In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, there was an unsolved case, which no one dared to mention before the fall of the Qing Dynasty, but no one knew after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, so no one investigated the truth for many years. This unsolved case was the cause of death of the Guangxu Emperor, who was only 38 years old, and why did he die the day before Empress Dowager Cixi?
We know that Guangxu was a puppet emperor all his life, and when he was 4 years old, Cixi's own son, the 19-year-old Tongzhi Emperor, died, because the Tongzhi Emperor left no heirs, so Cixi chose Zai Xiang, the 4-year-old son of Prince Yizhen, as the heir to the throne, that is, the Guangxu Emperor.
The reason why Cixi chose Zaixiang as the heir to the throne was precisely because she was young and easy to control, and Cixi could continue to listen to the government. But under Cixi's decadent rule, the Qing Dynasty was on the verge of collapse. Guangxu, who was not willing to be the king of the subjugated country, launched the Penghu Reform Law in an attempt to strengthen himself.
Because the Wushu Reform Law touched the interests of the conservative faction led by Empress Dowager Cixi, on September 21, 1898, Cixi launched the Wushu Coup and imprisoned Guangxu, and from then on Guangxu completely lost the opportunity to turn over, and Empress Dowager Cixi also completely tore her face.
In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu (1908), the Guangxu Emperor died at the Yingtai Hanyuan Hall, and the next day Cixi, who had controlled the Qing Dynasty for half a century, also died. Here people can't help but wonder, is it Cixi who is afraid of Revenge after his death? So poisoned Guangxu? Although the Qing Dynasty royal family never recognized it, it was actually intended to cover up.
In the autumn of 1938, an unidentified group of soldiers sneaked into the tomb of the Guangxu Emperor and stolen all the burial items inside, and the list of burial items of the Guangxu Emperor in the Qing official archives showed that there were more than 100 pieces of green jade bergamot hairpins, green jade gourds, dadong beads, rice block beads and other gold and silver jade objects, and precious fur clothing.
In 1980, the cultural relics department decided to start rescue excavations of the Qing Chongling Tombs. Since it was already known that the tomb of the Guangxu Emperor had been stolen and excavated, there was no extra hope, just wanted to repair the mausoleum, but soon after entering the Chongling Tomb, there was a pungent smell coming at the face, almost disgusting.
The archaeological team stepped up their advance and soon entered the main burial chamber of Chongling, where they were disappointed to find that the tomb was indeed empty and looted by the stolen tombs. The archaeological team immediately threw hope into the coffin, and after slowly opening the coffin of the Guangxu Emperor, the experts of the archaeological team could not help but cheer with excitement.
It turned out that the experts found that the bones of the Guangxu Emperor had not been taken away by the tomb robbers, although only the skeleton was left, and even the outermost layer of clothes had been ripped off, but at least the body was still there. What makes experts even happier is that a poke of hair was also found in the coffin, which means that from this poke hair, we can learn about the physical condition of the Guangxu Emperor before his death, including the cause of Guangxu's death.
In 2008, a report published by the special research team on the cause of death of the Qing Guangxu Emperor mainly pointed out that Guangxu's hair contained a high concentration of arsenic, and the arsenic content distribution curve was very different from that of chronic poisoners, so it could only be caused by eating a large number of high arsenic substances. This also shows that the Guangxu Emperor was poisoned, and who was the biggest suspect in poisoning the Guangxu Emperor? Obviously, it can only be Empress Dowager Cixi.