A Study On The First Half Of My Life

The last Emperor Puyi's autobiography The First Half of My Life is one of the most famous works in the history of modern China. This paper intends to study this publication on the context of the biography theory and of the literature context of"17 years".At first focus will be put on the authenticity of The First Half of My Life. To this end the creative process of this autobiography will be examined and a comparison will be made with other literature. On this basis it will be found that most of its content is authentic. The richness of Puyi's life experience, the nature of his repentance and the constant efforts he made all along tend to give him credit . On the other hand , this paper points out that this autobiography (written in "17 Years") unavoidably brings out some untruths. There are some distortion of facts and an incomplete description of Puyi's character. Furthermore paper reveals the real background, the false idea which colors the unique relationship between age and biography.Secondly, according to the requirements of biographical literature, the study has a human perspective; it analyses Puyi's diverse personalities from a psychological point of view. As an individual Puyi has both the common features of rulers, such as conceit, coldness and paranoia but it also shows the unique pattern of his behavior, a behavior dictated by the will to survive at all costs. It discusses the unusual thoughts and feelings of Puyi's experience in the course of his role changes: (Emperor→nominal emperor→refugee→puppet→prisoner→citizen) in the context of the contemporary history of China.The last part is a comment on artistic characteristics. It describes the chinese style of the work (in some ways similar to chinese traditional biography). It takes into account the techniques taken by the author to achieve an organic integration of history and literature, such as the selection of details and the use of rhetoric. In some respects , the comparison between the final version (1964) and the unabridged version is made.