The Guangxu Emperor (14 August 1871 – 14 November 1908), also known by his temple name Emperor Dezong of Qing, personal name Zaitian, was the tenth and penultimate emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His succession was endorsed by dowager empresses Ci'an and Cixi for political reasons after the Tongzhi Emperor died without an heir. Cixi held political power for much of Guangxu's reign as regent, except for the period between his assumption of ruling powers in 1889 and the Hundred Days' Reform in 1898.

The Qing Empire's prestige and sovereignty continued to erode during Guangxu's reign with defeats in the Sino-French War, the First Sino-Japanese War, and the Boxer Rebellion. Guangxu engaged intellectuals like Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao to develop the Hundred Days' Reform program of 1898 to reverse the decline. Among the goals was removing Cixi from power. The program was too radical for the conservative ruling elite, and it failed to secure the support of the army. Cixi rallied the program's opponents to launch a coup in late 1898 that suppressed the reforms and secured her power. Guangxu lost ruling powers and was placed under virtual house arrest at the Yingtai Pavilion of Zhongnanhai until his death.

Guangxu died without children in 1908 of arsenic poisoning. He was buried in the Chongling at the Western Qing tombs.

Accession to the throne and upbringing

The Guangxu Emperor was born on 14 August 1871, receiving the name Zaitian, and was the second son of Yixuan (Prince Chun), and his primary spouse Yehenara Wanzhen, a younger sister of Empress Dowager Cixi. He was the nephew of Cixi and the grandson of the Daoguang Emperor.

On 12 January 1875, Zaitian's cousin, the Tongzhi Emperor, died without a son to succeed him. On that same day an imperial conference was held by the co-regents of the former emperor, the Empress Dowager Ci'an and the Empress Dowager Cixi. Breaking the imperial convention that a new emperor must always be of a generation after that of the previous emperor, candidates were considered from the generation of Tongzhi. The reason for this was that the empress dowagers wanted the candidate to take the place of the Tongzhi Emperor as the successor to the Xianfeng Emperor, whose only son had been Tongzhi.

The other proposed candidates besides Zaitian were the two sons of Prince Gong, Zaicheng and Zaiying, but they were of the same age group as the Tongzhi Emperor and were seen as having been a negative influence on him, so they were distrusted. Zaitian was younger than both of them and was the nephew of Cixi. His father, Prince Chun, was also more liked than Prince Gong and was known for being a scholar and a supporter of patriotic policies. These were the factors that led to the selection of Zaitian to become emperor.

A decree announced on 13 January that Zaitian had been chosen as the successor to the Xianfeng Emperor. The same decree also announced that Empress Dowagers Ci'an and Cixi would be his co-regents. He ascended to the throne at the age of three, on 25 February 1875, and adopted "Guangxu" (meaning "continuation of splendor") as his regnal name, therefore he is known as the "Guangxu Emperor". His personal name Zaitian was no longer used after that point. The negotiations with the French were carried out by the Viceroy of Zhili, Li Hongzhang, by other ministers in Beijing, and by the head of Chinese Maritime Customs, Robert Hart. The Guangxu Emperor had not given an audience to foreign diplomats in Beijing up to this point, though in August 1886 his father Prince Chun hosted a dinner for the diplomatic corps. On 7 February 1887, the emperor was officially old enough to begin to rule in his own right, but the regency of Empress Dowager Cixi continued beyond that, and the foreign diplomats were not informed of either fact. The French minister requested an audience with the emperor twice, in November 1887 and in the spring of 1888, but this was denied both times.

In 1886, several courtiers, including Prince Chun and Weng Tonghe, had petitioned Empress Dowager Cixi to postpone her retirement from the regency. Despite Cixi's agreement to remain as regent, that same year the Guangxu Emperor had begun to write comments on memorials to the throne. In the spring of 1887, he partook in his first field-plowing ceremony, and by the end of the year he had begun to rule under Cixi's supervision. By the mid-1880s the Guangxu Emperor also developed the ideas that he wanted guide his rule, including preserving the wealth of the country and avoiding selfishness or arrogance. Among his predecessors, he considered the Qianlong Emperor to be a model of good governance, and often visited places that the Qianlong Emperor had spent a lot of time at. He felt a sense of responsibility for following the example set by the Qianlong Emperor. Meanwhile, Prince Chun and the Grand Council prepared for the Guangxu Emperor to begin ruling directly by taking measures to make sure that the system that existed during the regency effectively remained intact.

Eventually, in February 1889, in preparation for Cixi's retirement, the Guangxu Emperor was married. Much to the emperor's dislike, Cixi selected her niece, Jingfen, to be empress. She became known as Empress Longyu. She also selected a pair of sisters, who became Consorts Jin and Zhen, to be the emperor's concubines.]]

Although the decrees between June and August were largely accepted and were creating the basis for reform, starting in September they began targeting the positions of the Manchu nobility and the gentry. These were not only too sudden for a China still under significant neo-Confucian influence and other elements of traditional culture, but later came into conflict with Cixi, who held real power. Many officials, deemed useless and dismissed by the Guangxu Emperor, begged her for help. But the decisive response by Empress Dowager Cixi was caused by the accusation from the official Yang Chongyi that the Guangxu Emperor had committed treason by inviting the former Japanese prime minister Itō Hirobumi to advise him (Itō was in China at the time to meet with the emperor). Yang claimed that Guangxu had done this on the advice of Kang Youwei and the wanted revolutionary Sun Yat-sen. Guangxu was unable to effectively defend himself to Cixi from Yang's accusation. Both sides began plotting to take action against each other.

Some of the reformers around the emperor asked Yuan Shikai to use the Beiyang Army to arrest Cixi and to execute Ronglu, a member of the conservative faction who had been appointed to command the military forces in Zhili earlier. According to one account, this was a decree that was issued by the Guangxu Emperor. But Yuan later said that the schemers could not convince him that it was really from the emperor, and when Yuan met with him on 20 September, Guangxu did not say anything about it to Yuan. He then left the emperor to meet with Ronglu and told him about the plot by the reformers, also telling him the emperor had nothing to do with it. Ronglu then met with Cixi and other ministers and princes, and started taking action. On the 21st the Guangxu Emperor was detained and met with Empress Dowager Cixi. The following day, he issued a decree that asked Cixi to take control of the government, who proceeded to remove the reform-minded officials and replaced them with conservative loyalists. An edict on 26 September undid some of the more radical changes the emperor had made, while keeping in place those reforms that did not go directly against Qing tradition.

Lei Chia-sheng (雷家聖), a Taiwanese history professor, proposes an alternative view: that the Guangxu Emperor might have been led into a trap by the reformists led by Kang Youwei, who in turn was in Lei's opinion tricked by British missionary Timothy Richard and former Japanese prime minister Itō Hirobumi into agreeing to appoint Itō as one of many foreign advisors. British ambassador Claude MacDonald claimed that the reformists had actually "much injured" the modernization of China. Lei claims that Cixi learned of the plot and decided to put an end to it to prevent China from coming under foreign control.

Under house arrest after 1898

thumb|Claimed to be the only photograph of the emperor (1902)

After the coup in 1898 the Guangxu Emperor was kept in confinement on Yingtai Island at Zhongnanhai, near the imperial palace in Beijing.

The emperor was kept informed of state affairs, reading them with Cixi prior to audiences, and was also present at audiences, sitting on a stool to Cixi's left hand while Cixi occupied the main throne. He discharged his ceremonial duties, such as offering sacrifices during ceremonies, but never ruled alone again.

In 1898, shortly after the collapse of the Hundred Days' Reform, the Guangxu Emperor's health began to decline, prompting Cixi to name Pujun, a son of the emperor's cousin, the reactionary Prince Duan, as heir presumptive. Pujun and his father were removed from their positions after the Boxer Rebellion. He was examined by a physician at the French Legation and diagnosed with chronic nephritis; he was also discovered to be impotent at the time.

During the Boxer Rebellion, Emperor Guangxu fiercely opposed the idea of using usurpers as a means to counter foreign invasion. On 14 August 1900, the Guangxu Emperor, along with Cixi, Empress Longyu and some other court officials, fled from Beijing as the forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance marched on the capital to relieve the legations that had been besieged during the Boxer Rebellion.

Returning to the capital on 7 January 1902, after the withdrawal of the foreign powers, the Guangxu Emperor spent the next few years working in his isolated palace with watches and clocks, which had been a childhood fascination, some say in an effort to pass the time until Cixi's death. He also read widely and spent time learning English from Cixi's Western-educated lady-in-waiting, Yu Deling. His relationship with Empress Longyu, Cixi's niece (and the Emperor's own first cousin), also improved to some extent.

Death

thumb|upright=1.05|1909 French cut of the Guanxu Emperor and the Dowager Empress Cixi laying in-state

The Guangxu Emperor died suddenly on 14 November 1908 without an heir, a day before Cixi's death, at the age of 37. Due to the sudden unexpected nature of his death, the planning and construction of the Guangxu Emperor's Mausoleum was not completed until seven years later. The dissolution of the Qing Empire in 1912 resulted in the surviving Qing nobility having to request some financial subsidization from the new Republican government to complete its construction. The Guangxu Emperor, alongside the Empress Dowager Longyu who also subsequently died childless a year after the dynasty's abdication were ultimately interred in the Chong Mausoleum in 1915. The Guangxu Emperor was succeeded by Cixi's choice of heir, his nephew Puyi, who took the regnal name "Xuantong".

Post-mortem evaluation of health

thumb|Chong Mausoleum burial chamber

On 4 November 2008, forensic tests revealed that the level of arsenic in the emperor's remains was 2,000 times higher than that of ordinary people. Scientists concluded that the poison could only have been administered in a high dose at one time.

For a long time prior to this, there had been several existing theories about the emperor's death, none of which was accepted fully by historians. Most were inclined to believe that Cixi, herself very ill, poisoned the Guangxu Emperor because she was afraid he would reverse her policies after her death. China Daily quoted a historian, Dai Yi, who speculated that Cixi might have known of her imminent death and worried that the Guangxu Emperor would continue his reforms after her death. Another theory is that the Guangxu Emperor was poisoned by Yuan Shikai, who expected that if the emperor returned to power again, Yuan would likely be convicted, and then executed for treason. There were no reliable sources to prove who murdered the Guangxu Emperor.

The medical records kept by the Guangxu Emperor's physician show the emperor suffered from "spells of violent stomachaches" and that his face had turned blue, typical symptoms of arsenic poisoning. After the defeat and subsequent retreat of the Republican government to Taiwan, the responsibility of security, maintenance, excavation and upkeep of both the Chong Mausoleum and all other existing imperial tombs sites, were transferred to the Mainland government.

<gallery class="center" widths="200">

File:裕陵月牙城(哑巴院).jpg|Diagram of the 'sealing-wall' of the Guangxu Emperor's tomb, bypassed via tunneling in the 1938 looting incident

File:光绪帝陵墓通道.jpg|Entry and exit tunnel used by looters to breach the burial chamber

File:光绪皇帝棺椁受损.jpg|State of the damaged coffin, as photographed as part of the post-1938 looting investigations

File:光绪皇帝棺椁受损2.jpg|Restored coffin

File:光绪帝陵墓发掘.jpg|Republican emergency excavation and restoration work of the Guangxu Emperor's tomb after the 1938 looting incident. The burial chamber is now open to the public.

</gallery>

Legacy

In 1912, Sun Yat-sen praised the Guangxu Emperor for his educational reform package that allowed China to learn more about Western culture. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, historian Fan Wenlan (范文瀾) called the Guangxu Emperor "a Manchu noble who could accept Western ideas". Some historians believe that the Guangxu Emperor was the first Chinese leader to implement modernizing reforms and capitalism. Imperial power in the Qing dynasty saw its nadir under Guangxu, and he was the only Qing emperor to have been put under house arrest during his own reign.

Honours

Domestic honours

  • Sovereign of the Order of the Peacock Feather
  • Sovereign of the Order of the Blue Feather
  • Sovereign of the Order of the Double Dragon

Foreign honours

  • : Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (military), 18 July 1898
  • : Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle, in Diamonds, 28 June 1898
  • : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Kamehameha I, 1882
  • : Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, 29 April 1899
  • : Grand Cross of the Sash of the Three Orders, 1904
  • : Order of St. Andrew

Family

The Guangxu Emperor had one empress and two consorts in total. The emperor was forced by Empress Dowager Cixi to marry her niece (his cousin) Jingfen, who was two years his senior. Cixi and Jingfen's father, Guixiang (Cixi's younger brother), selected her to be the Guangxu Emperor's wife in order to strengthen the power of their own family. After the marriage, Jingfen was made empress and was granted the honorific title of "Longyu" (; ) after the death of her husband. However, the Guangxu Emperor detested his wife and spent most of his time with his favourite concubine, Consort Zhen (better known as the "Pearl Consort"). Rumours allege that in 1900, Consort Zhen was drowned by being thrown into a well on Cixi's order after she begged Empress Dowager Cixi to let the Guangxu Emperor stay in Beijing for negotiations with the foreign powers. That incident happened when the Imperial Family was preparing to leave the Forbidden City due to the occupation of Beijing by the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900. Like his predecessor, the Tongzhi Emperor, the Guangxu Emperor died without issue. After his death in 1908, Empress Dowager Longyu ruled in cooperation with Zaifeng.

  • Empress Xiaodingjing (孝定景皇后), of the Yehe-Nara clan (葉赫那拉氏; 28 January 1868 – 22 February 1913), personal name Jingfen (靜芬)
  • Imperial Noble Consort Wenjing (溫靖皇貴妃), of the Tatara clan (他他拉氏; 6 October 1873 – 24 September 1924)
  • Imperial Noble Consort Keshun (恪順皇貴妃), of the Tatara clan (他他拉氏; 27 February 1876 – 15 August 1900)

<gallery widths=200 heights=120>

File:《光绪皇帝大婚图》之一.JPG|The wedding of the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Xiaodingjing

File:《光绪皇帝大婚图》之二.jpg|The wedding of the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Xiaodingjing

</gallery>

See also

  • Family tree of Chinese monarchs (late)
  • List of unsolved murders (1900–1979)

Notes

References

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Hudson, James J. (2020). "A Game of Thrones in China: The Case of Cixi, Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty (1835–1908)". Queenship and the Women of Westeros: Female Agency and Advice in Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan pp. 3–27. . .
  • Rawski, Evelyn S. (1998). The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions. Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. of California Press. . .
  • Scholarly studies