Chinese Writing Desk or Console Table

His­tor­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant writ­ing desk from the first year of the reign of the last Chi­nese emper­or, exe­cut­ed in hong­mu and hard­wood (prob­a­bly huanghuali).
The rec­tan­gu­lar top is framed by a broad, pro­ject­ing apron with a mold­ed under­side, set above three large draw­ers. Each draw­er is fit­ted with bronze han­dles, and the cen­tral one fea­tures a lock and key. The smooth­ly round­ed edges beneath the apron tran­si­tion into square legs, which ter­mi­nate in hoof-shaped feet.

A par­tic­u­lar­ly note­wor­thy his­tor­i­cal detail is the carved inscrip­tion on the under­side of the left draw­er. It reveals that this piece was made in the province of Shanxi in 1909:

1. 山西 （地名）

Shanxi (place name, province)

2. 宣统元年分

Xuan­tong, 1^st year (1909)

The first year of the Xuan­tong era (宣统元年) refers to the inau­gur­al year of the reign title ​“Xuan­tong,” which was adopt­ed fol­low­ing the enthrone­ment of Aisin-Gioro Puyi (爱新觉罗·溥仪), the twelfth emper­or of the Qing dynasty and the last emper­or in Chi­nese his­to­ry. This year cor­re­sponds to 1909 in the Gre­go­ri­an calendar.

3. 教育统计表

Com­piled by the Min­istry of Education

4. 调查局制

Pro­duced by the Inves­ti­ga­tion Bureau

The Inves­ti­ga­tion Bureau is an admin­is­tra­tive author­i­ty under the juris­dic­tion of the Provin­cial Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion of Shanxi. Its scope of respon­si­bil­i­ty includes fur­ni­ture and every­day objects.

A remark­able piece of fur­ni­ture and his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ment, bear­ing a beau­ti­ful pati­na, cre­at­ed amid the tur­bu­lence of the reign of the last Chi­nese emperor.

Aisin-Gioro Puyi – The Last Emper­or of Chi­na (1906 – 1967):

Aisin-Gioro Puyi was only two years old when he ascend­ed the throne as Emper­or of Chi­na, yet a bloody rev­o­lu­tion was to end his reign abrupt­ly in 1912. Fate, how­ev­er, would turn once more: in 1932, he was offered a new — but poi­soned — chance at impe­r­i­al pow­er. Puyi (1906 – 1967) left behind a vivid­ly detailed and wide­ly quot­ed account of what was, besides his coro­na­tion, per­haps the most sig­nif­i­cant moment of his life:

“The Empress Dowa­ger Longyu is sit­ting in a side room of the throne hall, dab­bing her eyes with a hand­ker­chief. In front of her kneels a fat man, tears stream­ing down his face. I sit to the right of the Empress Dowa­ger, utter­ly con­fused, not under­stand­ing why the two adults are cry­ing… Sud­den­ly, the fat man begins to speak amid loud sob­bing and snif­fling, but I can­not make sense of his words.”

Only years lat­er did the young emper­or, sit­ting beside the Empress Dowa­ger, under­stand the grav­i­ty of that moment.
The pow­er­ful Gen­er­al Yuan Shikai was announc­ing his abdi­ca­tion. Thus, at only six years of age, on Feb­ru­ary 12, 1912, the Emper­or of Chi­na was — one might say — forced into retire­ment.

Just four years ear­li­er, the two-year-old Puyi had ascend­ed the throne. He was the son of the half-broth­er of the reign­ing Emper­or Guangxu. Although Puyi belonged to the Aisin-Gioro clan that had ruled the Qing dynasty since the Manchu con­quest of Chi­na in 1644, his dis­tant lin­eage would nor­mal­ly have made suc­ces­sion impos­si­ble. Two fac­tors, how­ev­er, worked in Puyi’s favor: the reign­ing emperor’s child­less­ness and the indomitable will for pow­er of Empress Dowa­ger Cixi. Her relent­less ambi­tion had allowed her to main­tain con­trol over the vast empire for an extra­or­di­nary 47 years, rul­ing through sev­er­al child emperors.

In the autumn of 1908, Empress Dowa­ger Cixi ordered that the two-year-old Puyi be brought to the For­bid­den City. When Emper­or Guangxu died of arsenic poi­son­ing, the young Puyi was crowned the Son of Heav­en and became emper­or of a vast realm. Yet des­tiny had oth­er plans: the pow­er-hun­gry Empress Dowa­ger her­self suc­cumbed to influen­za short­ly there­after.
As strug­gles for pow­er erupt­ed both inside and out­side the palace walls, Puyi lived a sur­re­al child­hood — iso­lat­ed from oth­er chil­dren, sur­round­ed by hun­dreds of ser­vants and eunuchs devot­ed entire­ly to his needs.

In 1911, a bloody upris­ing against the Qing régime broke out and quick­ly spread across the coun­try. Tens of thou­sands lost their lives in mas­sacres tar­get­ing the Manchus. On Jan­u­ary 1, 1912, the Repub­lic of Chi­na was pro­claimed, bring­ing to an end more than two thou­sand years of impe­r­i­al rule.
Puyi was allowed to remain in the For­bid­den City for sev­er­al more years, liv­ing a life of priv­i­lege, until 1924, when he was forced to leave abrupt­ly.
He would, how­ev­er, be giv­en one final oppor­tu­ni­ty to rule. Japan, pur­su­ing its impe­r­i­al ambi­tions in Manchuria, sought a pup­pet leader. Through a staged appeal from the local pop­u­la­tion, Puyi was installed as Pres­i­dent of the Japan­ese-con­trolled state of Manchukuo in 1932, and from March 1, 1934, as emper­or — though one entire­ly at Japan’s mercy.

The advance of the Red Army brought this final reign to an end, and on August 16, 1945, Puyi announced his abdi­ca­tion. Cap­tured by Sovi­et forces, he was hand­ed over to the new Com­mu­nist author­i­ties in Bei­jing in 1950. After nine years of impris­on­ment and ide­o­log­i­cal ​“re-edu­ca­tion,” Puyi spent his final years as a gar­den­er in Beijing’s Botan­i­cal Gar­den. He died there on Octo­ber 17, 1967.

Lit­er­a­ture:
Puyi, ​“I Was Emper­or of Chi­na: From Son of Heav­en to New Man — The Auto­bi­og­ra­phy of the Last Emper­or of China”

Film:
​“The Last Emper­or” (1987), direct­ed by Bernar­do Bertoluc­ci, is an epic film based on the life of Emper­or Puyi, who ascend­ed the throne as a tod­dler and was forced to abdi­cate only three years lat­er. Filmed on loca­tion in Beijing’s For­bid­den City, the pro­duc­tion won nine Acad­e­my Awards and four Gold­en Globes in 1988. In both the film and the source text, the emperor’s name appears as Pu Yi.