Page 60 - All About History - Issue 38-16

HERO
HERO

VILLAIN?
VILLAIN?
OR

Empress

Dowager Cixi

From concubine to conqueror, was China’s last
empress a shrewd moderniser or a pivotal player

in imperial collapse?

Written by Rachel England

rom the rumour mills of Medieval courts to Thanks to her ability to read and write Chinese,
modern-day gossip magazines, humanity Cixi had many opportunities to help the emperor
has throughout its history been fixated with with daily government business. As the emperor
rumour and hearsay, and many historians aged, he’d ask Cixi to read palace memorials and
Fwould argue there are few leaders in Chinese write down his wishes. This meant Cixi quickly
history who have fallen prey to such intense became well informed about state affairs and
speculation as Empress Dowager Cixi. benefited from a valuable lesson in the art of
Born in the winter of 1835 when the Chinese governance under the ailing emperor’s tutelage. This
empire was still strong, Cixi was the daughter of an already put her in an advantageous position, but
ordinary official from the Manchu Yehenara clan. She her starring role in Chinese history was cemented
was well educated and able to read and write – an when she gave birth to Zaichun, the Xianfeng
unusual skill for Manchu women of the time – and in Emperor’s only surviving son, in 1856. By Zaichun’s
1851, she participated in the selection of consorts for first birthday, Cixi was elevated to the third rank of
the Xianfeng Emperor alongside 60 other candidates. consorts, putting her second only to the Empress
Contrary to modern-day interpretations of the Ci’an within the Xianfeng Emperor’s household.
Chinese concubine tradition, being chosen as a royal In September 1860, tension erupted between
consort was a huge honour, and Cixi, one of the few Britain, France and China, and troops attacked
candidates chosen, was placed in the sixth rank of Beijing, destroying the Imperial Summer Palace. It’s
the emperor’s nocturnal companions, rising to fifth said that on hearing this news, the Xianfeng Emperor
rank in just a few years. – who had fled the city with his royal household –

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