Late Qing & The Last Emperor

I. The Glory of the Gobulo Clan A Family Among the Eight Banners The Gobulo (郭布羅) clan — the family into which Wanrong was born — was of Daur ancestry and registered under the Manchu Plain White Banner. It had earned its place among the Eight Banners through military service, and the blood and pride of a military aristocracy had been passed down through the generations. The Eight Banners (Baqi) were the unique military and political organization of the Manchu…

Late Qing Dynasty Series  |  The Prince Su Family Prince Su Shanqi A Qing Prince, a Japanese Samurai’s Son, and the Dream That Outlasted an Empire In 1900, as allied Western forces threatened to shell the Forbidden City, a single Japanese man talked them out of it — in Chinese. His name was Kawashima Naniwa, and he was the son of a former samurai from a small Japanese castle town called Matsumoto. A year later, that same man became the…

The boy named “joint rule” who was never let in. The Tongzhi Emperor (1856–1875) was the son of Empress Dowager Cixi and the ninth emperor of the Qing dynasty. He took the throne at five, ruled in person for less than two years, and died at 18 — of smallpox, according to his own physicians, though a darker rumor of syphilis has followed him ever since. His era name, Tongzhi (同治), means “joint rule.” The power was indeed shared —…

She has been remembered as a jealous, dull-witted, unattractive empress — the woman who lost her husband to a prettier rival and then lost a dynasty. But was that really who she was? A small glass-topped table I once saw at the Summer Palace in Beijing made me wonder. On February 12, 1912, in the name of the six-year-old emperor Puyi, an edict of abdication was issued. With it, more than two thousand years of imperial rule in China —…

The Guangxu Emperor: The Emperor Who Said He Didn’t Need Power Imprisoned by Cixi, possibly poisoned — yet Guangxu never broke. He launched 103 days of reform to save China. The emperor who chose mission over power.The Guangxu Emperor and the 103-Day Revolution That Failed Late Qing Dynasty Series “If it would save the country, I do not need to hold power.” No emperor in Chinese history was supposed to say this. Princes fought and bled for the throne. Empress…

The Light and Shadow of History History is often told from the perspective of the victors. In modern Chinese history after the Xinhai Revolution, while Miyazaki Toten, who supported Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary movement, is widely known, the stories of those who remained loyal to the Qing Dynasty are rarely told. Today, we introduce the life of Kodaira Soji, a figure hidden in the “shadows of history.” Devotion to the Qing Dynasty Born in 1876 in Hotaka Village (present-day Azumino City),…

Organizing the Facts On the night of November 10, 1931, Puyi escaped from Tianjin and arrived in Yingkou on the 13th, heading toward Manchukuo. Sixteen days after Puyi’s departure, on November 26, an escape operation for Empress Wanrong was executed. The Operation Team – Planner: Yoshida Chutaro, translator for the Tianjin Garrison – Accompanying members: – Kawashima Yoshiko – Mrs. Yoshida Chutaro – Wanrong’s brother – Imperial eunuch – Lady-in-waiting – Japanese Army Colonel The Moment of Decision About ten…

Why was Puyi given special protection? After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the privileges of the imperial family and aristocracy during the Qing Dynasty were supposed to have been completely denied, restoration of honor and special protection were given to Emperor Puyi and the mellow imperial family. Why is that? Sun Yat-sen’s “Republic of the Five Tribes” In the early stages, the revolutionaries adopted an extreme Manchurianism that regarded the entire Manchu tribe as the enemy and…