Gobulo Wanrong

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Empress Wanrong

Gobulo Wanrong ( Chinese  郭 布罗 • 婉容  /  郭 布羅 • 婉容 , Pinyin Guōbùluó Wǎnróng ; born November 13, 1906 in Beijing ; † June 20, 1946 in Yanji ) was the last empress of the Qing dynasty in China and later empress of Manchukuo .

Childhood and youth

Gobulo Wanrong was born as the daughter of Rongyuan, the interior minister of the Qing government and head of one of the richest and most famous banner families that belonged to the "Pure White Banner" (正 白旗) and the Daur people . Wanrong attended the American Mission School in Tianjin and had an American teacher, Isabel Ingram, who gave her the Christian name "Elizabeth".

At the age of fourteen, Wanrong was selected from a series of photographs of potential wives presented to Emperor Puyi . Puyi resided in the Forbidden City at that time as a non-sovereign monarch . In 1922 Puyi was married to Wanrong and Erdet Wenxiu , but Puyi showed no particular interest in either of them.

Empress of China and Manchukuo

Wanrong and Puyi's marriage remained childless. Some historians doubt that intercourse ever took place. Hiro Saga , the wife of Puyi's brother Pujie , described in her memoirs the emperor's homosexual affairs with young men.

Wanrong has been taking opium since she was a teenager . According to Puyi's autobiography, it was fashionable at the time for educated young girls to smoke cigarettes, often with a small amount of opium added to them.

It is rumored that Wanrong became pregnant by one of her servants in 1940 and gave birth to a child who was killed immediately after birth. From then on, Wanrong's condition deteriorated significantly and she lived in an almost perpetual high on opium.

In June 1946, Wanrong died in Yanji Prison at the age of 39 as a result of malnutrition and opium withdrawal. Puyi only found out about this three years later.

In October 2006, Wanrong's younger brother Gobulo Runqi (1912-2007) had a grave built for her in the Qing Dynasty necropolis, 140 km southwest of Beijing .

literature

  • Pu Yi: I was Emperor of China. From the Son of Heaven to the New Man. The autobiography of the last Chinese emperor ISBN 978-3423211680

Web links

Commons : Gobulo Wanrong  - collection of images, videos and audio files