Guangxu Emperor

The Guangxu Emperor ruled Qing China from 1875 to 1908, though real authority was often exercised by Empress Dowager Cixi. He supported the Hundred Days’ Reform in 1898, but conservative opposition ended the programme and left him confined until his death on the eve of Cixi’s.

Guangxu Emperor also held the offices or ranks of Emperor of China and emperor Mañjuśrī. Guangxu Emperor belonged to the House of Aisin Gioro and operated within Qing dynasty. Guangxu Emperor was born in Prince Chun Mansion and died in Zhongnanhai.

Pearl S. Buck’s Imperial Woman presents the Guangxu Emperor from inside Cixi’s court, where the young sovereign grows up under the authority of the dowager who selected him for the throne. His attempts to exercise independent power and embrace reform become part of the larger struggle over how the Qing dynasty should respond to foreign pressure and internal weakness. Jung Chang’s Empress Dowager Cixi examines the same relationship biographically, following Cixi’s dominance through both the Tongzhi and Guangxu reigns and giving particular attention to the political conflict surrounding reform, the emperor’s loss of effective authority and the late Qing attempt to modernise without surrendering dynastic control.