Deaths of the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi
Also called: Accession of Puyi, Death of the Guangxu Emperor
On 14 November 1908 the captive Guangxu Emperor died, and the next day Cixi. The two-year-old Puyi took the throne as the Xuantong Emperor with his father Zaifeng as regent, who the next year dismissed Yuan Shikai.
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Held for ten years since the 1898 coup on the island of Yingtai in the Zhongnanhai, the Guangxu Emperor died on 14 November 1908 aged 37; the very next day Cixi died at 73. In 2008 tests on his remains found arsenic far above a lethal dose, confirming long-held suspicions that he had been poisoned.
Before her death Cixi had chosen Guangxu’s nephew, the two-year-old Puyi, as heir. He became the Xuantong Emperor, and his father Zaifeng, Prince Chun, became regent. In January 1909 Zaifeng sent home Yuan Shikai — whom he blamed for betraying his brother in 1898 — on the pretext of a “foot ailment”, and gathered military power into the hands of Manchu princes.
That summer the court issued an “Outline of the Imperial Constitution” promising a constitution in nine years, but its throne was stronger than Meiji Japan’s, and the constitutionalists were disappointed.
