Empress Dowager Cixi

Jung Chang reconstructs the life of Empress Dowager Cixi, who entered the Xianfeng Emperor’s court as a junior concubine and became the dominant political figure of late Qing China. After producing the emperor’s only surviving son, she helped overthrow the regents appointed at Xianfeng’s death and exercised power through the reigns of the Tongzhi and Guangxu emperors. The narrative follows court alliances, the suppression of rebellion, foreign intervention and repeated efforts to strengthen a dynasty under severe pressure.

The book advances a deliberately revisionist portrait of Cixi, arguing that she supported important military, educational, diplomatic and institutional reforms and has often been reduced to a caricature of reaction and extravagance. Chang also describes the coercion, executions and palace manoeuvring through which Cixi preserved authority. The result is both a political biography and an interpretation of China’s difficult encounter with imperialism, modernisation and the collapse of the dynastic order.