Empress Dowager Cixi

The Empress Dowager Cixi ({{zh-cp|c=慈禧太后|p=Cíxǐ}}; Wade-Giles: Tz'u-hsi) (November 29, 1835–November 15, 1908), popularly known in China as the Western Empress Dowager (西太后), and officially known posthumously as Empress Xiaoqin Xian (孝欽顯皇后), was a powerful and charismatic figure who was the de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, ruling over China for most of the period from 1861 to her death in 1908.

Related Topics:
Wade-Giles - November 29 - 1835 - November 15 - 1908 - China - De facto - Manchu - Qing Dynasty - 1861

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Historians consider that she probably did her best to cope with the difficulties of the era but her conservative attitudes did not serve her well and the Western powers continued to take advantage of the country's relatively low level of technological development.

Related Topics:
Western - Powers

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Cixi was a major concubine of the Emperor Xianfeng??????. Soon after Emperor Xianfeng died in 1861, Cixi along with Empress Ci'an??????became regents for the boy. The two Dowager Empresses, counseled by the late Emperor's brother, maintained this position until 1873 when Emperor Tongzhi??????came of age.

Related Topics:
Xianfeng - Ci'an - Tongzhi

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Two years later, the young man was dead. Cixi violated the normal succession and had her three year old nephew named the new heir. The two Dowager Empresses continued as regents until the death of Ci'an, the other Dowager Empress, in 1881, when Cixi became the de facto ruler of China.

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When Emperor Guangxu?????; Wade-Giles: Kuang-hsu?, the nephew, attained maturity, Cixi retired to the country, though she kept herself informed through a network of spies. After China lost the Sino-Japanese war (1894-1895), Guangxu implemented many reforms in what came to be known as the "Hundred Days of Reform." In reaction, Cixi worked with the military and conservative forces to stage a coup and take power again as active regent, confining the emperor to his palace.

Related Topics:
Guangxu - Wade-Giles

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The next year, Cixi supported the forces behind the Boxer Rebellion, an anti-reform and anti-foreign rebellion. When foreign troops retaliated by entering the Forbidden City and capturing Peking (Beijing), Cixi accepted the offered peace terms. As appeasement, she eventually implemented the reforms that she'd stopped her nephew from instituting. She continued to rule, her power much diminished, until her death in 1908. Emperor Guangxu died as she was dying, reportedly poisoned at her direction.

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Her actual power surpassed that of another great Queen who was her contemporary, England's Queen Victoria. In addition to her part in the politics of her day, she's also remembered for her patronage of the arts including the opera, and the founding of the Peking Zoological Garden (1906), later the first zoo to breed the giant panda.

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