Empress Dowager Cixi: China's Last Dynasty and the Long Reign of a Formidable Concubine : Legends and Lives During the Declining Days of the Qing Dynasty

240 Pages·2003·1.05 MB·English

by  X. L. Woo

E D C
MPRESS OWAGER IXI

CHINA’S LAST DYNASTY AND
THE LONG REIGN OF A FORMIDABLE CONCUBINE
—
Legends and Lives During the
Declining Days of the Qing Dynasty.

X. L. Woo

Algora Publishing
New York
© 2002 by Algora Publishing.
All Rights Reserved.
www.algora.com

No portion of this book (beyond what is permitted by
Sections 107 or 108 of the United States Copyright Act of 1976)
may be reproduced by any process, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the
express written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 1-892941-88-0 (softcover)
ISBN: 1-892941-89-9 (hardcover)

Library of Congress Card Number: 2002006367

Woo, X. L.
Empress dowager Cixi / X. L. Woo.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-892941-88-0
1. Cixi, Empress dowager of China, 1835-1908. 2.
Empresses—China—Biography. 3. China—History--Guangxu, 1875-1908. I.
Title.
DS763.63.C58 W66 2002
951'.035'092—dc21

2002006367

Printed in the United States
To Beili Cheng, my beloved wife.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1
Timeframes 3
Rulers 5
Principal Events 7

PART ONE 9
Rising to the Top

PART TWO 75
A Balancing Act

PART THREE 197
Tumbling Down

INTRODUCTION
In all the history of China, only two women ever conquered and held the
heights of power. Both enjoyed long reigns characterized by ruthless intrigue;
they maintained an iron grip at the center while the vast country was torn by
rebellions and caught up in foreign wars. Through their policy decisions as well
as their personal foibles, both left a deep imprint in history and in the minds of
the Chinese people, fueling literature and legend.
Fighting to maintain her power base, Empress Cixi struggled with the need
to modernize the painfully backward empire she had inherited while honoring
age-old traditions. She studied previous rulers’ failures and achievements, and
especially followed the example of Wu-Hou, who had elevated herself from
concubine to empress some 1200 years earlier.
The stories that follow, some legenday, offer a glimpse of life during the
declining days of the last Chinese dynasty. Popular rebellions, foreign wars,
devastating floods and drought-induced famines killed tens of millions in the
19th century.
Cixi learned her lessons well. She fended off every adversary, prolonging
her reign for 48 years. But all her craft and guile were not enough to repair the
internal divisions and preserve traditional China against the onslaught of moder-
nity, of Europe, and of her Asian neighbors.
1