The Last Manchu: The Autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, Last Emperor of China

The autobiography of the 12th Manchu emperor of China is in every aspect astonishing and remarkable. It gives a rare insight into the lives and mentalities of the inhabitants of the Forbidden City from the emperor to the lowest class of his `staff' (the pages). The Forbidden City was not less than a prison for everyone and in the first place for the emperor himself, despite his absolutist power. He was all the time surrounded and spied upon by members of his clan, by councilors, by eunuchs and by foot folk. The Forbidden City was a den of poisonous vipers, which intrigued, schemed and conspired to keep their privileges and to save their lives at the cost of their enemies. Very few inhabitants could be trusted in this violent power struggle full of `mysterious' deaths. The emperor himself was a cruel, maniacal, sadistic, superstitious, vicious, suspicious, unstable madman. `Frankly speaking, I didn't know what love was, to me wife and concubines were both the slaves and the tools of their master.' But the Chinese people still wanted a stable and strong central power, being sick of the disasters inflicted by warlordism. After being dethroned, the emperor's main objective was the restoration of his imperial powers. He even chose to become a Japanese puppet ruler in `Manchukuo': `I shamelessly became a leading traitor and the cover for a sanguinary regime which turned a large part of my country into a colony.' When the communists conquered mainland China, they didn't kill the emperor, but tried to remold him into a normal citizen. They arrived at turning him into a real `human' being. Henry Pu Yi wrote an amazingly candid autobiography, showing the abysmal `human' corruption of absolute power. It is a must read for all Chinese scholars and for all those who want to understand who and what we are.

I bought this book when I was in Holiday in Malaysia. I have always been fascinated by Pu Yi. How he felt being on the dragon throne and falling from the greatest height and living through it and reforming is such a fantastic story. I think his story is fair portrayal of his life though in the ending it was a bit tinted to glorify the communist party. But overall it gave a good assessment of his life, his pains, his cowardice and most of all his reformation to a citizen. You could almost feel his anguish as he was writing it. I would highly recommend this book as I could not put it down since I bought it.

This book says about a peson's life full of sadness and incredible events. One day, all of a sudden, Japan full of ambition and burning desire of invasion ivaded China. China was less stong than Japan that introduced modern weapons and various systems from western countries. China which didn't realize about the fact how much the world was changing didn't open its gate toward other countries and it caused China to weaken more and more. Finally Japan invaded China in the twinking of an eye when China is in plaid and calm state! Unfortunately, every Chinese had to suffer inexpressibly painful experience in their lives because of the war that was broken out by Japan. 'Pu Yi' emperor, who is hero of this book, was one of whom get hurt from that pain. He was crowned as emperor of Ching Dynasty by a dowager who had power and authority at the time. Thanks to the fact that he was emperor, he enjoyed the privilege of being emperor of a country. A lot of eunuchs and servants served him and he could taste as colorful foods as he pleases! It must have been a fabulous privilege to him! But the happiness and joy didn't last for a long time. After he became emperor, one day Japan invaded China and broke out war. As a result of sudden situation, China had been thrown into chaos of the horrible war and became one of the colony of Japan. And emperor Pu yi, who is just this book's sorrowful hero, had to be manipulated by the Japan's government. He had been degenerated into a puppet of the goverment of Japan. In a word, Ching Dynasty was nothing but a puppet goverment of Japan. It was really heartbreaking situation! Japan meddled in every affairs that had to be carried out by Ching Dynasty and controlled everything that happens in China. Thanks to meddlesome Japan, China, or rather, 'Ching dynasty' began to wane rapidly. No matter how powerful the Ching Dymasty was in the past, Ching Dynasty's shining glory and power had been waned by Japan that was a just tiny island country in a map in the past. To make a long story short, Ching Dynasty began to wane day by day. Ching Dynasty, or rather, China is a country that is repleate of proud and confience and such China's aspect is expressed as 'Sinocentrism'. China was a country that regarded itself as the most powerful country that stand in the center of the world. But the sudden invasion of Japan gave inexplicable insult to China. At that time, truly many drastic events occured in China and China started chaning. Finally Pu yi, emperor of Ching Dynasty, had to be the last emperor of Ching Dynasty. As a result of drastic change of China, he was forced to abdicate with the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911. After abdicating from his throne, he became nothing but a citizen of China. Meanwhile, Communists started to administer China. Pu Yi who had been turned into a citizen from his throne began to live as an ordinary person. He says about a lot of things occured in his life through this b

Pu Yi Last Emperor of China, his life, and his death.Considering that the book is a translation I think it was very well written,bringing out the past,the present and what happened to Pu Yi at the end of his life.The book is very easy to read considering that it is an autobiography.It has many black and white pictures. This book encouraged me to trace the life of Pu Yi which I was lucky to do,right before Tianmen Square incident. I hired a Mandarin taxi driver and ask him to take me around and trace Pu Yi's life from the Forbidden City to his last residence. I went around and did all that.However I was not allowed to go to the Prisons.It is a military area. I saw the places in the Forbidden City,the house that he lived in after being reformed.The house were he lived with his wife the nurse.Finally I was allowed to go into the cemetery were his remains are in a very small sinnabar wooden box, with a small oval picture,and his name Pu Yi.He is burried way behind the big shots that came and died after him.You must really look to find him.I was lucky enough to do this,as it so happened that the movie of Bertolucci The Last Emperor of China had come out.In China Chinese people love Italians.So when they asked me are you American I said no Italia.They answered ah Marco Polo.Isn't that funny? I suggest that you read this book if you are fascinated with the Chinese culture.After all what happened,happened and things cannot change.Our daughter also did a paper in High School about the Last Emperor of China using this book as a guide.I hope that this was useful to you,I enjoyed it very much.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in Chinese history. The book covers practically all aspects of the life of Aisin Gioro Pu Yi from his brief period on the dragon throne to being a "reformed" man in Peking in the 1960's. A tragic figure, his story is fully told.