Henry Puyi was ascended to the throne at the age of 2 years and 10 months by Dowager Empress Cixi while at her deathbed. Because Henry Puyi was put into throne without a choice, he lost his mother and family at a very young age, and it affected henry puyi’s life on how he made his stand as the emperor of China. Growing up without her mother, made him hate her own mother and trusting her wet nurse more, that according to him, she was the only one who there for him whenever he needed help.
And as a person, I would personally consider this tragedy as the first traumatic experience that Henry Puyi had faced. Being forcedly put into the throne at a very young age, affected his whole life, he was not taught the right manners, right decision making and the right way to enjoy his life. He was very much caged in the palace, everything was done for him, everything was all put into place that made him very lonely and angry, and all he could do was run to her wet-nurse, Wen-Chao Wang.Everybody bowed to him, that made him believe that everything that he does is right, others feelings was not being cared by him, everything that matters to him is to make orders until he was satisfied, and I think this wouldn’t have happened to him if he was not put into throne that early and without his mother. As he grew up, there came a time when he was finally allowed to meet his mother(once) and brother.
His brother spent time with him frequently, they were taught by Henry Puyi’s teacher at the same time, and then one time Henry Puyi and his brother fought, and because the brother was mad, he said that he was not the emperor anymore for there was a new president, and it was true. Sun Yat Sen, was appointed as China’s president, that made the emperors position useless. Henry Puyi was not informed about what was happening, and so it was a big shock and disappointment for him to lose his control over China.He was still known and treated as an emperor but the decisions for China do not depend on his hands anymore but on the President.
This catastrophe changed him more into a person who is eager to get his powers back, but a confused one. I can clearly see that he can be a great leader, but his rights as a leader was deprived from him because he was too young to rule, that made me think that this disaster is considered as his second traumatic experience as a person.The third traumatic experience of the last emperor was during the Opium war at 1840, but basically it started because in 1839 thousands or millions of opium was burned in front of many Chinese people, to make an indication that Emperor Tang Kuang wanted the British to stop selling opium to Chinese people because his country is getting weaker and weaker every single day, as its number of addicted people are increasing very fast.When this was happening Henry Puyi was being caged and forbidden to go out from the palace, he didn’t know what was happening outside, then suddenly someone told him the news that his mother died because of her addiction to opium.
It broke the heart out of him to not be allowed to go visit his dead mom. Growing up without his mom is already tragic and not letting them see her is awful. And the only person that Henry Puyi could run to for comfort is his wet nurse but the royal consorts took her away and sent her home without letting them say goodbye to each other.Since then he tried to be independent and act as he was strong in every challenges that he faced. Many things happened to China, many are tried to conquer them, and it affected every citizen, even the emperor.
While the struggles of China was ongoing, a big fire happened inside the walls of the palace, many of his possessions were damaged by the fire, and he suspected one of the eunuchs have done that unpleasant action, and so he fired or freed all of the eunuchs or his servants.And tragedies continued to happen he was kicked out from his palace and lived quite a normal life outside with his wives. And because of the freedom Henry Puyi and his wives were receiving, they didn’t handle it well and so he lost his concubine, her wife got pregnant by his driver, Japanese killed his heir and at the bottom of that his wife became addicted to opium and got crazy. Henry Puyi almost broke down, seeing all of this with his own eyes, ate all of his courage to stand up again.
And in the end of all his efforts of trying to gain his power and position back, his own people, the Chinese, imprisoned him for 10 years. He suffered inside because he did not know anything about living independently, he really had a hard time in eating and dressing himself, cleaning his surrounding, to make it short, he had a tough time doing anything that he himself would benefit from. But eventually, because of the experience of being imprisoned, he eventually learned from it and became independent and became useful when he got out and lived normally by himself in the grounds of China.
