Who they were
Enthroned in 1908 at age two as the Xuantong Emperor, he abdicated on February 12, 1912 after the Xinhai Revolution — the end of China’s imperial system.
What they did
Under the favorable-treatment terms he kept his title and went on living in the Forbidden City until his expulsion in 1924; a failed 1917 coup restored him for just twelve days. From 1932 he headed Japanese-controlled Manchukuo in the northeast, styled its emperor from 1934 — a puppet role under Japanese control. Captured by Soviet forces in 1945 and returned to the People’s Republic in 1950, he was held for “reeducation” at Fushun, pardoned in 1959, and lived out his days in Beijing as an ordinary citizen and gardener. He wrote the autobiography “The First Half of My Life” and died in 1967.
Legacy
Bertolucci’s film “The Last Emperor” (1987) made his story famous worldwide.