Emperor Guangxu (1871–1908) was the 11th emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, under Empress Dowager Cixi’s influence, only from 1889 to 1898. He initiated the Hundred Day Reform, but was brutally suppressed by Empress Dowager Cixi in 1898, after which he was put under house arrest for the rest of his life.

Emperor Guangxu was the second son of Yixuan (Emperor Xianfeng’s younger brother) and his wife Wanzhen, a younger sister of Empress Dowager Cixi. In January 1875, Emperor Guangxu’s cousin, Emperor Tongzhi, died of small pox without a son. Empress Dowager Cian (First wife of Emperor Xianfeng) suggested enthroning one of Yixin, Prince Gong’s sons as the next emperor, but she was overruled by Cixi. Against the imperial convention that a new emperor must always be of a generation after that of the previous emperor, Empress Dowager Cixi nominated her nephew Guangxu to be the successor. Emperor Guangxu was adopted by Empress Dowager Cixi as a son. For her part, she remained as regent under the title “Holy Mother Empress Dowager”.

In 1881, when Guangxu was nine years old, Empress Dowager Cian died of a heart attack, leaving Empress Dowager Cixi as the sole regent for him. However, Cixi had been suffering from long-standing ill-health. During this time, the imperial eunuchs often abused their influence over the boy emperor. In 1887, Emperor Guangxu would have been old enough to begin to reign in his own right. However, the previous year, several courtiers, including Yixuan and Weng Tonghe, had petitioned Empress Dowager Cixi to postpone her retirement from the regency. Despite Cixi’s agreement to remain as regent, Guangxu, by 1886, had begun to write comments on the palace memorials. In the spring of 1887, he partook in his first field plowing ceremony, and by the end of the year, had begun to rule under the supervision of Cixi. Even after Emperor Guangxu began formal rule, Empress Dowager Cixi continued to influence his decisions and actions, despite residing several months of the year atthe Summer Palace.

In June 1898, Emperor Guangxu started the Hundred Day Reform, aimed at a series of sweeping political, legal, and social changes. However the reforms were not only too sudden for a China still under significant neo-Confucian influence and other elements of traditional culture, but also came into conflict with Empress Dowager Cixi, who held real power. Many officials, deemed useless and dismissed by Emperor Guangxu, were begging Cixi for help. Although Cixi did nothing to stop the Hundred Day Reform from taking place, she knew the only way to consolidate her power was to stage a political coup. After the failure of the Hundred Day Reform, Emperor Guangxu was put under house arrest.

Emperor Guangxu died on November 14th 1908, a day before Empress Dowager Cixi’s death. He died relatively young, at the age of 37. For a long time there were several theories about Guangxu’s death, none of which was completely accepted by historians. Most were inclined to maintain that Emperor Guangxu was poisoned by Empress Dowager Cixi (very sick then) because she was afraid of Guangxu reversing her policies after her death, and wanted to prevent it from happening. The fact that the two died a day apart is significant. Another possibility is that Guangxu was poisoned by Yuan Shikai, who knew that if Guangxu were to ever come to power again, Yuan would likely be executed for treason. There are no reliable sources to prove who murdered the Emperor Guangxu. In 1911, Cixi's former eunuch Li Lianying was murdered, possibly by Yuan, implying that they had conspired in the emperor’s murder. This theory was offered by the Last Emperor Puyi in his biography, who claimed he heard it from an old eunuch.

The medical records kept by Guangxu’s physician indicate the emperor suffered from “spells of violent stomachache”, and that his face would turn blue, typical symptoms of arsenic poisoning. To dispel persistent rumors that the emperor had been poisoned, the Qing court produced documents and doctors’ records suggesting that he died from natural causes, but these did not successfully divert suspicion. On November 4th 2008, forensic tests revealed that the level of arsenic in Guangxu’s remains was 2,000 times higher than that of ordinary people. Scientists concluded that the poison could only be administered in a high dose at one time.