Empress Dowager Cixi1 (also
romanised as
Empress Dowager Tzu-hsi; ; ;
Manchu: Tsysi taiheo; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the
Manchu Yehenara clan, was a Chinese
empress dowager and
regent who effectively controlled the Chinese government in the late
Qing dynasty for 47 years from 1861 until her death in 1908.