On November 15 1908,Cixi (or Tzu Hsi),the Dowager Empress of China and the last effective ruler of the 2,000 year-old Chinese Empire died in her palace in the Forbidden City in Beijing.She was almost 73 years old and had ruled China (officially as Regent for her son and then her nephew) from 1861 to 1908,a period of 47 years.
Her long reign marked the end of the millennia of dynastic rule over China,including a last-gasp attempt to repel Western invaders in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 (subject of the 1963 Hollywood film epic,55 Days at Peking).

An astute,conniving woman who exhibited both charm and ruthlessness whenever it suited her,Cixi rose from being a minor concubine to the Xian Feng Emperor by giving birth to his only son.After Xian Feng's early death,she then ruled as regent for her son,the Tong Xhi Emperor and when he too died young she managed to arrange the selection of a nephew to succeed him as the Guang Xu Emperor all the while maintaining real power in her own hands.Some historians and writers have believed that she deliberately caused the deaths of her husband and son in order to keep power in her own hands and then arranged for a puppet emperor,her nephew to succeed through whom she could continue to dominate and rule.Others believe she merely made the best out of circumstances that were beyond her control.You have to decide for yourself.

Either way,she was the ultimate source of political power and authority in China for almost half a century and must be counted as one of the great female rulers of history.She certainly thought she should be.She survived the failure of the Boxer Rebellion (which she had ordered) with her customary guile and charm.As long as she lived,the 264 year-old Xing dynasty and the 2,000 year-old imperial system remained intact.As she lay dying,she seems to have arranged for the death of yet another emperor,her puppet nephew Guang Xu (unless you choose to believe that this too was just a coincidence) and appointed a great-nephew,the infant Pu-Yi to succeed.But this child-emperor was to reign for a mere 3 years.Once Empress Cixi was dead,there was nobody left who was strong enough to maintain the ancient monarchy and by 1911,China had become a republic.Cixi would have turned over in her grave and literally did so when,in 1928(20 years after her death),soldiers of one of the local warlords who were busy ravaging China at this time broke into her tomb and those of other imperial rulers and desecrated her remains.(Her body was later found lying face down and naked)!

It could therefore be said that an entire political system,one that had endured for more than two millenia,came to an end after Cixi died.She was truly the last of the once-mighty emperors of China!


Empress Dowager Cixi