Tutor to the Dragon Emperor : the life of Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston at the court of the last emperor of China / Raymond Lamont-Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lamont-Brown, Raymond, 1939-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Johnston, Reginald Fleming, Sir, 1874-1938.

Johnston, Reginald Fleming.

Tutors and tutoring--Biography.

Tutors and tutoring.

Puyi, 1906-1967.

Puyi.

China--Kings and rulers--Biography.

China.

Kings and rulers.

China--History--20th century.

History.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiii, 176 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Life of Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston at the court of the last emperor of China

Place of Publication:

Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire [England] : Sutton, 1999.

Summary:

In 1919 Reginald Fleming Johnston became tutor to the last emperor of China. This was the beginning of an extraordinary friendship which ultimately led to mutual betrayal: Johnston's writings about their relationship unwittingly condemned Pu Yi as a willing tool of the Japanese during the Second World War; while the emperor -- facing possible execution for war crimes -- effectively called his former tutor a liar and his book a fabrication.

Born in 1874, Johnston was likened to Lawrence of Arabia because of his travels in and studies of China as a young employee of the colonial service in the early twentieth century. Then, for six years from 1919, Johnston was both tutor and confidant to the young emperor, causing consternation by flaunting his rank and influence. In 1924 Johnston contrived Pu Yi's escape from the Forbidden City and his enemies to the Japanese legation quarter.

This, the first biography of Reginald Fleming Johnston, is an absorbing account of a man who witnessed his adopted country slide into ruin and war, and who delivered his beloved pupil into the hands of the Japanese. Painstakingly researched, the book describes Johnston's travels in China; the terrorist tactics of the Boxer Movement; Johnston's condemnation of Christian missionaries in China; and the women in his life -- his mother, his first love Alice Walter, medieval historian Eileen Power, and Elizabeth Sparshott with whom he spent his final days on the island of Eilean Righ (which Johnston bought) in Scotland.

Illustrated with a selection of contemporary photographs, Tutor to the Dragon Emperor will appeal to anyone interested in China's troubled twentieth-century history. As a biography of a fascinating and controversial character, it will attract a much wider audience.

Contents:

China on the Succession of Pu Yi, 14 November 1908 xiii

Introduction: Empire of the Son of Heaven 1

1 Early Life: Edinburgh to Hong Kong 14

2 The Young Cadet: Boxers, Bandits and Bible-thumpers 24

3 Imperial Pupil: Entrance of the Son of Heaven 50

4 Imperial Tutor: Secrets of the Purple Palace 67

5 The Restless Dragon: Marriage and Flight 85

6 The Scottish Mandarin: Succour from the Rising Sun 103

7 Twilight in Britain: the Reluctant Don 123

8 Dragon at Bay: Dead Witness for the Prosecution 134

Epilogue: To the Heavens Dragon Borne 146

Family Trees 157.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-171) and index.

ISBN:

0750921064

OCLC:

41621098