Empress Dowager Cixi
The de facto ruler of China for nearly half a century, she wielded immense power from behind a screen, steering the fading Qing Dynasty through rebellion and foreign invasion.
1835–1908 (age 73)·Birthday: November 29
Biography
Cixi’s story is one of ruthless political genius. Entering the Forbidden City as a low-ranking concubine to the Xianfeng Emperor, she secured her position by bearing his only son. When the emperor died in 1861, the 25-year-old widow executed a brilliant coup, ousting the regents appointed to rule for her young son. For the next 47 years, she controlled the throne, first as regent for her son and later for her nephew, ruling from 'behind the curtain'. Her reign was a constant, precarious balancing act. She navigated the catastrophic Taiping Rebellion, violent anti-foreign movements like the Boxer Uprising, and relentless pressure from Western powers and Japan. Often portrayed as a conservative villain who stifled reform, modern scholarship reveals a more complex figure: she supported some modernization, like railways and a modern navy, but fiercely protected the dynasty's—and her own—absolute authority, ultimately leaving China unprepared for the 20th century.
#1 When Empress Was Born
The biggest hits of 1835
Empress's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1835Born
1840Started school
1848Became a teenager
1851Could drive
1853Could vote
1856Turned 21
1865Turned 30
President: Andrew Johnson
1875Turned 40
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1885Turned 50
Karl Benz builds the first gasoline-powered automobile
President: Grover Cleveland
1895Turned 60
First public film screening by the Lumiere brothers
President: Grover Cleveland
1905Turned 70
Einstein publishes the theory of special relativity
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1908Died at 73
Ford Model T goes into production
President: Theodore Roosevelt
Key Achievements
- Seized power as co-regent in the 1861 Xinyou Coup, establishing control over the Qing government for nearly five decades.
- Presided over the Tongzhi Restoration, a period of attempted military and institutional modernization in the 1860s-70s.
- Effectively ended the Hundred Days' Reform in 1898 by imprisoning the Guangxu Emperor and executing key reformers.
- Supported the Boxer Uprising in 1900 against foreign powers, leading to the Allied invasion and the Boxer Protocol.
Did You Know?
She was an avid painter and patron of the arts, particularly Peking opera, and had a private theater built in the Summer Palace.
She was famously photographed by American portraitist Katharine Carl, helping shape her image in the West.
Her lavish tomb in the Eastern Qing tombs was looted in 1928 by the warlord Sun Dianying.
She kept a large number of dogs as pets, primarily Pekingese, in the palaces.
“I have often thought that I am the most clever woman who ever lived.”
