Puyi
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| Puyi | |||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) Puyi during the Manchukuo period | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Emperor of the Qing dynasty | |||||||||||||||||||||
| First reign | 2 December 1908 – 12 February 1912 (3 years, 72 days) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Guangxu Emperor | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Monarchy abolished (Sun Yat-sen as President) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Regents |
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| Prime Ministers | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Second reign | 1–12 July 1917[a] (11 days) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Zhang Xun | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Emperor of Manchukuo | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Reign | 1 March 1934 – 17 August 1945 (11 years, 169 days) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | Himself (as Chief Executive) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Successor | Position abolished | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Ministers | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Chief Executive of Manchukuo | |||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 18 February 1932 – 1 March 1934 (2 years, 11 days) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | None Zheng Xiaoxu | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Zhang Jinghui (as Chairman of the Northeast Supreme Administrative Council) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Himself (as Emperor) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 7 February 1906 Prince Chun's Mansion (in present-day Beijing) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 17 October 1967 (aged 61) Beijing, China | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Burial | Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, later reburied in the Hualong Imperial Cemetery, Yi County, Hebei | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Consorts | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| House | Aisin-Gioro | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Dynasty | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Father | Zaifeng, Prince Chun of the First Rank | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Mother | Youlan | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Religion | Buddhism[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Signature | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 溥儀 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 溥仪 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Xuantong Emperor | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 宣統帝 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 宣统帝 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Puyi[b] (Chinese: 溥儀; pinyin: Pǔ Yí; Wade–Giles: P'u-i; 7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967) was the last emperor of China, having reigned as the Xuantong Emperor of the Qing dynasty (1908–1912, with a brief restoration in 1917) and later as the Kangde Emperor of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state during World War II. After the war, he was held as a war criminal in the Soviet Union and China until 1959, when the Chinese Communist Party granted him amnesty and presented him as a model of successful reeducation.
In 1908, chosen by Empress Dowager Cixi to succeed the childless Guangxu Emperor, Puyi ascended the throne at age two with his father Prince Chun as regent. Following the Xinhai Revolution, Empress Dowager Longyu signed the abdication edict on Puyi's behalf; in return, the Articles of Favorable Treatment allowed him to retain his imperial title and remain in the Forbidden City. From 1 to 12 July 1917, the loyalist general Zhang Xun restored him to the throne. In 1924, warlord Feng Yuxiang expelled him from the palace, and Puyi took refuge in Tianjin.
Following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Puyi was installed as chief executive of Manchukuo in 1932 and he was crowned emperor of Manchukuo in 1934. At the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945, he was captured by the Soviet Red Army, testified at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal in 1946, and he was repatriated to the People's Republic of China in 1950. After his release in 1959, Puyi published an autobiography (ghostwritten by Li Wenda) and he worked as a gardener before he became a researcher at the Central Research Institute of Culture and History. In 1964, he was selected as a member of 4th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. After the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966, he was protected by Zhou Enlai, and he died without issue in 1967.
Childhood and reign (1908–1912)
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Puyi was born on 7 February 1906 in Beijing. His father was Zaifeng, the Prince Chun.[2] Zaifeng was a Manchu prince[3] His great-grandfather was the Daoguang Emperor, his great-uncle was the Xianfeng Emperor, and his grandfather was Yixuan, the first person to hold the title of Prince Chun. Puyi's uncle, the Guangxu Emperor, was Puyi's immediate predecessor.[4]
Puyi's mother was Youlan, of the Manchu Plain White Banner Gūwalgiya clan. Her father was Ronglu, who held the minor rank of Qiduyu in the nobility, and who was a close ally of Empress Dowager Cixi.[5] He held a number of important positions in the government, including Minister of War and Chief Grand Councillor (1895–1898).[5] He was also commandant of the Peking Field Force (1870–1879) and Beiping Police (1877–1879), a lieutenant-general of the Plain White Banner (1887), and chamberlain of the Imperial Bodyguard (1888). In 1895, he founded the Army of North China, the dominant military force in China until 1927.[5] Zaifeng married Youlan in 1902.[6]
Chosen by Empress Dowager Cixi,[7] Puyi became emperor at the age of 2 years 10 months and 25 days in December 1908 after the Guangxu Emperor, Puyi's half-uncle, died childless on 14 November. Titled the Xuantong Emperor, Puyi's introduction to the life of an emperor began when palace officials arrived at his family residence to take him. On the evening of 13 November, without any advance notice, a procession of eunuchs and guardsmen led by the palace chamberlain left the Forbidden City for the Northern Mansion to inform Prince Chun that they were taking away his two-year-old son Puyi to be the new emperor. The toddler Puyi screamed and resisted as the officials ordered the eunuch attendants to pick him up. Puyi's parents said nothing when they learned that they were losing their son. As Puyi wept, screaming that he did not want to leave his parents, he was forced into a palanquin that took him to the Forbidden City.[8] Wang Lianshou, Puyi's wet nurse, was the only person from the Northern Mansion allowed to go with him.[9] Upon arriving at the Forbidden City, Puyi was taken to see Cixi.[10] Puyi later wrote:
I still have a dim recollection of this meeting, the shock of which left a deep impression on my memory. I remember suddenly finding myself surrounded by strangers, while before me was hung a drab curtain through which I could see an emaciated and terrifying hideous face. This was Cixi. It is said that I burst out into loud howls at the sight and started to tremble uncontrollably. Cixi told someone to give me some sweets, but I threw them on the floor and yelled "I want nanny, I want nanny", to her great displeasure. "What a naughty child", she said. "Take him away to play."[10]
Cixi died on 15 November, less than two days after the meeting. Puyi's father, Prince Chun, became Prince Regent. During Puyi's coronation in the Hall of Supreme Harmony on 2 December 1908, the young emperor was carried onto the Dragon Throne by his father. Puyi was frightened by the scene before him and the deafening sounds of ceremonial drums and music, and started crying. His father could do nothing except quietly comfort him: "Don't cry, it'll be over soon."[11] Puyi wrote in his autobiography:
Two days after I entered the palace [Cixi] died, and on December 2, the "Great Ceremony of Enthronement" took place, a ceremony that I ruined with my crying.[12]
Puyi did not see his biological mother, Princess Consort Chun, for the next seven years. He developed a special bond with Wang and credited her as the only person who could control him. She was sent away when he was eight years old. After Puyi married, he would occasionally bring her to the Forbidden City, and later Manchukuo, to visit him.[13]
Growing up with scarcely any memory of a time when he was not indulged and revered, Puyi quickly became spoiled. The adults in his life, except for Wang, were all strangers, remote, distant, and unable to discipline him. Wherever he went, grown men would kneel down in a ritual kowtow, averting their eyes until he passed. Soon he discovered the absolute power he wielded over the eunuchs, and he frequently had them beaten for small transgressions. As an emperor, Puyi's every whim was catered to while no one ever said no to him, making him into a sadistic boy who loved to have his eunuchs flogged or forced to eat dirt.[14] Puyi later said, "Flogging eunuchs was part of my daily routine. My cruelty and love of wielding power were already too firmly set for persuasion to have any effect on me."[15]
Every day, Puyi had to visit five former imperial concubines, called his "mothers", to report on his progress. He hated his "mothers", not least because they prevented him from seeing his real mother until he was 13. Their leader was the autocratic Empress Dowager Longyu, who successfully conspired to have Puyi's beloved wet nurse Wang expelled from the Forbidden City when he was 8 on the grounds that Puyi was too old to be breast-fed. Puyi especially hated Longyu for that. Puyi later wrote, "Although I had many mothers, I never knew any motherly love."[16] Empress dowager Longyu ruled with paramount authority over the Qing imperial court, and though she was not the de jure "regent", she was the de facto ruler of the Qing empire.[17]
Puyi had a standard Confucian education, being taught the various Chinese classics and nothing else.[18] He later wrote: "I learnt nothing of mathematics, let alone science, and for a long time I had no idea where Peking was situated".[18] When Puyi was 13, he met his parents and siblings, all of whom had to kowtow before him as he sat upon the Dragon Throne. By this time, he had forgotten what his mother looked like. Such was the awe in which the emperor was held that his younger brother Pujie never heard his parents refer to Puyi as "your elder brother" but only as "The Emperor".[19] Pujie told the journalist Edward Behr his image of Puyi prior to meeting him was that of "a venerable old man with a beard. I couldn't believe it when I saw this boy in yellow robes sitting solemnly on the throne".[19] Although Puyi could now see his family again, this happened rarely, and always under the stifling rules of imperial etiquette. The consequence was that the relationship of the emperor with his parents was distant. Later, Puyi began to receive visits from his brothers and cousins, who provided a certain air of normality to his unique childhood.[12]
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Abdication
[edit]On 10 October 1911, the army garrison in Wuhan mutinied, sparking a widespread revolt in the Yangtze river valley and beyond, demanding the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, which had ruled China since 1644. The strongman general Yuan Shikai was dispatched by the court to crush the revolution, but was unable to, as by 1911 public opinion had turned decisively against the Qing, and many Chinese had no wish to fight for a dynasty that was seen as having lost the mandate of heaven.[20] Puyi's father, Prince Chun, resigned as regent on 6 December, when Empress Dowager Longyu took over with Yuan Shikai as Prime Minister.[21]
Empress Dowager Longyu endorsed the "Imperial Edict of the Abdication of the Qing Emperor" on 12 February 1912, under a deal brokered by Yuan with the imperial court in Beijing and the Republicans in southern China.[22] Puyi recalled in his autobiography the meeting between Longyu and Yuan:
The Dowager Empress was sitting on a kang [platform] in a side room of the Mind Nature Palace, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief as a fat old man [Yuan] knelt before her on a red cushion, tears streaming down his face. I was sitting to the right of the widow and wondering why both adults were crying. There was no one in the room other than the three of us and everything was very quiet; the fat man snorted as he spoke and I couldn't understand what he was saying... This was the time when Yuan directly raised the question of abdication.[23]
Life in the Forbidden City (1912–1924)
[edit]
Under the "Articles of Favourable Treatment of the Great Qing Emperor after His Abdication", signed with the new Republic of China, Puyi was to retain his imperial title and be treated by the government of the Republic with the protocol attached to a foreign monarch. Puyi and the imperial court were allowed to remain in the northern half of the Forbidden City (the Private Apartments) as well as in the Summer Palace. An annual subsidy of four million silver taels was granted by the Republic to the imperial household, although it was never fully paid and was abolished after just a few years. Puyi was not informed in February 1912 that his reign had ended and China was now a republic, and continued to believe that he was still emperor for some time. In 1913, when Empress Dowager Longyu died, President Yuan arrived at the Forbidden City to pay his respects, which Puyi's tutors told him meant that major changes were afoot.[24]
Puyi soon learned that the real reasons for the Articles of Favourable Settlement was that President Yuan was planning on restoring the monarchy with himself as the emperor of a new dynasty, and wanted to have Puyi as a sort of custodian of the Forbidden City until he could move in. Puyi first learned of Yuan's plans to become emperor when he brought in army bands to serenade him whenever he had a meal, and he started on a decidedly imperial take on the presidency. Puyi loathed Yuan as a "traitor" and decided to sabotage his plans to become emperor by hiding the Imperial Seals, only to be told by his tutors that he would just make new ones. In 1915, Yuan proclaimed himself as emperor, and he was planning to marry his daughter to Puyi, but had to abdicate in the face of popular opposition.[25]
Brief restoration (1917)
[edit]In 1917, the warlord Zhang Xun restored Puyi to the throne from 1 to 12 July.[26] Zhang Xun ordered his army to keep their queues to display loyalty to the emperor. However, the then-Premier of the Republic of China, Duan Qirui, ordered a Caudron Type D plane, piloted by Pan Shizhong (潘世忠) with bombardier Du Yuyuan (杜裕源) from Nanyuan airfield, to drop three bombs over the Forbidden City as a show of force against Zhang Xun, causing the death of a eunuch, but otherwise inflicting minor damage.[27][28] This is the first aerial bombardment recorded by a Chinese Air Force, and the restoration failed due to extensive opposition across China.[29]
Relationship with Reginald Johnston
[edit]
On 3 March 1919, the Scottish scholar and diplomat Reginald Johnston arrived in the Forbidden City to serve as Puyi's tutor.[30] President Xu Shichang believed the monarchy would eventually be restored, and to prepare Puyi for the challenges of the modern world had hired Johnston to teach Puyi "subjects such as political science, constitutional history and English".[31] Johnston was allowed only five texts in English to give Puyi to read: Alice in Wonderland and translations into English of the "Four Great Books" of Confucianism; the Analects, the Mencius, the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean.[31] But he disregarded the rules, and taught Puyi about world history with a special focus on British history. Besides history, Johnston taught Puyi philosophy and about what he saw as the superiority of monarchies to republics.[32] Puyi remembered that his tutor's piercing blue eyes "made me feel uneasy ... I found him very intimidating and studied English with him like a good boy, not daring to talk about other things when I got bored ... as I did with my other Chinese tutors".[30]
As the only person capable of controlling Puyi, Johnston had much more influence than his title of English tutor would suggest, as the eunuchs began to rely on him to steer Puyi away from his more capricious moods. Under the Scotsman's influence, Puyi started to insist that his eunuchs address him as "Henry" and later his wife Wanrong as "Elizabeth" as Puyi began to speak "Chinglish", a mixture of Mandarin and English that became his preferred mode of speech. Puyi recalled of Johnston: "I thought everything about him was first-rate. He made me feel that Westerners were the most intelligent and civilised people in the world and that he was the most learned of Westerners" and that "Johnston had become the major part of my soul".[33] In May 1919, Puyi noticed the protests in Beijing generated by the May Fourth Movement as thousands of Chinese university students protested against the decision by the great powers at the Paris peace conference to award the former German concessions in Shandong together with the former German colony of Qingdao to Japan. For Puyi, the May Fourth Movement, which he asked Johnston about, was a revelation as it marked the first time in his life that he noticed that people outside the Forbidden City had concerns that were not about him.[34] After his first interview with the emperor, the British academic recorded his impressions in a report addressed to the British authorities; in this document Johnston mentions:
He appears to be physically robust and well developed for his age. He is a very "human" boy, with liveliness, intelligence and an enthusiastic sense of humour. Furthermore, he has excellent manners and is totally free from arrogance ... Although the emperor does not seem to have been spoiled yet, from the nonsense and futility that surrounds him, I am afraid there is no hope that he will emerge unscathed from the moral dangers through the next few years of his life (very critical years necessarily for a boy in his early adolescence), unless he can be removed from the influence of the hordes of eunuchs and other useless officials who are now almost his only companions. I am inclined to think that the best course of action to take in the interest of the boy himself would be to remove him from the harmful atmosphere of the "Forbidden City" and send him to the Summer Palace. There it would be possible for him to live a much less artificial and happier life than he can under the present conditions...[35]
Puyi could not speak Manchu; he only knew a single word in the language, yili ('arise'). Despite studying Manchu for years, he admitted that it was his "worst" subject among everything he studied.[36][37] According to the journalist Syed Mohammad Ali, Puyi spoke Mandarin when interviewed, but Ali believed he could understand English.[38] Johnston also introduced Puyi to the new technology of cinema, and Puyi was so delighted with the movies, especially Harold Lloyd films, that he had a film projector installed in the Forbidden City despite the opposition of the eunuchs. Johnston was also the first to argue that Puyi needed glasses since he had developed myopia, as he was extremely near-sighted, and after much argument with Prince Chun, who thought it was undignified for an emperor, finally prevailed.[39] Johnston, who spoke fluent Mandarin, closely followed the intellectual scene in China, and introduced Puyi to the "new-style" Chinese books and magazines, which inspired Puyi so much that he wrote several poems that were published anonymously in "New China" publications.[40] In 1922, Johnston had his friend, the writer Hu Shih, visit the Forbidden City to teach Puyi about recent developments in Chinese literature.[41] Under Johnston's influence, Puyi embraced the bicycle as a way to exercise, cut his queue and grew a full head of hair, and wanted to study at the University of Oxford, Johnston's alma mater.[42] Johnston also introduced Puyi to the telephone, which Puyi soon became addicted to, phoning people in Beijing at random just to hear their voices on the other end.[43] Johnston also pressured Puyi to cut down on the waste and extravagance in the Forbidden City and encouraged him to be more self-sufficient.[44]
Marriage and sexuality
[edit]
In March 1922, the Dowager Consorts decided that Puyi should be married, and gave him a selection of photographs of aristocratic teenage girls to choose from. Puyi first chose Wenxiu as his wife, but was told that she was acceptable only as a concubine, so he would have to choose again. Puyi later claimed that the faces were too small to distinguish between.[45] Puyi then chose Wanrong, the daughter of one of Manchuria's richest aristocrats, who had been educated in English by American missionaries in Tianjin, who was considered to be an acceptable empress by the Dowager Consorts. On 15 March 1922, the betrothal of Puyi and Wanrong was announced in the newspapers. On 17 March, Wanrong took the train to Beijing, and on 6 April, Puyi went to the Qing family shrine to inform his ancestors that he would be married to her later that year. Puyi did not meet Wanrong until their wedding.[46]
In an interview in 1986, Prince Pujie told Behr: "Puyi constantly talked about going to England and becoming an Oxford student, like Johnston."[47] On 4 June 1922, Puyi attempted to escape from the Forbidden City and planned to issue an open letter to "the people of China" renouncing the title of Emperor before leaving for Oxford.[48] The escape attempt failed when Johnston vetoed it and refused to call a taxi, and Puyi was too frightened to live on the streets of Beijing on his own. Pujie said of Puyi's escape attempt: "Puyi's decision had nothing to do with the impending marriage. He felt cooped up, and wanted out."[48] Johnston later recounted his time as Puyi's tutor between 1919 and 1924 in his 1934 book Twilight in the Forbidden City, one of the main sources of information about Puyi's life in this period, though Behr cautioned that Johnston painted an idealised picture of Puyi, avoiding all mention of Puyi's sexuality, merely average academic ability, erratic mood swings, and eunuch-flogging. Pujie told Behr of Puyi's moods: "When he was in a good mood, everything was fine, and he was a charming companion. If something upset him, his dark side would emerge."[49] On 21 October 1922, Puyi's wedding to Princess Wanrong began with the "betrothal presents" of 18 sheep, 2 horses, 40 pieces of satin, and 80 rolls of cloth, marched from the Forbidden City to Wanrong's house, accompanied by court musicians and cavalry. Following Manchu traditions where weddings were conducted under moonlight for good luck, an enormous procession of palace guardsmen, eunuchs, and musicians carried the Princess Wanrong in a red sedan chair called the Phoenix Chair within the Forbidden City, where Puyi sat upon the Dragon Throne. Later Wanrong kowtowed to him six times in her living quarters to symbolise her submission to her husband as the decree of their marriage was read out.[50]
Wanrong wore a mask in accordance with Chinese tradition and Puyi, who knew nothing of women, remembered: "I hardly thought about marriage and family. It was only when the Empress came into my field of vision with a crimson satin cloth embroidered with a dragon and a phoenix over her head that I felt at all curious about what she looked like."[51] After the wedding was complete, Puyi, Wanrong, and his secondary consort Wenxiu (whom he married the same night) went to the Palace of Earthly Tranquility, where everything was red – the colour of love and sex in China – and where emperors had traditionally consummated their marriages. Puyi, who was sexually inexperienced and timid, fled from the bridal chamber, leaving his wives to sleep in the Dragon Bed by themselves.[52]
Wanrong's younger brother Runqi recalled how Puyi and Wanrong loved to race their bicycles through the Forbidden City and told Behr in an interview: "There was a lot of laughter, she and Puyi seemed to get on well, they were like kids together."[53] In 1986, Behr interviewed one of Puyi's two surviving eunuchs, an 85-year-old who was reluctant to answer the questions asked of him, but finally said of Puyi's relationship with Wanrong: "The Emperor would come over to the nuptial apartments once every three months and spend the night there ... He left early in the morning on the following day and for the rest of that day he would invariably be in a very filthy temper indeed."[54] A eunuch who served in the Forbidden City as Wanrong's personal servant later wrote in his memoir that there was a rumour among the eunuchs that Puyi was gay, noting a strange situation where he was asked by Puyi to stand inside Wanrong's room while Puyi groped her. Another eunuch claimed that Puyi preferred the "land-way" of the eunuchs to the "water-way" of the Empress, implying he was gay.[55]
Puyi rarely left the Forbidden City, knew nothing of the lives of ordinary Chinese people, and was somewhat misled by Johnston, who told him that the vast majority of the Chinese wanted a Qing restoration. Johnston, a Sinophile scholar and a romantic conservative with an instinctive preference for monarchies, believed that China needed a benevolent autocrat to guide the country forward.[42] He was enough of a traditionalist to respect that all major events in the Forbidden City were determined by the court astrologers.[56] Johnston disparaged the superficially Westernised Chinese republican elite who dressed in top hats, frock coats, and business suits as not authentically Chinese, and praised to Puyi the Confucian scholars with their traditional robes as the ones who were authentically Chinese.[42]
Imperial Household reforms
[edit]The Forbidden City had long suffered from corruption and theft by the eunuchs. According to Puyi, by the end of his wedding ceremony, the pearls and jade in the empress's crown had been stolen.[57] After his wedding, Puyi began to take control of the palace and reform the household. Inspired by Johnston, Puyi ordered an inventory of the Forbidden City's treasures, but on 27 June 1923, a fire destroyed the area around the Palace of Established Happiness. Puyi suspected it was arson to cover theft. In response, a month after the fire, he evicted almost all the eunuchs from the palace with the support of the Beiyang Army.[58] Runqi recalled: "But after the eunuchs went, many of the palaces inside the Forbidden City were closed down, and the place took on a desolate, abandoned air."[59]
After the Great Kantō earthquake on 1 September 1923 destroyed the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama, Puyi donated jade antiques worth some £33,000 to pay for disaster relief, which led a delegation of Japanese diplomats to visit the Forbidden City to express their thanks.[59] To continue reform efforts, Puyi appointed Zheng Xiaoxu as minister of Household Department, and Zheng hired Tong Jixu, a former Beiyang Army officer, as chief of operations. These efforts did not last long before Puyi was forced out of the Forbidden City by Feng Yuxiang.[58]
Expulsion from the Forbidden City (1924)
[edit]
On 23 October 1924, a coup led by the warlord Feng Yuxiang took control of Beijing. Feng, the latest of the warlords to take Beijing, was seeking political legitimacy and decided that abolishing the unpopular Articles of Favourable Settlement was an easy way to win the crowd's approval.[60] His contemporary supporters stated that Marshal Feng wanted to make clear to the people that China was an established republic.[61] Feng unilaterally revised the "Articles of Favourable Treatment" on 5 November 1924, abolishing Puyi's imperial title and privileges and reducing him to a private citizen of the Republic of China. Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City the same day.[62] He was given three hours to leave.[60] He spent a few days at the house of his father Prince Chun, and then temporarily resided in the Japanese embassy in Beijing.[63] Puyi left his father's house together with Johnston and his chief servant Big Li without informing Prince Chun's servants, slipped his followers, and went to the Japanese legation. Puyi had originally wanted to go to the British Legation, but Johnston had insisted that he would be safer with the Japanese. For Johnston, the system where the Japanese people worshipped their emperor as a living god was much closer to his ideal than the British constitutional monarchy, and he constantly steered Puyi in a pro-Japanese direction.[64]
However, Johnston tried to get the British diplomatic legation in Beijing to host Puyi, and although the British authorities were not very interested in welcoming the former emperor, the British representative eventually gave Johnston his consent. However, Johnston later discovered that Puyi – in view of the situation and that Johnston was not returning from his efforts – had taken refuge in the Japanese legation after being advised by Zheng Xiaoxu.[65] The Japanese diplomat Kenkichi Yoshizawa gave Puyi the regards of the Japanese government, saying, "Our government has formally acknowledged Your Majesty's taking refuge in our legation and will provide protection for you."[66] Puyi's adviser Lu Zongyu, who was secretly working for the Japanese, suggested that Puyi move to Tianjin, which he argued was safer than Beijing, though the real reason was that the Japanese felt that Puyi would be easier to control in Tianjin without the embarrassment of having him live in the Japanese Legation, which was straining relations with China. On 23 February 1925, Puyi left Beijing for Tianjin wearing a simple Chinese gown and skullcap as he was afraid of being robbed on the train.[67] Puyi described his train journey to Tianjin, saying, "At every stop between Beijing and Tianjin several Japanese policeman and special agents in black suits would get on the train so that, by the time we reached Tianjin, my special car was almost half occupied by them."[68]
Residence in Tianjin (1925–1931)
[edit]In February 1925, Puyi moved to the Japanese concession of Tianjin, first into the Zhang Garden, and in 1929[69] into the former residence of Lu Zongyu known as the Garden of Serenity.[70] A British journalist, Henry Woodhead, called Puyi's court a "doggy paradise" as both Puyi and Wanrong were dog lovers who owned several very spoiled dogs while Puyi's courtiers spent an inordinate amount of time feuding with one another. Woodhead stated that the only people who seemed to get along at Puyi's court were Wanrong and Wenxiu, who were "like sisters".[71] Tianjin was, after Shanghai, the most cosmopolitan Chinese city, with large British, French, German, Russian and Japanese communities. As an emperor, Puyi was allowed to join several social clubs that normally only admitted whites. During this period, Puyi and his advisers Chen Baochen, Zheng Xiaoxu, and Luo Zhenyu discussed plans to restore Puyi as Emperor. Zheng and Luo favoured enlisting assistance from external parties, while Chen opposed the idea. In June 1925, Puyi was visited by Zhang Zuolin the warlord who ruled Manchuria. Zhang promised to restore the Qing in exchange for financial assistance for his army. Zhang warned Puyi in a "roundabout way" not to trust his Japanese friends. Zhang received funds from the Japanese, but by this time his relations with the Kwantung Army were becoming strained. In June 1927, Zhang captured Beijing and Behr observed that if Puyi had returned to Beijing, he might have been restored to the Dragon Throne.[72] Puyi was quoted to have said, in a 1927 article in The Illustrated London News, that "I never wish to be Emperor again".[73]
Puyi's court was prone to factionalism and his advisers were urging him to back different warlords, which gave him a reputation for duplicity as he negotiated with various warlords, which strained his relations with Marshal Zhang.[74] At various times, Puyi met Zhang Zongchang, the "Dogmeat General", and the White Russian émigré general Grigory Semyonov at his Tianjin house; both of them promised to restore him to the Dragon Throne if he gave them enough money, and both of them kept the money he gave them for themselves.[75] Another visitor was Colonel Kenji Doihara, a Japanese army officer fluent in Mandarin, who flattered Puyi and encouraged him to seek restoration in Manchuria.[76]
In 1928, during the Northern Expedition to reunify China, Sun Dianying, a warlord who had switched allegiances from Zhang to Chiang Kai-shek after the latter's Kuomintang army took Beijing from Zhang, sacked the Qing tombs outside Beijing. The news that the Qing tombs had been plundered and the corpse of Empress Dowager Cixi desecrated deeply offended Puyi. He never forgave the Kuomintang and held Chiang personally responsible—partly due to allegations that Kuomintang leaders, including Madame Chiang, had accepted bribes from Sun's looting.[77] The incident underscored Puyi’s painful realization of his lack of powerful support and contributed to his decision to turn to the Japanese.[78]
During his time in Tianjin, Puyi was besieged with visitors asking him for money, including various members of the vast house of Aisin-Gioro, old Manchu bannermen, journalists prepared to write articles calling for a Qing restoration for the right price, and eunuchs who had once lived in the Forbidden City and were now living in poverty. Puyi was often bored with his life, and engaged in maniacal shopping to compensate, recalling that he was addicted to "buying pianos, watches, clocks, radios, Western clothes, leather shoes, and spectacles".[79]
Puyi's first wife, Wanrong, continued to smoke opium recreationally during this period.[80] Their marriage began to fall apart as they spent more and more time apart, meeting only at mealtimes.[80] Puyi wrote in his memoir:
Even if I had had only one wife she would not have found life with me interesting since my preoccupation was my restoration. Frankly, I did not know anything about love. In other marriages husband and wife were equal, but to me wife and consort were both the slaves and tools of their master.