Pujie
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| Pujie | |
 Prince Aisin-Gioro Pujie and Hiro Saga, 1938 Wedding Photo
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| Born | April 16, 1907 Beijing, China |
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| Died | February 28, 1994 (aged 86) Beijing, China |
| Spouse | Tung Shih-hsia (m.1924) Hiro Saga (1938-1987) |
| Children | Huisheng (1939-1957) Yunsheng (b.1941) |
Aisin-Gioro Pǔjié (Chinese: 愛新覺羅溥傑 (Traditional), 爱新觉罗溥杰 (Simplified), Àixīnjuéluó Pǔjié ; Japanese: 愛新覚羅溥傑, Aishinkakura Fuketsu) (April 16, 1907 — February 28, 1994) was born into the Manchu Aisin-Gioro clan and was the younger brother of the last Emperor of China, Puyi.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Prince Pujie was the second son of the 2nd Prince Chun and his wife Lady Aisin-Gioro. As a child, he was brought to the Forbidden City in Beijing to be a playmate and fellow classmate to his brother Puyi. A well-known incident recounted how the young Puyi threw a tantrum when he saw that the inner lining of one of Pujie's coats was yellow in color, as yellow was traditionally a color reserved only for the Emperor. [1]
In 1929, Pujie was sent to Japan for studies. He graduated from the Gakushuin Peers’ School and became fluent in the Japanese language. He then went on to the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, graduating in July 1935.
Prince Pujie was first married in 1924 to a Manchu princess Tung Shih-hsia, but they had no issue. He left his wife behind when he went to Japan for studies, and the marriage was dissolved some years later. After graduation from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, Pujie agreed to an arranged marriage with a Japanese noblewoman. Pujie selected Lady Hiro Saga (1911-1987), who was a relative of the Japanese Imperial Family from a photograph from a number of possible candidates vetted by the Kwangtung Army. [2] As his brother Emperor Puyi was without a direct heir, the wedding had strong political implications, and was aimed at both fortifying relations between the two nations and introducing Japanese blood into the Manchurian Imperial family.
The engagement ceremony took place at the Embassy of Manchukuo in Tokyo on February 2, 1938 with the official wedding held in the Imperial Army Hall at Kudanzaka, Tokyo on April 3. In October, the couple moved to Hsinking, the capital of Manchukuo, where Puyi was now emperor.
[edit] Manchukuo
As his elder brother Emperor Puyi had no children, Pujie was regarded first in line to succeed the Manchukuo throne, and the Japanese officially proclaimed him as heir apparent. However, he was not appointed by his brother as heir to the Qing dynasty,[citation needed] as imperial traditions stated that a childless Emperor should choose his heir from one of the next generations of the family[citation needed]. While in Manchukuo, Pujie served as honorary head of the Manchukuo Imperial Guards. He returned briefly to Japan in 1944 to attend the Army Staff College.
At the time of the collapse of Manchukuo during the Soviet Operation August Storm of August 1945, Pujie initially attempted to escape to exile in Japan with his brother. However, as it became apparent that no escape was possible, he opted to return to Hsinking in an unsuccessful attempt to surrender the city to Kuomingtang forces of the Republic of China, rather than have the city fall into Russian hands.
Pujie was arrested by the Soviet Red Army, and was sent to prison camps in Chita and Khabarovsk in Siberia with his brother and other relatives. With the Sino-Soviet rapprochement after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Pujie was extradited to China in 1950.
[edit] Under the People's Republic of China
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On his return to China, Pujie was incarcerated in the Fushun re-education camp. A model prisoner, he became a symbol of leniency by the communist regime, joined the Communist Party of China, and later served in a number of important posts.
In 1978, Pujie became a deputy from Shanghai at the 5th National People's Congress. He subsequently served as deputy from Liaoning, Politburo Standing Committee Member, and Vice Chairman of the Nationalities Committee of the 6th National People's Congress in 1983. He was appointed Deputy Head of the China-Japan Friendship Group from 1985. He rose to a seat on the Presidium of the 7th National People's Congress in 1988. From 1986, Pujie was also Honorary Director for the Handicapped Welfare Fund. [3]
[edit] Descendents
Pujie had two daughters.
- Princess Aisin-Gioro Huisheng 慧生 (1939-1957) - H. H. Princess (Chün Chu Kung Chu) Huisheng, was born at Hsinking on February 1938 and educated privately and then studied at Gakushuin University. She was killed (murdered) on 10 December 1957 in what appears to have been a murder-suicide.
- Princess Aisin-Gioro Yunsheng 嫮生 (1941- ) - H.H. Princess (Chün Chu Kung Chu) Yunsheng was educated privately and then studied at Gakushuin Women's University in Tokyo. She later married Kosei Fukunaga, a former Japanese aristocrat employed in the automobile industry in Tokyo. She has five children.
In 1961, Pujie was reunited with his wife with permission by Chinese premier Zhou Enlai. The couple lived in Beijing from 1961 until her death in 1987.
As the full brother of the last Emperor, K'ang Teh, Pujie was first in the line of succession for the Qing. However, this is somewhat compicated by the fact that K'ang Teh proposed to adopt his distant cousin Prince Yuyan as his heir in 1950 while imprisoned in the Soviet Gulag.[1] Since Pujie had no sons, succession passes to a male relative according to the Law Governing Succession to the Imperial Throne adopted by K'ang Teh, March 1, 1937. That would have been Jin Youzhi; but since subjects of the socialist People's Republic of China must repudiate any claims to nobility, transmission in the strict male line of succession to the imperial throne is eliminated.
[edit] References
- Behr, Edward (1977). The Last Emperor. Bantam. ISBN 0553344749.
- Cotter, Edward (2007). Kids Who Rule: The Remarkable Lives of Five Child Monarchs. Annick Press. ISBN 1554510627.
- Lebra, Takie Sugiyama. (1987). Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility. University of California Press. ISBN 0520076028.
- Mackerras, Colin; Amanda Yorke (1986). The Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521387558.
[edit] External links
- "The Last Emperor's Brother HUKETSU" (Chiba Prefecture, Japan's English-language page)
- Information about TV Asahi's (Japan) Autumn 2003 dramatization of Pujie and Lady Hiro Saga's marriage, Ryuuten no ouhi - Saigo no koutei (流転の王妃・最後の皇弟)
[edit] Notes
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Pujie
Born: 16 April 1907 Died: 28 February 1994 |
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| Titles in pretence | ||
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| Preceded by Kāngdé Emperor (Pǔyí) |
— TITULAR — Emperor of Manchukuo October 17, 1967 – February 28, 1994 Reason for succession failure: Empire abolished in 1945 |
Succeeded by Pǔrèn |
