Zi Xi was an Empress dowager of China. She was born in 1834 and died in 1908. She was presented as a concubine to the emperor Xianfeng. On his death in 1861 she became regent for her young son Tongzhi until 1873 and, after his death, for her nephew Guangxu until 1889. A ruthless conservative, she blocked the Hundred Days' Reform launched in 1898 and assumed power again, having Guangxu imprisoned. Her policies helped deny China a peaceful transition to political and economic reform. Research Zi Xi