On February 7 of the following year, Weihai Weiwei Japanese ships and batteries attacked Liugong Island, and the Beiyang Naval Division was annihilated. After the defeat of both the Chinese naval and land battlefields, the Lordship faction led by Cixi was determined to sue for peace with Japan. In March, Cixi sent Li Hongzhang as Minister Plenipotentiary to Japan to beg for peace. On April 17, China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, an unprecedentedly humiliating treaty in Chinese history, in which China renounced its suzerainty status over Korea, paid an indemnity of 200 million taels of silver, ceded the Liaodong Peninsula (under the intervention of Western powers such as Russia, Germany, and France, and later redeemed it with 30 million taels of silver), Taiwan, and the Penghu Islands, opened four treaty ports, and allowed Japan to open mines and set up factories in treaty ports.

After the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, the great powers set off a frenzy to carve up China. In order to save the country, the bourgeois reformists launched the reform reform (known as the Wuxu reform in history), for the change, Cixi hoped to strengthen the country but was worried that Guangxu would use the change to get out of her control, initially expressed support, but she then seized the military power, human rights in her own hands.

In June 1898, Guangxu issued the emperor's "Ming Dingguo is the Edict" (i.e., "Ming Dingguo is the Edict") to implement the law change. Emperor Guangxu's reform touched the interests of the old Manchurian aristocracy and many feudal bureaucrats, who rallied and vigorously opposed the reform. When they heard that Emperor Guangxu tried to let Yuan Shikai send troops to kill Rong Lu after besieging the garden, Cixi and others staged a coup d'état, detained Emperor Guangxu, and executed Tan Si and six others.

After the Wuxu coup, there was an uprising and the Tuan Movement in northern China, and Cixi initially led the suppression, but the suppression failed repeatedly, and the Boxer Rebellion developed rapidly and entered Beijing. Cixi hoped to suppress and appease the Boxers and treat them differently, but the great powers demanded that the Qing government completely exterminate the Boxers, and insisted on sending troops to Beijing despite the opposition of the Qing government. Cixi had always been dissatisfied with the foreigners, so she had the idea of using the Boxers to fight against the foreign powers, and declared war on the foreign powers (without a declaration of war). Cixi's decision was opposed by Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong and other local governors, who jointly sent a telegram to the Qing court, advocating the extermination of the Boxers, and signing treaties with the foreign powers to implement "mutual protection in the southeast". On the one hand, Cixi asked the provincial generals and governors to carefully arrange the war and defense matters, and continue to use the Boxers to besiege the embassy and resist the Eight-Nation Alliance; On the other hand, she ordered Ronglu to go to the embassy to express his condolences to the envoys of various countries, and sent letters to the heads of state of Russia, Britain, Japan, Germany, the United States, France, and other countries, asking them to come forward to "resolve difficulties and disputes" and "save the situation." Li Hongzhang, the governor of Liangguang, was transferred to the post of governor of Zhili and minister of Beiyang, and prepared to negotiate with the foreign powers. However, the Eight-Nation Coalition did not stop the offensive.

On August 14, 1900, the Eight-Nation Coalition invaded Beijing; In the early morning of the next day, attacking the Donghua Gate of the Forbidden City, Cixi fled to Xi'an with Emperor Guangxu, Empress and others, and ordered Yixuan and Li Hongzhang to be ministers plenipotentiary, negotiate with the foreign powers, put the responsibility of the war on the Boxers, and ordered the Boxers to be "painfully exterminated". On February 14, 1901, the "Outline of the Peace Conference" was approved, and an edict was issued, stating that it would "measure the material resources of China and form a friendship with the country." On September 7, the "Xinqiao Treaty" was signed with 11 imperialist countries, stipulating that 450 million taels of silver would be paid in compensation according to the number of Chinese at that time, 980 million taels of silver would be paid within 39 years, the main war officials would be punished, and all artillery batteries along the Dagu to Beijing would be dismantled. On October 6 of the same year, Cixi sent tens of thousands of people and 3,000 luggage carts from Xi'an, leaving Tongguan through Henan and Zhili, and returned to Beijing on January 8, 1902 after three months.

In order to maintain her rule and change her image of being conservative and incompetent, the Empress Dowager Cixi announced the implementation of a "new policy" during the "Western Hunt" period, carrying out economic, military, educational, and official reforms.

In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out, and it was in northeastern China that the Qing government led by Cixi declared neutrality, and the result of the war was Japan's victory over Tsarist Russia. People in China generally realized that a constitutional monarchy was superior to an absolute monarchy, and demanded that the Qing government carry out constitutional reforms; At the same time, the revolutionary movement in the country was gaining momentum. In order to maintain her rule, Cixi made a constitutional gesture. In 1905, he sent five ministers to study abroad, and in 1906 he announced that he was preparing to establish a constitution, and in 1908 he promulgated the "Outline of the King James Constitution", which was modeled on the constitutions of Germany and Japan to safeguard the emperor's "great power as a monarch".

In 1908, as a result of Cixi's photo diplomacy, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt signed a bill to refund Gengzi more than $10 million in indemnities, mainly to support Chinese government-sent students studying in the United States; After that, Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and other countries successively; The total amount of the "surplus" returned to China by the seven countries is about 300 million taels of silver at the customs, which is quite effective in setting up educational undertakings and should be affirmed.

On November 14, 1908, Emperor Guangxu died, Emperor Daxing had no heir, by her order, by the Prince of Alcohol Zaifeng as the regent, his son Puyi as the emperor, the year name Xuantong, Cixi was respected as the empress dowager.

At 17 o'clock on November 15, 1908 (not just three o'clock), Yehenala died of illness in the Yiluan Hall of Zhongnanhai at the age of 74. Cixi's last words said: "From now on, women should not hear about state affairs. This is contrary to the family law of this dynasty and must be strictly restricted. In particular, it is necessary to take strict precautions and not allow eunuchs to abuse their powers. The events of the end of the Ming Dynasty can be used as a lesson! ”