Empress Dowager Cixi

Empress Dowager Cixi 慈禧太后
Regent of Qing China
Regency	11 November 1861 – 15 November 1908
Co-regent	Empress Dowager Ci'an (1861–81)
Monarchs	Tongzhi Emperor (1861–75) Guangxu Emperor (1875–1908)
Empress Dowager of Qing China
Tenure	22 August 1861 – 15 November 1908
Co-dowager	Empress Dowager Ci'an (1861–81)
Born	(1835-11-29)29 November 1835
Died	15 November 1908(1908-11-15) (aged 72) Hall of Graceful Bird, Zhongnanhai, Beijing, Qing Empire
Issue	Tongzhi Emperor
Posthumous name Short: Empress Xiàoqīn Xiǎn 孝欽顯皇后 Full: Empress Xiàoqīn Cíxǐ Duānyòu Kāngyí Zhāoyù Zhuāngchéng Shòugōng Qīnxiàn Chóngxī Pèitiān Xìngshèng Xiǎn 孝欽慈禧端佑康頤昭豫莊誠壽恭欽獻崇熙配天興聖顯皇后
House	House of Aisin Gioro (by marriage)
Father	Yehenara Huizheng
Mother	Lady Fuca

Empress Dowager Cixi
"Empress Dowager Cixi" in Chinese characters
Chinese name
Chinese	慈禧太后
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Cíxǐ tàihòu Wade–Giles Tsu2-hsi3 t'ai4-hou4 IPA [tsʰɨ̌.ɕì tʰâi.xôu]
Lady Yehenara
Traditional Chinese	葉赫那拉氏
Simplified Chinese	叶赫那拉氏
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yèhènālā shì
Manchu name
Manchu script	ᡥᡳᠶᠣᠣᡧᡠᠩᡤᠠ ᡤᡳᠩᡤᡠᡷᡳ ᡳᠯᡝᡨᡠ ᡥᡡᠸᠠᠩᡥᡝᠣ
Romanization	hiyoošungga gingguji iletu hūwangheo

Empress Dowager Cixi¹ (Chinese: 慈禧太后; pinyin: Cíxǐ Tàihòu; Manchu: Tsysi taiheo; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu Yehenara clan, was a Chinese empress dowager and regent who effectively controlled the Chinese government in the late Qing dynasty for 47 years from 1861 until her death in 1908.

Selected as an imperial concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor in her adolescence, she gave birth to a son, Zaichun, in 1856. After the Xianfeng Emperor's death in 1861, the young boy became the Tongzhi Emperor, and she became the Empress Dowager. Cixi ousted a group of regents appointed by the late emperor and assumed regency, which she shared with Empress Dowager Ci'an. Cixi then consolidated control over the dynasty when she installed her nephew as the Guangxu Emperor at the death of the Tongzhi Emperor in 1875, contrary to the traditional rules of succession of the Qing dynasty that had ruled China since 1644. Although she refused to adopt Western models of government, she supported technological and military reforms and the Self-Strengthening Movement. Although she agreed with the principles of the Hundred Days' Reforms of 1898, Cixi rejected their sudden implementation, without bureaucratic support, as detrimental to dynastic power. She placed the Guangxu Emperor under virtual house arrest for supporting radical reformers, who had tried to assassinate her. She may have feared that any perceived weakness in the Imperial Court would have been pounced upon by the Japanese. After the Boxer Uprising led to the invasion of Allied armies, Cixi initially supported the Boxer groups for supporting the dynasty and attacking the foreigners. The ensuing Allied defeat of the Chinese forces was a stunning humiliation. When Cixi returned to Beijing from Xi'an, where she had taken the emperor, she became friendly to foreigners in the capital and began to implement fiscal and institutional reforms that began to turn China into a constitutional monarchy. The death of both Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908 left the court in the hands of Manchu conservatives, a child on the throne, and a restless, rebellious public.