Editing Puyi (section)

== Residence in Tianjin (1925–1931) ==
In February 1925, Puyi moved to the [[Concessions in Tianjin|Japanese concession]] of [[Tianjin]], first into the [[Zhang Garden]], and in 1929{{sfnp|Wang|2014|p=36}} into the former residence of [[Lu Zongyu]] known as the [[Garden of Serenity]].<ref name="Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty–Port China">{{cite book |last=Rogaski |first=Ruth |title=Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China |url=https://archive.org/details/hygienicmodernit0000roga |url-access=registration |year=2004 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-24001-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/hygienicmodernit0000roga/page/262 262]}}</ref> A British journalist, Henry Woodhead, called Puyi's court a "doggy paradise" as both Puyi and Wanrong were dog lovers who owned several very spoiled dogs while Puyi's courtiers spent an inordinate amount of time feuding with one another. Woodhead stated that the only people who seemed to get along at Puyi's court were Wanrong and Wenxiu, who were "like sisters".{{sfnp|Behr|1987|pp=157–158}} Tianjin was, after Shanghai, the most cosmopolitan Chinese city, with large British, French, German, Russian and Japanese communities. As an emperor, Puyi was allowed to join several social clubs that normally only admitted whites. During this period, Puyi and his advisers [[Chen Baochen]], Zheng Xiaoxu, and [[Luo Zhenyu]] discussed plans to restore Puyi as Emperor. Zheng and Luo favoured enlisting assistance from external parties, while Chen opposed the idea. In June 1925, the warlord [[Zhang Zuolin]] visited Tianjin to meet Puyi. "Old Marshal" Zhang, an illiterate former bandit, ruled Manchuria, a region equal in size to Germany and France combined, which had a population of 30 million and was the most industrialised region in China. Zhang kowtowed to Puyi at their meeting and promised to restore the House of Qing if Puyi made a large financial donation to his army. Zhang warned Puyi in a "roundabout way" not to trust his Japanese friends. Zhang fought in the pay of the Japanese, but by this time his relations with the [[Kwantung Army]] were becoming strained. In June 1927, Zhang captured Beijing and Behr observed that if Puyi had had more courage and returned to Beijing, he might have been restored to the Dragon Throne.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|pp=155−161}} Puyi was noted to have said in a 1927 article in ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'', that "I never wish to be Emperor again".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Illustrated London News Group |title=Illustrated London News – Saturday 25 June 1927 – A New Phase in China: Peking; And the Ex-Emperor |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001578/19270625/011/0005 |website=The British Newspaper Archive}}</ref>

[[File:Puyi in the Jing Garden, Tianjin, 1929-1931.png|thumb|Puyi in the Garden of Serenity, as it looked in the late 1920s and early 1930s]]
Puyi's court was prone to factionalism and his advisers were urging him to back different warlords, which gave him a reputation for duplicity as he negotiated with various warlords, which strained his relations with Marshal Zhang.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|pp=161–162}} At various times, Puyi met [[Zhang Zongchang]], the "Dogmeat General", and the Russian émigré general [[Grigory Mikhaylovich Semyonov|Grigory Semyonov]] at his Tianjin house; both of them promised to restore him to the Dragon Throne if he gave them enough money, and both of them kept all the money he gave them for themselves.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|p=162}} Puyi remembered Zhang as "a universally detested monster" with a face bloated and "tinged with the livid hue induced by opium smoking".{{sfnp|Fenby|2004|p=102}} Semyonov in particular proved himself to be a talented con man, claiming as an ''ataman'' to have several Cossack Hosts under his command, to have 300&nbsp;million roubles in the bank, and to be supported by American, British, and Japanese banks in his plans to restore both the House of Qing in China and the House of Romanov in Russia. Puyi gave Semyonov a loan of 5,000 British pounds, which Semyonov never repaid.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|p=162}} Another visitor to the Garden of Serenity was General [[Kenji Doihara]], a Japanese Army officer who was fluent in Mandarin and a man of great charm who manipulated Puyi via flattery, telling him that a great man such as himself should go conquer Manchuria and then, just as his Qing ancestors did in the 17th century, use Manchuria as a base for conquering China.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|p=179}}

[[File:Puyi and Wanrong Tianjin.jpg|thumb|Puyi and Wanrong in Tianjin, 1920s]]
In 1928, during the [[Northern Expedition]] to reunify China, [[Sun Dianying]], a warlord who had switched allegiances from Zhang to [[Chiang Kai-shek]] after the latter's [[Kuomintang]] army took Beijing from Zhang, [[Looting of the Eastern Mausoleum|sacked the Qing tombs]] outside Beijing. The news that the Qing tombs had been plundered and the corpse of Empress Dowager Cixi desecrated deeply offended Puyi, who never forgave the Kuomintang and held Chiang personally responsible—partly due to allegations that Kuomintang leaders, including [[Soong Mei-ling|Madame Chiang]], had accepted bribes from Sun's looting.<ref>{{Cite web |title=人民文摘 |url=http://paper.people.com.cn/rmwz/html/2012-12/01/content_1160300.htm?div=-1 |access-date=2025-04-09 |website=paper.people.com.cn}}</ref> The incident underscored Puyi’s political impotence and contributed to his decision to turn to the Japanese.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|pp=167–168}} 

During his time in Tianjin, Puyi was besieged with visitors asking him for money, including various members of the vast Qing family, old Manchu bannermen, journalists prepared to write articles calling for a Qing restoration for the right price, and eunuchs who had once lived in the Forbidden City and were now living in poverty. Puyi was often bored with his life, and engaged in maniacal shopping to compensate, recalling that he was addicted to "buying pianos, watches, clocks, radios, Western clothes, leather shoes, and spectacles".{{sfnp|Behr|1987|pp=174–175}}

Puyi's first wife, Wanrong, continued to smoke opium recreationally during this period.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|p=176}} Their marriage began to fall apart as they spent more and more time apart, meeting only at mealtimes.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|p=176}} Puyi wrote in his memoir:
{{blockquote|Even if I had had only one wife she would not have found life with me interesting since my preoccupation was my restoration. Frankly, I did not know anything about love. In other marriages husband and wife were equal, but to me wife and consort were both the slaves and tools of their master."{{sfnp|Puyi|Kramer|Tsai|1987|p=138}}}}

Wanrong complained that her life as an "empress" was extremely dull as the rules for an empress forbade her from going out dancing as she wanted, instead forcing her to spend her days in traditional rituals that she found to be meaningless, all the more so as China was a republic and her title of empress was symbolic only. The westernised Wanrong loved to go out dancing, play tennis, wear western clothes and make-up, listen to jazz music, and to socialise with her friends, which the more conservative courtiers all objected to. She resented having to play the traditional role of a Chinese empress, but was unwilling to break with Puyi. Puyi's butler was secretly a Japanese spy, and in a report to his masters, he described Puyi and Wanrong one day spending hours screaming at one another in the gardens with Wanrong repeatedly calling Puyi a "eunuch"; whether she meant that as a reference to sexual inadequacy is unclear.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|pp=176–177}} Puyi's sister [[Yunhe (princess)|Yunhe]] noted in her diary in September 1930, that Puyi had told her that "yesterday the Empress flew into rage saying that she had been bullied by me and she poured out terrible and absurd words".{{sfnp|Wang|2014}} In 1931, Puyi's concubine Wenxiu declared that she had had enough of him and his court and simply walked out, filing for divorce.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|p=177}}