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Empress Dowager Cixi, by Jung Chang
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A New York Times Notable Book
Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age.
At the age of sixteen, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor’s numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China—behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male.
In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China. Under her the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state: industries, railways, electricity, the telegraph and an army and navy with up-to-date weaponry. It was she who abolished gruesome punishments like “death by a thousand cuts” and put an end to foot-binding. She inaugurated women’s liberation and embarked on the path to introduce parliamentary elections to China. Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot.
Cixi reigned during extraordinary times and had to deal with a host of major national crises: the Taiping and Boxer rebellions, wars with France and Japan—and an invasion by eight allied powers including Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States. Jung Chang not only records the Empress Dowager’s conduct of domestic and foreign affairs, but also takes the reader into the depths of her splendid Summer Palace and the harem of Beijing’s Forbidden City, where she lived surrounded by eunuchs—one of whom she fell in love, with tragic consequences. The world Chang describes here, in fascinating detail, seems almost unbelievable in its extraordinary mixture of the very old and the very new.
Based on newly available, mostly Chinese, historical documents such as court records, official and private correspondence, diaries and eyewitness accounts, this biography will revolutionize historical thinking about a crucial period in China’s—and the world’s—history. Packed with drama, fast paced and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a woman: as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population, and as a unique stateswoman.
From the Hardcover edition.
- Sales Rank: #59947 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-10-29
- Released on: 2013-10-29
- Format: Kindle eBook
From Publishers Weekly
Her original first name was considered too inconsequential to enter in the court registry, yet she became the most powerful woman in 19th-century China. Born in 1835 to a prominent Manchu family, Cixi was chosen in 1852 by the young Chinese Emperor Xianfeng as one of his concubines. Literate, politically aware, and graceful rather than beautiful, Cixi was not Xianfeng's favorite, but she delivered his firstborn son in 1856. When the emperor died in 1861, he bequeathed his title to this son, with regents to oversee his reign. Cixi did not trust these men to competently rule China, so she conspired with Empress Zhen, her close friend and the deceased emperor's first wife, to orchestrate a coup. Memoirist Chang (Wild Swans) melds her deep knowledge of Chinese history with deft storytelling to unravel the empress dowager's behind-the-throne efforts to "Make China Strong" by developing international trade, building railroads and utilities, expanding education, and constructing a modern military. Cixi's actions and methods were at times controversial, and in 1898 she thwarted an assassination attempt sanctioned by Emperor Guangxu, her adopted son. Cixi's power only increased after this, and she finally exacted revenge on Guangxu just before her death in 1908. Illus.
From Booklist
Chang, author of the impeccable Wild Swans (2003), provides a revisionist biography of a controversial concubine who rose through the ranks to become a long-reigning, power- wielding dowager empress during the delicate era when China emerged from its isolationist cocoon to become a legitimate player on the international stage. As Cixi’s power and influence grew—she actually helped orchestrate the coup of 1861 that led directly to her own dominion as regent—she radically shifted official attitudes toward Western thoughts, ideas, trade, and technology. Ushering in a new era of openness, she not only brought medieval China into the modern age, but she also served double duty as a feminist champion and icon. When an author as thorough, gifted, and immersed in Chinese culture as Chang writes, both scholars and general readers take notice. --Margaret Flanagan
Review
A New York Times Notable Book
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
An Economist Best Book for Fall
“Empress Dowager Cixi is revisionist history at its most exuberant. As with her damning Mao exegesis, Chang hasn’t only a gut conviction about her subject. Extensive research, often into previously unexamined sources, produces hard evidence of both Cixi’s formidable gifts as a strategist, and her sincere efforts at reform. It is a wild narrative ride…. Her enthusiasm for Cixi, along with the astounding details of a half-century of outsized Chinese history, makes for a compelling, lively account, rich with drama and intrigue.” —Charles Foran, The Globe and Mail
“Absorbing…. [Chang’s] extensive use of new Chinese sources makes a strong case for a reappraisal…. What makes reading this new biography so provocative are the similarities between the challenges faced by the Qing court a century ago and those confronting the Chinese Communist Party today…. There is much to learn here from the experiences of Empress Dowager Cixi.” —Orville Schell, The New York Times Book Review
“A comprehensive biography that is three-dimensional in scope…. The portrait Chang paints of Cixi is complex….With this authoritative and epic biography, Chang harnesses Cixi’s ambition and makes a bold attempt to broadcast Cixi’s achievements against the weight of history while chronicling China at the crossroads of a new era of change.” —Jason Beerman, Toronto Star
“If there is one woman who mattered in the history of modern China, it is the empress dowager Cixi…. She was much maligned as a brutal despot and diehard conservative responsible for the fall of the Qing dynasty. That conventional image is queried in this detailed and beautifully narrated biography, which at long last restores the empress dowager to her rightful place…. [Chang] has a wonderful eye for the telling detail and excels at unraveling palace intrigues and corridor politics…. She is the first to devote a whole book to Cixi and place her at the very heart of modern Chinese history.” —Frank Dikotter, The Sunday Times
“[Empress Dowager Cixi] is…a model of the biographical form. Meticulously researched, and written in crystalline prose, the book fashions, from the indeterminate detail of Cixi’s life, and the tumultuous history though which she led her country, a narrative of remarkable cohesion and concision.” —Jonathan Chatwin, Asian Review of Books
Most helpful customer reviews
64 of 68 people found the following review helpful.
Read it if you want to understand China today
By Dale Dellinger
This is a very interesting book about Chinese history in the 19th and early 20th centuries, from the point of view of the central government -- specifically the Qing court.
At first look, this book appears to be a biography of one person, but in fact it gives great insight into China during an important (and I'd say misunderstood time) as it emerged from its isolation in the 19th century.
I must admit I didn't know much about the Empress Dowager Cixi before reading this book. When I was in Beijing several years ago, I had heard about her taking money earmarked for modernizing the navy and diverting it to build a stone pavilion shaped like a boat at the Summer Palace. My impression was that she was very backward, ignorant of the west, and controlling. On the contrary, the author, Jung Chang, is very sympathetic towards Cixi and he often showed me how my original impression of her was wrong, and she was much more than the caricature I had in my mind. She cared for China -- her motto was "China Strong". She was curious about the West and was impressed by the West's technology, their political systems, and how the West treated it's own citizens, and she adopted (or tried to adopt) many facets of the West. Many times, she was hampered by conservatives who didn't want to change.
This is also a book about a smart woman who became leader of 1/3 of the world's population -- not by birth, but by her own will -- when she was in her 20s and remained a strong force in a country for most of the rest of her life. It's telling that historians are not clear of what her original name was -- Cixi is an honorific name -- women's names weren't important enough to record, even when they were the emperor's mother.
The book got a little tiresome to me somewhere in the second half, but keep with it and be sure to read the epilogue. This one chapter outlines Cixi's lasting impacts and ties together the rest of the book with modern day China.
By the way, about that stone boat story -- Cixi did pay for some of the renovation of the Summer Palace with funds that were earmarked for the navy, but Chang quickly points out that she paid for much of it out of her household budget and that it didn't have an effect on the strength of the navy. She was much more frugal in many other ways than that extravagance would imply.
If you would like to know how China got to where it is today, this book is one you should read along the way. After reading it, I feel that Cixi has gotten a bad rap and this book might reverse some of that.
34 of 37 people found the following review helpful.
Compelling and engaging study of the Empress Dowager Cixi
By Z Hayes
When I was teaching in Singapore, the history syllabus covered the reign of the Empress Dowager Cixi, or Tzu- Hsi, as she was also known. I find her to be a complex and incredibly intelligent woman who bucked the restrictions imposed upon her gender during a period where females were extremely oppressed to rise through the ranks and become one of the most powerful women in China's history. Though Cixi has been reviled by many as a despot, author Jung Chang, who also wrote the amazing Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, provides a starkly different perspective, one that shines the spotlight on the Empress Dowager's many achievements.
The book also provides the reader with a compelling look into the politics of governing China during the period. As one of Emperor Xianfeng's many royal concubines, Cixi distinguished herself not only because she provided the emperor with a son, but was also known for her political acumen, and this proved helpful when the Emperor died five years later. Employing cunning strategies, Cixi positioned herself as the real ruler of China, with her son installed as the Emperor Tongzhi.
Using recently accessible historical documents, primarily in Chinese, the author paints a compelling portrait of a woman who went against the grain and helped propel China into the modern era with significant strides being made in diverse fields such as economy, military, education, etc. One of the significant social reforms, at least in my opinion, was the banning of the cruel and antiquated practice of female foot-binding which saw many young women crippled way before their time, and prevented women from being more productive participants in society.
I admit that it was difficult to reconcile the dominant view of the Empress Dowager as a cruel, ultra conservative with this reformist Empress, but Jung Chang makes a compelling case and backs up her work with historical evidence. I'm no historian, but I found this book to be well-written and cogent, and think it will appeal to those who are interested in Chinese history and politics.
66 of 76 people found the following review helpful.
A Consumate Political Animal
By Loves the View
In total contravention to informed opinion, this author holds The Dowager Empress Cixi in awe and considers her a reformer. I was looking forward to what the author of Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China might have to say about Cixi and was disappointed that not much in the premise holds up. The Dowager's actions, as cited in this very text, contradict the author's premise.
Women's roles in history are obscured and underrated. Cixi is not obscure and takes on her shoulders the centuries of tradition and resistance to change that put China in a weak position to deal with the modern world. Jung Chang gives no information to show that Cixi's leadership did anything to reverse this trend. What she does show is that Cixi is a consummate politician.
Cixi lucked out in producing the first male child for the Emperor Xianfeng and was befriended his wife the empress. Upon the emperor's death, Cixi aligned with Empress Zhen and they plotted their way to power. Upon the death of her son, the Emperor Tongzhi, on whom her position depended, she adopted her three year old nephew who became Emperor Guangxu. She controlled him and wheedled his power away from him. When he became an adult, discredited and imprisoned him. She later murdered him, for the good of China... of course. None of her power was used to reform China. It seems to have been used to appoint people who would perpetuate her own power and kill others who (may have) threatened it. As could easily be predicted, she was against the Boxer rebels until they were effective; then she supported them; and then when they were squelched by the westerners, she cozied up to the westerners. She promised China a constitutional monarchy... after her death, of course.
The text is often a paean that contradicts Cixi's life and actions. Page 344 tributes "Cixi's sense of fairness... penchant for consensus". This hardly fits the narrative to this point, the most dramatic example being Jade (the Emperor Guangxu's favorite concubine) for whom there was no room in the flight from the Boxers. Jade did not obey Cixi's orders to commit suicide, nor did Cixi notice the consensus of the eunuchs who did not step forward to push her into the well (p. 279) as she had ordered. Cixi had to order specific Eunuch to do this, who would surely not have done it had he thought he had a choice. On p. 354, after a whole book showing how Cixi excluded Han Chinese from the inner councils of running their own country, we learn that "she was not given to racial prejudice".
The last section, on the "Real Revolution of Modern China" is replete with examples of how the text, itself, discredits the thesis that Cixi is a reformer. In this "reform period" Cixi is enjoying her new western friends, to whose countries China is indebted; they shower her with gifts and attention. Cixi (p.326) issued an edict banning foot-binding and "approached the implementation ... with characteristic caution ... not her style to force drastic change" and it took a generation (i.e. regime change) because "Cixi was prepared to wait". Later, on p. 371 Jung Chung calls foot-binding a practice to which Cixi "put an end." It took a boycott (p. 349) of a reception by her British friends for her to issue an edit banning "bastinado" - the beating of prisoners to death. Future eliminations use various other methods and were covered up.
The book is good for its easy to follow chronology. The descriptions of the pageantry; crimson ink, seals and boxes; eunuch life; the education of young emperors; the culture of outbursts (weeping, banging heads on the floor, prostration for apology); and the mundane (what pipe attendants do and how they are trained) are excellent. The photographs, like the cover are great.
Are Cixi's mistakes, for which she apologized, greater than Mao's, for which he didn't? (p.373) Jung Chang, who was on the receiving end of Mao's "mistakes" considers Cixi's minimal compared with her achievements. From this volume, I appreciate Cixi's political achievements for herself, but find achievements for China lacking.
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