Guangxu Emperor

Also known as Guangxu Di · Qing Dezong · Ai Xin Jue Luo · Zai Tian

Zaitian was a son of Prince Chun, Yixuan, and of a younger sister of Empress Dowager Cixi. When the Tongzhi Emperor died without a son in January 1875, Cixi placed him on the throne, and from the next year he reigned as Guangxu while the two empresses dowager ruled from behind the screen. He took up personal rule after his wedding in 1889; war with Japan broke out in 1894 and ended with the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. In 1898 he decreed a programme of reform and brought in Kang Youwei, Tan Sitong and others, but after about a hundred days Cixi resumed power and confined him on Yingtai island in the palace lake. When the allied armies took Beijing in 1900 he fled with her to Xi'an. He died at Yingtai in November 1908, a day before Cixi, and received the temple name Dezong. Tests on his hair published in 2008 found very high levels of arsenic, which the researchers took as evidence of poisoning.