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Puyi

Given / Temple NameAisin Gioro PuyiStyle / AliasThe Xuantong Emperor

The last emperor, enthroned at three, thrice made emperor, and at last a commoner

Holders of the Mandate · Emperors & Kings
The Xuantong abdicationManchukuoThe First Half of My Life

Who they are

Puyi was designated on Cixi’s deathbed and brought into the palace to reign at three; when he was six the Xinhai Revolution broke out, and on February 12, 1912, the Empress Dowager Longyu promulgated the abdication edict in his name — two thousand one hundred and thirty-two years of empire ended in this child’s name. His life thereafter played like a theater of the absurd: a twelve-day restoration under Zhang Xun in 1917; expelled from the Forbidden City by Feng Yuxiang in 1924; from 1932 installed under Japanese sponsorship as chief executive and then emperor of Manchukuo, a puppet for thirteen years; captured by Soviet troops in 1945, extradited home in 1950, and reformed for ten years at the Fushun War Criminals Management Center. Amnestied in 1959, he became a gardener at the Beijing Botanical Garden and a member of the political-consultative literary-historical committee, and wrote his autobiography The First Half of My Life. He died of illness in 1967 — from Son of Heaven to citizen, one man walked the whole road from China’s empire to its republic.

Primary sourcesPuyi, The First Half of My LifeDraft History of QingTestimony records of the Tokyo trials

Key stories

The abdication edict

On February 12, 1912, the Empress Dowager Longyu held a last audience in the Hall of Mental Cultivation with the six-year-old Puyi in her arms and issued the abdication edict: "Now the hearts of the people of the whole nation incline mostly toward a republic… the popular will is clear, and Heaven’s mandate can be known. How could I, for the honor of a single house, defy the wishes of the myriad people?" It was drafted by the top graduate and industrialist Zhang Jian. The imperial institution created by Qin Shi Huang came to a peaceful close, by a single document, after running two thousand one hundred and thirty-two years — the edict even kept the old language of the "Mandate," using it to explain the Mandate’s end.

From emperor to gardener

After his amnesty Puyi worked at the Beijing Botanical Garden, learning to tie his own shoes and to buy bus tickets — when he queued for a ticket, the seller did not believe "Puyi" was his real name. Asked by a foreign guest for the proudest moment of his life, he answered: not the three times he was made emperor, but the day in 1959 he received the amnesty of the People’s Republic of China and became a citizen. The words had their share of the official occasion, but the emperor of The First Half of My Life who could not even squeeze his own toothpaste did indeed first learn to live in the prison and the botanical garden.

Version differences

The First Half of My Life was written in the context of war-criminal reform, and parts of its self-account bear the mark of their era; it can be cross-read against outside accounts such as Reginald Johnston’s Twilight in the Forbidden City.

Relationships

Sovereign
👘Empress Dowager Cixi　Designated by her on her deathbed, and buried too by her age

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

The Last EmperorBertolucci’s 1987 film won nine Oscars and was the first Western feature permitted to film on location inside the Forbidden City.

Appears in

Qing & the Last Chapter of EmpireThe Abdication of the Xuantong Emperor
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