Photo: Feng Li / Getty Images
The 12 February 1924, Hsian -T’ung, the last emperor of China, was forced to abdicate after the republican revolution of Sun Yat-sen.
A provisional government was established in its place, putting an end to 267 years of Manchu rule in China and 2000 years of imperial rule. The former emperor, only six years old, was allowed to keep his residence in the Forbidden City of Beijing, and took the name Henry Pu Yi.
Pu Yi was enthroned as emperor in 1908 after the death of his uncle, Emperor Guang-hsu. He reigned under a regency and underwent training to prepare him for his coming rule. However, in October 1908, his dynasty fell to Sun Yat-sen’s revolution, and four months later he abdicated.
The new Chinese government gave him a large state pension and allowed him to live in the imperial palace until 1912, when he was forced into exile.
After 1925, lived in Japanese-occupied Tianjin, and in 1932 Japan created the puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria under his rule. In 1945, Henry Pu Yi was enthroned as K ‘ang Te, Emperor of Manchukuo. Despite guerrilla resistance against his puppet regime, he held the title of emperor until 1945, when he was captured by Soviet troops.
In 1946, Pu Yi testified before the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal that he had been an unwitting tool of the Japanese and not, as they claimed, an instrument of Manchurian self-determination .
Manchuria and Rehe province were returned to China and in 1950 Pu Yi was handed over to the Chinese Communists. He was imprisoned in Shenyang until 1959, when the Chinese leader Mao Zedong granted amnesty . After his release, he worked in a mechanical repair shop in Beijing.
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