Guangxu
Guāngxù ( Chinese 光绪 帝 / 光緒 帝 , Pinyin Guāngxù Dì , W.-G. Kuang1-hsu4 Ti4 , Manchu .: Zaitian / Dzai-Tiyan, Badarangga Doro; * August 14, 1871 ; † November 14, 1908 in Beijing ) a branch of the Manchurian Qing dynasty and was Emperor of China from February 25, 1875 until his death . He was adopted by his aunt Cíxǐ and enforced as the successor to their son, Emperor Tongzhi ; he ascended the dragon throne at the age of three. Guangxu was a sickly, weak-willed boy whose voice was almost inaudible to strangers due to a severe lung disease.
Until he came of age in 1889, Cixi led the regency, but even after that she retained considerable influence on government work. One of the few significant measures taken autonomously by Emperor Guangxu was the Hundred-Day Reform of 1898, which was soon stifled by Cixi. She used this reform as an excuse to disempower the emperor. She had Guangxu arrested and detained on an island in the southern Palace Lake. It robbed him of all imperial privileges. Most of his advisors (such as Tan Sitong ) were executed or banished on Cixi's orders; only two of them were warned in time by the emperor, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao , who fled to Japan . In fact, power was again in Cixi's hands.
Guangxu died in 1908, the day before his aunt. The official cause of death was given as a shrinkage of the kidneys as a result of tuberculosis , from which the Kaiser had suffered since 1907. It is believed, however, that Cixi, who was lying on his death bed, poisoned him so that Puyi , son of Prince Chun II , could succeed him. In fact, a 2008 investigation revealed a lethal dose of arsenic in Guangxu's body.
literature
- Albert Brüschweiler: The funeral of the Empress widow of China . In: Schweizer Illustrierte , Vol. 14. 1910, pp. 113–117. ( e-periodica )
- Wolfram Eberhard , Alide Eberhard: History of China. From the beginnings to the present (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 413). Kröner, Stuttgart 1971, DNB 456503854 .
- John King Fairbank : History of Modern China. 1800-1985. 2nd Edition. dtv, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-423-04497-7 .
- Jacques Gernet : The Chinese World. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-518-38005-2 .
- Gisela Gottschalk : China's great emperor. Pawlak, Herrsching 1985, ISBN 3-88199-229-4 .
- Jonathan D. Spence : China's Path to Modernity. Hanser, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-446-16284-4 .
Web links
- On the 100th anniversary of Emperor Guangxu's death, researchers found an arsenic murder
- Photographs from the funeral of the Guangxu Emperor of China
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Tongzhi |
Emperor of China 1874 - 1908 |
Pǔyí |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Guangxu |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Zaitian; Jingdi; Decong; Guāngxù; 光緒 |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Emperor of China |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 14, 1871 |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 14, 1908 |
| Place of death | Beijing , China |