Chapter 6 6. Growth and loneliness of the last emperor

On a cold winter night in November 1908, the palace suddenly sent a large group of eunuchs to Prince Chun's mansion. After a long period of confusion, a half-asleep child was carried into the palace accompanied by his father and nurse.He, the later Xuantong Emperor Puyi, was less than three years old. On the second day after Puyi entered the palace, Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi passed away one after another, and the throne of emperor fell on this little baby, who was also the last true emperor in Chinese history.Soon, a nursery rhyme suddenly spread in the ancient city of Xi'an: "Don't pinch, don't count, Xuantong is only two and a half years away." Sure enough, within three years, the Qing Dynasty collapsed.

On February 12, 1912, that is, December 25th of the third year of Xuantong, this day left a little impression in Puyi's mind, "An old man with a white beard knelt in front of the Empress Dowager Longyu and read with tears. A document", but how did he know at the time that this old man was Yuan Shikai who was later called "the thief of the country", and the document he was reading was the abdication edict of the Qing emperor. The scene at that time was pitiful and sad. "Yuan Shikai led all the cabinet members and invited the princes and relatives to come in and ask for the decree. The Empress Dowager Longyu took Puyi in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, and the ministers entered the palace for the last audience ceremony. The servants will kneel down The Empress Dowager Longyu couldn’t help but burst into tears before she finished reading the case presented to the emperor. Afterwards, Xu Shichang built the imperial seal. Afterwards, the Empress Dowager Longyu brought Puyi back to the palace with tears in her eyes.”

The young Puyi was ignorant and ignorant. He didn't know that this was a ceremony to lay off the emperor, that is, himself.Afterwards, he still played carefree in the Forbidden City alone as usual.A year later, on February 22, 1913, his guardian, the Empress Dowager Longyu, died of a phlegm attack, and subtle changes took place in the palace.When the Empress Dowager Longyu was dying, she said to the seven-year-old Puyi: "You were born into the emperor's family, and the country perished without a word, but the mother was at a loss." Eternal sadness", its desolation is quite sad.

Nominally speaking, Puyi was the heir of Emperor Tongzhi but also Emperor Guangxu at the same time. Therefore, after the death of Empress Dowager Longyu, Puyi had four more empresses, namely, Concubine Yu (Concubine Jingyi) and Concubine Xun of Emperor Tongzhi. Concubine Zhuanghe, Concubine Xuan (Concubine Ronghui) and Emperor Guangxu's Concubine Jin (Concubine Duankang, the older sister of Concubine Zhen).Since several concubines of Tongzhi were old at that time, the executive responsibility of the Forbidden City fell on Concubine Duankang, and she mainly supervised Puyi's growth. Concubine Duankang has been bullied by Empress Dowager Cixi and Empress Dowager Longyu for many years. "Once the power is in hand, the order will be carried out." She also inherited the professional style of the former two.When Puyi was thirteen or fourteen years old, several eunuchs bought a set of generals' dress from outside the palace in order to please Puyi. It had a hat with feathers, a shiny saber, and a delicate belt, like Like ordinary teenagers, Puyi dressed up triumphantly. Concubine Duankang was furious when she saw it. She severely reprimanded: "The emperor of the Qing Dynasty wears the clothes of the Republic of China! He also wears foreign socks! Is this plausible!?" Puyi was trained Finally, I had to change the dress, take off the foreign socks, and put on the troublesome dragon robe again.

Regarding Concubine Duankang's expertise, several masters of Puyi also had some criticisms.After this incident, Concubine Duankang also learned the way Empress Dowager Cixi dealt with Guangxu, and transferred all the eunuchs around Puyi away, and reassigned her own eunuch to monitor.Chen Baochen was indignant because of this, so he couldn't help making a discussion about "the distinction between concubine and concubine". After hearing this, Pu Yi was also very angry. Later, something happened that caused the conflict between the "Emperor and Empress" to explode. This was the dismissal of the imperial doctor Fan Yimei.Chen Baochen said dissatisfiedly next to Puyi, "As a concubine, it's too much to be selfish." Whatever it is said, the servant can't see it..."

After hearing these teasings, the young Puyi ran to Concubine Duankang angrily and yelled: "Why do you fire Fan Yimei? You are too good at it! Am I the emperor? Whoever says what he says? ..." Unexpectedly, Puyi's resistance caused a serious consequence, which indirectly led to the death of his biological mother.It turned out that Concubine Duankang turned pale with anger after being robbed by Puyi, and then put Puyi's father, Prince Chun Zaifeng and Fujin (the daughter of Puyi's biological mother, the daughter of Ronglu, the favorite minister of Empress Dowager Cixi), and Lao Fujin ( Puyi’s grandmother) summoned them together and reprimanded them angrily. Unexpectedly, Puyi’s biological mother had a strong personality. She had never been reprimanded like this since she was a child, so she swallowed opium and committed suicide after returning from the palace up.

After the tragedy happened, Concubine Duankang knew she was in the wrong, so she stopped overly controlling Puyi.However, since Puyi was carried into the palace since he was a child, he didn't have any impression of his biological mother.According to Puyi’s recollection, his biological mother and grandmother were not allowed to visit the palace until he was eleven years old. “When I saw them, I felt very strange and not friendly at all. But I still remember that my grandmother’s eyes never left me. , and always seemed to be in tears. The impression my mother gave me was completely different. When I saw her, I was a little more afraid besides being unfamiliar."

Puyi's grandmother opposed Puyi's entry into the palace. When the old lady learned that the Empress Dowager Cixi had ordered Zaifeng to send Puyi to the palace to inherit the throne, she fainted from anger.After waking up, the old lady cursed: "It's not enough to harm someone's son (Guangxu), but also to harm someone's grandson!" Puyi's biological mother was very happy. She was different from her humble-born grandmother. heavier. At that time, Puyi's younger brother Pujie and eldest sister were visiting the palace with his grandmother. It was rare to have children in the palace, so Puyi took his younger brothers and sisters to the Hall of Mental Cultivation to play hide-and-seek. After playing for a while, Pujie couldn't Carefully showed Pu Yi the bright yellow sleeves, and was criticized by the emperor's brother: "Pu Jie, what color is this? You can make it too?"

For Puyi, there are always very few opportunities to play with peers.Most of the time, Puyi could only squat under the juniper tree in the east courtyard of Yuqing Palace and watch the ants move. Sometimes he even forgot to eat.The lonely emperor lived alone in a huge palace, and he couldn't live a normal life like his peers. Whether it was luck or sorrow, I really couldn't tell.His father, Prince Jin Zaifeng, never thought about nor had the ability to be regent, but for the father and son, being born in the emperor's family was their destiny. "Whenever the sun goes down, the Forbidden City enters the twilight, and all the people who enter the palace to do business have left, there is a mournful cry from the Qianqing Palace in the quiet center of the Forbidden City: 'Latch the bar... ...put money and food...light lights...heart...' Following the lingering sound at the end, the eunuchs on duty echoed one after another in every corner of the Forbidden City."

Cold rain, dream, fallen leaves and empty steps, every time after this echo, the young Puyi dared not go out of the house, as if all the ghosts and ghosts in the ghost stories the eunuchs told him ran out of his window.For the eunuchs, this timid master is not easy to serve: when he is unhappy, the eunuchs will suffer; when he is happy, the eunuchs may also be unlucky.The young and withdrawn emperor liked to play pranks and even had the bad habit of abusing others for fun.The only one who can stop him in the palace is the wet nurse Wang Jiao, the taciturn woman who accompanied him into the palace back then.

Wang Jiaoshi never quarreled with others, and always had a smile on her face. Although she could not read a word, she was kind-hearted. Once Puyi put iron sand into a cake and wanted to give it to the eunuch.Wang Jiaoshi saw it and exclaimed: "Old man, how can people eat the sand in there?" Puyi said, "I just want to see how he looks like biting the cake." Wang Jiaoshi said: "That's not right. Broken teeth? Broken teeth and can’t eat. People can’t do without food!” It’s a pity that Wang Jiao was sent out of the palace. No matter how much Puyi cried, the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not find her.Since then, Puyi has no "humanity" people around him.Puyi didn't send someone to find her until after she got married; during the Puppet Manchukuo period, Puyi took her to the Northeast to support her. When I grow up, I want to study, but Pu Yi is not a person who can read.The education of the princes in the Qing Dynasty was the strictest in all dynasties. Although Pu Yi was deposed, the education still followed the previous practice.The foreign master Johnston said in "Twilight in the Forbidden City": "Every morning, Chen Baochen is the first to enter the palace. It is half past five in summer and six o'clock in winter...the official audience is at dawn...about eight o'clock At half-hour, the emperor was taught to read Manchu by his Manchu teacher Yi Ketan; between ten and eleven o'clock, Zhu Yifan replaced Yi Ketan; at half past one, it was my turn, and my class usually lasted two hours. Hour." Zhao Yi of the Qing Dynasty once described the reading of the princes of Kangxi in this way: "every five drums, all officials have not yet come to the court, and some of the first come are sleepy and dozed in the dark leaning on the pillars. door, the prince will enter the study." Because the Qing court no longer exists, there are not so many rules. According to the regulations of the Kangxi Dynasty, the princes are on holiday except for the day of New Year's Day and the day and a half before New Year's Eve. They all study as usual, and Puyi has at least one month off in summer, which is more comfortable than his predecessors.However, for Puyi, reading is a hard job. Even in normal times, he would make excuses or skip class from time to time because of illness. Even feeding ants with bread is much more interesting than reading. When Zhang Xun was restored, there was an anecdote circulating in the capital: A few days before the restoration, Zhang Xun secretly entered the palace to meet Puyi and made a statement about the whole plan.Puyi shook his head and disagreed after hearing this. Zhang Xun asked why, and Puyi said: "Master Chen makes me recite the Thirteen Classics endlessly every day. How can I have time to take care of so many things?" Zhang Xun said: "As long as the emperor ascends the throne Now, you can manage military and state affairs instead of spending so much time studying." Puyi was overjoyed after hearing this: "Are you serious? Will I not have to do my homework after I ascend the throne?" Zhang Xun nodded and said: " In history, there are only emperors who conquer the world immediately, and I have never heard of emperors who read books." Puyi was very happy: "Okay, then do as you say!" When Zhang Xun was restored, Pu Yi was thirteen years old. In fact, he did not take the initiative to participate in the restoration, because he was too young at the time, but his masters were very enthusiastic, and they discussed everything with Zhang Xun. Whatever the master told him to do, he just did it.After driving away Zhang Xun's braided army, Duan Qirui also said, "There is nothing we can do to break into the palace and hide in the palace." In one sentence, he absolved Puyi of all responsibility. It’s Puyi’s master, it’s all right, but it’s a pity that this disciple is really incompetent, and his studies are a mess. After several years of Manchu literature, he learned a sentence: "Yili!" .) When he was studying, the little emperor often sat there looking around, twisting his body around. The master told him, "A gentleman is not powerful if he is not serious, and he is not solid if he learns." Watch for ants in the yard.It wasn't until later that Pu Jie and Yu Chong (the sons of his son Pu Lun) entered the palace to study with him, and the little emperor got better, at least he could sit still in the study.There is eighty taels of silver as a companion for a month, but it's not easy to pay. Once Pu Yi walked into the study, but Master Chen said to Yu Chong who was sitting still: "Look at how frivolous you are!" Later, Puyi had another foreign master, Johnston who graduated from Oxford University in his early years.This old British master, who came from a long distance, once worked as a secretary in the Hong Kong Governor's Mansion and as the chief executive in the Weihaiwei Concession. Dachuan has traveled all over the provinces in the interior; he is familiar with Chinese history, and he can shake his head and recite Tang poems in cadence.But Johnston is a foreigner after all. His appearance brought some western atmosphere to the ancient Forbidden City, and Puyi also had some new things on his body: pocket watches, pins, buttons, ties and so on. Master Chen had a headache now, he had to listen to Pu Yi's half-literate, half-white dialogue in both Chinese and English: "William (Pu Jie's foreign name), quickly sharpen the pencil (pencil) for me,...Okay, put it on." On the desk!"... "Arthur (another foreign name accompanying Pu Jia), call Lili (Pu Yi's third sister) and the others to hear (listen) to the Chinese army in the afternoon today happy!" At this time, Master Chen would frown and close his eyes, as if his teeth were sour.Originally, Master Chen was Puyi's only soul, but after Johnston came, he had another soul. Under the influence of Johnston, Pu Yi decided to cut off the braids on his own initiative, which was undoubtedly an earthquake for the world of braids in the Forbidden City.For this reason, the toffees cried a few times, and the faces of several masters were gloomy for a long time.A month later, there were only three braids left in the Forbidden City, compared with at least 1,500 before.The owners of the three braids were Puyi's three masters, and one of them passed away soon.When Puyi cut off the braids, his two companions, Pu Jie and Yu Chong, also cut off the braids under the pretext of "according to the order".The next day, as soon as Master Chen looked up, he saw three bald disciples. After being stunned for a long time, he sneered at Yu Chong and said, "Okay, sell your braids to foreign women, and you can still get them." A lot of silver!" As he got older, Puyi became more and more rebellious, and from time to time he had to resist the old system and old etiquette.For example, he wants to take a car instead of a royal sedan, he cuts off the threshold to ride a bicycle, he wants to wear a suit, a tie, a hunting cap, and so on.But what shocked Concubine Duankang the most was that Puyi actually proposed to wear glasses... Oh my god, it's too scary that the emperor wants to wear glasses!This is absolutely impossible. It was Johnston who first discovered Puyi's myopia, because every time when the class was about to end, Puyi always looked back at the big clock with a height of nearly two meters instead of the smaller clock, so he asked a doctor to check Puyi's eyesight and match it. Wearing glasses, but this proposal was firmly opposed by Concubine Duankang, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Prince Chun Zaifeng. It was not until Johnston threatened to resign that the conservatives finally agreed.After Puyi put on glasses, he looked a lot more refined... He actually liked wearing glasses, especially gold-rimmed glasses. Most of the photos he took later were taken with glasses on. It is said that Puyi is lonely, but not all of them.At least he receives many letters every day from all directions and even from all over the world.Most of the letters are anonymous, and the content is also varied, some complain, some seek officials, some informers, and some even ask the emperor to teach them.The most interesting thing is that several foreign girls wrote to offer to "be sideways in the ranks of the emperor's concubines".Of course, these English letters were directly disposed of by Johnston.In fact, Puyi also wrote letters outside and contributed to the newspaper. He once published a small poem in the newspaper under the pseudonym "Deng Jionglin", which was later translated into English by Johnston and included in the book "Twilight in the Forbidden City". At that time, the Forbidden City could directly communicate with the outside world with a telephone.In order to install this phone, Puyi also got it after many struggles.Prince Jin Zaifeng initially refused to allow the installation in the palace, but then Puyi choked his father with one sentence: "Didn't the prince's house have a telephone installed long ago?" I bought a car earlier than me; but Prince Chun thought, the emperor, the emperor casually contacts with others, what is the imperial prestige?What is the system? ! After the phone was installed, Puyi excitedly called anyone according to the phone book: "Is this...Yang Xiaolou?" After receiving the call, the famous Beijing opera actor Yang Xiaolou was taken aback: "Huh? Who are you, haha..." Pu Yi didn't wait for him to finish, and hung up the phone in a hurry.Only once, he called Dr. Hu Shi who had just returned to China, and the two hit it off: "You are Dr. Hu, right? Great, guess who I am?" "Who are you, why can't I recognize you? ""Haha, don't guess, let me tell you, I am Xuan Tong!" "Xuan... Xuan... Tong?...is the emperor?" "Yes, I am the emperor. I heard what you said, but I still don't I know what you are like. Come to the palace when you are free, let me have a look!" A few days later, Hu Shi really came to the palace to meet the emperor.The defenders of the city were at a loss, they had never heard of this arrangement before.After wasting a lot of talking, the guards reported to Puyi, and he remembered this, and Hu Shi also entered the palace, and the two sat and talked for 20 minutes.Since Hu Shi was a well-known figure of the new school at that time, the princes and ministers were very angry when news of the meeting with the emperor spread, and the new school figures also attacked Hu Shi for his "weak knees" and said that he prostrated himself in front of the emperor. Kneeling is untrue (later Feng Yuxiang expelled Puyi from the palace, Hu Shi tried his best to defend Puyi and condemned Feng Yuxiang's expulsion of orphans and widowed mothers as "Oriental barbarism". In the era of warlords, Hu Shi dared to do so. "kindness" rather than "courage"). The outside world is wonderful, and the outside world is very helpless, but what about the world in the Forbidden City?Lonely, dull, stale, conservative, like a big prison.There are no real friends around Puyi, only a group of old people, some eunuchs, a few concubines, and groups of old and decrepit court ladies.What a world this is. In February 1923, with the help of Johnston and two companions, Pu Jie and Pu Jia, Pu Yi carefully planned an escape plan. Unfortunately, an hour before the plan was implemented, I don’t know which eunuch reported to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Before he could get out of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Prince Chun issued an order that all palace gates were cut off from entering and leaving. The Forbidden City immediately entered a state of martial law, and the escape plan was completely aborted.What Prince Jin was worried about was: If the emperor escaped from Miyagi, wouldn't the preferential treatment plan of the Republic of China be abolished?Wouldn't the annual preferential treatment fee of 4 million yuan go to waste?This is no joke. However, the days of the Forbidden City will come to an end after all. On November 5, 1924, just a few days after Feng Yuxiang launched the "Beijing Coup", his subordinate Lu Zhonglin and the temporary cabinet representative Li Shizeng led a pistol team and held the "Amendment of Preferential Treatment Conditions" signed by the temporary cabinet. He came to the Forbidden City, asked Puyi to sign the amendment and ordered him to move out of the Forbidden City within two hours. Shaoying, Minister of Internal Affairs, saw the catastrophe, and was very anxious for a moment. He first walked up to Li Shizeng and said, "Aren't you the son of Li Hongzao, a scholar, how can you help the authorities to oppress the house?" Li Shizeng turned his head and ignored him. He, Shaoying walked up to Lu Zhonglin tremblingly and begged: "Aren't you the heir of Grand Tutor Lu Chuanlin? How did you force the Qing Dynasty so hard?" (Lu Zhonglin and Lu Chuanlin belonged to the same family True, the heir is wrong; however, Li Shizeng is indeed the son of Li Hongzao, a cabinet scholar in the late Qing Dynasty and leader of the Qing School.) Lu Zhonglin got impatient when he heard that, he took out a bomb from his pocket, put it heavily on the table, and shouted: "If you don't move it out again, I will make Jingshan go up!" Judging from historical experience, coercion by force is generally successful, and it can also avoid many verbal disputes.Ever since, Pu Yi and others were frightened out of their wits, and hurriedly moved out of the Forbidden City.At that time, the National Army prepared five cars for Puyi and others, and Lu Zhonglin personally sent them to Chunwang Mansion (North Mansion) where Puyi's father and former Qing Regent Zaifeng lived. After Puyi got off the car, Lu Zhonglin smiled and shook hands with him, and asked, "Mr. Puyi, do you plan to be an emperor or a commoner?" Puyi said: "I am willing to be a commoner from today on." After hearing this, Lu Zhonglin let go of Pu Yi's hand and said with a smile, "Okay! Then I will protect you!" At this point, China finally has no legitimate emperor. In fact, after 1912, Puyi was no longer an emperor. Although the imperial system had not been completely eliminated, the real emperor had long been buried in the long river of history.Yes, what exactly is Puyi in the Forbidden City, the closed emperor of the former Qing Dynasty or a special citizen of the Republic of China?No one can tell, maybe this is a freak of the times.But no matter what, Puyi should become a normal citizen and a normal person. He should participate in social life and win his responsibilities and honors at the cost of losing his majesty. It is a pity that in that era of ups and downs and storms, Puyi embarked on a road of no return after leaving the palace, and eventually became a puppet of the Japanese invaders, became a war criminal, and was finally punished by history. trial.All of this is really like a dream. On a small island thousands of miles away, the foreign master Johnston, who wears court clothes, performs Qingli, and speaks Beijing accent, still mutters: "His Majesty the Emperor is the loneliest child in the world, and the walls of the Forbidden City are the highest walls in the world... " Unfortunately, that is already the echo of history.