In Puyi's memoir "The First Half of My Life", looking at the people who were associated with Puyi's life, the one who had the greatest influence on him was his nursing mother Wang Lianshou, who once lamented that "a weak little woman who suffered from the humiliation and suffering of the Great Qing Dynasty actually fed the emperor of the Qing Dynasty with her own milk, which is how ironic." So, Wang Lianshou, what kind of "humiliation" did he receive?
In 1906, Puyi was born in the Prince of Alcohol Palace, that year, the Prince of Alcohol Palace also posted a "recruitment notice", the content of which is that to find a nurse for Puyi, a month's salary is 2 silver, at that time, 2 silver is not less, especially for the daughter of the poor family, even more so, and can work in the palace, the treatment will certainly not be bad, there are many people who come to apply, in the end, the palace only selected 20 women.
The 20 women selected by the royal palace are not all of them, but among these people, the next selection is carried out, that is, in the end, only one woman can be successfully selected to become Puyi's nursing mother.
Wang Lianshou is a native of Dacheng County, Hebei Province, when she was 19 years old, in the early years, she married into the Wang family and gave birth to a daughter, but at the age of 19, her hometown was flooded and forced by life, Wang Lianshou had to go to apply for a nursing mother, young and good-looking, Wang Lianshou became the best of these 20 people, at that time, the royal palace was able to raise children better, put forward many conditions for Wang Lianshou.
One of them is to eat a bowl of unsalted pig's elbow milk every day, and can not go home, can not contact with their own children, in these conditions, Puyi recalled, one of the most humiliating conditions, is "can not go home" for a mother, can not go home, which became Wang Lianshou's most heartache, and she entered the prince's palace not long ago, her own child died prematurely, although the people in the palace knew, but it was kept secret from her, until a few years later, Wang Lianshou did not know that his own daughter died early.
In 1908, Cixi summoned Puyi to live in the palace in case the emperor died, and Puyi, who was only 3 years old at the time, arrived at the palace, no one knew, always crying, shouting "I want Grandma, I want Grandma" Cixi was also helpless, and finally summoned Wang Lianshou into the palace, Puyi was able to settle down, Guangxu, Cixi died one after another, Puyi officially became the new one, and was also the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
Puyi is not good for the eunuch palace women, but only for Wang Lianshou, very dependent, puyi at that time was very greedy, he often let the eunuchs and palace women do some things that ordinary people can't accept, such as letting the eunuchs eat the stool on the ground, wrapping iron sand in mung bean cake to give them to eat, etc., and every time at this time, Wang Lianshou stood up and educated Puyi, we are all people, all will hurt, who eats the mung bean cake mixed with sand, will have stomach pain, Wang Lianshou, a weak woman, just like this, retains the last trace of Puyi's humanity in the first half of his life.
Within a few years, Wang Lianshou was secretly sent out by the concubines in the palace, puyi was very sad, until 1922, after his big marriage, he looked around for his nursing mother Wang Lianshou and brought her back to the palace, and later when he was emperor in puppet Manchuria, Puyi also took good care of Wang Lianshou.
In 1945, Wang Lianshou unfortunately died in the guns of the Japanese, and Puyi was captured by the Soviet Union as a prisoner, and then returned to China, until he was pardoned in 1959, at that time, he still worried about his nursing mother, looking for her, only to learn that in 1945, Wang Lianshou had died, he was very sad.