Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Who killed the last emperor of China?
The Last Emperor () is a 1987 British-Italian epic biographical drama film about the life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China, whose autobiography was the basis for the screenplay written by Mark Peploe and Bernardo Bertolucci. Independently produced by Jeremy Thomas, it was directed by Bertolucci and released in 1987 by Columbia Pictures. Puyi's life is depicted from his ascent to the throne as a small boy to his imprisonment and political rehabilitation by the Communist Party of China.
Scattered Ming remnants still existed after 1644, including those of Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong) who established the Kingdom of Tungning on Taiwan (Formosa). Despite the loss of Beijing and the death of the Chongzhen Emperor, Ming power was by no means totally destroyed. Nanjing, Fujian, Guangdong, Shanxi, and Yunnan were all strongholds of Ming resistance. However, there were several pretenders for the Ming throne, and their forces were divided. Each bastion of resistance was individually defeated by the Qing until 1662, when the last southern Ming emperor died, the Yongli Emperor, Zhu Youlang. The last Ming princes to hold out were the Prince of Ningjing Zhu Shugui and Prince Zhu Honghuan (朱弘桓), son of Zhu Yihai, who stayed with Koxinga's Ming loyalists in the Kingdom of Tungning until 1683. Koxinga's grandson Zheng Keshuang surrendered to the Qing dynasty in 1683 and was rewarded by the Kangxi Emperor with the title "Duke of Haicheng" (海澄公) and he and his soldiers were inducted into the Eight Banners,
Like their Ming (1368–1644) predecessors—but unlike the emperors of earlier dynasties like the Han (206 BCE–220 CE), Tang (618–907), and Song (960–1276)—Qing emperors used only one era name ("Shunzhi", "Qianlong", "Guangxu", etc.) for their entire reign, and are most commonly known by that name. Starting with Nurhaci, there were thirteen Qing rulers. Following the capture of Beijing in 1644, the Shunzhi Emperor (r. 1643–1661) became the first of the eleven Qing sovereigns to rule over China proper. At 61 years, the reign of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722) was the longest, though his grandson, the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–1796), would have reigned even longer if he had not purposely ceded the throne to the Jiaqing Emperor (r. 1796–1820) in order not to reign longer than his grandfather. Qing emperors succeeded each other from father to son until the Tongzhi Emperor (r. 1861–1875), the 11th Qing ruler, died childess in 1875. The last two emperors were chosen by Empress Dowager Cixi from other branches of the imperial clan.
Zhu Wen, originally a salt smuggler who had served under the rebel Huang Chao, surrendered to Tang forces. By helping to defeat Huang, he was granted a series of rapid military promotions. In 907 the Tang dynasty was ended when Zhu Wen, now a military governor, deposed the last emperor of Tang, Emperor Ai of Tang, and took the throne for himself (known posthumously as Emperor Taizu of Later Liang). He established the Later Liang, which inaugurated the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. A year later Zhu Wen had the deposed Emperor Ai poisoned to death.
The Han dynasty was founded by the peasant rebel leader (Liu Bang), known posthumously as Emperor Gao ("r". 202 –195 BC) or Gaodi. The longest reigning emperor of the dynasty was Emperor Wu ("r". 141–87 BC), or Wudi, who reigned for 54 years. The dynasty was briefly interrupted by the Xin dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang, but he was overthrown in 23 AD and the Han dynasty was reestablished by Liu Xiu, known posthumously as Emperor Guangwu (r. 25–57 AD), or Guangwu Di. The last Han emperor, Emperor Xian ("r". 189–220 AD), was a puppet monarch of Chancellor Cao Cao (155–220 AD), who dominated the court and was made King of Wei. In 220 AD, Cao's son Pi usurped the throne as Emperor Wen of Wei ("r". 220–226 AD) and ended the Han dynasty.
The short reigns of Emperor Wu's grandsons, Xiao Zhaoye and Xiao Zhaowen (his first son predeceased him), were dominated by Xiao Luan, Emperor's Wu's first cousin. He killed them in turn and crowned himself as Emperor Ming of Southern Qi. Using the government secretaries (典簽官), he slaughtered all the descendants of Emperors Gao and Wu. Emperor Ming soon became very ill and started following Daoism, changing his whole wardrobe to red. He also passed an edict making officials try to find silver fish (銀魚). He died in 498 and was succeeded by his son Xiao Baojuan, who killed high officials and governors at whim, sparking many revolts. The final revolt in 501 started after Xiao Baojun killed his prime minister Xiao Yi, leading his brother Xiao Yan to revolt under the banner of Xiao Baojun's brother who was declared Emperor He of Southern Qi. Xiao Baojun was killed by one of his generals during the siege of his capital at Jiankang, and after a short puppet reign by Emperor He, Xiao Yan overthrew the Southern Qi and established the Liang dynasty.
Zhang Ti (236–280), courtesy name Juxian, was an official of the state of Eastern Wu during the late Three Kingdoms period (220–280) of China. He was the last Imperial Chancellor of Wu. In 280, when the Jin dynasty invaded Wu as part of its strategy to reunify China under Jin rule, Zhang Ti led the Wu forces into battle to resist the Jin invasion. He was killed in action during a battle around present-day He and Dangtu counties in Anhui. In the same year, the Wu emperor Sun Hao surrendered to the Jin dynasty, thus bringing an end to the existence of Wu and the Three Kingdoms period.
Yang Pu (楊溥) (900 – January 21, 939), formally Emperor Rui of Wu (吳睿帝), known as Emperor Gaoshang Sixuan Honggu Rang (高尚思玄弘古讓皇(帝)) or, in short, Emperor Rang (讓皇, "the emperor who yielded"), while still living during the initial months of succeeding Southern Tang, was the last ruler of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Wu, and the only one that claimed the title of emperor. During his reign, the state was in effective control of the regents Xu Wen and Xu Wen's adoptive son and successor Xu Zhigao. In 938, Xu Zhigao forced Yang Pu to yield the throne to him, who then established Southern Tang.
The end of the Han dynasty refers to the period of Chinese history from 189 to 220 AD, which roughly coincides with the tumultuous reign of the Han dynasty's last ruler, Emperor Xian. During this period, the country was thrown into turmoil by the Yellow Turban Rebellion (184–205). Meanwhile, the Han Empire's institutions were destroyed by the warlord Dong Zhuo, and fractured into regional regimes ruled by various warlords, some of whom were nobles and officials of the Han imperial court. Eventually, one of those warlords, Cao Cao, was able to gradually reunify the empire, ostensibly under Emperor Xian's rule, but the empire was actually controlled by Cao Cao himself. Cao Cao's efforts to completely reunite the Han empire were rebuffed at the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 / 209, when his armies were defeated by the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei. The Han dynasty formally ended in 220 when Cao Cao's son and heir, Cao Pi, pressured Emperor Xian into abdicating in his favour. Cao Pi became the emperor of a new state, Cao Wei. A year later, in response to Cao Pi's usurpation of the Han throne, Liu Bei declared himself emperor of Shu Han; and in 229, Sun Quan followed suit, declaring himself emperor of Eastern Wu. The period from Emperor Xian's abdication in 220 to the partial reunification of China under the Jin dynasty in 265 was known as the Three Kingdoms era in Chinese history.
Emperor Renzong of Song (30 May 1010 – 30 April 1063, Chinese calendar: 14 April 1010（the 3rd year of Dazhongxiangfu, 大中祥符三年） - 29 March 1063 (the 8th year of Jiayou, 嘉祐八年)), personal name Zhao Zhen, was the fourth emperor of the Song dynasty in China. He reigned for about 41 years from 1022 to his death in 1063, and was the longest reigning Song dynasty emperor. He was the sixth son of his predecessor, Emperor Zhenzong, and was succeeded by his cousin's son, Zhao Shu who took the throne as Emperor Yingzong because his own sons died prematurely. His original personal name was Zhao Shouyi but it was changed by imperial decree in 1018 to "Zhao Zhen", which means 'auspicious' in Chinese.
By 619, Emperor Yang was dead, killed at Jiangdu (江都, in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu), and Murong Shun, who had been with Emperor Yang at Jiangdu, had returned to the Sui capital Chang'an, then taken over by one of the generals who had rebelled against Emperor Yang, Li Yuan, who had also since then taken the throne and established a new state of Tang as its Emperor Gaozu, still fighting for supremacy of China with many other rebel rulers. Emperor Gaozu negotiated with Murong Fuyun, who had by now recovered the Tuyuhun lands, to attack one of his rivals, Li Gui the Emperor of Liang. Murong Fuyun agreed, and requested that Murong Shun be released. Emperor Gaozu agreed, and Murong Shun was able to return to Tuyuhun. (However, by this time, Murong Fuyun had already created another son to be his crown prince, and it was said that Murong Shun was depressed thereafter.)
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (; 8 September 685 – 3 May 762), also commonly known as Emperor Ming of Tang or Illustrious August, personal name Li Longji, also known as Wu Longji () from 690 to 705, was the seventh emperor of the Tang dynasty in China, reigning from 713 to 756 C.E. His reign of 43 years was the longest during the Tang dynasty. In the early half of his reign he was a diligent and astute ruler. Ably assisted by capable chancellors like Yao Chong, Song Jing and Zhang Yue, he was credited with bringing Tang China to a pinnacle of culture and power. Emperor Xuanzong, however, was blamed for over-trusting Li Linfu, Yang Guozhong and An Lushan during his late reign, with Tang's golden age ending in the Anshi Rebellion.
The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the late 5th century. Romulus Augustulus is often considered to be the last emperor of the West after his forced abdication in 476, although Julius Nepos maintained a claim recognized by the Eastern Empire to the title until his death in 480. Following Nepos' death, the Eastern Emperor Zeno abolished the division of the position and proclaimed himself as the sole Emperor of a reunited Roman Empire. The Eastern imperial lineage continued to rule from Constantinople ("New Rome"); they continued to style themselves as Emperor of the Romans (later βασιλεύς Ῥωμαίων in Greek), but are often referred to in modern scholarship as Byzantine emperors. Constantine XI Palaiologos was the last Roman emperor in Constantinople, dying in the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453.
In the initial stage of the regency, the four regents oversaw the government together and provided assistance towards each other in accordance with the Shunzhi Emperor's dying wishes. They continued the war against resistance forces loyal to the Ming dynasty (the dynasty before the Qing dynasty). In April 1662, the last ruler of the Southern Ming dynasty, the Yongli Emperor, was killed by Wu Sangui on the orders of the four regents. Within the next two years the Qing government had suppressed all anti-Qing armed forces within China. The Qing dynasty then moved on to a stable development phase as the society and economy had been badly devastated by war. The four regents devised policies to aid in the recovery and development of China.
Although nominally under the rule of the Han, these kings were "de facto" independent and held considerable power within their territories, which could span several prefectures. As these kingdoms proved unruly, Liu Bang gradually subdued them through conspiracies, wars, and political maneuvering. Many were thus deposed and their kingdoms annexed by Han. As he was dying, the emperor ordered his ministers to swear an oath that only members of the royal house of Liu would be created as kings thenceforth. This injunction was violated by his widow, Empress Dowager Lü, who established several kingdoms with her own relatives as kings. They were destroyed after her death. The last king of the Western Han was Wu Zhu, King Jing of Changsha, who died without an heir in 157 BC. After that, there were no kings outside the royal clan until the end of the Han dynasty, when Cao Cao styled himself King of Wei in AD 216.
In 904, Zhu forced Emperor Zhaozong to move the capital from Chang'an to Luoyang, which was even more firmly under his control. Later that year, fearing that the adult Emperor Zhaozong would try to rise against him while he was away on campaigns against other warlords, he had Emperor Zhaozong assassinated. Bypassing Li Yu and the other older princes, he had an edict issued in Emperor Zhaozong's name creating Li Zuo crown prince and changing his name to Li Chu. Shortly after, Li Chu took the throne (as Emperor Ai). Empress He, who survived the assassination, was honored empress dowager.
The Kangxi Emperor's reign of 61 years makes him the longest-reigning emperor in Chinese history (although his grandson, the Qianlong Emperor, had the longest period of "de facto" power) and one of the longest-reigning rulers in the world. However, since he ascended the throne at the age of seven, actual power was held for six years by four regents and his grandmother, the Grand Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang.
Emperor Xian, the last emperor of the Han dynasty, was a descendant of the first emperor Liu Bang. Lasting for over 400 years (the first to last for more than a century), the Han Dynasty is regarded as one of the golden ages of Chinese history. The Han Dynasty was interrupted by the reign of the usurper Wang Mang, who declared the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD); on this basis, the Han Dynasty is generally divided into the Western Han (206 BC – 9 AD and 23–25 AD) and the Eastern Han (25–220 AD). The rulers of the Shu Han, one of the three successor states to the Han Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period, were descended from the Han imperial family, and considered themselves a continuation of the Han Dynasty; they are included below.
Emperor Wuzong died in 846 and was succeeded by his uncle Emperor Xuānzong. As Emperor Xuānzong despised Li Deyu for his hold on power, he had Li Deyu removed from his chancellor post and sent out of the capital. Li Hui, meanwhile, remained as chancellor and oversaw the building of Emperor Wuzong's tomb, but in 847 was also sent out of the capital to serve as the military governor of Xichuan Circuit (西川, headquartered in modern Chengdu, Sichuan). That winter, with Li Deyu accused of having wrongly killed Wu Xiang (吳湘) on charges of corruption and forced marriage with a commoner — a case that both Li Hui and Zheng Ya were both involved in reviewing and affirming the death sentence of — Li Hui was demoted to be the governor (觀察使, "Guanchashi") of Hunan Circuit (湖南, headquartered in modern Changsha, Hunan) and prefect of its capital Tan Prefecture (in modern Changsha, Hunan). Emperor Xuānzong was then set to further give him the empty title of "Taizi Binke" (太子賓客), an advisor to the Crown Prince (there being no crown prince at the time) and having his office at the eastern capital Luoyang, when an imperial attendant objected to it as being an overly lenient punishment. Li Hui was thereafter demoted to be the prefect of Fu Prefecture (撫州, in modern Fuzhou, Jiangxi). (It was from Emperor Xuānzong's edict that it could be attested that Li Hui carried the title of Duke of Longxi, which was not otherwise mentioned in his biographies.)
Cao Cao died on 15 March 220. His son and successor, Cao Pi, soon forced Emperor Xian to abdicate the throne in favour of himself, ending the Han dynasty. Cao Pi established a new state known as Cao Wei (sometimes known inaccurately as the Kingdom of Wei), and he granted Emperor Xian a noble title – Duke of Shanyang (山陽公). The former Emperor Xian died in 234 and was buried with honours befitting an emperor, using Han ceremonies, and the then emperor of Wei, Cao Rui, was one of the mourners. As Emperor Xian's crown prince was already dead, his grandson Liu Kang (劉康) inherited his dukedom, which lasted for 75 more years and two more dukes, Liu Jin (劉瑾) and Liu Qiu (劉秋), until the line was exterminated by invading Xiongnu tribes in about 309, during the Jin dynasty. This practice of an emperor conferring hereditary nobility on his predecessor, from whom he usurped the throne, was known as "er wang san ke" (二王三恪).
Li Xi or Li Qi (李谿 per the "Zizhi Tongjian" and the "History of the Five Dynasties" or 李磎 per the "Old Book of Tang" and the "New Book of Tang") (d. June 4, 895), courtesy name Jingwang (景望), nicknamed Li Shulou (李書樓), was an official of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, serving briefly as a chancellor during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong. With imperial power dwindling, Li Xi's fellow chancellor Cui Zhaowei, who associated with the warlords Li Maozhen, Wang Xingyu, and Han Jian, encouraged Li Maozhen, Wang, and Han to march on the capital Chang'an. Once the three warlords arrived in Chang'an, they put Li Xi and his fellow chancellor Wei Zhaodu to death.
Despite the loss of Beijing and the death of the emperor, the Ming were not yet totally destroyed. Nanjing, Fujian, Guangdong, Shanxi, and Yunnan were all strongholds of Ming resistance. However, there were several pretenders for the Ming throne, and their forces were divided. These scattered Ming remnants in southern China after 1644 were collectively designated by 19th-century historians as the Southern Ming. Each bastion of resistance was individually defeated by the Qing until 1662, when the last southern Ming Emperor died, the Yongli Emperor, Zhu Youlang. The last Ming Princes to hold out were the Prince of Ningjing Zhu Shugui and the son of Zhu Yihai, the Prince of Lu Zhu Honghuan (朱弘桓) who stayed with Koxinga's Ming loyalists in the Kingdom of Tungning (in Taiwan) until 1683. Zhu Shugui proclaimed that he acted in the name of the deceased Yongli Emperor. The Qing eventually sent the seventeen Ming princes still living in Taiwan back to mainland China where they spent the rest of their lives.
Emperor Mo of Jin (died 9 February 1234), personal name Hudun, sinicised name Wanyan Chenglin, was the last emperor of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty, which ruled northern China between the 12th and 13th centuries. Originally a military general, he inherited the throne from his predecessor, Emperor Aizong, during the siege of Caizhou. He was killed in action on the same day he was crowned emperor, when Caizhou fell to the allied forces of the Mongol Empire and Southern Song dynasty. Having ruled as emperor for less than a day, or maybe even just a few hours, he holds the record for being the shortest-reigning monarch in Chinese history.
Emperor Gong of Jin (; 386–421) was last emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (265-420) in China. He became emperor in 419 after his developmentally disabled brother Emperor An was killed by the regent Liu Yu, and during his brief reign, actual power was in Liu Yu's hands. In 420, under pressure from Liu Yu, he yielded the throne to Liu Yu, ending Jin's existence. Liu Yu founded Liu Song, and in 421, believing that the former Jin emperor posed a threat to his rule, had him asphyxiated with a blanket.
Jia Yinghua () was a Chinese writer and researcher who focused on the late Qing Dynasty. He served as Vice President of the Biography Society of China, commissioner of National Commission of the Chinese Writers’ Association, President of China's Electrical Power Writers' Association. Representative works of his include "The Later Half of the Last Emperor's Life" (), "The Last Eunuch of China: The Life of Sun Yaoting" (), "The Last Emperor’s Brother: The Life of Pujie" (). The Japanese version of The Later Half of the Last Emperor's Life is a bestseller in Japan, attracting great attention and garnering enormous popularity. According to authoritative media and press organizations in more than 100 countries and regions, including China, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Japan, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan this book is a successful continuation of "From Emperor to Citizen" (): The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi () written by Pu Yi himself. The Chinese version of "The Later Half of the Last Emperor’s Life" is always a domestic bestseller and has been published nine times in total, and also won the Gold Key Award in the 5th Chinese Books Fair. His calligraphic works were also incorporated into "First Exhibition of Chinese Celebrities’ Calligraphic Works", "Exhibition of Contemporary Celebrities’ Paintings and Calligraphies", etc.
His book "The Extraordinary Life of The Last Emperor of China" was awarded the country's top prize for biographies in 2013.