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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 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.
- Sales Rank: #39607 in Books
- Brand: Anchor Books
- Published on: 2014-09-09
- Released on: 2014-09-09
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.20" h x 1.30" w x 6.10" l, .81 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 464 pages
- Anchor Books
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
“Cixi’s extraordinary story has all the elements of a good fairy tale: bizarre, sinister, triumphant and terrible.” —The Economist
“A truly authoritative account of Cixi’s rule. Her story is both important and evocative.” —Orville Schell, The New York Times Book Review
“A fantastic Machiavellian tale. . . . Dives into a genuinely fascinating figure: a fierce imperial consort who ruled behind the thrones of two successive Chinese emperors and helped ease China into the twentieth century.” —New York magazine
“Certain to become the standard by which all future biographies of the Dowager Empress are measured.” —The Daily Beast
“Jung Chang has written a pathbreaking and generally persuasive book.” —The New York Review of Books
“If there is one woman who mattered in the history of modern China, it is the empress dowager Cixi. . . . [Her] conventional image is queried in this detailed and beautifully narrated biography, which at long last restores the empress dowager to her rightful place.” —The Sunday Times (London)
“Sets out to rehabilitate the reputation of a woman who, [Chang] argues, helped modernize China. . . . While Chang acknowledges Cixi’s missteps—such as allowing the Boxers to fight against a Western invasion, which led to widespread slaughter—she sees her as a woman whose energy, farsightedness, and ruthless pragmatism transformed a country.” —The New Yorker
“[An] authoritative and epic biography.” —The Toronto Star
“Well-researched and provocative. . . . Cixi deserves to be remembered and this book is to be welcomed for giving an important figure in Chinese history the prominence she deserves. . . . This spirited biography reminds us that a greater female presence might be a trigger for much-needed political change.” —New Statesman
“Fascinating. . . . Wonderfully illuminating. . . . Jung Chang’s new book gives the infamous concubine Cixi her due.” —The Spectator
“This is a rich, dramatic story of rebellions, battles, plotting, rivalry, foreign invasion, punishment and forbidden love. . . . [Chang] uses new evidence and meticulous research to cast a spotlight on the amazing woman she regards as the mother of modern China.” —Daily Mail
“Corrects a longstanding misconception about a woman whose impact on China can’t be overstated. It’s a fascinating look at power, politics and the gender divide.” —BookPage
“A rich and fascinating book that never relaxes its hold on the reader despite the marshalling of a mass of complex historical details seen through the prism of Cixi.” —The New York Journal of Books
Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Turbulences of orchid power
By H. Schneider
Author Jung Chang was very successful with her semi private history of 20th century China, the Wild Swans. She upset some readers with her next book, a very critical and very readable bio of Mao.
Now she comes out with a new surprise, a rehabilitation of the much reviled Empress Dowager Cixi.
Cixi, in this book, is not the xenophobic shrew with the perverse lusts. That portrait, says JC, was based on her opponents' sensationalist calumny and ideological dishonesty.
JC's correction of myths begins pre Cixi, with emperor Qianlong's famous letter to King George. Qianlong did not reject the British trade and embassy offers out of ignorance, but as a defensive measure. The Qing world was already beginning to crumble. The emperor wanted to keep the foreign devils away. As we know, that failed.
When Cixi started her career as an emperor's consort, the empire was in very deep trouble. The Taiping rebellion, which was probably the bloodiest civil war in world history, was still going strong, and foreigners had also waged war against China, over a trade dispute. They were winning, which enraged the Qing emperors in their downward slide in history. Cixi maneuvered herself into a dominating position behind the weak men on the throne.
Some parts of the narration are not really so interesting. For example, we learn in much detail what the lady's hobbies were during her phases of retirement. Even the story how Cixi managed to become a person with power, by a veritable coup d'état, is a bit of a bore.
On the other hand, the consequence was beneficial to China. A relatively long period of peace and prosperity was started, which helped China solve the Taiping crisis, and brought some modernization and progress. The first quarter century after her coup is considered a success. Then she handed over to her nephew, and things went out of shape.
One standard accusation against CX is that she wasted money for the restauration of the Summer Palace, which English and French soldiers had destroyed, and that therefore the navy wasn't able to modernize due to lack of funds, and therefore China lost an important war to Japan, which had serious long term consequences. JC defends CX against this, and puts the blame fully with the new emperor and his advisers, who stopped modernizing the navy due to a lack of strategic insight.
Japan started an expansionist move and beat China badly in the war. A ruinous peace was enforced, which was the beginning of the end for the Qing dynasty. The treaty of 1895 had extortionist conditions for indemnities, and took Taiwan away from China. JC holds that CX has been unjustly blamed for the defeat and the financial disaster. The defeat also made other foreign powers greedy, as it showed the extent of China's weakness. Their impertinence enraged CX, which made her sympathize with the Boxers. After the Boxers were beaten, and CX still in place, a decade of unprecedented opening happened, which, however, didn't help Qing dynastic survival. They were foreign rulers, after all.
JC tends to ascribe all kinds of good intentions and enlightened views to Cixi. I am not sure about the solidity of her proof, so we are never quite sure if she offers solid facts, or maybe she just puts her own picture into it.
JC will also write things like this: Prince Gong's instinctive reaction was this..., but he did that... While this is all quite possibly what happened, we would like to know how the author knows.
This is an interesting book, but hardly a definitive biography of Cixi.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
GREAT BOOK on Cixi, but like all books on the life & times of Cixi, it is totally inadequate by itself
By Z. G Zinzel
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}
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Fascinating historical drama
By Michael F
When researching Cixi in ordinary historical texts it seems that she is universally vilified as an evil tyrant and blamed for tragedies that befell China during her time in power and even for events after her death. Ask most Chinese about the history of Cixi and one will hear tales of wanton cruelty and self dealing at the expense of China's welfare and security. Empress Dowager credibly and convincingly finally makes the case for the rehabilitation of this much maligned world leader. To understand China today one must understand China's past. The county is made up of the people who only several generations ago were living in the Qing Dynasty. Mao and the recent leaders of China have repeated the errors of the proceedings Qing dynasty that Cixi had recognized were in need of modernization. Isolation from the outside world was one of the errors made by the Emperors. Oppression of women and minorities and xenophobia was another of the errors made by the Emperors. State control of the media was another of the errors. It is a testament to Cixi's leadership and foresight that she recognized the need to bring China out of this dark past and join the progress of the modern world. This book is a monumental achievement and I highly recommend it.
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