In 198, Emperor Guangxu died, and Cixi chose three-year-old Puyi as the new emperor, who was honored as the Empress Dowager. She died at Yiluan Hall at 17: the next day (not exactly three minutes) and was buried in Dingdong Mausoleum, Putuo Valley.
Empress Dowager Cixi was one of the few women who had been in power for a long time in the imperial era of China history. Her political skills were capable, and she was especially good at manipulating the balance of power between pro-expensive courtiers to maintain her absolute authority. The Qing Dynasty continued her life for decades because of her ability.
during the reign of empress dowager cixi, the centralization of the Qing court and China's sovereignty faced various threats from both inside and outside. from the standpoint of defending the authority of the Qing empire and its own power, the measures she took were not successful, but most of them were reasonable in the historical context.
A few people who have seen the Queen Mother describe her as a tall woman with a straight body and beautiful face. She has a pair of eagle eyes and obvious Tatar characteristics. Her attitude is noble and arrogant, and her voice has unshakable authority and absolute majesty. -Eliza Ruhama Sidmore's China, Longevity Empire
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Anecdotal allusions
When Cixi's mother was 7th birthday, she didn't have time to celebrate her mother's birthday, so she asked the courtiers to send her many things, including a calligraphy written by her own hand. This calligraphy has been preserved for several generations and was finally destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. The poem says: "The parents' feelings in the world are the truest, and tears and blood are dissolved in their children's bodies. Exhausting one's heart and soul will eventually become a child, poor inherit the wind! "
political measures
Cixi led two reforms in her life, the first was the Westernization Movement, and the second was the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty. The former was a material change, and the latter was a system change.
The Westernization Movement was the first large-scale movement to imitate and learn from western industrialization in modern China, and it was a top-down reform movement on the premise of maintaining feudal imperial power. The Westernization Movement introduced a large number of scientific and technological achievements in the west after the 18th century, introduced and translated a large number of western works and documents, trained the first batch of overseas students, and opened the door to western learning.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Cixi