Empress Dowager Longyu

She was chosen as the Empress because her aunt Cixi wanted to strengthen the power of her own family. She married Emperor Guangxu on February 26 , 1889 and was granted the title ''Xiao Ding Huang Hou''(孝定皇后).

She was extremely detested and ignored by the Emperor, who favoured the Imperial Concubine Zhenfei of the Tatala clan (他他拉，珍妃). She used to undermine the Concubine Zhenfei by reporting bad incidents about her to the Dowager Empress Cixi who grew more and more hostile to the Imperial Concubine and eventually had her Drowned in a Well .

After the Emperor Guangxu's attempt to gain power from the Cixi's hand failed, he was imprisoned by the Dowager Empress in a Lagoon inside the former Imperial Residence. Empress Longyu would frequently spy on the Emperor and report his every actions to the Dowager Empress. When both the Emperor and the Dowager Empress died within 3 days, Empress Longyu was made the Empress Dowager .

Empress Longyu adopted the Xuantong Emperor Puyi as her son after Guangxu's death in 1908. Cixi had maintained before her death that the Qing Dynasty would never again allow the Regency of women, but that the Empress Dowager would remain the leading respected figure, and therefore must be consulted on all major decisions. This decision was in many ways contradictory, and when Longyu assumed the title of Empress Dowager, in theory, she was in a position to make all the most important decisions, but in practice, because of her inexperience in Politics , in the first few years the Imperial Court was dominated by the young regent Zaifeng , and then by Yuan Shikai ; she was dependent on both.

Under Yuan's advice in the fall of 1911 , Longyu agreed to sign an abdication of Puyi, while providing the conditions that the Imperial Family would continue to live in the Forbidden City , and would keep its assets, titles, and servants. In 1912 , the Qing Dynasty was abolished, making way for the new Republic Of China .

A few months after the fall of the Qing dynasty Empress Dowager Longyu died in Beijing following an illness. She was 46 years old.

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Empress Dowager Longyu