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{{short description|Chinese politician and younger brother of Puyi}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Pujie
| image        = Pujie, brother of Emperor Puyi, in military dress, 1930s-1940s,.png
| caption      = Pujie wearing military dress, {{circa|1930-1940}}
| succession   = [[Head of the House of Aisin-Gioro]]
| reign-type   = Period
| reign        = 17 October 1967 – 28 February 1994
| predecessor  = [[Puyi]]
| successor    = [[Jin Youzhi]]
| spouse       = {{plainlist|
* {{Marriage|Tang Shixia|1924|1928|end=div}}
* {{marriage|[[Hiro Saga]]|1937|1987|end=died}}
}}
| spouse-type  = Consorts
| issue        = [[Princess Huisheng|Huisheng]]<br />[[Husheng]]
| full name    = Aisin-Gioro Pujie<br />({{linktext|愛新覺羅}} {{linktext|溥傑}})
| house        = [[House of Aisin-Gioro|Aisin-Gioro]]
| father       = [[Zaifeng, Prince Chun|Zaifeng]], [[Prince Chun (醇)|Prince Chun of the First Rank]]
| mother       = [[Youlan (Gūwalgiya)|Youlan]]
| birth_date   = {{birth date|1907|4|16|df=yes}}
| birth_place  = [[Prince Chun Mansion]], [[Beijing|Peking]], [[Qing dynasty]]
| death_date   = {{death date and age|1994|2|28|1907|4|16|df=yes}}
| death_place  = [[Beijing]], [[China]]
| burial_place = Nagayama Shrine, [[Shimonoseki]], [[Yamaguchi Prefecture]], [[Japan]]<br />Beijing, China
| module       = {{Infobox military person | embed=yes
   |nickname=
   |allegiance= {{flag|Manchukuo}}
   |branch= {{flagdeco|Manchukuo|army}} [[Manchukuo Imperial Guards]]
   |serviceyears=
   |rank=
   |unit=
   |commands=
   |battles=
   |awards=
   |relations=
   |signature = }}|
}}
{{Infobox Chinese
| t = 溥傑
| s = 溥杰
| p = Pǔjié
| w = P'u³-chieh²
| kanji = 溥傑
| altname = Junzhi<br />{{small|([[courtesy name]])}}
| c2 = {{linktext|俊之}}
| p2 = Jùnzhī
| w2 = Chün⁴-chih¹
| altname3 = Bingfan<br />{{small|([[art name]])}}
| c3 = {{linktext|秉藩}}
| p3 = Bǐngfān
| w3 = Ping³-fan¹
| mi = {{IPAc-cmn|p|u|3|.|j|ie|2}}
| bpmf = ㄆㄨˇ ㄐㄧㄝˊ
| tp = Pǔ-jié
| tp2 = Jyùn-jhih
| mi2 = {{IPAc-cmn|jun|4|.|zhi|1}}
| bpmf2 = ㄐㄩㄣˋ ㄓ
| tp3 = Bǐng-fan
| mi3 = {{IPAc-cmn|b|ing|3|.|f|an|1}}
| bpmf3 = ㄅㄧㄥˇ ㄈㄢ
| hepburn = Fuketsu
| kunrei = Huketu
| hiragana = ふけつ
| katakana = フケツ
}}

'''Pujie''' ({{zh |t = {{linktext|溥|傑}}}}; 16 April 1907 – 28 February 1994) was a [[Qing dynasty]] imperial prince of the [[House of Aisin-Gioro|Aisin-Gioro]]. Pujie was the younger brother of [[Puyi]], the last [[Emperor of China]]. After the fall of the Qing dynasty, Pujie went to [[Empire of Japan|Japan]], where he was educated and married to [[Hiro Saga]], a Japanese noblewoman. In 1937, he moved to [[Manchukuo]], where his brother ruled as Emperor under varying degrees of Japanese control during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] (1937–1945). After the war ended, Pujie was captured by [[Soviet Armed Forces|Soviet forces]], held in Soviet prison camps for five years, and then extradited back to the People's Republic of China, where he was incarcerated for about 10 years in the [[Fushun War Criminals Management Centre]]. He was later pardoned and released from prison by the Chinese government, after which he remained in [[Beijing]] where he joined the [[Communist Party of China|Communist Party]] and served in a number of positions in the party until his death in 1994.<ref>{{cite news|date=2 March 1994|title=Pu Jie, 87, Dies, Ending Dynasty Of the Manchus|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/02/obituaries/pu-jie-87-dies-ending-dynasty-of-the-manchus.html|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|agency=[[Associated Press]]|access-date=9 January 2023}}</ref>

==Names==
Pujie's Manchu name was {{mongolUnicode|{{linktext|ᡦᡠ}} {{linktext|ᡤᡳᠶᡝ}}}}; ''Pu-giye'', his [[courtesy name]] '''Junzhi''', and his [[art name]] '''Bingfan'''. [[Zeng Guofan]] was a source of inspiration for Pujie's art name, Bingfan. ''Bingfan'' means "live up to (the legacy of Zeng Guo)''fan''".

==Early life==
[[File:PuYi 1909.jpg|thumb|Pujie, held by his father [[Zaifeng, Prince Chun|Prince Chun]] (left), and his older brother, Puyi (right).]]
Pujie was the second son of [[Zaifeng, Prince Chun|Zaifeng (Prince Chun)]] and his primary consort, [[Youlan (Gūwalgiya)|Youlan]]. As a child, he was brought to the [[Forbidden City]] in [[Beijing]] to be a playmate and classmate to his brother, [[Puyi]]. A well-known incident recounted how Puyi threw a tantrum when he saw that the inner lining of one of Pujie's coats was yellow, because yellow was traditionally a colour reserved only for the emperor.{{sfn|Cotter|2007|p=76}}

In 1929, Pujie travelled to Japan and was educated in the [[Gakushūin]] Peers' School. He became fluent in Japanese. Later, he enrolled at the [[Imperial Japanese Army Academy]] and graduated in July 1935.

Pujie was first married in 1924 to a Manchu noblewoman, Tang Shixia, but they had no children. He left his wife behind when he went to Japan, and the marriage was dissolved some years later. After graduating from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, Pujie agreed to an [[Miai|arranged marriage]] with a Japanese noblewoman. He selected [[Hiro Saga]], who was a relative of the [[Imperial House of Japan|Japanese imperial family]], from a photograph from a number of possible candidates vetted by the [[Kwantung Army]].{{sfn|Lebra|1995|p=213}} As Puyi did not have an heir, the wedding had strong political implications, and was aimed at both fortifying relations between the two countries and introducing Japanese blood into the Manchu imperial family.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

The engagement ceremony took place at the Manchukuo embassy in [[Tokyo]] on 2 February 1937 with the official wedding held in the Imperial Army Hall at Kudanzaka, Tokyo, on 3 April. In October, the couple moved to [[Changchun|Xinjing]], the capital of Manchukuo, where Puyi was then the [[Emperor of Manchukuo|Emperor]].
==Life in Manchukuo==
As Puyi had no children, Pujie was regarded as first in line to succeed his brother as the emperor of Manchukuo; the Japanese officially proclaimed him the [[heir presumptive]]. However, Pujie was not appointed by his brother as the heir to the throne of the Qing dynasty,{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}} as imperial tradition stated that a childless emperor should choose his heir from a subsequent generation instead of from his own generation.{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}} While in Manchukuo, Pujie served as honorary head of the [[Manchukuo Imperial Guards]]. He returned briefly to Japan in 1944 to attend the [[Army War College (Japan)|Army Staff College]].

At the time of the [[Evacuation of Manchukuo|collapse of Manchukuo]] during the [[Soviet invasion of Manchuria]] in August 1945, Pujie initially attempted to escape to Japan with his brother. However, as it became apparent that no escape was possible, he opted to return to Xinjing in an unsuccessful attempt to surrender the city to forces of the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]], rather than have the city fall into foreign hands.

Pujie was arrested by the Soviet [[Red Army]] and first sent to a prison camp in [[Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai|Chita]], and then to another in [[Khabarovsk]] along with his brother and other relatives. He spent about five years in the Soviet prison camps until 1950, when the Sino-Soviet rapprochement allowed him and his fellow captives to be extradited to the newly founded [[People's Republic of China]].

==Life in the People's Republic of China==
On his return to China, Pujie was incarcerated in the [[Fushun War Criminals Management Centre|War Criminals Management Centre]] in [[Fushun]], [[Liaoning]]. A model prisoner, he was eventually pardoned and released from prison by the Chinese government in 1960. He joined the [[Communist Party of China|Communist Party]] and served in a number of positions. In 1961, with permission from Chinese premier [[Zhou Enlai]], he was reunited with his wife and younger daughter Husheng and settled in Beijing, while his daughter would later return to Japan, becoming a citizen there. In 1963, his daughter returned to stay with him and his wife for one year before returning to Japan again.

In 1978, Pujie became a deputy from [[Shanghai]] at the [[5th National People's Congress]]. He subsequently served as Vice Chairman of the Nationalities Committee of the [[6th National People's Congress]] in 1983. He was appointed Deputy Head of the China–Japan Friendship Group from 1985. He rose to a seat on the [[Presidium of the National People's Congress|Presidium]] of the [[7th National People's Congress]] in 1988. From 1986, Pujie was also Honorary Director of the Welfare Fund for Handicapped.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mackerras |first1=Colin |author-link1=Colin Mackerras |last2=Yorke |first2=Amanda |year=1991 |chapter=Aisin Giorro Pujie |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgehandboo0000mack/page/73/mode/2up |chapter-url-access=registration |title=The Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgehandboo0000mack/page/73/mode/2up 73] |isbn=0-521-38755-8}}</ref>

Pujie was also a technical adviser for the 1987 film ''[[The Last Emperor]]'', directed by [[Bernardo Bertolucci]]. On 28 November 1991, he was awarded an honorary [[Doctor of Law]] by [[Ritsumeikan University]]. He died of illness at 07:55 on 28 February 1994 in Beijing at the age of 87. His body was cremated and half of his ashes were buried at Nakayama Shrine in [[Shimonoseki]], [[Yamaguchi Prefecture]], Japan, while the other half were buried in Beijing.

== Family ==
* First wife, of the [[Tatara clan]] ({{lang|zh|唐氏}}; 1904–1993), personal name Shixia ({{lang|zh|石霞}})
* [[Hiro Saga|Second wife]], of the Saga clan ({{lang|zh|嵯峨氏}}; 16 March 1914 – 20 June 1987), personal name Hiro ({{lang|zh|浩}})
** [[Princess Huisheng|Huisheng]] (26 February 1938 – 4 December 1957), ({{lang|zh|慧生}})
** [[Husheng]] (b. 13 March 1940), ({{lang|zh|嫮生}})
*** Married Kenji ({{lang|zh|健治}}) of the Japanese Fukunaga ({{lang|zh|福永}}) clan in 1968, and had issue (three sons, two daughters)
===Immediate family===
[[File:Puyi with his family.png|thumb|A young Pujie, centre left, with his brother Puyi and sisters|left|289x289px]]Pujie's first wife was Tang Yiying (唐怡瑩; 1904–1993), who was better known as Tang Shixia (唐石霞). She was from the [[Manchu people|Manchu]] Tatara (他他拉) clan, and was the daughter of Zhiqi, a brother of the [[Guangxu Emperor]]'s concubines [[Pearl Concubine|Consort Zhen]] and [[Imperial Noble Consort Wenjing|Consort Jin]]. Pujie married Tang when he was 17, but did not get along well with her. In 1926, Tang became [[Zhang Xueliang]]'s mistress and broke ties with Pujie and his family. When Pujie went to Japan for his studies, Tang had another affair – this time with Lu Xiaojia (盧筱嘉), the son of the warlord [[Lu Yongxiang (warlord)|Lu Yongxiang]]. She looted Pujie's ancestral house, the [[Prince Chun Mansion]] in Beijing. Since then, Pujie and Tang had lived separately until their divorce. In 1949, Tang moved to [[British Hong Kong|Hong Kong]] and became a lecturer at the School of Eastern Languages in the [[University of Hong Kong]].

In 1935, when Pujie returned to China from his studies in Japan, Puyi tried to help his brother find a Manchu wife. Pujie met one, [[Wang Mintong]] (王敏彤), but they never married.

Pujie eventually married Hiro Saga, a Japanese noblewoman related to the [[Imperial House of Japan|Japanese imperial family]], under an [[Miai|arranged marriage]]. They had two daughters: [[Princess Huisheng|Huisheng]] (1938–1957) and Husheng (嫮生; born 1940). Huisheng died on 4 December 1957 at [[Mount Amagi]] in Japan in what appeared to be a [[murder–suicide]] case, while Husheng married Fukunaga Kenji (福永健治) and became known as "Fukunaga Kosei" after her marriage. The couple had five children.{{Infobox royal styles
|royal name = Aisin Gioro Pujie
|dipstyle = His Imperial Highness
|offstyle = Your Imperial Highness
|image = Seal of Qing dynasty.svg
}}

==See also==
* [[Royal and noble ranks of the Qing dynasty]]
* {{section link|Imperial Chinese harem system|Qing}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book |last=Behr |first=Edward |author-link=Edward Behr (journalist) |year=1987 |title=The Last Emperor |url=https://archive.org/details/lastemperor00behr |url-access=registration |publisher=Bantam |isbn=0-553-34474-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Cotter |first=Edward |year=2007 |title=Kids Who Rule: The Remarkable Lives of Five Child Monarchs |publisher=Annick Press |isbn=978-1-55451-062-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Lebra |first=Takie Sugiyama |author-link=Takie Lebra |year=1995 |title=Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-07602-8}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051001070201/http://www.city.chiba.jp/ward/e-inage/history/aisinkakurahuketsu.html "The Last Emperor's Brother HUKETSU" (Chiba Prefecture, Japan's English-language page)]
* [http://www.jdorama.com/drama.794.htm Information about TV Asahi's (Japan) Autumn 2003 dramatization of Pujie and Lady Saga Hiro's marriage, ''Ryuuten no ouhi – Saigo no koutei'' (流転の王妃・最後の皇弟)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231230020722/https://jdorama.com/drama.794.htm |date=30 December 2023 }}

{{Pretenders to the Chinese throne}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:Aisin Gioro]]
[[Category:Chinese collaborators with Imperial Japan]]
[[Category:Manchu politicians]]
[[Category:Manchukuo royalty]]
[[Category:People extradited from the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:People's Republic of China politicians from Beijing]]
[[Category:Prince Chun (醇)]]
[[Category:Qing dynasty imperial princes]]
[[Category:Heirs presumptive]]