Zi Xi (?tsi? ??i?) or Tz’u-hsin (Biography) 1835?1908, Chinese empress dowager, who as regent for her son Tong Zhi and her nephew Guang Xu dominated Chinese politics from 1861 to 1908. Her reactionary policies were instrumental in the fall of imperial ChinaCollins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014