Last Qing emperor of China (1908–12). Proclaimed emperor at the age of two by the empress dowager Cixi (his great aunt), he reigned until the Chinese Revolution forced his abdication in 1912. He continued to live in the imperial palace until forced to flee by a local warlord to Tianjin in 1924. After the Japanese seizure of Manchuria, Puyi was placed at the head of the puppet state of Manchukuo. Captured by Soviet forces in 1945, he was later handed over to the communist Chinese, and allowed to live as a private citizen.