I was emperor for twelve more days...
The 12-day restoration, this period of history, for Kang Youwei and Zhang Xun, is not accidental, but it is also an inevitability.
In the long river of history, this history is extremely short, but it is also impossible to bypass the past 12 days. There is a nursery rhyme: Zhang Dashuai entered Beijing, eight thousand braided soldiers. The little emperor went to the temple, and the old guy went mad. The dream was done for seven days, and the fart was cold and collapsed.
In 1924, Feng Yuxiang staged a coup d'état and I was expelled from the Forbidden City. My father, the regent Zaifeng, took off his top and threw it on the ground on the spot, and cried out in tears: It's over, it's over!
Top: Jingyuan Lower: Council Chamber
I was thrown out of the palace by Feng Yuxiang and temporarily lived in my father's palace and the Japanese legation in Beijing.
On February 23 of the following year, under the planning of Luo Zhenyu and the Japanese legation, he secretly went to Tianjin. Established "Xing zai" in the Japanese concession of Tianjin, and successively lived in ZhangYuan and Jingyuan (that is, "Qianyuan") for seven years...
Top: Puyi's study Part II: Flower Hall
Zhang Yuan (and later Jing Yuan) told me that there was nothing here that I didn't like in the Forbidden City, and that it kept what seemed necessary.
What I disliked the most in the Forbidden City was, first of all, the set of rules that I didn't even have the freedom to go out on the streets; secondly, the people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who made me angry.
In 1931, he secretly left Tianjin and served as a puppet emperor in the Changchun Puppet Imperial Palace for fourteen years. My daily life, in addition to eating and sleeping, can be summarized in these eight words, namely: scolding, counting, taking medicine, and being afraid.
In 1945, after the end of World War II, Japan surrendered, and I was preparing to flee to Japan, where I was captured by the Soviet Red Army at Shenyang Airport, taken to the Soviet Union, and began a five-year life of detention in the Soviet Union.
In 1950, as a war criminal, I was escorted back to China and underwent labor reform at the Fushun War Criminals Management Center, No. 981.
In 1959, at the age of 54, I was granted an amnesty. From today on, I am Puyi, a glorious citizen of the People's Republic of China!
From "Royal Garden" to "Botanical Garden"
Watering flowers in the "Royal Garden" (17 years old)
Clearing weeds at the Botanical Garden (55 years old)
When I was in the Forbidden City, I would never have imagined that Emperor Xuantong, who was once high above, could become a "gardener" decades later.
After experiencing so many ups and downs, from restoration to self-redemption, without spiritual constraints and baggage, I truly returned to the "true self", which is also "watering flowers", but it is two completely different states of mind.
Lu Zhonglin took out two tickets, handed them to Puyi, and said humorously and sincerely: "I drove the emperor out of the Forbidden City, and today, I want to ask the emperor to get up and drive back to the palace!" Lu Zhonglin's words are precisely the beginning and end of my life of ups and downs, sorrows, joys, and honors and disgraces.
When the white-haired me came to the Golden Ruan Hall, I saw the familiar and unfamiliar dragon chair, and unconsciously walked over, looking back and forth at the special seat that once belonged to me, but I felt like A world away.
This is the mental journey of the last emperor.
The last emperor of China's self-description ¥68 purchase
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