Mother of the Tongzhi Emperor who held power in the late Qing from 1861 until her death, ruling for two boy emperors from behind a screen (垂帘听政). She ended the 1898 reforms and backed the Boxers in 1900.
Cixi diverted naval funds to build the Summer Palace.
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慈禧 is an honorific title granted when her son took the throne; her own given name is not in the official records. The Guangxu Emperor died a day before her, and a 2008 study of his remains found he had been poisoned with 砒霜, arsenic.
