Volta
Person1906 – 1967

Puyi

Also called: Pu Yi, Xuantong Emperor, Kangde Emperor, Henry Puyi

Last emperor of the Qing as the Xuantong Emperor (r. 1908–1912), later installed by Japan as chief executive (1932) and emperor (1934–1945) of Manchukuo

A nephew of the Guangxu Emperor, he was enthroned in 1908 at the age of two, with his father Prince Chun as regent. After abdicating in 1912 he kept his imperial title and lived on in the Forbidden City, and in 1917 Zhang Xun’s restoration put him back on the throne for twelve days. Driven out of the Forbidden City by Feng Yuxiang in 1924, he moved to the Japanese concession in Tianjin. Captured by Soviet troops in 1945, he testified at the Tokyo Trial, and in 1950 was handed to China and “re-educated” at the Fushun War Criminals Management Centre. Pardoned in 1959, he worked as a botanical-garden gardener and a historical researcher, and left the autobiography From Emperor to Citizen.

Show on the map

Where they went

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

1 related event

  1. 1
    1932 – 1945Founding of Manchukuomonarch

    On 1 March 1932 Japan’s Kwantung Army set up the puppet state of Manchukuo with its capital at Changchun (Xinjing), installing the last Qing emperor Puyi as chief executive; in 1934 Puyi became emperor.

Related works

Dramatized works (films, dramas, novels) may differ from the historical record.

Themes this person appears in

  • Republican China and Imperial Japan1912 – 1949

    The age when the Republic of China, born of the 1911 Revolution, passed through warlord division, the May Fourth Movement, the United Front and the Northern Expedition, fought Japan’s invasion and split in civil war — as Japan moved from Taishō democracy through the Manchurian Incident and military coups to the war in China and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, and colonized Korea resisted through the March First Movement and armed struggle