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Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China, by Jung Chang
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A New York Times Notable BookAn NPR Best Book of the Year In 1852, at age sixteen, Cixi was chosen as one of Emperor Xianfeng’s numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a coup against her son’s regents and placed herself as the true source of power—governing through a silk screen that separated her from her male officials. Drawing on newly available sources, Jung Chang comprehensively overturns Cixi’s reputation as a conservative despot. Cixi’s extraordinary reign saw the birth of modern China. Under her, the ancient country attained industries, railways, electricity, and a military with up-to-date weaponry. She abolished foot-binding, inaugurated women’s liberation, and embarked on a path to introduce voting rights. Packed with drama, this groundbreaking biography powerfully reforms our view of a crucial period in China’s—and the world’s—history.
Product details
Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Anchor; Reprint edition (September 9, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780307456700
ISBN-13: 978-0307456700
ASIN: 0307456706
Product Dimensions:
6.2 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.3 out of 5 stars
428 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#55,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Cixi appears in this story as a low-grade concubine who has been chosen by the Emperor to satisfy his pleasures, be they sexual or artistic. A woman who has no say in political discourse, Cixi demonstrates an unusual intelligence and eventually influence in those family and ministerial members of the imperial family. Thus, it is no surprise that Cixi sees China going downhill when Western powers begin to flex their military muscles in threats if they are not given more trade rights in previously forbidden Chinese cities. While these "foreign devils" are posing war, Cixi is wise enough to discover China's shrinking economy and knows that growth for China lies in modernizing in order to improve her financial status.Westerners perhaps, in this present time of revolutions and coups, fail to appreciate how dramatic it was for Cixi to have a son by Emperor Xianfang and take over as co-Regent with the Emperor's wife, Empress Zhen, after the Emperor's death. Xianfang had made numerous decrees leading to the Opium War that infuriated foreign traders. Most unusual was the bond between Empress Zhen and Cixi, who shared precise opinions about foreign and domestic matters; the Empress, on the other hand, was more than willing to take a backseat and let Cixi rule the country. Her rule continues with carefully calculated plans that wind their way around the opposition ministers of the Court. Eventually foreigners get more trading rights, places to explore in China, and implementation of industrial inventions, such as the telegraph, electricity and the railroad that benefit all countries involved, including China herself. The largest fights over these many years is over the trade of opium, a drug that was destroying China; permission for foreign missionaries to minister in interior China, the burning of the Summer Palace by angry foreigners, the increasing incursion of Japan and other nations, and many other debacles that Cixi manages with aplomb and great diplomatic skill.Cixi toward the end of her life recognizes that her son's rule, like his father's, was a total disaster and fears what will occur when she has gone. She has retired twice but still "managed" or "ruled" China for most of her life; the opposite poles of thinking in the Court almost mandate a Parliamentarian style government for the future in which checks and balances will allow no extremist thinking to destroy the progress. To her credit this was implemented after her death.Every page of this biography, which is also truly a history of China between 1835 and 1912, is fascinating, accurate because of obvious precise research, and exciting. Many ministers are characterized as well, with their strengths and weaknesses exposed for analysis as they make beneficial and deleterious decisions that Cixi must expand or annul. It's a perilous but thrilling journey the reader shares with Cixi and Jung Chang has again written a brilliant story about the violence, weak personal characters, tragedies, joys of China in its drive to become a well-respected, modern nation. Superb in all ways and a great read!
GREAT BOOK, but by itself is totally inadequate. This book is very knowledgeable and thorough, but is in complete disagreement with a number of other great books. Despite the upheavals of 1911,the clash between, Nationalists-&-Communists, takeover by Japan, and the Cultural-Revolution of Chairman Mao, there are many, many authoritative records available, but many of them wildly disagree with each other on many, many major topics.The reasons for this are: very few people actually knew much about the actual live of Cixi, since if you weren't very close to her orbit, all you heard about was 2nd hand at best, and often far more removed than that.Of the people who actually knew about the "REAL" Cixi, I would list just 3: 1) Her chief Eunuchs, there were two, her first one went on a vacation of sorts, which was actually unlawful, although approved by CIXI. Somehow, his behaviour while on vacation led to his being beheaded by a government official in the area he was at, and although it was/would have been against the wishes of Cixi, his beheading was indeed lawful. Almost every person who describes this event, has a wildly different account, even though, in a broad sense, they sort of tell a similar story.2) Her lifelong semi-intimate companion Ronglu, who never left any memoirs, 3) The 'Princess' Der Ling who spent 2 years in her court {1903-1905} as her closest confidant/translator/semi-advisor. Ms Der Ling has been widely criticized and denounced, mostly unfairly by my account, but she wrote lucidly and intelligently about Cixi, and must be considered as a prime source for information about the REAL Cixi.BOTTOM LINE: 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:"Dragon-Lady" by Sterling Seagrave, "Empress Dowager Cixi" by Jung Chang, and 2 of Princess Der Ling's books: "Old Buddha" & "Two Years in the Forbidden City.In addition, I highly recommend the following additional books for reference which are dirt cheap {used here on Amazon}: "Political History of China, 1840-1928, and "China's Last Empire / The Great Qing" by Harvard Press.FOR REAL, great background information on this timeframe you also need to read the extensive writings of Robert Hart, an Englishman who became the second Inspector-General of China's Imperial Maritime Custom Service from 1863 to 1911. {NOTE: I haven't even begun to go down that road yet}
An exceptional book about a very remarkable woman who was effectively the ruler of China for nearly half a century. She made her share of mistakes (all rulers do), but on the whole was probably among the smartest and wisest heads of state that China -- or any other country -- has ever had. And yet, because of the revolutionary upheavals in that country she has been largely lost sight of by historians (of which I am one by profession) and, even worse, tarred by all kinds of false accusations. It is true that she did represent a nondemocratic dynasty, but she also moved in her final decade in power to give her country an elected parliament and a western-style constitution. Jung Chang at times becomes a bit too enthusiastic about her subject, who she clearly admires, but on the whole this is a sound piece of historical writing, based on sources that have only been uncovered recently, and the prose is a pleasure to read. It would not be wrong to describe this account of the Empress Dowager as a real page-turner you will not want to put down.
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