Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China Hardcover – Deckle Edge Author: Visit Amazon's Jung Chang Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0307271609 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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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
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- Hardcover: 464 pages
- Publisher: Knopf; First American Edition edition (October 29, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0307271609
- ISBN-13: 978-0307271600
- Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
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.
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.
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