biography
| name: |
Ci-Xi or Tz'u-hsi
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Xiaogin or Hsiao-ch'en, family name Yehonala, known as the Empress Dowager
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pronunciation:
[tsoe shee]
| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1835–1908)
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| biography:
| Chinese consort of the Xianfeng emperor (1851–62), born in Beijing, China, who rose to dominate China by manipulating the succession to the throne. She bore the Xianfeng emperor his only son, who succeeded at the age of five as the T'ung Chih emperor, but kept control even after his majority in 1873. After his death (1875), she flouted the succession laws of the imperial clan to ensure the succession of another minor, aged three, as the Guangxu emperor, and continued to assert control even when the new emperor reached maturity. In 1898 she put down the Hundred Days of Reform movement initiated by Kang Youwei, seizing the emperor and executing six of his young supporters. In 1900 she took China into war against the combined treaty powers in support of the Boxer movement. Only after her death was it possible to begin reforms. |
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