ABSTRACT
P'u-i and most of the imperial leadership were Manchus, sinicized Mongolians who had taken over China from the ethnic Chinese in 1644 and founded the Qing dynasty. In 1908, on her deathbed, Cixi had P'u-i made emperor under the regency of his father after having Kuang Hsu again placed under house arrest. P'u-i grew up entirely within the bounds of Beijing's 250-acre Forbidden City, which he would not leave until 1924. In 1924, P'u-i abandoned Beijing in the face of another attacker and traveled to Tientsin, on the coast of China, where he engaged in an elaborate court social life and plotted to get his throne back under Japanese protection. In 1934, they did so, and P'u-i acted as the puppet ruler of Manchuria, renamed Manchukuo, until August 1945, when it was taken over by the Soviets.
