Artworks reveal Chinese rulers and Cixi loved role-playing long before modern cosplay

The Qing dynasty’s Empress Dowager Cixi is renowned as a cosplay enthusiast, leaving behind photographs and paintings of herself embodying the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin. However, she was not the first to engage in such role-playing while on the throne. Long before Cixi (1835–1908), the Qing dynasty’s emperors Yongzheng (1678–1735) and his son, Qianlong (1711–1799), indulged in role-playing, as evidenced in numerous paintings. Yongzheng, whose reign lasted 13 years, was known as a strict...