Empress Dowager Cixi - Reference

The Empress Dowager Cixi (Chinese: 慈禧太后; Hanyu Pinyin: Cíxǐ; Wade-Giles: Tz'u-hsi) (November 29, 1835 –November 15, 1908), popularly known in China as the Western Empress Dowager (西太后), and officially known posthumously as Empress Xiaoqin Xian (孝欽顯皇后), was a powerful and charismatic figure who was the de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, ruling over C ...

Including:

• Empress Dowager Cixi - Youth
• Empress Dowager Cixi - Names
• Empress Dowager Cixi - Road to power
• Empress Dowager Cixi - Regency under Tongzhi
• Empress Dowager Cixi - Securing absolute power
• Empress Dowager Cixi - Crisis with Guangxu
• Empress Dowager Cixi - Overview of politics
• Empress Dowager Cixi - Tomb
• Empress Dowager Cixi - Historical opinion
• Empress Dowager Cixi - Reference

Read more here: » Empress Dowager Cixi: Encyclopedia - Empress Dowager Cixi

Recent biographies of Cixi usually state that she was the daughter of a low-ranking Manchu official, Huizheng (惠征), of the Yehe-Nara clan, serving in Shanxi province and then in Anhui province. Her mother, the principal wife of Huizheng, was the Lady Fuca, of the Manchu Fuca clan. Recent biographies are unable to decide where exactly Cixi was born. She is supposed to have spent most of her early life in Anhui (after a brief period in Shanxi), and then moved to Peking at an unknown age between her third and her fifteenth birthday. Accordi ...

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Empress Dowager Cixi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Youth, Empress Dowager Cixi - Names, Empress Dowager Cixi - Road to power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Regency under Tongzhi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Securing absolute power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Crisis with Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi - Overview of politics, Empress Dowager Cixi - Tomb, Empress Dowager Cixi - Historical opinion, Empress Dowager Cixi - Reference

Read more here: » Empress Dowager Cixi: Encyclopedia II - Empress Dowager Cixi - Youth

The traditional view is that Cixi was a devious despot who maintained a deathgrip on what little power she had until that power faded out completely. Three years after her death, the Qing dynasty was itself overthrown in the Xinhai Revolution. However, some authors, such as Sterling Seagrave in his biography The Dragon Lady maintain a far more positive view of Cixi, arguing that she has been unfairly maligned and when seen more closely, her actions were reasonable responses to the difficulties that China faced. Another sympathetic acc ...

See also:

Empress Dowager Cixi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Youth, Empress Dowager Cixi - Names, Empress Dowager Cixi - Road to power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Regency under Tongzhi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Securing absolute power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Crisis with Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi - Overview of politics, Empress Dowager Cixi - Tomb, Empress Dowager Cixi - Historical opinion, Empress Dowager Cixi - Reference

Read more here: » Empress Dowager Cixi: Encyclopedia II - Empress Dowager Cixi - Historical opinion

Cixi was interred amidst the Eastern Qing Tombs (清東陵), 125 km (75 miles) east of Beijing, in the Dingdongling (定東陵) tomb complex (literally: the "Tombs east of the Dingling tomb"), along with Empress Dowager Ci'an. More precisely, Ci'an lies in the Puxiangyu Dingdongling (普祥峪定東陵) (literally: the "Tomb east of the Dingling tomb in the Vale of wide good omen"), while Cixi built herself the much larger Putuoyu Dingdongling (菩陀峪定東陵) (literally: the "Tomb east of the Dingling tomb in the Vale of Putuo"). The Di ...

See also:

Empress Dowager Cixi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Youth, Empress Dowager Cixi - Names, Empress Dowager Cixi - Road to power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Regency under Tongzhi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Securing absolute power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Crisis with Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi - Overview of politics, Empress Dowager Cixi - Tomb, Empress Dowager Cixi - Historical opinion, Empress Dowager Cixi - Reference

Read more here: » Empress Dowager Cixi: Encyclopedia II - Empress Dowager Cixi - Tomb

While seeking China's "self-strengthening" through weak and regionalized industrial and military growth, she opposed attempts at political modernization, staging a coup d'etat (September 21, 1898) against the political influence of the Guangxu Emperor to end the Hundred Days' Reform. She opposed the creation of a national army or navy. Cixi's contribution to the self-strengthening movement, though, could be frustratingly two-sided. Whilst she supported economic and military modernization, approving the construction of railways and fac ...

See also:

Empress Dowager Cixi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Youth, Empress Dowager Cixi - Names, Empress Dowager Cixi - Road to power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Regency under Tongzhi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Securing absolute power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Crisis with Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi - Overview of politics, Empress Dowager Cixi - Tomb, Empress Dowager Cixi - Historical opinion, Empress Dowager Cixi - Reference

Read more here: » Empress Dowager Cixi: Encyclopedia II - Empress Dowager Cixi - Overview of politics

While seeking China's "self-strengthening" through strictly-controlled industrial and military growth, she opposed attempts at political modernization, staging a coup d'etat (September 21, 1898) against the political influence of the Guangxu Emperor to end the Hundred Days' Reform. Cixi's contribution to the self-strengthening movement, though, could be frustratingly two-sided. Whilst she supported economic and military modernisation, approving the construction of railways and factories and encouraging use of Western weapons and tacti ...

See also:

Empress Dowager Cixi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Youth, Empress Dowager Cixi - Names, Empress Dowager Cixi - Road to power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Regency under Tongzhi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Securing absolute power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Crisis with Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi - Overview of politics, Empress Dowager Cixi - Tomb, Empress Dowager Cixi - Historical opinion, Empress Dowager Cixi - Reference

Read more here: » Empress Dowager Cixi: Encyclopedia II - Empress Dowager Cixi - Overview of politics

Cixi had different names at different stages of her life, which could be quite confusing. Moreover, most of her Western biographers, who in general do not read Chinese, frequently confuse these names. The name of Cixi at birth is still unresolved (see Youth section above). Upon her entrance into the Forbidden City, Cixi was registered as "the Lady Yehenara, daughter of Huizheng" (惠征). Thus she was called by the name of her clan, the Yehe-Nara, as was customary for Manchu girls. Cixi was a secretive person, and she seldom talked ab ...

See also:

Empress Dowager Cixi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Youth, Empress Dowager Cixi - Names, Empress Dowager Cixi - Road to power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Regency under Tongzhi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Securing absolute power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Crisis with Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi - Overview of politics, Empress Dowager Cixi - Tomb, Empress Dowager Cixi - Historical opinion, Empress Dowager Cixi - Reference

Read more here: » Empress Dowager Cixi: Encyclopedia II - Empress Dowager Cixi - Names

The young Lady Yehenara was registered by her parents with the Imperial Court, as was required for all the Manchu girls of the empire, in order to keep track of potential concubines for the emperor. In September 1851 (or June 1852, depending on sources), she was summoned to the Forbidden City with other Manchu girls to undergo a selection process, in order to provide concubines for the new emperor Xianfeng, under the supervision of Concubine Dowager Kangci (康慈皇貴太妃) (1812-1855). Lady Yehenara was one of the few girls selected by C ...

See also:

Empress Dowager Cixi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Youth, Empress Dowager Cixi - Names, Empress Dowager Cixi - Road to power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Regency under Tongzhi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Securing absolute power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Crisis with Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi - Overview of politics, Empress Dowager Cixi - Tomb, Empress Dowager Cixi - Historical opinion, Empress Dowager Cixi - Reference

Read more here: » Empress Dowager Cixi: Encyclopedia II - Empress Dowager Cixi - Road to power

For the next forty-seven years until her death in 1908, Cixi assumed the regency of the Empire of the Great Qing, along with co-regent Ci'an, first during the minority of the Tongzhi Emperor, then during the minority of the Guangxu Emperor after the premature death of Tongzhi in January 1875. Although in theory Ci'an had precedence over her, Cixi was the actual master of China. Ci'an seldom intervened in politics but inserted her will in what may have caused her death when she intervened in Cixi's politics in 1869. The most feared grand eunu ...

See also:

Empress Dowager Cixi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Youth, Empress Dowager Cixi - Names, Empress Dowager Cixi - Road to power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Regency under Tongzhi, Empress Dowager Cixi - Securing absolute power, Empress Dowager Cixi - Crisis with Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi - Overview of politics, Empress Dowager Cixi - Tomb, Empress Dowager Cixi - Historical opinion, Empress Dowager Cixi - Reference

Read more here: » Empress Dowager Cixi: Encyclopedia II - Empress Dowager Cixi - Regency under Tongzhi