A quiz question · hard
How long before Cixi's own death on 15 November 1908 did the Guangxu Emperor die?
Guangxu died on 14 November 1908 — one day before Cixi. 2008 hair analysis found arsenic at 2,000 times normal. Cixi probably ordered her nephew's elimination on learning her own death was imminent.
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The Manchu Junior Concubine Who Became the Effective Ruler of China for 47 Years and Died the Day After Her Adopted Nephew the Emperor Cixi entered the Forbidden City as a junior fifth-rank concubine in 1851 at age 16. By 1861 she was co-regent for her infant son the Tongzhi Emperor. She ruled the Qing dynasty in fact if not in title from 1861 to her death on 15 November 1908. The Guangxu Emperor — her adopted nephew, whom she had kept under house arrest for ten years — died of arsenic poisoning the day before. The dynasty fell three years later.
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