Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), the concubine of Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty, was the de facto supreme ruler of the Tongzhi and Guangxu dynasties.
In 1860, when the British and French forces entered Beijing, she fled with Emperor Xianfeng to a summer resort in Rehe (now Chengde, Hebei). In August of the following year, Emperor Xianfeng died of illness, and the six-year-old Zaichun succeeded to the throne, and she and Niu Colu were honored as the empress dowager, with the emblems Cixi and Ci'an, commonly known as the Empress Dowager of the West and the Empress Dowager of the East.
In November, she and Prince Gong launched a coup d'état in Xinyou, changed the Yuan Tongzhi, and implemented the two empress dowagers"Listen to politics"and hold real power yourself.
A.D. 1889, changed"Listen to politics"for"Discipline and government", nominally under the Guangxu Emperor, in fact still manipulates internal and foreign power.
In April 1895, when the news of Japan's forced Qing Dynasty to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki reached Beijing, Kang Youwei mobilized more than 1,300 people to take the examination in Beijing to jointly write to Emperor Guangxu, bitterly stating the grim situation of the nation's peril, and putting forward the idea of refusing peace, moving the capital, training troops, and changing the law, thus opening the prelude to the reform and reform of the law.
Under the active promotion of the reformers and the imperial party, on June 11, 1898, the Guangxu Emperor promulgated"Ming Dingguo is"The edict announced the change of the law, which was known as the "Wuxu change law" in history.
During this period, Emperor Guangxu promulgated a series of edicts and edicts on law changes according to the suggestions of Kang Youwei and others. The main contents are:"Economically: the establishment of the Bureau of Agriculture and Industry and Commerce, the General Administration of Roads and Mines, and the promotion of the establishment of industry;Railroads were built and mining deposits were exploitedOrganization of the Chamber of Commerce;Reform the finances. Politically: open up the way of speech, and allow the people to write and talk about things;The green battalion was eliminated and the new army was formed. Culturally: abolish the eight shares, rejuvenate the West;Founded the Jingshi University Hall;Set up a translation and book bureau to send international students;Reward scientific work and inventions. "
The purpose of these reform decrees was to learn from Western culture, science and technology, and management systems, develop capitalism, establish a constitutional monarchy, and make the country rich and strong.
After the reform began, the old school in the Qing Dynasty could not tolerate the development of the reform movement. Conservatives kneel down and ask the Queen Mother"Listen to politics"；In the early morning of September 21, 1898, the Empress Dowager Cixi imprisoned Emperor Guangxu in Yingtai, Zhongnanhai, and then issued an edict to discipline the government and came to the court again"Discipline and government"。
After the Wuxu coup, on September 28, the six gentlemen of Wuxu were killed at the entrance of the Caishikou in Beijing, and they were the six reformers in the Wuxu coup, namely Tan Sitong, Lin Xu, Yang Rui, Liu Guangdi, Yang Shenxiu and Kang Guangren. Tan Sitong had a desperate poem before his execution:"has the intention to kill the thief, but has no power to return to the sky;Die well, quickly, quickly!"
All new policy measures, with the exception of the Kyoto University Hall, which opened in July, have been repealed.
The new policy began on this day and lasted one hundred and three days until the Empress Dowager Cixi launched a coup d'état on September 21"100 Days of Restoration"。
On November 14, 1908, Emperor Guangxu died, and the Empress Dowager Cixi ordered Prince Lichu to carry Fengzi, who was only three years old, as the emperor, and the year name was Xuantong.