Wenxiu eventually became a teacher and remarried. Her second marriage to Liu Zendong was much more successful. He was by her side when she died in 1953. Puyi commented Wenxiu demonstrated great courage and willpower knowing her wish was greatly disapproved. Sadly Wanrong who treated Wenxiu badly would be left behind while Puyi tried to escape after the fall of Manchouko. She died in prison from opium withdrawal and malnutrition in 1946. Puyi heard of her death in 1951 and was said to have no emotion at the news. No one knows where her grave is. In 2006 her half brother had a ritual burial for Wanrong at the Western Quing tombs. Eastern Jewel was arrested in Beijing in 1948, charged with treason and was executed as a traitor. Her body was cremated and her ashes sent back to her adoptive family in Japan.
This video is a reupload because the guy actually used the clips from The Last Emperor but was taken down by the company behind the movie. The reupload had some new content and used a more recent adaptation of Puyi's life and some new photos to fill in the void.
The Last Emperor is good as a movie, but I would not fully understand the story, if I had not known the more detailed history behind it. The crippled people of the Qing dynasty and all these degraded and living in yesterday's world people in the forbidden city, terrible.
I also saw the Last Emperor many years ago. I think one of my favorite actors (Peter O'Toole) played the part of a tutor of Puyi. Nice to see this video and get reacquainted with the historical context and events; thank you.
I used to rule the world, seas would rise when I gave the word. Now every morning I sleep alone, sweep the streets I used to own….. Considering Puyi was a street sweeper, this song is a perfect fit for him.
Thank you for reuploading again, truly a more nuance and humain portrayal of the person. The few who have covered this on RU-vid did such a dull surface level framing of an evil bad guy Will there be a part 2?
@@amypagekaviani5661 as someone whose worked with early childhood aged children, I can say that’s the best way to make sure they never age out of the egocentric stage
@@amypagekaviani5661 you know they didn’t. She liked pushing for child emperors ( in particular, relatives) probably because she got to control them for a while and she liked that
Technically, Puyi was not the last Emperor. The second President of the Republic, Yuan Shikai, restored the Empire in December 1915. He returned Puyi to power, then Puyi abdicated in favour of Yuan Shikai, who was then declared himself Emperor. He reigned for 83 days, after which he was removed by a popular uprising and by international pressure.
It wasn't proven that Guangxu was assassinated but he definitely died in solitude confinement (To the people of the outside world at least..). Now, Guangxu's fame was rather hot. So after the 2nd Opium War and the loss to the French during the Sino-French War over in Vietnam/Indochina, China thought all was great and they can keep doing what they're doing but then came the Japanese and the final blow came in 1895 when it got royally spanked by of all people, the Japanese. So after these defeats, Guangxu, as a teen before he even got on the hot seat, came up with a plan for total annihilation of the court and rebuilt it from the ground up with revolutionary ideals and he set it up into motion which would eventually be called later on as the disastrous "100 Days Reform". What the plan entrails is fascinating. Some of the few things he did was cut down on court expenditure by massively reducing household income like food and buying power by shoring the treasury, employ more foreign advisors to retrain the army into a new-age army on how to use actual modern guns and artillery, abolish tons of jobs that does nothing much but sucks more money from the treasury, build the nation's first general university in Peking/Beijing, push for rapid industrialization no matter what ways and most importantly, changing the whole court system from a totalitarian style into a constitutional monarchy. Cixi initially agreed with all the other terms but upon realizing that the last clause would meant that she would lose power against some pesky minister and "nobody" that the people had picked on how the country would be ran, she flipped and started a backstabbing move against Guangxu with both Ronglu and Yuan Shikai, the only leading military figure in the whole of China with a massive modern force that can basically take on both the Qing's pathetic army and the westerners. With the support of the conservatives who had feared of their positions from being abolished and with the calls of Prince Duan, they started a coup de'tat in 1898 and placed Guangxu in house arrest till his death in 1908. Now... No one really knew how Guangxu really died except for a few "historians" in the palace. Many speculated that he was poisoned by many factions which included Cixi before she died in fears that he might revise everything she did or his death was done in by Yuan Shikai as Yuan knew he would be executed as a traitorous scum for what he did. However, his policy would have worked as he tried to do it progressively and in control whereas Cixi took it, dumped it all out and did it with a "full steam ahead" philosophy which was a total disaster and poor Puyi had to take the brunt.
While there is no _direct_ proof that Cixi was behind her nephew's death, it's pretty consensual that he was poisoned. An extensive forensic study conducted on his - and other remains in the Western Qing tombs - conluded that the Guangxu emperor had died of arsenic poisoning. The report was officially published by the National Qing History Compilation Committee on November 2nd, 2008 ("清光緒皇帝死因報告會", "Report Meeting on the Cause of Death of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty"). Given Cixi's absolute control over the Forbidden City, and her strong reasons to eliminate Guanxu, one may consider her the primary suspect :)
Puyi was largely a victim of circumstance, and was cynically used by the Kwantung Army to achieve their ends in establishing Manchukuo in 1931. Everyone in China knew that he was a puppet, and it would not have benefited Mao to execute Puyi.
From what I've read, Empress Dowager wanted changes, but the Emperor did want any changes to his realm. And he never recieved somewhat modern education.
Puyi is easily one of the most complicated figures in Human History, made a monarch as a child, overthrown in a revolution he knew nothing of, exiled and became a horrid puppet dictator, died a repentant old man brainwashed by communists.
This is the biggest myth of contemporary Chinese history. Just like the PR people hyped up Covid, the same techniques were used to retired the title "emperor" But China is a dictatorship, and someone had to be in charge at the very top. But for political and ideal reasons, they have to change the title. They can also retain the title and make it powerless like several countries, but they did not. The title been changed to chairman of the communist party, commander in chief of the military, and he also chair maybe a dozen + committees. What he said are just done quietly and quickly, no one dare to question him on anything, so effectively, he is an emperor. The latest person name is Xi, before that was Deng, Mao etc. There been some changes in centuries pass, he is not as powerful as before, he cannot appoint his son to his job, you are allowed to look at him now without permission, and he cannot order anyone executed publicly on the spot (have to do it quietly) and he cannot publicly have a harem, other than that, he is every inch an emperor, in all but title. Puyi maybe the last to hold the title , but he was not the last "emperor"
What happened to the rest of the story? his child's birth and death the bombing of Shanghai ext.... I have seen the movie well not in the last 20 years but I read the book 10-15 years ago and I suggest to anyone who loves history to read the book it's excellent.
I did a mini series on the Chinese civil war, including Chiang's campaign. It was one of my first projects so it's definitely aged a lot but here's the link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZA_qYB6v5LY.html
for better or for worse, the Qing dynasty had the most competent roster of emperors, if we ignore the last joker, but the system was too archaic to compete with the western great powers.
First wife runs away to marry the first random male peasant she sees, the second wife runs away with his chauffeur. Puyi being afraid to marry a Japanese agent, picks up some 12 year old he fancied on the street. Truely the son of heaven.
@@Brandonhayhew oh yeah i forgit bro was using scenes from the last emperor movie but now he uses chinese movie scenes which seems like there is little to to copyright
Copyright issues! The legal owners of the 1987 movie 'The Last Emperor' didn't approve of my using clips from that masterpiece to illustrate my documentary...
Minute 20: the law of unintended consequences in full force! Pu Yi contributes money to help japan and the Japanese reciprocate by subverting and destroying his country for the next 22 years!
Do not use the Eurocentric term 'Son of Heaven". The Chinese did not have heaven and the emperor was not the son of anything. 天子 meant the agent from the cosmos. There was bound to be some belief in the supernatural, but it is far more haphazard. Tian is not the heaven but the cosmos.
Why is it Chinese peopled and Japanese peoples believes sun and moon .Now what is this heaven son how did woman sleep with heaven people. Only dead peoples with good hearts goes to heaven.
