Empress Dowager Cixi
| Empress Xiao Qin Xian | |
|---|---|
| Empress of China | |
.PNG) | |
| Empress dowager of the Qing dynasty | |
| Tenure | 23 August 1861 – 15 November 1908 |
| Predecessor | Empress Dowager Kangci |
| Successor | Empress Dowager Longyu |
| Born | November 29, 1835 Beijing, Qing dynasty |
| Died | November 15, 1908 (aged 72) Yiluan Hall, Zhongnanhai, Beijing |
| Spouse | |
| Issue | The Tongzhi Emperor |
Empress Dowager Cixi [1] (November 29 1835 – November 15 1908), often known in China as the West Dowager Empress [2] was from the Manchu Yehe Nara Clan.
Cixi was a powerful and charismatic figure who became the de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing dynasty and ruled over China for 47 years from 1861 to her death in 1908. She was one of the wives of Emperor Xianfeng and also the mother of Emperor Tongzhi. She quickly took power after the death of Emperor Xianfeng. Though her exact origins are unclear it is very likely that she came from an ordinary Manchu family. She was chosen by Emperor Xianfeng as a concubine. She gained almost total control over the court at the start the rule of her son, Emperor Tongzhi,. He and her nephew, Emperor Guangxu, attempted to rule in their own right.
As onesource tells it,[3] Cixi had a partnership with the top concubine, Zhin, who had been raised to Empress. The two women ruled together, with Cixi being the dominant personality.
She was in charge during the Opium Wars, the First Sino-Japanese War, and the Boxer Rebellion. She was largely conservative during her rule, and some historians consider her reign despotism and think it might have been responsible for the fall of the Qing dynasty and therefore Imperial China.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ 1 (慈禧太后 Tz'u-Hsi T'ai-hou) An English-language story of her life was done by the BBC. episode 1: [1]. A Chinese-speaker told the story, and pronounced her name as "Sershee". Note that the standard transcription of her name into alphabetic text is not similar to this actual pronunciation.
- ↑ Chinese: 西太后
- ↑ Chang, Jung 2013. Empress Dowager Cixi: the concubine who launched modern China. London, Jonathan Cape. ISBN 9780224087445
- Chung, Sue Fawn. 1979. The much maligned Empress Dowager: a revisionist study of the Empress Dowager Tz'u-Hsi (1835-1908). Modern Asian Studies 13, 2, 177-96.
- Hummel, Arthur William, ed. Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644-1912). 2 vols. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1943.
- Warner, Marina. 1972. The Dragon Empress: life and times of Tz'u-his 1835-1908. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1972.
Other websites
[change | change source]
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/favourites/b03bdpl9[permanent dead link]
- http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_cixi.htm?terms=cixi[permanent dead link]
- http://www.royalty.nu/Asia/China/TzuHsi.html
- http://www.kings.edu/womens_history/tzuhsi.html Archived 2005-09-15 at the Wayback Machine
- http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/headland-courtlife.html
- Cixi: The Woman Behind the Throne -- Smithsonian.com