28 Facts About Pujie

Pujie was a Qing dynasty imperial prince of the Aisin-Gioro.

Pujie was the younger brother of Puyi, the last Emperor of China.

Pujie was later pardoned and released from prison by the Chinese government, after which he remained in Beijing where he joined the Communist Party and served in a number of positions in the party until his death in 1994.

Pujie was the second son of Zaifeng and his primary consort, Youlan.

In 1929, Pujie travelled to Japan and was educated in the Gakushuin Peers' School.

Pujie was first married in 1924 to a Manchu noblewoman, Tang Shixia, but they had no children.

Pujie left his wife behind when he went to Japan, and the marriage was dissolved some years later.

Pujie selected Hiro Saga, who was a relative of the Japanese imperial family, from a photograph from a number of possible candidates vetted by the Kwantung Army.

However, Pujie was not appointed by his brother as the heir to the throne of the Qing dynasty, as imperial tradition stated that a childless emperor should choose his heir from a subsequent generation instead of from his own generation.

Pujie returned briefly to Japan in 1944 to attend the Army Staff College.

At the time of the collapse of Manchukuo during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945, Pujie initially attempted to escape to Japan with his brother.

Pujie was arrested by the Soviet Red Army and first sent to a prison camp in Chita, and then to another in Khabarovsk along with his brother and other relatives.

Pujie spent about five years in the Soviet prison camps until 1950, when the Sino-Soviet rapprochement allowed him and his fellow captives to be extradited to the newly founded People's Republic of China.

On his return to China, Pujie was incarcerated in the War Criminals Management Centre in Fushun, Liaoning.

Pujie joined the Communist Party and served in a number of positions.

In 1978, Pujie became a deputy from Shanghai at the 5th National People's Congress.

Pujie subsequently served as Vice Chairman of the Nationalities Committee of the 6th National People's Congress in 1983.

Pujie rose to a seat on the Presidium of the 7th National People's Congress in 1988.

From 1986, Pujie was Honorary Director of the Welfare Fund for Handicapped.

Pujie was a technical adviser for the 1987 film The Last Emperor, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

Pujie died of illness at 07:55 on 28 February 1994 in Beijing at the age of 87.

Pujie's body was cremated and half of his ashes were buried at Nakayama Shrine in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, while the other half were buried in Beijing.

Pujie was from the Manchu Tatara clan, and was the daughter of Zhiqi, a brother of the Guangxu Emperor's concubines Consort Zhen and Consort Jin.

Pujie married Tang when he was 17, but did not get along well with her.

Pujie looted Pujie's ancestral house, the Prince Chun Mansion in Beijing.

In 1935, when Pujie returned to China from his studies in Japan, Puyi tried to help his brother find a Manchu wife.

Pujie met one, Wang Mintong, but they never married.

Pujie eventually married Hiro Saga, a Japanese noblewoman related to the Japanese imperial family, under an arranged marriage.