Empress Dowager Cixi

The last decades of the Qing dynasty are popularly understood as a slide into chaos under the control of an aging reactionary dowager. This book retells the story of how a young concubine launched a palace coup to make herself the real ruler of China. She resisted the foreign penetration of China and inaugurated real reforms. Her life (1835-1908) is filled with rebellions, wars and nasty palace intrigue. The book's vast sweep contains a wealth of details and evocative descriptions of court life. An informative narrative that shifts our understanding of the last days of the Qing.

Jung Chang, best known as the author of Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, here turns her considerable creative skill to the story of the woman who rose to the height of power in one of the world’s most important empires. Cixi’s trajectory from concubine to mother of the Tongzhi Emperor reminds us how sexual and reproductive labour are often critical to women’s access to power. 

Chang locates Cixi’s personal experiences, enjoying extreme luxury in secluded palaces yet displaying keen interest in the outside world that China was forced to confront, against a grand narrative of extraordinary changes to… show more.