From Emperor to Citizen: Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi PDF
Preview From Emperor to Citizen: Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi
FROM EMPEROR TO CITIZEN The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi Translated by W.J. F JENNER FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS BEIJING First Edition 1989 Third Printing 1999 Originally published in two-volume edition 1965,1979 Home Page: http ://www. flp. com. cn E-mail Addresses: [email protected] [email protected] ISBN 0-8351-1159-8 ISBN 7-119-00772-6 © Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, China, 1965 Published by Foreign Languages Press 24 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing 100037, China Distributed by China International Book Trading Corporation 35 Chegongzhuang Xilu, Beijing 100044, China P.O. Box 399, Beijing, China Printed in the People's Republic of China Contents CHAPTER ONE MY FAMILY 1 My Grandfather Prince Chun 3 My Maternal Grandfather Jung Lu 11 Tzu Hsi’s Decision 16 My Father’s Regency 19 A Prince’s Household 23 CHAPTER TWO CHILDHOOD 29 Accession and Abdication 31 Living as an Emperor 38 Mothers and Son 47 Studying in the Yu Ching Palace 53 Eunuchs 61 My Nurse 69 CHAPTER THREE FROM THE FORBIDDEN CITY TO THE JAPANESE LEGATION 75 The Yuan Shih-kai Period 77 The Restoration of 1917 85 The Chieftains of the Peiyang Clique 95 Undying Hope 101 Reginald Johnston 108 My Wedding 116 Internal Clashes 122 The Dispersal of the Eunuchs 132 Reorganizing the Household Department 137 The Last Days in the Forbidden City 143 In the Northern Mansion 149 Decision at the Crossroads 155 From Legation Quarter to Concession 162 CHAPTER FOUR TIENTSIN 171 The Efforts of Lo Chen-yu 173 My Relations with the Commanders of the Fengtien Clique 179 Semionov and the “Second Chukeh Liang” 188 The Affair of the Eastern Mausolea 194 Consulate, Garrison and Black Dragon Society 198 Life in the Temporary Palace 207 CHAPTER FIVE TO THE NORTHEAST 215 The Unquiet Quiet Garden 217 Differences Among the Japanese 222. Meeting Doihara 225 The Secret Crossing of the Pai River 230 Isolated 233 Disappointment 240 Meeting Itagaki 244 CHAPTER SIX FOURTEEN YEARS OF “MANCHUKUO” 251 The Puppet Play Begins 253 Majesty Without Power 257 The Signing of the Secret Treaty and After 262 The Report of the League of Nations Commission of Enquiry 266 “Emperor” for the Third Time 273 The End of Illusion 283 Yoshioka Yasunori 292 “Imperial Rescripts” 295 Home Life 303 The Collapse 312 CHAPTER SEVEN IN THE SOVIET UNION 321 Fear and Illusion 323 Still Giving Myself Airs 325 I Refuse to Admit My Guilt 327 CHAPTER EIGHT FROM FEAR TO RECOGNIZING MY GUILT 331 I Expect to Die 333 Arriving in Fushun 339 Separated from My Family 343 Move to Harbin 349 Writing My Autobiography and Presenting My Seals 354 Changes in My Household 359 Confession and Leniency 365 Making Boxes 371 The Investigators Arrive 378 The Sufferings and Hatred of the People of the Northeast 383 ‘You Can Never Escape the Consequences of Your Sins” 388 CHAPTER NINE I ACCEPT REMOULDING 395 How Shall I Be a Man? 397 It Is Up to Me 403 Why So Magnanimous? 408 The Changes Explain Everything 416 Meeting Relations 421 The Japanese War Criminals 431 “The World’s Glory” 437 Another Visit 444 Labour and Optimism 453 The Test 458 Special Pardon 466 A New Chapter 472 INDEX 485 CHAPTER ONE MY FAMILY My Grandfather Prince Chun I was bom in Peking in the mansion of Prince Chun on February 7,1906. My grandfather Yi Huan, the seventh son of Emperor Tao Kuang (reigned 1821-50), was the first Prince Chun. Although my father was only his fifth son he inherited the title as the eldest, third and fourth sons died in childhood and the second son was taken into the palace to become the emperor Kuang Hsu (reigned 1875-1908). I was the eldest son of the second Prince Chun. I was nearly three when on November 13, 1908 the empress dowager Tzu Hsi suddenly decided to make me the heir to the throne as she and the emperor Kuang Hsu lay seriously ill. I became the adopted son of Emperor Tung Chih (reigned 1862-74) and the ritual heir of his cousin Kuang Hsu. Within two days of my entering the palace both Kuang Hsu and the Empress Dowager were dead. On December 2 I ascended the imperial throne as the tenth ruler of the Ching Dynasty* and the last emperor of China. Before three years were out the 1911 Revo lution against the Ching Dynasty broke out and I abdicated. My earliest memories are of the time of my abdication, but to make things clearer it would be best to start with my grandfather and my family. In that blackest of eras, the late Ching Dynasty, the family of Prince Chun were for half a century the faithful servants of the empress dowager Tzu Hsi, and my grandfather in particular devoted his life to her service. My grandfather was born in 1842 and died in 1890. Looking through the records of the imperial family one can see that he received few honours during the eleven-year reign of his brother. Emperor *( 1644-1911 ), a dynasty set up by the Asin-Gioro clan of the Manchus, a people who originated in the Northeast of China. 3 Hsien Feng (reigned 1851-61), but that in the six months or so after Hsien Feng’s death, when Tzu Hsi had just been made Empress Dow ager, he was suddenly loaded with titles and positions. The obvious reason why a young man of twenty was able to attain such eminence was that his wife’s sister had become an empress dow ager; but it was not the only reason. I remember that when I was young I heard an anecdote about how during a theatrical performance at home an uncle of mine, then six years old, was so terrified by one scene that he started to cry. My grandfather shouted at him in front of everybody, “What disgraceful behaviour! When I was twenty I captured Su Shun with my own hands, but if you go on like that you’ll never be able to handle affairs of state.” The capture of Su Shun had been the real beginning of his meteoric rise. The Su Shun affair took place in 1861. The Second Opium War* had ended with a series of humiliating treaties and the emperor Hsien Feng lay mortally ill in his refuge in Jehol. He summoned to his deathbed three Ministers of the presence and five Grand Councillors who had accompanied him in his flight, and having made his six- year-old son Tsai Chun heir to the throne, he appointed them as a regency council. The next day Hsien Feng died, and in accordance with his wishes the eight princes and high officials put Tsai Chun on the throne with the reign title Chi Hsiang and took all power into their own hands. The most important of the eight regents were two princes and Su Shun, an Assistant Grand Secretary and President of the Board of Revenue who had earned the hatred of the Manchu nobility by pro moting many officials of Han nationality and had a reputation for ruthlessness. A more basic reason for Su Shun’s later disastrous fall was that his group underestimated the strength of Prince Kung (Yi Hsin), who had made the most of the unpleasant assignment of negotiating peace after the Second Opium War: in concluding the " From 1856 to 1860 Britain and France jointly carried on a war of aggression against China. The Ching government was then devoting all its energy to suppressing the peasant revolution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and adopted a policy of passive resistance towards the foreign aggressors, with the result that China suffered a disastrous defeat.
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