How did the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Ai Xinjueluo Puyi, the last emperor under the feudal imperial system, live this life? He is the emperor, but he is the last emperor, and he is also a Chinese citizen under socialism. With such curiosity, I opened "The First Half of My Life", puyi's autobiography.
01 The last emperor
Puyi was chosen by Cixi and was sent to the emperor's throne at the age of 3, and not long after he ascended the throne, Cixi died, and he was raised by a concubine.
This is equivalent to the fact that the parents are still alive, they were abducted by the Cixi traffickers, and finally the traffickers died and were raised by the people next to them, and the parents were alive, but they could no longer be called at will.
At that time, the Qing Dynasty was already on its way to the end, and the xiao'er emperor was just a child raised in the deep palace. What he knew was that he had to be served by eunuchs when he went out, that he had to eat and drink to be reported to the concubines, that even that he was not required to study, and that the only normal person around him was his own nursing mother, who had long since left him.
A child who is spoiled, surrounded by humeral ministers around him, and pampered by eunuch concubines, what kind of childhood fun and correct view of right and wrong can he have. From a young age, in his mind, he thought that he was the true dragon heavenly son of this world, and all those who appeared in front of him had to respectfully call him His Majesty.
Until he was 6 years old, Empress Longyu accepted preferential conditions and issued the "Abdication Edict", and he was no longer the emperor.
As a child, Puyi probably could not understand social change, he was a caged bird locked up in the Forbidden City, he thought that this was the whole world, and he himself was the center of this whole.
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02 There has been endless hope
Puyi, who grew up a little, after understanding the facts, he probably had no face to face the ancestors, after all, this "emperor"'s" family property was ruined in his hands.
When reading books, I thought that the "old people" around Puyi were the biggest stumbling blocks in the first half of his life. These "widows" were divided into two factions, one faction wanted to safely abide by the preferential treatment policy given by the National Government (4 million taels of snowflake silver per year), and the other faction wanted to restore the ancestral family business and become the master of this land again. Puyi himself is inclined to the latter, he regards restoration as an ideal, hoping that everyone will be a slave in front of him as before, which is also a many choices he made later, all of which serve this purpose.
In the "small imperial court", in fact, Puyi's life was still good, although there were no nominal emperor titles, but the degree of eating and wearing was the previous standard. It was just that at that time, the Nationalist government was already divided, the warlords had their own ideas, and Puyi wanted to borrow the ability of a certain party to help him recover.
- Pinning his hopes on Yuan Shikai, Yuan Shikai himself wanted to become emperor.
- Pinning his hopes on Zhang Xun, he was surrounded by Duan Qirui's soldiers and horses.
- Pinning his hopes on Japan, he ended up being a puppet of the Japanese in puppet Manchuria.
He did not stop the idea of restoration, he would always spend his time, silver money on this, and even a random Russian came to see him, told Puyi that he had soldiers and horses in his hands, and he would give money to support him after contacting him.
Puyi went to his own choice with such hope, became a puppet emperor, became a pawn of Japan's invasion of China, and after a piece of edict in his hand, it brought disaster and pain to the people of the northeast region.
With the end of the war and the surrender of Japan, Puyi was also arrested as a war criminal and reformed. From the book, I saw that this old man who was feudal in the last century, under the influence of his party, at least opened his eyes to look at the crimes he had committed, and felt deeply guilty.
03 Puyi
After reading Puyi's "The First Half of My Life", I will hate him as a person.
Hate his indifference, ruthlessness, hypocrisy, bullying and fear of hard, the kind of extreme selfishness that comes out of his bones.
No matter how much he repented, even if he really got the forgiveness of the people of Northeast China at that time, or he had correctly realized the feudalism in his thinking, he could not erase the fact that he was a traitor, let alone erase the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese.
In addition to hating, he also lamented that he was actually helpless in this life, it seemed to be every decision puyi made, but there were different interest groups behind him. He was just a closed person in a big house, and those who came into contact with the outside world and became his understanding of the world gave him a lot of advice, that is, under these suggestions, he would step by step make his grand dream of a great cause into the final as long as he lived, and it was good to live without falling into the hands of the Japanese.
Puyi, who was reformed for more than a decade in his later years, received a pardon and later became a representative of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and his existence became a symbol of the system. He went from being clothed and fed, relying on others to waiting, randomly beating and cursing others to himself to washing, folding quilts, sewing patches, reflecting, and even later putting into work, becoming an ordinary person, and finally dying of illness in Beijing.
An emperor, an emperor of the last generation, eventually became a grain of sand in history in the midst of social change.
04 History
Putting aside the historical process, it is not correct to talk about anyone, such a complex thing as human nature, only in combination with the present, understanding his needs, can we judge this person slightly objectively.
When I closed the book, I could not forget for a long time the story of Puyi's visit to Taishan Fort, when the old lady who was cruelly treated by the Japanese and was disabled, saw Puyi and their group of war criminals and said: "Let the past be called past, as long as you study well and listen to Chairman Mao's words."
"I know that you are prisoners who are being reformed, Chairman Mao said, you can reform well, I believe his old man's words..."
Time has sealed many stories, and some stories need to be remembered.