Cixi

Cixi, also Tz'u Hsi, née Yehonala (1835-1908), Chinese empress dowager, born in Beijing. A consort of Emperor Xianfeng, she gave birth in 1856 to a son, later the Emperor Tongzhi (reigned 1861-1875). On the death of Xianfeng, Cixi became the virtual ruler of China, acting as regent for her son from 1861 to 1873, and continuing her control over state affairs after that. When Tongzhi died, Cixi placed her nephew, Guangxu, on the throne and ruled as his regent until 1889 and again from 1898 until her death.

Cixi was ambitious and arbitrary, but she surrounded herself with good advisers. A conservative, iron-handed ruler, she interfered with the modernizing efforts of 1898—the so-called Hundred Days' Reform—and subsequently supported the unsuccessful Boxer Rebellion as a way of resisting foreign territorial encroachment. Between 1902 and 1908, relinquishing her former conservatism, Cixi encouraged the modernization of China, promising to grant constitutional government by 1916.