Summary of Jung Chang's Empress Dowager Cixi

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Empress Dowager Cixi, who ruled China from 1851 to 1908, came from one of the oldest and most prestigious Manchu families. The Manchus invaded China in 1644 and installed a new dynasty called the Great Qing. The Han and Manchus lived together peacefully, but the Manchus regarded themselves as Chinese.

#2 The ruling family, the Aisin-Gioros, produced a succession of able and hard-working emperors, who were absolute monarchs. The seat of the throne was the Forbidden City, which was surrounded by a magnificent wall.

#3 Cixi’s family had been government employees for generations. She was well-off, and her childhood was carefree. She learned to read and write Chinese, and developed a wide range of interests.

#4 Cixi’s lack of formal education was made up for by her intuitive intelligence, which she used from a young age. She was able to talk to her father about things that were normally closed areas for women.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822545267

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Insights on Jung Chang's Empress Dowager Cixi

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Empress Dowager Cixi, who ruled China from 1851 to 1908, came from one of the oldest and most prestigious Manchu families. The Manchus invaded China in 1644 and installed a new dynasty called the Great Qing. The Han and Manchus lived together peacefully, but the Manchus regarded themselves as Chinese.

#2

The ruling family, the Aisin-Gioros, produced a succession of able and hard-working emperors, who were absolute monarchs. The seat of the throne was the Forbidden City, which was surrounded by a magnificent wall.

#3

Cixi’s family had been government employees for generations. She was well-off, and her childhood was carefree. She learned to read and write Chinese, and developed a wide range of interests.

#4

Cixi’s lack of formal education was made up for by her intuitive intelligence, which she used from a young age. She was able to talk to her father about things that were normally closed areas for women.

#5

Cixi’s father, Huizheng, was a governor in China. He had raised a large sum of money to pay the fine, and was rewarded with an appointment from the emperor to be the governor of a large Mongolian region.

#6

The back entrance to the Forbidden City, the Gate of Divine Prowess, was where the candidates spent the night. They would be scrutinized by the emperor the next morning.

#7

Cixi was chosen out of hundreds of candidates. She was interested in politics, and she had no knight in shining armor waiting for her return. She was interested in segregation between male and female, as she could not fall in love and get married.

#8

Cixi was not made the empress, but a concubine. She was given the name Lan, which is the Chinese word for orchid. The harem she entered on that summer day was a world of walled-in courtyards and long, narrow alleyways.

#9

The emperor’s sex life was meticulously recorded in the Forbidden City. He chose his sexual partner for the night by marking her name on a bamboo tablet presented to him by the chief eunuch over dinner, which he mostly ate alone.

#10

Cixi’s husband, Emperor Xianfeng, had problems with the Taiping rebels, and the empire’s state silver reserve fell to an all-time low of 290,000 taels. To help pay for his soldiers’ upkeep, Emperor Xianfeng opened the royal purse.

#11

Cixi was promoted from Rank 6 to 5 in 1854, and she received a new, carefully considered name, Yi, which means exemplary. She was not allowed to talk about state affairs, as she learned that the dynasty was in trouble.

#12

Cixi was the first Empress of China. She was known to be a very kind and caring woman, and she helped her husband read official reports and write instructions.

#13

The birth of Cixi’s son, the emperor’s firstborn male, was a monumental event for the court. Emperor Xianfeng had had only one daughter by this time, the Grand Princess, by a concubine who had entered the court with Cixi. With the arrival of Cixi’s son, a palace file was opened with the title Imperial Concubine Yi Gave Joyous Birth to a Grand Prince.

#14

Cixi’s son, the future Emperor Xianfeng, grew up with two doting mothers. When he was older, he had a playmate, his elder sister, the Grand Princess. The empire was still convulsed by the Taiping rebellion in the south and by violent unrest elsewhere.

#15

The Anglo-French war against China in 1856–60 can be traced back to 1757, when the then-emperor, Qianlong, closed the door of the country, leaving only one port open for trade, Canton. Britain was hungry for trade, and its main imports from China were silks and teas.

#16

The emperor’s control