Imperial Woman

Tzu Hsi enters the Forbidden City as one of many young women selected for the Xianfeng Emperor's household. Intelligent, observant and determined not to disappear among the concubines, she secures the emperor's attention and bears his surviving son. His death places her at the centre of a regency in which court ritual, rival dowagers, princes and officials conceal a continuous struggle over who will rule in the name of a child.

As Empress Dowager Cixi, she survives rebellions, foreign invasion and repeated crises of succession while extending her authority across nearly half a century. The novel interprets her bond with Jung Lu, her resistance to reform and her use of the inner court as parts of a single effort to preserve both dynasty and personal power. Qing splendour is shown beside military defeat, fiscal strain and the mounting pressure that will eventually destroy the imperial system.