Empress Dowager Cixi ends the Qing's 100 Days of Reform
Channel: The Chinese Revolution
Date: 2024-02-18

This is the third part of the discussion with Lauren Schill about Cixi.  

We discuss her takeover from her adopted son the Emperor Guangxu following the 100 days of Reform and her role arming the Boxer Rebellion.  Foreign powers occupy the Forbidden City.  Cixi and the Emperor flee to Xian and then return to Beijing.  Cixi starts a charm offensive, institutes further reforms including for women's education and to end foot binding.  She and the Emperor Guangxu die within a day of each other, him with high levels of arsenic.  

Within 3 years of her death, the Puyi Emperor abdicates and the Qing Dynasty ends.   Qixi rules China for decades without ever stepping in the front part of the Forbidden City, which was off limits to women.

This is episode 22 of the Chinese Revolution series.

My main literary for this episode source was: Chang, Jung. (2013). Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China. Random House Canada 

All sources can be found here: https://chineserevolution.substack.com/p/literary-sources