Guangxu Emperor

Zaitian became the Guangxu Emperor at the Qing dynasty's lowest ebb, chosen in 1871 by dowager empresses Ci'an and Cixi after the previous emperor died heirless. Cixi ruled as regent through most of his reign while the empire bled prestige - defeats in the Sino-French War, the First Sino-Japanese War, the Boxer Rebellion. In 1889 Guangxu assumed ruling powers and by 1898 had enlisted intellectuals Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao to drive the Hundred Days' Reform, a radical modernization program that included removing Cixi herself. The conservative elite and the army refused to back him. Cixi staged a coup, crushed the reforms, and placed Guangxu under house arrest at the Yingtai Pavilion of Zhongnanhai. He remained there until his death in 1908 from arsenic poisoning, childless, and was buried at the Chongling in the Western Qing tombs.