The Last Manchu

  Last Manchu

  The Autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, Last Emperor of China

  Henry Pu Yi

  Paul Kramer

  When the unreal is taken for the real, then

  the real becomes unreal;

  When non-existence is taken for existence, then

  existence becomes non-existence.

  —DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER by Tsao Hsueh-chin,

  Translated from the Chinese by Chi-Chen Wang

  “ENGROSSING . . . Pu Yi’s picture of life as an

  Emperor who never had a chance to rule . . . is full of

  interest to a Western reader.”

  —Pittsburgh Press

  Stripped of power but not of rank, Pu Yi lived in imperial opulence in the Forbidden City. When he went for a stroll, the boy Emperor was followed by eunuchs bearing umbrellas, chairs, cakes, tea, chamber pots and medicines. At age 17 he took two child-brides—one as empress and one as consort. But in 1924, Pu Yi fled before the armies of a Chinese warlord. After exile in the north of China, the Japanese installed him as the puppet Emperor of Manchuria. Virtually confined to his palace for years, Pu Yi terrorized his few remaining followers with beatings and torture.

  As a Russian prisoner in Siberia, Pu Yi lived in luxury at a mineral springs spa. But in a Communist Chinese prison, the former Emperor was systematically brainwashed, forced to sleep on the floor and paste pencil boxes. After ten years his rehabilitation was branded a success and he was released. As a temporary guide, Pu Yi led a group of former prisoners on a tour of the Forbidden City, the palace that had been his childhood home. The fragrance of cypress trees in the Imperial Garden, he wrote, “brought back to me memories of my youth.” Pu Yi died—an ordinary citizen of the People’s Republic of China—in 1967.

  “Henry Pu Yi tells his story with candor . . . VIVID

  AND EERIE.”

  —Raleigh Observer

  Copyright © 2010 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 903, New York, NY 10018.

  Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 555 Eighth Avenue, Suite 903, NewYork, NY 10018 or info@skyhorsepublishing.com.

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  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Puyi,1906–1967.

  [Wo de qian ban sheng. English]

  The last Manchu : the autobiography of Henry PuYi, last

  emperor of China / Henry PuYi and Paul Kramer.

  p. cm.

  9781602397323

  1. Puyi,1906–1967. 2. Puyi, 1906–1967––Childhood and youth. 3. Puyi, 1906–1967––Exile. 4. Emperors--China—Biography. 5. China––Kings and rulers––Biography. 6. China––History––Republic, 1912-1949.7. China––History––1949–1976. I. Kramer, Paul, 1914–2008. II. Title.

  DS773.C51513 2009

  951.04092––dc22

  [B]

  2009024919

  Printed in the United States of America

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Epigraph

  Copyright Page

  Preface

  Introduction

  I - MY CHILDHOOD

  1 - Coronation and Abdication

  2 - Living as Emperor

  3 - ″Mothers″ and Son

  4 - My Wet Nurse

  5 - Eunuchs

  6 - Studying in the Yu Ching Palace

  7 - Reginald Johnston—My British Tutor

  II - MY YOUTH

  8 - A Brief Restoration

  9 - My Wedding

  10 - Family Clashes

  11 - Dispersal of the Eunuchs

  12 - Reorganizing the Household Department

  III - MY EXILE

  13 - From the Forbidden City to the Legation Quarter

  14 - Tientsin

  15 - Mausoleums and the Japanese

  16 - Living in the Temporary Palace

  17 - The Unquiet “Quiet” Garden

  18 - Crossing the White River

  IV - MY FOURTEEN-YEAR RESTORATION

  19 - Chief Executive of Manchukuo

  20 - Imperial Dreams

  21 - The Treaty

  22 - Emperor for the Third Time

  23 - Illusions Vanish

  24 - Yasunori Yoshioka—My Adviser

  25 - Majesty. Without Powder

  26 - Collapse

  V - MY CAPTIVITY

  27 - Five Years in the Soviet Union

  28 - Back to Manchuria—A Prisoner

  29 - Isolated

  30 - Intensified Brainwashing

  31 - Self-Pity

  32 - Conditions Improve

  33 - A Special Pardon

  VI - MY NEW LIFE

  34 - The Forbidden City—Revisited

  Epilogue

  Preface

  THIS BOOK IS THE STORY OF A MAN, HENRY PU YI, WHO always managed to survive. A brief chronology of major events in his life is proof of his perseverance in the face of continuing adversity:

  1906 Born in Peking, China

  1908 Crowned Emperor of China

  1912 Abdicated, but continued to live as if he were still Emperor, within the Forbidden City in Peking

  1924 Fled to the Peking Legation Quarter and then to Tientsin, an important seaport in North China

  1931 Escaped Tientsin for Manchuria

  1934 Proclaimed Emperor of Manchuria

  1945 Captured by the Soviets and flown to Siberia

  1950 Turned over to Maoist China for intense brain washing as a war criminal

  1959 Pardoned by the Maoist government of China and returned to Peking to become a member of the People’s National Congress as representa tive of the Manchu people.

  1966 Almost murdered by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution

  1967 Died of natural causes.

  From the chronology we can see that except for five years spent as a prisoner of the Soviets, Henry Pu Yi, the last Manchu Emperor of China, spent all his life in Northeast China and physically survived China’s last eighty years of violence an achievement worth noting if one keeps in mind how near he always lived to the abyss of Chinese intrigue, war, massacre and revolution. The consequence is that his life itself forms a path of understanding between China’s past and its future, in as much as every calamity that has overwhelmed China also overwhelmed Pu Yi and yet he, like China, survived.

  Why? The reason seems to be his weak character in combination with the political importance of the Manchu tradition. By Western standards Pu Yi had more in common with the anti-heroes of Genet and Mailer than the heroes of Dickens and Anthony Hope. Indeed, his life suggests a historical justification for the appearance of the anti-hero of modern fiction. Pu Yi, by his own admission, was a liar, suspicious, tricky, a hypocrite and preoccupied with a fear of death. He also hinted that he might have been homosexual, and goes to some length to explain how these aspects of his character were developed as a result of his upbringing and the historic forces with which he had to contend. And it is these explorations into his vices that are such an important aspect of his life. For if Pu Yi had been able to rise above the corrupting influence of 1,200 eunuchs during his youth and the personality of an exotic English tutor, if he had been able to resist the blandishments of his courtiers and the pride of family and traditi
on, if he had been able to do without twelve-year-old boy pages and stand up to predatory Japanese militarists, then he clearly could never have been brainwashed as he was by the Red Chinese. The defects which were within him provided the suppleness necessary for survival. Without them he would either have been shot before he fell into Communist hands, died or gone insane during the thought-molding process, and his captors would have been without tools with which to work.

  Although the facts of his life, which he describes with such charm and tells so well, could stand in themselves as illuminating and important vignettes of Chinese history, the book, over and above its Gone with the Wind fascination, confirms the significance of the Manchu tradition. Either the warlords in North China, or the Japanese, or the Soviets or the Maoist Communists could have executed him and extinguished the monarchy just as the Bolsheviks did the Czar of Russia and his immediate family. Yet they never did. On the contrary, they always accorded him some form of special treatment. At first, when the monarchy was overthrown, Pu Yi was allowed to live on, within the Forbidden City, and maintain the imperial traditions. Later, the Japanese made him the puppet Emperor of Manchuria. Then the Russians, who captured him from the Japanese, put him in a hotsprings resort. The Chinese Communists, to whom he was delivered, brainwashed him for ten years and then elected him to the People’s National Congress as the representative of the Manchu people.

  Even the Americans were ultimately forced by events to accord him special treatment. When he was brought to Tokyo in August 1946 to testify in the war-crimes trial of Japanese leaders, there was pressure to put Pu Yi himself on trial. But this, General MacArthur—the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, Japan—refused to do. To try Pu Yi as a war criminal might impair the position of the Emperor of Japan, whose mystique and cohesive force Mac-Arthur was determined to preserve. Pu Yi had, as Emperor of Manchuria, close ties with the Japanese royal family. His brother and heir was married to a relative of the Empress. Their children were half-Japanese.

  No other ousted ruler in modern history has exhibited the survival powers of Henry Pu Yi. To say that he led a charmed life is too easy an explanation. An ex-emperor can, perhaps, be lucky once, or even twice, but not six times! The explanation of this ability to survive is an underlying theme of his autobiography and, as such, becomes a key to understanding modern China.

  The basis for this book originally appeared in three volumes in Peking in 1964. It was called to my attention in 1965 by Chinese living in the United States who read with interest and excitement a serialized version that was published in the popular press of Hong Kong. Their reaction led me to believe that an English edition might enjoy a similar response among American readers, and this conviction was substantiated when it became possible to obtain and read a copy of the original Peking version. In its original form, however, had it been literally translated, the autobiography would have come to over 1,000 printed pages, and would have suffered from a profusion of repetitious passages. Although Dr. Tsai translated the entire book on tape, it was necessary, in order to preserve reader interest, to make certain editorial changes. In all cases of excision and rearrangement, however, I have been as faithful as possible to the Chinese as a Westerner can possibly be. When the book dealt with specific events and detailed descriptions of imperial Chinese life this was not too difficult, although it was complicated by the fact that Pu Yi was a Manchu and his interests and preoccupations were without precedent in so far as the West was concerned. In addition, there was no basis for comparison of his account since no Chinese Emperor ever before revealed to the public the secrets of the Forbidden City. When it came to presenting Pu Yi’s thoughts, ideas and reactions, however, the task was enormously difficult. An Oriental, and above all Pu Yi, simply did not think like a Westerner; the thoughts came out in a different and unaccustomed progression and passed through different convolutions. Superimposed on this, there was the Chinese Communist habit of equating events with ideology to the extent that an Occidental found himself so far removed from the actualities of daily life and the conflicts involved that it was difficult to grasp truth in terms of definable human emotions and reactions. It was therefore necessary to simplify and in some cases to rearrange Pu Yi’s thoughts and conduct as described in the original Chinese version so that they became comprehensible. But in all cases, the book was as faithful an abridgment of the original Chinese as it was humanly possible to make it and, at the same time, create a readable and entertaining story for a Western reader.

  Preceding the autobiography is a brief introduction designed to supply the reader with an overview of Chinese royal history during the years prior to the last Manchu’s accession to the throne. Here again there were difficulties. No royal family in history guarded its secrets more zealously than the Manchus. What really went on within the Forbidden City was purposely withheld from those without. Genuine source material was not published, and the official statements that were released studiously avoided any revelations as to the personal factors behind them. It was necessary to puzzle things out, therefore, with the help of an occasional foreigner who managed to penetrate some corner of the Forbidden City on official business, the gossip of eunuchs and an infrequent indiscretion by a palace official or royal relative. Such sources were not always reliable, but were the best available and I used them if only to help the reader understand what would otherwise be an almost incomprehensible life-style on the part of Manchu royalty.

  The first edition of this book was originally published by Putnam’s in 1967. Now, twenty years later, there is a demand for a second edition. Meanwhile, a major motion picture is being made of Pu Yi’s life story. The book’s substance and charm have stood the test of time. Also, and perhaps more important, events of the past twenty years have given an authenticity to the book it did not have for the average Western reader in 1967. One reason for this is a shift in attitudes. Relations with Communist China have been resumed. Trade and tourism have been established. Hostilities on both sides have subsided with the consequence that Westerners can observe events and read books about China with an objectivity that was heretofore difficult.

  P. K.

  Washington, D.C.

  Introduction

  AT II A.M. ON THE MORNING OF JULY 25, 1901, A BLUEeyed, prematurely graying young Scot, three years out of Magdalen College, Oxford, stood on a pier at. Hong Kong. From the German ship Bayern which had just docked, a shy, boyish-looking man descended the gangplank. He stuttered badly and was dressed in the rich silk costume of a Chinese noble with the ruby button of a mandarin of the highest rank on his hat.

  It was the first time a Chinese prince had ever set foot on British territory. Nevertheless, the reception, which had been held to a minimum at the request of the prince, went well. Within fifteen minutes of his welcome by the young official, the prince was carried by four red-coated chairbearers from the pier to the entrance to Government House where he was greeted by the Governor.

  This nobleman, who had preferred to receive none of the honors due him as a Manchu of the blood royal of China, was Prince Chun and he was on his way to Germany to lay the humble regrets and apologies of his brother, the Emperor, before the Kaiser for the murder in Peking on June 20, 1900, of the German minister during the Boxer Rebellion. The young Scot who was at the pier to meet him was a British civil servant named Reginald Johnston. These two men were to have a profound influence on the events related in this autobiography, for one was to become the father of the author and the other his tutor and intimate friend. Within the forces that led to this chance meeting are many of the strange, complex and fantastic elements that have resulted in the author becoming three times an Emperor, once a Chief Executive, an exile for eight years, a prisoner for fourteen years, a gardener, a scholar, a Communist propagandist, a member of the People’s National Congress. And the tale is yet to be completed. For the man still lives. He is Henry Pu Yi—the last Manchu.

  The first Manchus were a pastoral people who lived in the woodlands
of Manchuria near what is now the city of Mukden. Through centuries of unrecorded history, their strength increased to the point where their leader, Nurhachi (1559-1626), while paying tribute to the Ming Dynasty rulers of China in Peking, began secretly to prepare his tribe for “the great deed” of piercing the Wall and conquering China itself. These preparations were continued by his son, Abahai (1592-1643), who made his rear safe for the venture by subjugating Korea, a Ming protectorate, and completing the conquest of Inner Mongolia.

  When Abahai died in 1643, his brother Dorgon completed “the great deed” on behalf of his young nephew Shun-chih. He conquered China, overthrew the ruling Ming Dynasty and made Shun-chih Emperor, not of China, for that term no longer existed except in the minds of the barbarians (foreigners), but of the Great Ch’ing Country-Ch’ing being the dynastic name adopted by these new rulers who were not Chinese, but Manchus, people of Manchuria.

  In contrast to other foreigners who had previously conquered and ruled China through naked military force, the Manchus based their rule on some form of popular support. In their administration of the area we call China, they also gave power and responsibility to the other four races of the land, the Hans (Chinese), the Mongols, the Tibetans and the Mohammedans. The Manchus also actively supported Chinese culture and the arts to the extent that their own written language became little more than a formality. Chinese scholars were invited to staff the Ch’ing bureaucracy and Chinese generals, once they had surrendered, were often given higher and better positions in the new government than they had held under the Mings. In fact, the Manchus became Sinicized. The rural-gentry class of the Great Ch’ing Country continued with the basic administration as it had under the Mings, and the population grew from 19,138,000 in 1661 to 438,425,000 in 1910.