 Instead he withdrew from public life entirely and retired comfortably in Shanghai, where he devoted his time to calligraphy, poetry and art, while also writing extensive articles critical of the Kuomintang leadership, whom he characterized as “thieves”.In 1923, the former Qing emperor Puyi summoned Zheng to Beijing in order to reorganize the imperial household.Zheng became a close adviser of Puyi and helped arrange for his flight to the foreign concession at Tianjin after his expulsion from the Forbidden City.