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Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China

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Empress Dowager Cixi: A Woman's Remarkable Reign

Recommended for readers interested in exploring a different perspective on Chinese history through the life of a powerful woman. This biography overturns conventional views of Cixi, portraying her as a progressive leader who modernized and liberalized China despite facing numerous crises. The book offers an intimate look into Cixi's life in the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City, presenting a mixture of the very old and new. The author uses newly available Chinese historical documents, making it a must-read for history enthusiasts.

New

Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China

Regular price RM54.46 MYR
Unit price
per
ISBN: 9780307271600
Authors: Jung Chang
Publisher: Knopf
Date of Publication: 2013-10-29
Format: Hardcover
Related Collections: Biographies & Memoirs, Politics, History
Goodreads rating: 3.9
(rated by 9955 readers)

Description

A New York Times Notable Book. Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age. At the age of sixteen, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor’s numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China—behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male. In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China. Under her, the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of modern industries, railways, electricity, the telegraph, and an army and navy with up-to-date weaponry. It was she who abolished gruesome punishments like “death by a thousand cuts” and put an end to foot-binding. She inaugurated women’s liberation and embarked on the path to introduce parliamentary elections to China. Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot. Cixi reigned during extraordinary times and had to deal with a host of major
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Empress Dowager Cixi: A Woman's Remarkable Reign

Recommended for readers interested in exploring a different perspective on Chinese history through the life of a powerful woman. This biography overturns conventional views of Cixi, portraying her as a progressive leader who modernized and liberalized China despite facing numerous crises. The book offers an intimate look into Cixi's life in the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City, presenting a mixture of the very old and new. The author uses newly available Chinese historical documents, making it a must-read for history enthusiasts.