My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The economic and political rise of China since the late 1970s has been one of the key historic trends of the last several decades. What is interesting though about China’s rise is that this is not the first time China has recovered from disastrous economic and political management to become a powerhouse in international affairs. In the middle of the 19th century, China had been humiliated in a war with foreign powers, but new leadership arose to lead China out of the middle ages and into the modern era. This wonderful biography is about the most important figure responsible for China’s first move towards modernity, the Empress Dowager Cixi, and why she should be considered in the same league as other great women world leaders like Elizabeth I of England or Catherine the Great of Russia.
Cixi was one of Emperor Xianfeng’s numerous concubines, but she possessed a keen intellect and an open-mindedness that far outpaced anyone leading China at the time. When she gives birth to the Emperor’s only legitimate male heirs, she is thrust from back of the Emperor’s harem into the forefront of the court’s favored women. When the First Opium War and the subsequent death of the Emperor soon afterwards leads to her young child becoming the next emperor, Cixi seizes her chance to launch a palace coup, removing from power the arch conservatives who had so disastrously run the empire, and begins a near five decade rule over China that sees the modernization of the country’s economy, military, and politics. Though there were stumbles along the way, by the time of Cixi’s untimely death in 1908, China is on the verge of becoming a constitutional monarchy with limited civil liberties and voting rights for the average Chinese citizen. Sadly, she did not live long enough to fully implement these political reforms and that failure would lead to the political turmoil that would engulf China for the next several decades.
The Empress Dowager could not have found a better modern biographer to tell her story. Ms. Chang has used scores of archives from China, Japan, and elsewhere to not only tell Cixi’s story, but to also dispel some of the myths that have developed since her death that has portrayed her as an arch conservative who stood in the way of China’s progress. Ms. Chang argues that not only is this narrative false, but that Cixi was the main reason why China advanced into modernity during her rule. Ms. Chang also offers a very sympathetic picture of the Empress Dowager. Cixi is portrayed as being open-minded and eager for discussion and consensus amongst her advisors (up to a point) and, though she could be opposed to adopting some reforms, she could be persuaded to change her mind. At the time of Cixi’s death, some western admirers were comparing her to other great female leaders, and Ms. Chang does not seem to dispute that.
Ms. Chang does not airbrush Cixi’s faults though. She does give an extensive account of Cixi’s role in the Boxer Rebellion, which led to a catastrophic war with foreign powers. There, Ms. Chang notes how stubborn Cixi could be and how disastrous her decisions ended up being, though it did help to bolster her image amongst the people and paved the way for even greater reforms in the last years of her life.
It is a shame that more people, particularly in the West, do not know about the Empress Dowager Cixi, but this book does is a perfect biography to help raise her historical profile and introduce her to a Western audience. It is detailed, well-researched, and does a lot to dispel certain myths about her rule. If you are looking for a great biography about great female world leaders, I highly recommend this one to you.
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