Book
Empress Dowager Cixi
Book 5 in the History of China series.
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Empress Dowager Cixi examines the concubine who became the dominant political figure of the late Qing court. It follows her rise after the Xianfeng emperor’s death, the regencies conducted in the names of the Tongzhi and Guangxu emperors and her management of court alliances.
The biography considers self-strengthening reforms, foreign pressure, the Sino-Japanese War, the Hundred Days’ Reform and the Boxer crisis. It moves beyond simple portrayals of Cixi as either reactionary villain or misunderstood reformer, assessing how she defended dynastic power during an era of profound institutional weakness.
