Study proves emperor murdered by arsenic

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-11-4  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

FORENSIC scientists have revealed that China's second to last emperor Guangxu (1871-1908) was murdered by arsenic poisoning.

The research project started in 2003 under the national program of the Compilation of Qing Dynasty History was carried out by the China Institute of Atomic Energy, the forensic lab of the Beijing police.

The emperor, who died at the age of 37, was well known for trying to reform the weak feudal system of the Qing Dynasty and adopt a constitutional monarchy in 1898. But his reform failed in a coup launched by the conservative Empress Dowager Cixi, the widow of Emperor Xianfeng and aunt of Guangxu.

He was placed under house arrest from 1898 and died suddenly in 1908, just 22 hours before the death of Cixi. The cause of his death has remained a mystery.

Forensic experts tested two strands of hair taken from Guangxu's body and found they contained arsenic over 2,000 times higher than that of modern-day healthy people, said a report by the committee in charge of Qing history compilation.

They also compared Guangxu's hair with two of his contemporaries, his wife Empress Longyu and a Qing official. The arsenic found on the empress' hair was 261 times lower than Guangxu and that of the official was 132 times lower.

But some experts suggested that the emperor may have suffered chronic arsenic poisoning as he took traditional Chinese medicine over a long period of time, some of which may have contained traces of arsenic.

Experts found a person suffering such chronic arsenic poisoning. They found Guangxu's hair contained arsenic 65 times higher than that person and, more importantly, the pattern of arsenic distribution on Guangxu's hair was different.

"We tested a higher incidence of arsenic at the hair root of the person suffering chronic medicine poisoning than the other part of the hair. But on Guangxu's hair, the higher incidence of arsenic was found at the end or in the middle," said Wang Ke, a CIAE expert in charge of arsenic testing.

"We conclude that Guangxu died of acute arsenic poisoning," said the report. But who murdered Guangxu remains a mystery.

After the deaths of Guangxu and Cixi, a two-year-old boy named Puyi ascended the throne to be the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty. He was forced to resign in 1912 by a revolution that founded the Republic of China.