The Extraordinary Life of The Last Emperor of China The Extraordinary Life of The Last Emperor of China Jia had contact with Li Shuxian, Puyi's widow, for nearly 30 years, and was the first person to collect Puyi's writings and record Li's recollections of her husband. He even wrote the epigraph on Puyi's casket. Jia also interviewed over 300 people who had associations with Puyi since the late Qing dynasty, thus making the book's authenticity irreplaceable. The book narrates Puyi's life from his entry into the Forbidden City at the age of three in 1908 to his death in 1967. It tries to avoid repeating the stories already mentioned
Emperor of China the Ming and Qing Dynasties, emperors simply chose one era name for their entire reign, and people often referred to past emperors with that title. In earlier dynasties, the emperors were known with a temple name (廟號/庙号) given after their death. Most emperors were also given a posthumous name (謚號/谥号, Shìhào), which was sometimes combined with the temple name (e.g. Emperor Shèngzǔrén 聖祖仁皇帝/圣祖仁皇帝 for the Kangxi Emperor). The passing of an emperor was referred to as "Jiàbēng" (駕崩/驾崩, lit. "collapse of the [imperial] chariot") and an emperor that had just died was referred to as "Dàxíng Huángdì" (大行皇帝), literally "the