Ellaine Denice H.

Marallag 2HST2 HST312

Henry Puyi or Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi was only three years old when he was installed

in the Forbidden City by the ruthless Empress. The infant emperor at the very young

age accepted his responsibilities and privileges of his office. When China was declared

as a republic, he became a prisoner in his own place. He was told that he was only

protected from the outside world. Sadly, as an emperor, considered as a god, he can do

anything he wishes except to leave the great Forbidden City in Peking. He asked the

High Tutor Ar Mo if he is still emperor. The High Tutor replies, "You will always be the

emperor inside the Forbidden City, but not outside. Outside", Pu Yi is informed, "China

is now a republic, with a president." He also learned in the magazines that he was

ignorant of the convulsions experienced by his own country.

His Scottish tutor who was named Reginald Johnston during the May Fourth

Movement comes out to instruct him in the ways of Europe, and the youth becomes an

anglophile, dreaming of "escaping" to Cambridge. He used Johnston as his only source

for genuine information about conditions outside the Forbidden City. Johnston gives him

a bicycle upon which the emperor attempts an escape. When that failed, he tried a

rooftop escape but it failed again. When Johnston determines that the lad needs

spectacles, he must threaten to publicize the pathetic facts of the emperor's captivity to

coerce the Lord Chamberlain into allowing the emperor to wear them. Johnston advises

him to escape instead into marriage. At the age of twenty, he escaped from his cocoon

taking with him his empress and concubine. He moved into Tientsin and lives like a

western playboy dressed in a tuxedo at a dance party.

 As World War II grows closer, he was unconnected to the world except to the

Japanese who set him up as their puppet in Manchuria, home of his ancestors. His wife

also becomes an opium addict and begins sexual relationship with a lesbian Japanese

Spy. Everything was changed when his tutor returned to England and he got so lost

and then the communist took over China. He was captured by the Russian who later on

handed him over to their new allies. He was put into re-education process since he was

a grown man that doesn't know anything about the world yet. He doesnt know how to

tie his own shoes or turn off the tap after filling a glass with drinking water.

After World War II, he was imprisoned for 10 years by the communists. The

prison governor took him to confess his crimes. He is told to first write his name but

since he has been given only chalk and the floor is slate, he wrote his name on the floor.

His interrogator establishes the ground rules and then begins by asking why he thinks

he's there. He responded that one might think him an innocent bystander to China's

recent history. The interrogator throwa both Pu Yi's response and his autobiography

back into his face because he demands serious confession. He began his confession

with him sitting on a golden armchair espousing reforms. He cuts off his queue, the

woven ponytail that signifies Manchu domination, the cutting of which was, until

recently, treasonous. He then replaced the Lord Chamberlain and proposes an audit of

the imperial storerooms. That night the eunuchs burn the storerooms to prevent

discovery of their thefts. The next day, he expelled the eunuchs with the help of

republican troops. He finished his confession staring the whole time at his name on the

floor. The prison governor asks about the Japanese because they all want to know

about the Japanese like how and when did his friendship with the Japanese begin?

During which time he writes his memoirs and from an emperor, he became a gardener.