Wanrong

During the Soviet invasion of Manchuria at the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945, Wanrong was captured by Chinese Communist guerrillas and transferred to various locations before she was placed in a prison camp in Yanji, Jilin. She died in prison in June 1946 and her remains were never found. On 23 October 2006, Wanrong's younger brother, Runqi, conducted a ritual burial for her in the Western Qing tombs.

On 23 October 2006, Wanrong's younger brother, Runqi, conducted a ritual burial for his sister at the Western Qing tombs. A photo owned by Runqi was buried there. A hand mirror which belonged to Wanrong, owned by Runqi, was selected with hopes for it to be placed in a museum.

In 2005, at the age of 93, Runqi, Wanrong's brother, angered at how the media and drama crews had portrayed his sister, sued, saying, "As long as I live, I will not allow irresponsible fabrications and even personal insults about Wanrong's life story! Insulting!" As late as the 2000s, Runqi said Wanrong's sad face when she was designated as Empress still lingered in his mind.

Wanrong was portrayed by Joan Chen in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 film The Last Emperor.

After Saga was separated from her, Wanrong died in prison at the age of 39 on 20 June 1946 in Yanji, Jilin province, from the effects of malnutrition and opium withdrawal in a pool of her own bodily fluids. Her place of burial is unknown. Some said she was wrapped in a piece of cloth and discarded in the hills north of Yanji while others claimed she was buried in the south of Yanji, though it is thought she was probably buried to the south. Her remains were never found.

In August 1945, during the evacuation of Manchukuo in the midst of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, Puyi attempted to flee from Manchukuo because his immediate entourage was at risk of arrest. Puyi, Wanrong and their group moved from Hsinking to Dalizi (romanised as Talizou) by train, and from there, Puyi departed to Tonghua, where he took a plane to Mukden. He left behind Wanrong, his concubine Li Yuqin, and other imperial household members in Dalizi (大栗子镇). Wanrong, along with her sister-in-law Hiro Saga and the rest of her group, tried to flee to Korea but were captured by Chinese Communist guerrillas (in present-day Linjiang, Jilin) in January 1946.

When Wanrong had moments of mental lucidity she is said to have cried and cursed her father, accusing him of ruining her life. It is claimed in her later years she struggled to walk and her eyesight severely deteriorated (likely due to an eye disease) and she could not stand brightness. She would use a folded fan to block her face when she looked at others, trying to look through the cracks. Wanrong was so isolated in the last years of her life Puyi's concubine, Li Yuqin, who arrived in 1943, only saw her face during the collapse of the regime in 1945.

Puyi and Wanrong's relationship continued to deteriorate, albeit with continuing formalities such as Wanrong paying tribute to the Emperor. Puyi would sometimes sit in her bedroom before he slept and would leave at midnight unreluctantly which infuriated Wanrong. She is said to have thrown objects around in a rage. Due to Puyi's neglect and her loneliness in Manchukuo, Wanrong took to smoking tobacco mixed with small doses of opium as a relaxant. Over time, she became a heavy opium addict and was reportedly smoking two ounces of opium daily by 1938. Between 10 July 1938 and 10 July 1939, Wanrong had bought 740 ounces of opium. Her monthly spending also increased by twice the original amount, and most of it was spent on opium along with a large number of fashion and movie magazines.

Wanrong's father eventually stopped visiting her in Manchukuo due to her drastic transformation. Ronqi, her brother, said her father loved her greatly and could not bear to face what Wanrong had become. The Empress is said to have smoked two packets of cigarettes a day along with large quantities of opium and the cheapest pipes available. Hiro Saga, the wife of Puyi's brother, wrote about the Empress at a shared dinner in 1937, noting:

In another incident, Puyi's sister wrote to Puyi in 1937 and said of Wanrong's appearance: The enlarged photo of (the queen) is really terrible, it's changed since the last two years. It's hidden and not shown to others. After 1937 she no longer appeared at New Year or birthday parties.

Puyi attempted to divorce Wanrong but was scared to offend the Japanese when the Kwantung Army disapproved. Puyi issued a proclamation about going to Lushun on 21 January 1935 to "avoid the cold," where he planned to leave Wanrong, but the Japanese saw through his plans and did not allow it. Wanrong reportedly discovered the plot and was deeply upset. Wang Qingyuan, an attendant for Puyi, said there was a strict rule Wanrong was not allowed to contact the outside world.

Wanrong bore an illegitimate daughter and insisted Puyi either acknowledge the child as his or allow the child to be raised outside the imperial household, but her pleas were ignored and the infant was killed on delivery in 1935. Wanrong was immediately removed by Puyi's Japanese handlers to a remote hospital. There are two accounts of what happened to Wanrong after her daughter's death. One account said Puyi lied to her, saying her daughter was being raised by a nanny, and Wanrong never knew about her daughter's death. The other account said Wanrong found out or knew about her daughter's infanticide and lived in a constant daze of opium consumption since then. In Puyi's unabridged memoir he wrote, "[...] she was told he had been adopted and remained dreaming of her son living in the world until her dying day." It is possible Puyi was simply aware of what would happen to the baby, and was too cowardly to do anything about it.

On 1 March 1934, the Imperial Japanese Government proclaimed Puyi as the Emperor of Manchukuo and Wanrong as his Empress. The couple lived in the Russian-built Weihuang Palace (now the Museum of the Imperial Palace of the Manchu State), a tax office that had been converted into a temporary palace while a new structure was being built. Apart from Puyi's coronation in 1934, Wanrong only made one other public appearance as Empress of Manchukuo, in June 1934, when Prince Chichibu visited Manchukuo on behalf of the Shōwa Emperor to mark close ties between Japan and Manchukuo. While these were the only big state ceremonies she participated in, she is noted to have made smaller public appearances; in the non-fiction book Wild Swans, she was noted to have participated in the official visit of the Emperor to Jinzhou in September 1939, where the mother of the author was selected to present flowers to the Empress on her arrival to the city.

According to the 1934 "Imperial Palace" archives, Wanrong made 27 pieces of cheongsam in one year. She was also taught drawing and music, such as the piano as well as playing chess and tennis recreationally. Cui Huimei who taught Wanrong recalled: "We sisters taught the empress Wanrong drawing and music, but I remembered the empress Wanrong taught us to sing a song. It was the national anthem of the Qing Dynasty. The lyrics were dismal.."

On 21 November 1934, The New York Times wrote an article stating that: "due to nervous illness, Empress Yueh Hua [pen name used by Wanrong] will soon leave the capital to spend the Winter at Dairen."

After arriving in Hsinking, Wanrong was closely monitored by the Japanese and had to do as they instructed. She began to detest the Japanese and secretly planned to escape on two occasions. Wellington Koo, a diplomat, recalled in his memoirs when he was in Dalian, he once met a man who said he was sent by Wanrong to seek his help in escaping from Hsinking. Koo could not help her because of his status as a consultant then. Koo later wrote in his memoir "..My attendant said that he knew this man in Beijing and that he could meet him. He told me that this man was disguised as an antique dealer to avoid the attention of the Japanese (perhaps he had been an antique dealer). I went out to the porch and we stopped at the corner. The man told me that he was sent by the Empress. He said she asked me to help her escape from Changchun because she knew I was going to Manchuria; he said she felt miserable about her life because she was surrounded by Japanese attendants in the palace (there were no Chinese attendants there), and her every move was watched and denounced. She knew that the emperor could not escape, and if she could, she could have helped him to escape." In another incident, around August or September 1933, when the wife of Zhao Xinbo (趙欣伯), a Manchukuo official, was preparing to leave for Japan, Wanrong approached her and asked her for help. However, Wanrong's plan to escape was again unsuccessful. In frustration, the Empress was noted to have been heard saying on one occasion: ''Why can everyone else be free, but I can't be free?"

Whenever Puyi bought something for one of them, the other would insist Puyi also buy it for her too. Puyi also showed a preference for Wanrong and spent more time with her, which eventually led to Wenxiu divorcing him in 1931.

When the 1931 Yellow River floods broke out Wanrong donated a pearl necklace to aid the relief efforts.

In Wanrong's journal entry of 30 April 1931, she said she had got seriously ill three times during her seven years in Tianjin. According to her journals, she still had several chronic diseases such as "panasthenia" (neurasthenia) and irregular menstruation. At Puyi's insistence in a discussion about illness and the effects of opium on pregnancy, as noted in Wanrong's diary entry of 30 September 1931, she continued to smoke opium.

On 1 October 1931, she wrote, referencing Wenxiu's asking for divorce with Puyi as treason, "It was the lunar 20 August. The Emperor talked about the treasonous act with me. I asked: 'is what was said in the press true?' The Emperor said: 'it's nothing but rumors.'" Wanrong further wrote in another entry on the same day, recounting what she had told Puyi: "...I said: If you live alone I would know that. If you always find some excuse for going out alone, I would know that you have allowed her to live alone. If you go to see her, I would also know about it."

Late in 1931, Yoshiko Kawashima, acting under instruction from the Japanese Kwantung Army, fetched Wanrong from Tianjin to Dalian and then to Port Arthur (now Lüshun) to meet Puyi who had accepted an offer from the Empire of Japan to head the puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria (northeastern China) in the hope of restoring the Qing dynasty. Wanrong disliked the Japanese and was firmly against Puyi's plans to go to Manchuria, and for a moment Puyi hesitated, leading Doihara to send for Puyi's cousin, the very pro-Japanese Yoshiko Kawashima, to visit him to change his mind. After Puyi had snuck into Manchuria, Li Guoxiong (a servant) claims Wanrong had told him: "As you see, His Majesty had left and His Highness could not come here. I was deserted here and who would take care of me?" Yoshiko Kawashima, a strong-willed, flamboyant, openly bisexual woman noted for her habit of wearing male clothing and uniforms, had some influence on Wanrong and she eventually secretly relocated to Manchukuo. However, a member of Wanrong's entourage later said Yoshiko Kawashima had only played a minor role.

Wanrong and her group landed at Dalian on 28 November 1931. Initially the Japanese military did not allow Puyi and Wanrong to stay together, with Wanrong's requests to visit Puyi being declined. Kudo Tetsuaburo, who worked as a guard for Puyi, stated there was a rumor the emperor had been killed and another rumor he had been put under house arrest. Wanrong was eventually allowed to visit Puyi in Lushun. It is possible the Japanese military initially feared Puyi could be influenced by those around him at such a critical stage of development and were hesitant to allow them to live together. Prince Su's Mansion in Lushun served as Puyi's temporary palace in which Wanrong would spend a few months before settling in Hsinking (Changchun). Li Guoxing, Puyi's servant recalled she acted like a spoiled child on several occasions.

Puyi, Wanrong and Wenxiu stayed at the house of Puyi's father after being exiled, the Prince Chun Mansion in Beijing. Puyi then secretly took refuge in the Japanese Legation in Beijing. Puyi later moved out of Beijing to the Japanese concession in Tianjin on 24 February 1925. Wanrong and Wenxiu later followed him and arrived on 27 February. Puyi and Wanrong settled in the Zhang garden in Tianjin later moving in 1929 to the Quiet Garden Villa (Jing garden) within the Japanese concession in Tianjin.

Wanrong enjoyed reading, jazz, Western cuisine, playing the piano, writing in English and photography. Described as old-fashioned by her brother, Wanrong was nevertheless somewhat more Westernized than Puyi, having grown up in the French Concession in Tianjin, and she was noted for teaching Puyi how to eat Western food with a knife and fork. An article in Time magazine dated Monday, 12 May 1924, titled "China: Henry the Democrat", noted Huan Tung (Xuantong Emperor), and Wanrong had adopted Western names, with Wanrong's being Elizabeth. The Empress also wrote poetry, composed at least one song, practiced painting and wrote letters, some of which included a few English words.

In October 1924, the warlord Feng Yuxiang seized control of Beijing in a coup. He forced Puyi and his family out of the Forbidden City on 5 November. Wanrong's tutor, Ingram, spoke of seeing the soldiers outside as she came to enter and said of the time period: "...That day was the end of my beautiful China... In my country (China), a steam train is still a fire-spitting demon, electricity is the eye of the devil, motor cars which are not uncommon, still elicit a dubious and suspicious response from the inland Chinese. It has all come so suddenly. The Chinese are being Europeanized with one majestic blow. And that blow has killed the beautiful spiritual quality of the country. It is, at present, a chaotic and uncertain land."

Puyi, Wanrong and Wenxiu along with an entourage would occasionally leave the Forbidden City mostly to visit relatives or on a few occasions to sightsee. On one such occasion, It was reported they stopped in a garden during a visit to see his sick grandmother. The local press during 1923 reported on these outings and they appeared in newspapers. On one trip they visited the Summer Palace in April 1924. On another outing they left to have tea with Puyi's English tutor, Reginald Fleming Johnston. Time magazine said Elizabeth (Wanrong) was accompanied by Miss Isabel Ingram and Puyi was "in his element" speaking English. Pujie (Puyi's brother) said there were always several two-person palanquins waiting to carry the tutors in at the Gate of Divine Valor every afternoon when they came to teach.

Wanrong would send subordinates on occasion to donate money to the poor outside the Forbidden City. In December 1923 she received praise when she donated 600 yuan to a charity.

Wanrong's marriage to Puyi was unhappy but she found promise in her studies. Her tutor, Isabel Ingram, who began teaching her English in 1922, observed Wanrong could focus for hours on tasks like studying and playing the organ. Hu Siyuan, who later taught Wanrong classical literature in Tianjin commented "she was wise and eager to learn, quick-witted and inquisitive; she always made a thorough inquiry of the ups and downs of ancient events, had a profound understanding of the texts. My admiration of her was beyond description. If she kept on teaching herself in the palace, I believed that she would be able to refer to the past for the present and then contribute to the wise governance of the emperor."

The Qing dynasty was overthrown in 1912 and replaced by the Republic of China, marking the end of thousands of years of imperial rule in China. The former imperial family were granted special privileges by the Republican government, which allowed them to retain their imperial titles and be treated with respect. Puyi, the abdicated Last Emperor, was allowed to hold an imperial-style wedding in the Forbidden City.

Her father Rongyuan (榮源) had held office under the Qing Dynasty until the 1911 Revolution. When Wanrong became Empress in 1922, her father then took employment in the Imperial Household Department until Wanrong was expelled. Wanrong's biological mother died when Wanrong was two. Wanrong was raised by her stepmother, Aisin-Gioro Hengxin (恒馨). Wanrong had a brother, Runliang (潤良) as well as a half-brother, Runqi (潤麒). The family lived in Mao Er hutong ("hat maker lane") near Di'anmen in Beijing's Dongcheng District.

Wanrong (Chinese: 婉容; 13 November 1906 – 20 June 1946), of the Manchu Plain White Banner Gobulo clan, was the wife and empress consort of Puyi, the last Emperor of China, sometimes anachronistically called the “Xuantong Empress”, referring to Puyi’s era name. She was titular empress consort of the Qing dynasty from 1922 until her death, and later became the empress consort of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo from 1934 until abolition of the monarchy in 1945. She was posthumously honored with the title Empress Xiaokemin.

Wanrong had two brothers. The elder one, Runliang (潤良; 1904–1925), married Puyi's first sister, Yunying (not to be confused with Jin Yunying) (韞媖; 1909–1925). They had no children. Wanrong's younger brother, Runqi (潤麒; 1912–2007), married Puyi's third sister, Yunying (韞穎; 1913–1992). They had two sons and a daughter.