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 made by the official dynastic histories; the compilation of a history of the preceding dynasty was considered one of the hallmarks of legitimacy, along with symbols such as the Nine Ding or the Heirloom Seal of the Realm. As with the First Emperor, it was very common also to retroactively grant posthumous titles to the ancestors of the victors; even in Chinese historiography, however, such grants were not considered to elevate emperors prior to the successful declaration of a new dynasty. The Yuan and Qing dynasties were founded by successful invaders; as part of their rule over China, however, they