by Henry Pu Yi
In 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, Communist China described Khrushchev’s withdrawal of offensive weapons from Cuba as “100 percent appeasement, a Munich pure and simple.” Subsequently, invective was hurled back and forth between the two countries and in 1965 negotiations for a new defensive alliance between Outer Mongolia and the USSR were opened. As relations between the two countries deteriorated, Pu Yi’s status as a person in Peking attained new vigor. No longer a gardener working with his hands, he was allowed to do “research” and subsequently to write and have published a “best seller.” Later he became a member of the Congress and a spokesman for the Manchu people.
This was Pu Yi until the Cultural Revolution of 1966. At that time, and once again as so often in the past, on the brink of the abyss, his life was saved by fellow patients and staff members of the hospital in which he was confined. They drove off the radical Red Guards who had come to take him away. He died of cancer the following year.
But the Manchu saga did not end with Pu Yi’s death. His younger brother and heir, William Pu Chieh, was elected to the People’s National Congress as the representative of the Manchu people in his place. This was the same Pu Chieh with whom Pu Yi had played hide-and-seek as a child within the walls of the Forbidden City, the Pu Chieh who had violated precedent by wearing sleeve linings of imperial yellow, who had lived in Manchukuo with him during the Japanese restoration and had been brainwashed with him at the War Prisoner Thought Control Center. Meanwhile, Pu Chieh had regained his father’s house outside the Forbidden City and had it refurnished. Also, he was rejoined by his wife, Hiro Saga, cousin of the Empress of Japan, after an absence of sixteen years. Chou En-lai, the Premier of China, deliberately preserved the concept of the last Manchu. Why?
Auctioneers and dealers in Chinese antiquities throughout the West tell of how at significant sales of former imperial treasures that have found their way abroad, representatives of the Chinese government mysteriously appear to buy them so that they may be returned to the Forbidden City from which they were originally removed. They, like the Manchus who once possessed them, are regarded by the new China as valued symbols of the cultural heritage of the nation, useful for display and inspiration.
And if we were allowed to observe ranking Manchus closely and to see who visits them and to peruse their correspondence and reading matter, it is safe to assume that we would find them in touch with the peoples of the Northwest and the Northeast. For these are the border peoples who, by virtue of their appearance and their language and their habits, can slip unnoticed through some remote mountain pass from China into Russia on the missions of violence and subversion and espionage that have become such an integral part of modern national rivalry. And how is Peking to know that its own border peoples are not being subject to similar nefarious infestations from Russia, unless it can count on their special loyalty by offering in the form of The Last Manchu a continuing public testimonial of their importance wholly beyond what their numbers would warrant in relation to the entire population of China?
P.K.
1 Just prior to her death, Tzu Hsi had ordered that Pu Yi’s father, as Prince Regent, should consult and ask for instructions from her niece and successor as Empress Dowager, Lung Yu, on all important matters.
2 A sofa-like bed, commonly used in North China, which could be heated in winter.
3 Descriptive term for the Manchu ruling family.
4 Widows of previous Emperors.
5 It was presumed that poisons in the food would turn the silver black.
6 A votive dish set out to show respect for one’s ancestors.
7 Rice soup.
8 Savants and scholars serving the imperial household.
9 One catty is about 1¼ lbs. One tael equaled catty, or a little over 1 ounce.
10 Basic works of Confucianism.
11 Written in the third or second century B.C., a standard text used to indoctrinate children until the twentieth century.
12 A philosophy of universal love and nonmilitarism that challenged Confucianism as a leading system of thought in the fourth century B.C.
13 The five races of China are the Hans, Manchus, Mongolians, Huis (Mohammedans of Turkestan, etc.) and Tibetans.
14 Mexican dollar was worth about 40c U.S.
15 Book of Changes, one of the Chinese classics, revered by Confucius, written in 800 B.C. by the first Emperor of the Chou Dynasty, set forth methods of divination.
16 Grass from a particular plant used in making divinations.
17 Tuan Chi-jui was a member of the Peiyang clique, a term used to describe army officers who were the personal followers of Yuan Shih-kai.
18 General Chang Hsun ushered in the war-lord period in Chinese history. Upon the death of Yuan Shih-kai, he moved his troops to Peking, dissolved Parliament, restored the Ch’ing Dynasty and vested real power in himself. General Tuan Chi-jui, however, who was headquartered in nearby Tientsin where he cast himself as the savior of the Republic, soon defeated Chang Hsun and forced Pu Yi to abdicate again.
Within a short time there were dozens, if not hundreds, of war lords. Small war lords attached themselves to big war lords but declared their independence as soon as they were strong enough. China became completely divided.
By the early 1920’s, the power struggles of the war lords evolved around three principals: Than Chi-jui in Peking and its environs, Wu Pei-fu in the middle Yangtze valley, and Chang Tso-lin in Manchuria. Tuan Chi-jui, as Premier, was challenged by Wu Pei-fu, who defeated him. Chang Tso-lin fought Wu but was eventually driven back to Manchuria where he continued to rule. In South China there were even more war lords.
19 Reign title of Pu Yi.
20 Marquis in Chinese has the same pronunciation as the word “monkey.”
21 A war-lord group.
22 Feng Yu-hsiang, also known as the “Christian General,” changed sides again a number of years later when he switched from Chiang Kai-shek to the Communists. Subsequently he was said to have burned to death while watching a movie aboard a Soviet passenger ship. His outstanding collection of Ch’ing art treasures was left to the Soviet Government.
23 A great bridal sedan chair, draped in scarlet and gold, carried by 22 bearers and adorned with mythological emblematic devices, the most conspicuous of which were four silver birds perched upon the comers of the roof—hence, Phoenix Chair.
24 Imperial symbols of rank as Empress, sent from the Forbidden City to the mansion of the Empress and then brought back with her into the palace.
25 Nineteenth by Western calculations since, in the Orient, one is a year old at birth. In China, the tenth, twentieth, thirtieth, etc., birthdays are occasions for special celebrations.
26 A highly important seaport of North China connected by rail with Peking. It was one of eleven Chinese ports opened to foreign trade in 1858. Foreign concessions were granted to many of the Western powers and Japan who garrisoned them with their own troops.
27 Chinese and Japanese can communicate to a certain extent by writing the Chinese characters that are used in the script of both languages.
28 The nineteenth, by the Western calendar.
29 The crisis in Manchuria had been building up during the previous twelve months. The Manchurian war lord, “Young Marshal” Chang Hsueh-liang, with Chinese capital, had begun to build railroads in Southern Manchuria to compete with those of the Japanese-owned South Manchuria Railroad. Tokyo viewed this as a challenge to its dominant position in the area dating back to 1905. Also the Chinese took steps to restrict Korean immigration to Manchuria and Japan claimed it had jurisdiction over Koreans in China. A Japanese military officer was killed by Chinese soldiers and on September 18, 1931, Japanese forces seized Mukden. This was followed by almost unopposed occupation by the Japanese of all large cities in Manchuria and by the end of the year the victorious Japanese had pushed toward the Great Wall of China and occupied Jehol Province. These moves were not opposed by the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-shek who was b
usy elsewhere in China fighting the Communists. They did, however, lead to Japan’s international isolation and raise the possibility of concerted action against it by the great powers through the League of Nations.
30 Doihara was tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and executed as a war criminal in 1948.
31 The Later Han Dynasty occurred during a period of political unrest. At one time the Han Emperor fled, ate a coarse meal and was then restored to power. Since then the partaking of this particular food has become symbolic of an Imperial restoration.
32 A political philosophy of the Confucianists of ancient China. They wished the rulers to govern with “benevolence” and “righteousness,” and they called this the “Kingly Way.”
33 Itagaki was first appointed to the staff of the Kwantung Army in 1929. He was one of the chief architects of the setting up of the Manchukuo regime. In 1934 he became Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army, and during World War II was made Commander in Chief of the Japanese 7th Army stationed at Singapore.
34 A close associate of Pu Yi’s tutor Chen Pao-shen.
35 Chang Ching-hui at this time was serving as Minister of Defense in the Manchukuo Cabinet. Prior to Pu Yi’s arrival in Manchukuo he had at one time been second in command of the Fengtien (war lord) Army of Marshal Chang Tso-lin.
36 On the night of July 7, 1937, fighting broke out between Chinese and Japanese troops at the Marco Polo bridge south of Peking. In August Japan attacked Shanghai and the full-scale war between the two countries began.
37 A public official much admired by Confucius.
38 After Pu Yi’s second state visit to Japan, in May, 1940, Shintoism and the formal worship of the Japanese Heaven Shining Bright Deity was introduced into Manchukuo via Imperial Rescript. A National Foundation Shrine was built besides the palace at Changchun and other shrines were erected all over the Northeast. A Bureau of Worship was established, and on the first and fifteenth of each month, Pu Yi would lead the Kwantung Army Commander and others to the shrine to make offerings.
39 A little over one acre.
40 A prominent Chinese revolutionary who set up a pro-Japanese regime in East China during World War II.
41 A form of medical treatment by which long metal needles are inserted into certain tissues in order to relieve nervous tension. If the acupuncture technician is expert, no blood is drawn.
42 Application of burning licorice leaves and other herbs to the skin.
43 A small book, written three words to each line, that Chinese children used to memorize. It was used in China for almost 700 years.