Portrait of Guangxu Emperor

Birthday profile

Guangxu Emperor

Guangxu Emperor of China (died 1908)

Born
August 14, 1871
Died
November 14, 1908
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1871

About Guangxu Emperor

The Guangxu Emperor (14 August 1871 – 14 November 1908), also known by his temple name Emperor Dezong of Qing, personal name Zaitian, was the tenth and penultimate emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His succession was endorsed by dowager empresses Ci'an and Cixi for political reasons after the Tongzhi Emperor died without an heir. Cixi held political power for much of Guangxu's reign as regent, except for the period between his assumption of ruling powers in 1889 and the Hundred Days' Reform in 1898. The Qing Empire's prestige and sovereignty continued to erode during Guangxu's reign with defeats in the Sino-French War, the First Sino-Japanese War, and the Boxer Rebellion. Guangxu engaged intellectuals like Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao to develop the Hundred Days' Reform program of 1898 to reverse the decline. Among the goals was removing Cixi from power. The program was too radical for the conservative ruling elite, and it failed to secure the support of the army. Cixi rallied the program's opponents to launch a coup in late 1898 that suppressed the reforms and secured her power. Guangxu lost ruling powers and was placed under virtual house arrest at the Yingtai Pavilion of Zhongnanhai until his death. Guangxu died without children in 1908 of arsenic poisoning. He was buried in the Chongling at the Western Qing tombs.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Guangxu Emperor was born

Guangxu Emperor was born in 1871. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineGreat Chicago Fire destroys 3.3 square miles
  • Technology milestoneFirst cable car in San Francisco proposed
  • World population~1.51B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderUlysses S. Grant
  • U.S. population39.4M

1871 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Guangxu Emperor's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18712026
Population39.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.