BOY EMPEROR OF CHINA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 48, 11 October 1911, Page 8

BOY EMPEROR OF CHINA.

HIS DAILY LIFE IN THE FORBIDDEN CITY.

Interesting details- have just been made public of the daily life of the boy Emperor of China, who is nearly six years of ago and who lives secluded from the w'orld, even his mother being allowed to pay only occasional private visits.

As soon as the Emperor KuangITsu died the baby Pu-Yi was taken from bis mother and placed in the Forbidden City in the hands of the Empress Dowager, who was henceforth regarded as the baby Emperor’s mother. Even the hide-bound etiquette of the Chinese Court had to give way, however, to the Imperial baby’s grief at being separated from his mother, and arrangements had to bo made for the occasional visits.

The boy Emperor is addressed in the palace as Wan-Sui-Ych (Lord of Ten Thousand Years). Every morning he is awakened at six o’clock by the singing of eight enuchs, and lie lias three meals a day, at 8 a.in., noon, and six p.m., retiring to rest at 8 p.m. The haby Emperor’s diet is a simple one, the only rule observed being never to put any article of food upon his table which cannot he procured immediately at any time of the year. The reason is that the Emperor is supposed to be given anything he asks for, and if this is impossible the unfortunate official responsible is liable to severe punishment. Among many other things the Emperor has never tasted Jish. The Emperor is said to bo wilful by nature and to revel in mischief, especially when ho can induce his attendants to follow him into a Hooded courtyard after a heavy shower of rain. By a decree issued recently Lu-Jun-Hsinng and Chcu-Pao-Ch’en More appointed imperial tutors, and it was directed they should take up their duties upon an auspicious date to bo determined by the Board of Astronomy. The latter selected the eighteenth day of the seventh moon (September 10). Both these tutors are Chinese scholars of the old-fash-ioned type, but it is believed that a foreign tongue, probably Eaglsh, will form part of the Imperial curriculum at a later date.