Since the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, various former kings or their children have popped out of the woodwork in attempts to reclaim their thrones; Michael of Romania and Simon of Bulgaria for example, both of whom have solid claims should their countries revert to monarchies.
Which leads to the question, are there pretenders to the Chinese imperial throne? If so, how good are their claims? (Kung Fu: The Legend Continues used this idea as a plotline in a couple of shows, but I’m not leaning heavily on that as a guide to historical accuracy!)
I just did a quick read on the life of Henry P’u Yi at The Last Emperor of China and, while the subject you’ve broached is not addressed, it appears he left no heirs.
Another homosexual king, eh?
His brother, however, apparently had two daughters through a marriage with a Japanese nobleman. Perhaps there is still the chance of an Emperess? The daughters would have been born after 1934 according to the biography, so that would make them 66 years old or less. Quite probably they had children, I wonder what happened to them…
Every Chinese dynasty was founded by a conquerer who assumed the Throne of Heaven by armed force. So I would say that the last dynasty is pretty well dead, and if there’s ever another Emperor (unlikely), he will be the founder of a new dynasty. If Mao had decided to set up a son as leader like Kim Il-Sung did, we’d be into the new dynasty.
Yup. The Qing lost the Mandate of Heaven, ergo, the dynasty is dead. The Chinese don’t seem to hold the idea of a single, unbroken dynastic line nearly as dear as we do in the West. They’ve had dynasties dropping right and left every few centuries for at least 2,500 years. Once you screw it up, your turn is over.
Actually, the Han Dynasty managed a comeback.
Arthur Case Wu is a pretender to the throne of the Emperor of China.
Artie Wu and his partner Quincy Durant, con-men extraordinaire, appeared in the following novels by Ross Thomas: CHINAMAN’S CHANCE (1978); OUT ON THE RIM (1987); and VOODOO, LTD. (1992).
I may be wrong about this, but wasn’t the “founder” of the Later Han from outside of the dynastic line? I thought he was one of the rebel generals who led the push against Wang Mang’s reformism, though I could be misremembering. I’ll have to dig out my old textbooks…