Editing Puyi (section)

== Expulsion from the Forbidden City (1924) ==
[[File:Wanrong and Puyi in 1924.webm|thumb|Wanrong and Puyi after their expulsion, 30 November 1924]]
[[File:Puyi's bedroom in the Forbidden City after being expelled.jpg|thumb|Puyi's bedroom in the Forbidden City shortly after his expulsion]]

On 23 October 1924, [[1924 Beijing Coup|a coup]] led by the warlord [[Feng Yuxiang]] took control of Beijing. Feng, the latest of the warlords to take Beijing, was seeking legitimacy and decided that abolishing the unpopular Articles of Favourable Settlement was an easy way to win the crowd's approval.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|p=129}} Feng unilaterally revised the "Articles of Favourable Treatment" on 5 November 1924, abolishing Puyi's imperial title and privileges and reducing him to a private citizen of the Republic of China. Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City the same day.<ref name="Pioneers of Modern China: Understanding the Inscrutable Chinese">{{cite book |last=Choy |first=Lee Khoon |title=Pioneers of Modern China: Understanding the Inscrutable Chinese |year=2005 |publisher=World Scientific Publishing Company |isbn=978-9812564641 |pages=350–353}}</ref> He was given three hours to leave.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|p=129}} He spent a few days at [[Prince Chun Mansion|the house]] of his father [[Zaifeng, Prince Chun|Prince Chun]], and then temporarily resided in the Japanese embassy in Beijing.{{sfnp|Blakeney|1945}} Puyi left his father's house together with Johnston and his chief servant Big Li without informing Prince Chun's servants, slipped his followers, and went to the Japanese legation. Puyi had originally wanted to go to the British Legation, but Johnston had insisted that he would be safer with the Japanese. For Johnston, the system where the Japanese people worshipped their emperor as a living god was much closer to his ideal than the British constitutional monarchy, and he constantly steered Puyi in a pro-Japanese direction.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|pp=147–149}}

However, Johnston tried to get the British diplomatic legation in Beijing to host Puyi, and although the British authorities were not very interested in welcoming the former emperor, the British representative eventually gave Johnston his consent. However, Johnston later discovered that Puyi{{snd}}in view of the situation and that Johnston was not returning from his efforts{{snd}}had taken refuge in the Japanese legation after being advised by Zheng Xiaoxu.{{sfnp|Airlie|2012|p=198}} The Japanese diplomat [[Kenkichi Yoshizawa]] gave Puyi the regards of the Japanese government, saying, "Our government has formally acknowledged Your Majesty's taking refuge in our legation and will provide protection for you."{{sfnp|Wang|2014|p=126}} Puyi's adviser [[Lu Zongyu]], who was secretly working for the Japanese, suggested that Puyi move to Tianjin, which he argued was safer than Beijing, though the real reason was that the Japanese felt that Puyi would be easier to control in Tianjin without the embarrassment of having him live in the Japanese Legation, which was straining relations with China. On 23 February 1925, Puyi left Beijing for Tianjin wearing a simple Chinese gown and skullcap as he was afraid of being robbed on the train.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|pp=153–156}} Puyi described his train journey to Tianjin, saying, "At every stop between Beijing and Tianjin several Japanese policeman and special agents in black suits would get on the train so that, by the time we reached Tianjin, my special car was almost half occupied by them."{{sfnp|Puyi|Kramer|Tsai|1987|pp=118–119}}