Guangxu Emperor
August 14, 1871 โ November 14, 1908
Qing emperor of China from 1875 to 1908 whose Hundred Days' Reform of 1898 was ended by Empress Dowager Cixi, who kept him confined for the rest of his life.
Biography
Zaitian, who reigned as the Guangxu Emperor, was born on 14 August 1871 and placed on the Qing throne in February 1875 at the age of three. Real power lay with the regents, the empresses dowager Ci'an and Cixi, and Cixi remained the dominant figure at court even after she formally retired in March 1889 and the emperor began to rule in his own name.
China's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894โ1895 convinced the young emperor that sweeping change was needed. Between June and September 1898 he issued a series of edicts, known as the Hundred Days' Reform, that sought to modernise the examination system, education, administration and the military.
The reforms alarmed conservative officials, and on 21 September 1898 Cixi resumed control in a coup. Guangxu was confined to the Yingtai pavilion in the palace grounds and lost all real authority, though he kept the title of emperor. He was taken along when the court fled Beijing in 1900 during the Boxer crisis.
He died on 14 November 1908, a day before Cixi. Forensic tests published in 2008 found that he had been poisoned with arsenic.
