(14 August 1871 - 14 November 1908), personal name Zaitian. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, without Empress Dowager Cixi's influence, only from 1889 to 1898. He initiated the Hundred Days' Reform, but was abruptly stopped when the empress dowager launched a coup in 1898, after which he became powerless and was held under house arrest until his death by poisoning. His era name, "Guangxu", means "glorious succession"

The Guangxu Emperor died in 1908 "under mysterious circumstances." He was only 37 years old. A day later, Dowager Empress Cixi died. Many believe that Cixi, knowing the end was near, had the emperor poisoned. In 2008, a test was done on the body of the Guangxu Emperor, which found that his remains contained 2,000 times the normal amount of arsenic in a person's body. This leads historians to speculate that Cixi had the emperor killed so he could not continue advancing his progressive reforms.