Puyi

Puyi (Chinese: 溥儀; 7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967), of the Manchu Aisin Gioro clan, commonly known as Henry Pu Yi, was the last Emperor of China and the twelfth and final ruler of the Qing dynasty. When a child, he ruled as the Xuantong Emperor (Chinese: 宣統帝) from 1908 until his forced abdication on 12 February 1912, after the successful Xinhai Revolution. From 1 to 12 July 1917, he was briefly restored to the throne as emperor by the warlord Zhang Xun. In 1932, after the occupation of Manchuria the state of Manchukuo was established by Japan, and he was chosen to become 'Chief Executive' of the new state using the era-name of Datong (Ta-tung). In 1934, he was declared the Kangde Emperor (or Kang-te Emperor) of Manchukuo and ruled until the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945. After the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, Puyi was imprisoned as a war criminal for 10 years, wrote his memoirs and became a titular member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the National People's Congress.

Emperor of China

The Emperor of China (Chinese: 皇帝; pinyin:  Huángdì) was the title of any sovereign of Imperial China reigning between the founding of the Qin dynasty that unified China in 221 BC, until the abdication of Puyi in 1912 following the Xinhai Revolution and the establishment of the Republic of China. The emperor was also referred to as the "Son of Heaven" (Chinese: 天子; pinyin: tiānzǐ), a title that predates the Qin unification, and recognized as the ruler of "all under heaven" (i.e., the whole world). In practice not every Emperor held supreme power in China, although this was usually the case.

Emperors from the same family are classified in historical periods known as dynasties. Most of China's imperial rulers have commonly been considered members of the Han ethnicity, although recent scholarship tends to be wary of applying present day ethnic categories to historical situations. During the Yuan and Qing dynasties China was ruled by ethnic Mongols and Manchus respectively. The orthodox historical view sees these as non-native dynasties that became sinicized, though some recent scholars (such as those of the New Qing History school) argue that the interaction between politics and ethnicity was far more complex. Nevertheless, in both cases these rulers claimed the Mandate of Heaven to assume the role of traditional Confucian emperors in order to rule over China proper.