The mystery of Guangxu's death: a hundred years of silence uncovered by a lock of hair

When scientists analyzed a simple lock of hair preserved in a sandalwood box for over a century, they uncovered a hidden truth: Emperor Guangxu had been slowly poisoned with arsenic. This discovery, confirmed in 2008, transformed our understanding of one of the most tragic moments in Chinese imperial history.

Guangxu’s Last Handwritten Confession: Silent Symptoms of a Deadly Plot

Six months before his death, Guangxu took a trembling hand to write his medical history. His handwriting revealed a body and mind in decline. He confessed that for two decades he had suffered persistent nocturnal emissions, more than ten episodes a month, a condition imperial doctors attributed to energy deficiencies. However, this chronic illness was only the tip of the iceberg of a darker conspiracy.

On March 9, 1908, in the Hanyuan Hall of the Yingtai Palace, Guangxu lay in a skeletal body. The imperial doctor, after feeling his weak pulse, remained silent; there were no words to express the brevity of his remaining life. Empress Dowager Cixi ordered powerful treatments with ginseng and deer horn, remedies that caused catastrophic reactions: Guangxu vomited blood after each dose.

From Medical Record to Forensic Evidence: Analysis That Revealed the Buried Truth

Guangxu’s physical deterioration was alarming. While combing his hair, it fell out in clumps. In a heartbreaking gesture, he asked a eunuch to store each lock in a sandalwood box. No one expected this act of reflection would preserve the definitive proof of his death.

In 2008, exactly one hundred years after writing his last medical history, laboratory analyses surprised the scientific community: the arsenic content in Guangxu’s hair was 2.404 times higher than that of a normal person. This figure was not evidence of accidental chronic poisoning but of acute arsenic intoxication, clearly indicating deliberate poisoning during the last months of his life.

The Path to the End: Arsenic Hidden in the Imperial Court

Imperial kitchen records revealed significant changes in Guangxu’s diet during that critical period. His food intake drastically decreased, while new nutritious pastes appeared regularly on his table, characterized by a strange metallic taste that no one dared question. By October of that year, Guangxu could no longer get out of bed, desperately clutching his medical papers and the few personal belongings he had left.

Shortly before his death, his possessions were mistakenly discarded by a maid, almost erasing any trace of truth. Eleven hours after Guangxu’s passing, Cixi also died. Their funerals were held together, a closing that left questions about what really happened in the palace.

A Century of Mystery: Why a Lock of Hair Became the Key to History

The maids remembered that before his death, Guangxu constantly complained of a metallic taste in his mouth, a typical sign of heavy metal poisoning. In 1980, an attempt to analyze his bones failed due to toxin degradation caused by water infiltration during decades of burial.

It was that lock of hair, accidentally preserved in ideal conditions, that finally confirmed the truth. Due to its chemical composition, hair retains deposits of toxic elements more permanently than other tissues. This silence embedded in Guangxu’s hair fibers tells the most direct story: a palace tragedy, a centuries-old mystery, and the historical truth that time nearly erased.

Today, that lock rests in a display case without further explanation. It needs no words. Its very existence speaks louder than any document, any confession: Guangxu was a victim of a conspiracy that reached the heights of Chinese imperial power.