At the age of sixteen, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, cixi was chosen as one of the emperors numerous concubines. Chang presents a sympathetic portrait of the empress dowager cixi, who. Te ping chen, writing in the wall street journal, found the book packed with details. Jung chang writes groundbreaking new biography books. Bette bao lord s novel spring moon starts in the days of cixi. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading the true story of the empress dowager. No single book on cixi is adequate by itself, at a minimum, if you are interested in her story you must read at least 4 books. She ruled china for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age. Jung chang is the internationally bestselling author of wild swans. A queen dowager, dowager queen or queen mother compare. In the case of the widow of an emperor, the title of empress dowager is used. Jung chang writes groundbreaking new biography this article is more than 6 years old empress dowager cixi, which promises to overturn conventional understanding of the.
I feel this book helps to give a more rounded view of the empress as all humans have many aspects to their personality. A new york times notable book empress dowager cixi 18351908 is the most important woman in chinese history. Empress dowager cixi the concubine who launched modern china. Empress dowager cixi is a hefty work, close to 400 pages totalby the midway point alone, cixi is already 60 years old, with many assassination attempts. A new york times notable book an npr best book of the year in 1852, at age sixteen, cixi was chosen as one of emperor xianfengs numerous concubines. Buck s novel imperial woman chronicles the life of the empress dowager from the time. In total contravention to informed opinion, this author holds the dowager empress cixi in awe and considers her a reformer. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Chang presents a sympathetic portrait of the empress dowager cixi, who unofficially controlled the manchu qing dynasty in china for 47 years, from 1861 to her death in 1908. The author writes that instinctively she seems to have known that a government needs dissenting voices, turning her into a sort of chinese counterpart of indias.
History often has trouble giving powerful women their due and correctives are in order, but. Cixi supervised the tongzhi restoration, a series of moderate reforms that helped the regime survive until 1911. In her absorbing new book, she laments that cixi has for so long been. The concubine who launched modern china jung changs 20 release, now available as an e book, reflects on one of modern chinas most influential figures. Empress dowager cixi by jung chang penguin books australia. Although i have heard much about queen victoria, her chinese contemporary, the empress cixi, once remarked, i do not think her life is half as interesting and eventful as mine.
Jung chang, author of the acclaimed memoir wild swans and a coauthor of the contentious biography mao. Questia read the fulltext online edition of empress dowager cixi 2002. Cixis power only increased after this, and she finally exacted revenge on guangxu just before her death in 1908. Jung changs empress dowager cixi the new york times. Jung chang portrays the empress dowager cixi as a protofeminist who brought medieval china into the modern age.
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