Empress Dowager Cixi

Born into the Manchu Yehe Nara clan on November 29, 1835, Cixi entered the Forbidden City in 1851 as a low-ranking concubine to the Xianfeng Emperor. In 1856, she gave birth to the Emperor's only surviving son, Zaichun. When the Xianfeng Emperor died in exile in Chengde in 1861 during the Second Opium War, Cixi orchestrated the daring Xinyou Coup alongside Prince Gong, overthrowing the eight regents and establishing a co-regency with Empress Dowager Ci'an over her young son (the Tongzhi Emperor). Cixi governed behind the yellow silk screen for nearly five decades. During her reign, she guided the empire through the catastrophic Taiping Rebellion, supported the 'Self-Strengthening Movement' which built China's first modern arsenals, shipyards, telegraph lines, and Western-style schools (Tongwen Guan). Following the Tongzhi Emperor's early death, she installed her three-year-old nephew as the Guangxu Emperor. In 1898, concerned that radical reforms would spark internal civil collapse, she placed Guangxu under house arrest. In her final years after the Boxer Rebellion, Cixi initiated far-reaching late Qing reforms: abolishing the 1,300-year-old imperial civil service examination, banning female foot binding, outlawing cruel corporal punishments, and drafting China's first constitutional framework. Passing away on November 15, 1908, one day after the mysterious death of Guangxu, Cixi remains one of the most powerful and complex female rulers in world history.