The last emperor Aixin Jueluo Puyi, his life was full of twists and turns, that is, after his death, he also experienced the relocation of the grave, as well as the plot of his wife Li Xianxian's lawsuit to death. And this lawsuit was only brought to an end twelve years later, in 2009, and it was not really concluded until 2017. Even so, there are still differing views on the parties to the lawsuit. The final word is final, and the in-laws have their own reasons.
Final word
What's going on? Let me tell you the secret.
Pu Yi is a newcomer to New China. He successfully transformed himself from a feudal emperor, a Japanese puppet, and a Soviet prisoner of war into a proletarian newcomer and a glorious worker.
Premier Zhou Enlai and Mr. and Mrs. Pu Yi
Under the cordial care of Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, Pu Yi, a newly Chinese worker, tied the knot with Li Ru, a nurse who was also a junior Chinese, and both said that they had found true love!
Pu Yi was 55 (years old) that year, Li Ru was 37 years old, and the difference between the two was 18 (years old), which was a year-old love.
You are my true destiny, I am your true destiny! This is Pu Yi and Li Ru's true love confession!
Li Ru, also known as Li Shuxian, has been married twice, and Pu Yi has been married four times. Pu Yi's dream is to hang the pot and become a doctor. Premier Zhou said that doctors are skilled and understand how medicine saves lives, but they don't understand fatality. Pu Yi can't be a doctor, but he still has a heart for medicine, so he is very satisfied with Li Shuxian, an angel in white.
1. "The First Half of My Life" was not written by Pu Yi, who wrote it?
Pu Yi was very happy during his lifetime, although Li Shuxian once did not want to live with him. However, under Jiuquan, he would not have thought that the beloved wife of the angel in white would fight a lawsuit to death in order to monopolize the inheritance! And the source of this lawsuit is a book, this book is called "The First Half of My Life".
Many friends must have read this book, and they all think that it is Pu Yi's handwriting. Once upon a time, I thought so too, but I was wrong, and so were you. Did you know that Pu Yi didn't write it from the first edition. Because although Pu Yi was an emperor, his education was only equivalent to that of junior high school, and he was not good at writing. The first to participate in writing were him and his younger brother Pu Jie.
On September 17, 1959, at the ninth meeting of the Standing Committee of the Second National People's Congress, Liu Shaoqi issued the "Amnesty Order of the People's Republic of China" at the suggestion of Mao Zedong. On the morning of December 4, 1959, Pu Yi was officially pardoned as a war criminal of the "Amnesty Notice of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China - 1959 Pardon No. 001" at the first batch of amnesty for war criminals in the Fushun War Criminals Management Center.
"The First Half of My Life" Pu Yi manuscript
But "The First Half of My Life" was published in 1958. This edition of "The First Half of My Life" was written by Pu Yi from 1957, but he mainly dictated, and most of the writing tasks were completed by his younger brother Pu Jie. Of course, the signature is naturally not Pu Jie, but Pu Yi. After all, the first half of my life is not the first half of Pu Jie's life, but the first half of Pu Yi's life!
However, in 1958, there were only 60 mimeographed copies, and even in 1959, only 400 copies were reprinted. The reason why so little is printed is that this is an autobiographical confessional material. This material was opened by Du Yuming's "The First Half of My Guilty Life", and Pu Yi's "My First Half of Life", which was written by Pu Yi and the puppet Manchu ministers.
Chairman Mao Zedong met with Pu Yi
From 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on January 26, 1960, Premier Zhou Enlai met with Pu Yi and his family and recognized Pu Yi's evaluation of "The First Half of My Life". Chairman Mao Zedong saw "The First Half of My Life" and thought that Pu Yi's book was generally good, but he "said that he was too bad", and suggested that it be revised again before it was officially published.
The Ministry of Public Security received a notice from Qi Yanming, deputy secretary general of the State Council, to hand over the "unfinalized" "My First Half of Life" to the Mass Publishing House under the Ministry of Public Security for re-editing and review before it was officially published. After thousands of selections, Li Wenda, director of the editorial office of the People's Publishing House, was designated to be fully responsible for this matter, and cooperated with Pu Yi to add, delete, and revise the unfinalized "The First Half of My Life".
In room 104 of the Xiangshan Hotel, Li Wenda asked, Pu Yi replied, Li Wenda also visited relevant figures extensively, read a large number of historical materials, through Kang Sheng, Chen Yi, Lu Dingyi, Luo Ruiqing, Zhou Yang, Guo Moruo, Lao She, Liu Danian, Shen Bochun, Jian Bozan, Yang Dongchun, Li Shu, Liu Danian, Weng Dujian, Hou Wailu, He Ganzhi, Li Kanzhi...... There are also the Ministry of Culture, the United Front Work Department, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, etc., and reviewed and approved the manuscript for four years, three changes, nine schools and nine reforms, and wrote the "The First Half of My Life" that we see today.
Li Wenda originally planned to do it in January, but he didn't expect to do it for four years, and after writing it, he was tired and sick.
"The First Half of My Life" became popular in China after its publication, and soon various language versions came out one after another, of course, the name was not "The First Half of My Life" but "From Emperor to Citizen"!
For this reason, Pu Yi also wrote a poem to thank Li Wenda!
Pu Yi "Gift to Li Wenda"
Four years of hard work, helping me to complete the book. For the cause of the party and the people, atonement for sins, meritorious service, and love for new life.
It is suspected that Pu Yi and Li Wenda took a group photo
2. After Pu Yi's death, Li Shuxian fought the lawsuit to death in order to compete for "The First Half of My Life".
Most of the credit for Pu Yi's "The First Half of My Life" belongs to Li Wenda, and it is impossible for Li Shuxian not to know about it! However, 20 years after Pu Yi's death, Li Shuxian sued Li Wenda with a complaint.
Pu Yi and Li Shuxian are very affectionate, everyone knows it, but why did Li Shuxian sue Li Wenda?
At 2:30 a.m. on October 17, 1967, Pu Yi, who was only 61 years old, died of critical uremia and was rescued by Pu Fuzhou, a traditional Chinese medicine expert.
Pu Yi came to an end, but "The First Half of My Life" became more and more popular, and in 1984 the film "The Last Emperor" co-produced by China and Italy. The Italian side requires the consent and authorization of the copyright holder of "The First Half of My Life" before signing the contract. Pu Yi's death could not be authorized, and it was enough to be authorized by his widow Li Shuxian, but it involved a dispute over the distribution of the signing fee.
It is a biographical film co-produced by Italy's Yanco Film Company, British Daoao Film Company, and China Film Co-production Company, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, and starring Zunlong, Chen Chong, Wu Junmei, Peter Otto, etc. The film was released in Italy on October 23, 1987, and its 3D restoration was screened at the Shanghai International Film Festival in China in June 2015.
Li Wenda saw that Li Shuxian was unwilling to share the money, so he signed a contract as an author, and Li Shuxian was very angry, so he sued Li Wenda. The dispute is because of money, and the focus of the dispute is who owns the copyright of "The First Half of My Life"?
On March 5, 1985, the Ministry of Public Security, the competent unit of the People's Publishing House, sent a letter to the Ministry of Culture asking who the copyright belonged to.
On November 4, the National Copyright Administration of the Ministry of Culture replied to the Ministry of Public Security with (85) Quan Zi No. 6, stating that the copyright belonged to Pu Yi and Li Wenda.
The book "The First Half of My Life" was co-authored by Pu Yi and Li Wenda, and the relationship between them is not that of the author and the editor, but of the co-author. At the time of the book's publication, Lee was an unnamed co-author. Therefore, the copyright of this book should be shared by Pu Yi and Li Wenda.
I think that at the beginning, on the day the book was written, Pu Yi intended to ask Li Wenda to sign it, but Li Wenda took into account Pu Yi's identity and his own work, so he decided to be selfless and withdraw from the signature. After all, how can an autobiography be written by someone else?
According to the opinion of the State Publishing Bureau, the royalty of 11,700 yuan for "The First Half of My Life" was 5,850 yuan by Li Shuxian (Puyi's widow) and Li Wenda.
Li Shuxian who is in a lawsuit
Li Shuxian was very dissatisfied with this. Her opinion is that if she wants to sell her husband's book to Italy for adaptation, she will sell it to Italy for adaptation, and if she wants to sell it to Hong Kong for adaptation, she will sell it to Hong Kong for adaptation, and the benefits will be her own. Why do you have to pay for publishing a book? Why do you have to pay for selling the right to adapt a book?
In June 1987, Li Shuxian sued Li Wenda twice, claiming that the other party was infringing, and said that the author of "The First Half of My Life" was Pu Yi and was the only one, and the demand was to demand that Li Wenda publicly compensate and apologize.
On January 26, 1995, after several court trials, the Beijing Municipal People's Court rendered its verdict:
"The First Half of My Life" is Pu Yi's autobiographical work, and during the writing and publication of the book, Li Wenda was assigned by the organization to help Pu Yi revise the book, but there was no cooperative relationship between the two. On this basis, the court ruled that the copyright of the book "The First Half of My Life" belonged to Pu Yi personally.
The court rejected Lee's request for public compensation and a public apology for two reasons:
1. Li Wenda made great contributions in the book "The First Half of My Life".
2. Li Wenda died long before 1995.
Li Wenda's family strongly objected, and his wife Wang Ying and his sons Li Jinyou, Li Jinhe, and Li Hai appealed to the Beijing High People's Court against the verdict.
In June 1996, the Beijing Higher People's Court ruled that Li Wenda was assigned by the organization to help Pu Yi, and that Pu Yi's autobiography, although it was an autobiographical literary work, still "mainly reflected the process and results of Pu Yi's ideological transformation, and embodied Pu Yi's personal will; and that the public opinion evaluation and social responsibility of the book were also borne by him," and that Li Wenda's heirs, Wang Ying, Li Jinyou, Li Jinhe, and Li Hai, lost the lawsuit.
At this time, Li Shuxian was seriously ill and died of lung cancer on June 9, 1997.
In 1997, Li Shuxian and Li Wenda were no longer alive, but the copyright dispute lawsuit did not stop.
溥任
As early as 1995, after the verdict was handed down, Pu Yi's third brother Pu Ren (Pu Yi's second brother Pu Jie died in 1994, and he never participated in it) exercised the inheritance rights on behalf of the Pu Yi family for the first time, and exclusively authorized Tongxin Publishing House to publish "My First Half of Life". In January 2007, the People's Publishing House published articles entitled "Pu Ren Is Not the Heir to the Copyright of the 'First Half of His Life'" and "The People's Publishing House: Except for My Press, Everything Is Disguised Piracy".
In this year, the People's Publishing House applied to the People's Court of Xicheng District, Beijing, to recognize "The First Half of My Life" as ownerless property. Puyi's niece, Jin Ailing, claimed the property and filed a lawsuit with the Fengtai District People's Court in Beijing in 2009 demanding that the copyright be owned by her. The court rejected Kim's claim on the grounds that Li Shuxian was Pu Yi's sole heir. Kim did not appeal and agreed with the verdict.
At this point, the ownership of "The First Half of My Life" is settled. Qiao Xinsheng, a professor at the Law School of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, believes that in accordance with Article 10 of the Inheritance Law.
First order: spouse, children, parents, second order: siblings, grandparents, maternal grandparents.
Li Shuxian is Pu Yi's spouse and should be inherited by Li Shuxian. Li Shuxian as the heir, after her death, she was inherited by her siblings, grandparents, maternal grandparents, instead of Pu Ren and Jin Ailing, unfortunately Li Shuxian has no siblings, grandparents, maternal grandparents are not alive, which creates an inheritance vacuum.
Mr. Qiao Xinsheng
Then, this also belongs to the ownerless property recognized by the mass publishing house, and the ownerless property should be owned by the state. Even though unclaimed property is still controversial, by 2017 the problem was completely resolved. Because 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of Pu Yi's death, its ownership should go into the public domain.
In accordance with Article 32 of the Inheritance Law
Inheritances that are inherited and bequeathed to no one are owned by the State.
According to the provisions of the Copyright Law that the term of protection is "the life of the author and 50 years after his death", after December 31, 2017, it shall enter the public domain.
It's February 4, 2024 now, and it's been 7 years since 2017, and "The First Half of My Life" has naturally entered the public domain for many years.
The best solution given by Mr. Lukin in "On the Ownership of Uninherited <我的前半生>Copyrights: Thoughts Triggered by the Case" is to belong to the state.
Because it is not possible to maximize its function when it enters the public domain, and because the efficiency of belonging to the state is higher than that of belonging to a collective organization, it should be attributed to the state in accordance with the law and in accordance with the principle of maximizing benefits and maximizing benefits.
What do you think about this? Please also give us advice in the comment area, thank you.