The Twilight of an Empress: Rumors of Abdication

In the sweltering summer of 1907, whispers swept through Beijing that Empress Dowager Cixi, the de facto ruler of China for nearly half a century, might finally relinquish power. After eight years of direct rule following the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901), the aging empress reportedly considered retiring on February 2, 1908—the Lunar New Year—restoring authority to the imprisoned Emperor Guangxu and appointing a new heir to the throne. The imperial succession had been vacant since 1900, when Cixi deposed her initial choice, Pujun.

By 1906, Cixi had summoned several young princes to the Forbidden City for education, secretly evaluating potential successors. Among them were Puyi (son of Prince Chun and grandson of her trusted advisor Ronglu), Puwei (grandson of Prince Gong), and Pulin (great-grandson of the Daoguang Emperor). While Cixi favored Puyi and Pulin, court factions rallied behind Puwei. Yet when February 2 arrived, no transition occurred. Instead, Cixi canceled the New Year’s banquet—a symbolic event where Guangxu and officials would pay homage—and rumors swirled that the emperor had fallen gravely ill.

A Dynasty in Crisis: Health and Diplomacy Collide

By March 1908, Cixi herself was ailing. A diplomatic crisis with Japan exacerbated her decline. The Qing government had seized the Japanese ship Tatsu Maru, suspecting it smuggled arms for Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionaries. Tokyo’s furious protests rattled the court. According to the North China Herald, Cixi tearfully confessed to Prince Chun and other nobles that despite 40 years of rule, she could not save the dynasty.

Meanwhile, Beijing erupted in unexplained fires, blamed by superstitious officials on “the Fire God” but widely attributed to revolutionaries. Cixi ordered mass arrests of Japanese-educated students and heightened security. As unrest spread, she and Guangxu retreated to the Summer Palace—the emperor too weak to walk, the empress clinging to power.

The Last Manipulations: Marriage Alliances and Fading Control

Even in decline, Cixi played factions against each other. She mediated between her two top officials—the progressive Yuan Shikai and conservative Zhang Zhidong—by forcing their children into a marriage, claiming astrological compatibility. This tactic had worked before; she’d used it to neutralize Yuan’s rival, Minister of War Tieliang.

That summer, her trusted eunuch Cui Yugui was exiled, signaling instability. Plans to receive the Dalai Lama in September were abruptly scaled back, his gifts for Cixi’s birthday barely acknowledged. By November, both rulers were dying: Guangxu from alleged kidney disease and “nervous exhaustion,” Cixi from strokes.

The Mysterious Deaths: Coincidence or Conspiracy?

On November 14, 1908, Guangxu died at 37—likely poisoned, as forensic tests in 2008 suggested. Cixi, though bedridden, issued her final edict the same night, naming Puyi (age 2) as heir and his father Prince Chun as regent. She died the next afternoon. The 23-hour gap between deaths fueled theories that Yuan Shikai—who betrayed Guangxu in 1898—or Prince Chun orchestrated the emperor’s murder.

Adding intrigue, Prince Qing—a potential rival to Chun—died days later. Officially, it was grief; skeptics suspected foul play. The Western press noted the irony: Guangxu’s modest funeral cost 500,000 taels, while Cixi’s extravagant rites exceeded 1.5 million.

Legacy: The End of an Era

Cixi’s death marked the Qing Dynasty’s irreversible collapse. Puyi’s reign lasted just three years before the 1911 Revolution toppled imperial rule. Her final years reveal a ruler trapped by her own machinations—too weakened to govern, yet unable to let go. The dynasty’s fate, like her fraught relationship with Guangxu, remains a poignant chapter in China’s transition to modernity.

Her funeral procession—with 120 pallbearers, paper effigies of servants, and Western-style troops—symbolized the old world’s last gasp. As The Times observed, the disparity between her and Guangxu’s rites reflected not just rank, but the unresolved tensions of an empire crumbling under its own contradictions.