Who Was Puyi? China's Last Emperor and the Forbidden City
Puyi became emperor at two years old and lost his throne at six, yet kept living inside the Forbidden City for another twelve years. His story explains how the palace became a public museum.
Puyi was China's last emperor, enthroned in 1908 at age two and forced to abdicate in 1912 at age six when the Qing dynasty collapsed. He kept living inside the Forbidden City's inner court for another twelve years under a deal that let him keep his title and residence, until a 1924 coup expelled him for good. He later became the Japanese-installed puppet ruler of Manchukuo before dying in 1967.
A toddler on the throne
Puyi was born on February 7, 1906, into the Qing imperial clan, and became emperor in 1908 at just two years old after the death of the Guangxu Emperor. A two-year-old obviously did not rule; regents and court officials governed in his name while he grew up inside the Forbidden City, the only home he had ever known, surrounded by the rituals and isolation of a court that was, even then, running out of time. He is remembered today simply as China's last emperor, a title that captures both how briefly his own reign lasted and how completely his abdication closed the door on the Qing dynasty and imperial rule itself. Our overview of the Forbidden City's history covers the wider arc of the Qing dynasty's final decades that Puyi's early reign sat inside.
Abdication, but not eviction
The Qing dynasty did not survive Puyi's childhood. The Xinhai Revolution swept the country in 1911, and on February 12, 1912, six-year-old Puyi was forced to abdicate, formally ending the Qing dynasty and, with it, China's imperial system. What makes his story unusual is what happened next: the abdication agreement, known as the Articles of Favorable Treatment, let Puyi keep his imperial title and continue living inside the Forbidden City's inner court, funded by the new Republican government. For twelve more years, a boy with no empire to rule still occupied the palace at the center of Beijing, tutored and attended by eunuchs, effectively frozen inside a world the revolution had already ended outside its walls.
The 1924 coup that finally expelled him
That arrangement ended abruptly. In 1924, the warlord Feng Yuxiang staged what's known as the Beijing Coup, and one of its acts was revoking the Articles of Favorable Treatment and expelling Puyi from the Forbidden City for good. Within a year, on October 10, 1925, the palace reopened to the public under a new name, the Palace Museum, closing the loop between imperial residence and public institution in barely twelve months. Our Forbidden City vs. Palace Museum guide picks up that transition in more detail.
Puppet emperor of Manchukuo
Puyi's story did not end with his expulsion from Beijing. In 1934, Japan installed him as the puppet "Emperor" of Manchukuo, a nominally independent state carved out of northeastern China under Japanese military control. He held that hollow title until Japan's defeat in 1945, after which he was captured and held by Soviet and then Chinese authorities, eventually released after a period of political reeducation. He lived out his remaining years as a private citizen of the People's Republic of China and died in 1967. It's a startling arc for one life: emperor at two, a private citizen by the end, with a puppet throne and two revolutions in between.
Tours of the palace Puyi lived in
Forbidden City 4-Hour Small Group Guided Tour with Tickets
Small-group guided visit to the Forbidden City with tickets included. About 4 hours.
Forbidden City Tour in Beijing – Group or Private with Tickets
Group or private Forbidden City tour with tickets included. About 8 hours.
Private Beijing Walking Tour of the Forbidden City – 7 Flexible Options
Private walking tour of the Forbidden City with seven flexible route options. About 6 hours.
Forbidden City, Summer Palace & Temple of Heaven Full-Day Tour
Full-day route covering the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven. About 8 hours.
Puyi's life, at a glance
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1906 | Born February 7 |
| 1908 | Becomes emperor at age two |
| 1912 | Forced to abdicate at age six (Xinhai Revolution), February 12 |
| 1912-1924 | Continues living in the Forbidden City's inner court under the Articles of Favorable Treatment |
| 1924 | Expelled from the palace after Feng Yuxiang's Beijing Coup |
| 1925 | The Forbidden City reopens to the public as the Palace Museum |
| 1934-1945 | Japanese puppet "Emperor" of Manchukuo |
| 1967 | Dies |
The palace before and after Puyi
| Under Puyi (1912-1924) | Since 1925 | |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Restricted to the imperial household and staff | Open to any ticketed visitor |
| Function | Residence of a former, abdicated emperor | Public museum, the Palace Museum |
| Daily visitors | None, by design | Capped at roughly 80,000 |
That table is really the whole story compressed into three rows. For twelve years the Forbidden City was a kind of time capsule, a functioning miniature court inside a country that had already become a republic outside its walls. Puyi's 1924 expulsion is the hinge that turned that time capsule into a museum almost overnight, and it's why the palace you can walk through today exists in its current, public form at all.
Why his story still shapes how you'll experience the palace
Puyi is the reason the Forbidden City transitioned from a sealed imperial residence to the public museum you can walk through today, and his life is also the only one that has ever gotten a Western film crew inside the real palace walls: Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 film The Last Emperor, which our guide to movies filmed in the Forbidden City covers in full, including why no production has been allowed to film inside since. Walking the inner court today, the private quarters where a boy emperor lived out the last years of a dynasty, carries more weight once you know that history, which is easiest to absorb on a 4-hour small-group tour that includes tickets and a guide who can point out exactly where it happened.
Our 4-hour small-group tour with tickets included covers the inner court on a focused route, and the full Forbidden City tour with tickets gives you more time to take in the palace Puyi called home for eighteen years. For more on the wider historical record, Britannica's entry on the Forbidden City and the Palace Museum's own official site both document this period.