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The Empress Dowager Cixi (Chinese:
慈禧太后;
pinyin: Cíxǐ
Tàιhòu;
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 China for most of the period from
1861 to her death
in 1908.
Historians consider that she probably did her best to cope with the
difficulties of the era but her
conservative attitudes did not serve her well and the
Western
powers continued to take advantage of the country's relatively low level of
technological development.
Cixi was a major
concubine
of the
Emperor
Xianfeng （咸丰皇帝）. Soon after Emperor Xianfeng died in 1861, Cixi along with
Empress Ci'an
（慈安太后）became regents for the deceased emperor's boy. The two Dowager Empresses,
counseled by the late Emperor's brother, maintained this position until 1873
when Emperor
Tongzhi （同治皇帝）came of age.
Two years later, the young man was dead. Cixi violated the normal succession
and had her three year old nephew named the new heir. The two Dowager Empresses
continued as regents until the death of Ci'an, the other Dowager Empress, in
1881, when Cixi became the de facto ruler of China.
When Emperor
Guangxu （光绪皇帝）, the nephew, attained maturity, Cixi retired to the country,
though she kept herself informed through a network of spies. After China lost
the
First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895),
Guangxu
implemented many reforms in what came to be known as the "Hundred
Days' Reform." In reaction, Cixi worked with the military and conservative
forces to stage a
coup
d'etat and take power again as active regent, confining the emperor to his
palace.
The next year, Cixi supported the forces behind the
Boxer Rebellion, an anti-reform and anti-foreign
rebellion.
When foreign troops retaliated by entering the Forbidden City and capturing
Peking
(Beijing), Cixi accepted the offered peace terms. As appeasement, she eventually
implemented the reforms that she had stopped her nephew from instituting. She
continued to rule, her power much diminished, until her death in 1908. Emperor
Guangxu died as she was dying, reportedly poisoned at her direction.
Her actual power surpassed that of another great Queen who was her
contemporary,
England's
Queen Victoria. In addition to her part in the politics of her day, she's
also remembered for her patronage of the arts including the
opera, and the
founding of the
Peking
Zoological Garden in
1906, later the
first zoo to breed
the giant
panda.
Youth
Recent biographies of Cixi usually state that she was the daughter of a
low-ranking Manchu
official, Huizheng (惠征), of the
Yehe-Nara
(Yehonala) 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. According to biographers, her father was sacked from
civil service in 1853
(Cixi was already a concubine inside the
Forbidden City at that time), allegedly for not resisting the
Taiping Rebellion in
Anhui province
and deserting his post. Some biographers even state that her father was beheaded
for his desertion.
Names
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 about her childhood. After
she came to power, the subject of her life before entering the palace was taboo,
so it is no surprise that records of her original name as well as her youth were
lost.
When she entered the Forbidden City in September
1851 (or June
1852, depending on
the source), Cixi was made a concubine of the fifth rank (貴人), and she was given
the name Lan (蘭 - meaning "orchid"). Her name was thus "Concubine of the fifth
rank Lan" (蘭貴人). At the end of December
1854 or the
beginning of January
1855, she was promoted to concubine of the fourth rank (嬪), and her name was
changed to Yi (懿 - meaning "virtuous"). Her name then became "Concubine of the
fourth rank Yi" (懿嬪). On
April 27,
1856, she gave
birth to a son, the only son of
Emperor
Xianfeng (the empress consort had been unsuccessful in producing an heir),
and was immediately made "Concubine of the third rank Yi" (懿妃). In February
1857 she was again
elevated and made "Concubine of the second rank Yi" (懿貴妃).
Towards the end of August
1861, following the
death of Emperor Xianfeng, Cixi's five year-old son became the next emperor –
Emperor Tongzhi,
whose reign officially started in
1862). Cixi was
made "Holy Mother¹
Empress Dowager" (聖母皇太后), though she was not the empress consort while Emperor
Xianfeng was alive. She was privileged to become
empress dowager only because she was the biological mother of Emperor
Tongzhi. She was also given the
honorific name (徽號) Cixi – meaning "motherly and auspicious". The former
empress consort was made "Empress Mother Empress Dowager" (母后皇太后), a title
giving her precedence over Cixi, and was given the honorific name
Ci'an – meaning "motherly and calming". As she dwelled in the western
section of the Forbidden City, Cixi became popularly known as the Western
Empress Dowager, while Ci'an became known as the Eastern Empress Dowager for the
same reason.
On seven occasions since
1861, Cixi was
given additional honorific names (two Chinese characters at a time), as was
customary for emperors and empresses, until by the end of her reign her name was
a long string of 16 characters starting with Cixi (as empress dowager she had
the right to nine additions, giving a total of 20 characters, had she lived long
enough for it). At her death, her official name was:
- The Current Holy Mother Empress Dowager Cixi Duanyou Kangyi Zhaoyu
Zhuangcheng Shougong Qinxian Chongxi²
of the Empire of the Great Qing
- (大清國當今慈禧端佑康頤昭豫莊誠壽恭欽獻崇熙聖母皇太后)
The short form was:
- The Current Holy Mother Empress Dowager of the Empire of the Great Qing
- (大清國當今聖母皇太后)
At the time, Cixi was also addressed as "Venerable Buddha" (老佛爺) – literally
"Master³ Old
Buddha". This was not a title created for her, as is often but wrongly stated by
Western biographers, but an official form of address used for all the emperors
of the
Qing Dynasty, who were devoted
Buddhists.
Cixi liked to be treated like a man, and insisted on her subjects using words
reserved for men when addressing her. As the de facto ruler of China, she was
revered with the phrase "Long Live the Empress Dowager for ten thousand years",
by convention only used on Emperors, during official and ceremonial occasions.
Empress dowagers usually enjoyed only "a thousand years" of long life.
At her death in 1908,
Cixi was given a
posthumous name which combined her honorific names with new names added just
after her death. This posthumous name is:
- Empress Xiaoqin4
Cixi Duanyou Kangyi Zhaoyu Zhuangcheng Shougong Qinxian Chongxi5
Peitian Xingsheng6
Xian7
- (孝欽慈禧端佑康頤昭豫莊誠壽恭欽獻崇熙配天興聖顯皇后)
This long name is still the one that can be seen on Cixi's tomb today. The
short form of her posthumous name is:
- Empress Xiaoqin Xian
- (孝欽顯皇后)
Road to power
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 Concubine
Dowager Kangci on that occasion. Concubine Dowager Kangci was the highest
ranking surviving concubine of the late emperor
Daoguang,
and so she was the woman with the highest status inside the
Forbidden City. She was the de jure mother of Emperor Xianfeng,
although not his biological mother. In 1840, at the death of Xianfeng's mother,
Empress Xiaoquan Cheng (孝全成皇后), the then concubine of the first rank Jing (靜皇貴妃)
had raised the 8-year-old boy, and when he had become
Emperor Xianfeng in
1850 at the death of
Emperor
Daoguang, she had been made Concubine Dowager Kangci. She was thus in charge
of selecting the empress and the concubines of Emperor Xianfeng. Concubine
Dowager Kangci was also the biological mother of
Prince Gong (恭親王), who would play an important role in the years to come.
On April 27, 1856,
Lady Yehenara, then Concubine of the fourth rank Yi, gave birth to a son, the
only son of Emperor Xianfeng, to be named heir, and later
Tongzhi Emperor. Her status inside the
Forbidden City thus dramatically changed, and she became the second highest
ranking woman in the palace, just behind the empress consort (later known as
Empress Dowager Ci'an).
On August 22, 1861,
in the wake of the
Second Opium War, the Xianfeng Emperor died at the Rehe Traveling Palace
(熱河行宫) in Jehol
(now Chengde), 230
km (140
miles) northeast of
Beijing,
where the imperial court had fled. His heir, the son of Lady Yehenara, was only
5 years old. Although many people believe that Lady Yehenara actually staged a
coup to place her son on the throne, in fact, the Chinese Court system was so
bound by rules and propriety that such would have been very difficult for
anyone, and virtually impossible for a woman. Her husband and Emperor was on his
deathbed, confined to his own quarters. By order of his advisors, mainly Su
Shun, no one other than officials were allowed to see him, especially not women.
She went to fetch her son from his nanny and carried him into the Emperor's
chambers. Had she been alone, she would not have been allowed inside. Since
other officials were beside the Emperor, hoping that he would name an heir (as
for Manchu it is not the first child, but appointment which inherits the
throne), she placed her son beside his father and asked who would be the next
Emperor. The dying Emperor appointed his son as heir and his two mothers as
regents. Su Shun, along with other officials were extremely displeased, and
nominated themselves and the empresses as regents. Officials had heard the
emperor decree the Empresses as regents, but still Su kept one of the official
seals and gave the other one to the Empresses. For the next few months, Su would
face resistance from the Empresses, who were being advised by Prince Kung. At
one point he even ordered food withheld from the Empresses quarters for 4 days.
When all was over, the Empresses had Su Shun imprisoned and beheaded. She would
now be known as Empress Dowager Cixi. Cixi became co-regent
along with the less politically involved
Empress Dowager Ci'an, ruling behind the curtain (a court official required
that the two co-regents, both women, attend imperial audiences behind a
curtain). Cixi then ruled China for most of the period from
1861 until her
death in 1908.
Regency under Tongzhi
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 eunuch
of the imperial court
An Dehai (安德海), close confidant of Cixi, was on a trip south to buy some
dragon robes for Cixi. While traveling in
Shandong
province, he used his power as an envoy of Cixi to extort money from people,
which caused great trouble. The matter was reported to the court by the governor
of Shandong, and Ci'an who heard about it ordered the immediate execution of An
Dehai, who had been the all powerful figure at the imperial court until then.
The execution of An Dehai is said to have greatly displeased Cixi.
Cixi was perceived by the majority in modern China to have sidelined the
naive and candid Ci'an and ruled as a sole authority in her need for power.
However, some historians have painted a very different reality, mainly that Cixi
was a shrewd and intelligent woman who was ready to make sacrifices and work
hard in order to obtain the supreme power, and who faced the complex problems
that were besetting China at the time, while Ci'an was indulging in an easy life
and did not care as much for government and hard work as she cared for her
pleasures and sweet life inside the Forbidden City. As often, reality may lie in
between these two extreme visions.
Securing absolute power
Empress Dowager Ci'an died suddenly on
April 8,
1881, during an
audience at the court. Rumors that her sudden death after a life of excellent
health was a result of poisoning by Cixi started more than sixty years after the
fact happened. At the time, Cixi herself was ill, with a liver condition that
kept her in bed for 2 years. It is in court records that Cian died of viral flu.
The death of Empress Dowager Ci'an gave sole power to Empress Cixi as remaining
regent.
Crisis with Guangxu
Guangxu's coming of age when he was seventeen meant Cixi would relinquish her
powers. The
1st Prince Chun, however, had continually insisted that Cixi continue the
regency.
Overview of politics
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 factories and
encouraging use of Western weapons and tactics, she was capable of holding back
the programme through relatively simple acts. For her 60th birthday in 1895,
Cixi relocated the astronomical sum of 30 million taels of silver, which had
been earmarked for the construction of ten new warships, to pay for her birthday
party. The Chinese Navy had recently lost most of its modern warships in the
1894
First Sino-Japanese War, and urgently needed the money to rebuild a
high-tech fleet. However, instead of using the money to safeguard China's
military security, Cixi instead chose to use the money for a party.
In 1900, Cixi's
support of the self-strengthening movement was again called into question when
the
Boxer Rebellion broke out in northern China. Eager to preserve traditional
Chinese values, Cixi threw in her lot with the rebels, making an official
announcement of her support for the movement. When the Westerners responded by
dispatching the
Eight-Nation Alliance, the Chinese military, badly underdeveloped due to
Cixi's habit of filching military funds, was unable to prevent the high-tech
Allied army from marching on Peking and seizing the
Forbidden City. Determined to prevent another Chinese rebellion, the Western
powers inposed a humiliating treaty on China, and Cixi, with no military forces
capable of protecting even her own palace, was forced to sign. The treaty
demanded the presence of an international military force in China and the
payment of
£67
million (almost $333 million) in
reparations.
Cixi died on
November
15, 1908, after
having installed Puyi
as the new emperor of the
Qing
Dynasty on November 14.
Tomb
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 Dingling tomb (literally: the "Tomb of quietude") is the
tomb of the
Xianfeng Emperor, the emperor of Ci'an and Cixi, which is located indeed
west of the Dingdongling. The Vale of Putuo owes its name to Mount Putuo
(literally: the "Mountain of the
Dharani of the Site of the
Buddha's
Enlightenment"),
at the foot of which the Dingdongling is located.
Cixi, unsatisfied with her tomb, ordered its destruction and reconstruction
in 1895. The new
tomb was a lavish grandiose complex of temples, gates, and pavilions, covered
with gold leaves, and with gold and gilded-bronze ornaments hanging from the
beams and the eaves. In July
1928, Cixi's tomb
was occupied by
warlord and
Kuomintang
general
Sun Dianying (孫殿英) and his army who methodically stripped the complex of its
precious ornaments, then dynamited the entrance to the burial chamber, opened
Cixi's coffin, threw her corpse (said to have been found intact) on the floor,
and stole all the jewels contained in the coffin, as well as the massive pearl
that had been placed in Cixi's mouth to protect her corpse from decomposing (in
accordance with Chinese tradition). It was said that the large pearl on Cixi's
crown was offered by Sun Dianying to
Kuomintang
leader
Chiang Kai-shek and ended up as an ornament on the gala shoes of Chiang's
wife,
Soong May-ling.
After 1949, the
complex of Cixi's tomb was restored by the
People's Republic of China, and it is still today one of the most impressive
imperial tombs of China.
Historical opinion
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 account can be found in
Anchee Min's
historical novel
Empress Orchid (2004). The
China Central Television production
Towards the Republic (走向共和) portrayed Cixi as a capable ruler, albeit not
entirely positive -- for the first time in the history of Mainland Chinese
television, although it also clearly demonstrated her political views as very
conservative. While considering her frequent portrayal as a despot, one must
bear in mind the traditional Confucian idea widely held in her day that women in
general, and especially influential women, caused trouble and were not to be
trusted (a similar demonisation has occurred with
Empress Wu
of the
Tang Dynasty).
Pearl S. Buck's novel Imperial Woman chronicles the life of the Empress
Dowager from the time of her selection as a concubine until near to her death.
Cixi is portrayed as a stern, motivated woman who stands to the old ways of life
and government and resists the changes brought by westerners. Cixi's actions on
behalf of the two Emperors that she raised and her own actions are all accounted
for and rationalized as being for the good of her people and her country.
Katherine Carl, a painter who spent some ten months with the Empress Dowager
Cixi in 1903 to
paint Cixi's portrait for the
St. Louis Exposition, wrote a book about her experience, With the Empress
Dowager, published in
1905. In the book's
introduction, Carl says she wrote the book because "After I returned to America,
I was constantly seeing in the newspapers (and hearing of) statements ascribed
to me which I never made."
In her book, Carl describes the Empress Dowager Cixi as a kind and
considerate woman for her station. Cixi, though shrewd, had great presence,
charm, and graceful movements resulting in "an unusually attractive
personality." Cixi loved dogs and had a kennel maintained by
eunuchs at the
Summer Palace where she had "some magnificent specimens of
Pekingese
pugs and of a sort of
Skye
terrier." She did not like cats and some of the eunuchs who had cats made
sure to keep them "within rigid bounds, on no condition allowing them to come
within Her Majesty's ken." Cixi enjoyed flowers and the staff of the Summer
Palace ensured the rooms and courtyards were kept properly dressed with cut
flowers.
The Empress Dowager understood loyalty and practiced it with her retinue.
Carl while describing the Palace staff says: "Among these is a Chinese woman who
nursed Her Majesty through a long illness, about twenty-five years since, and
saved her life by giving her mother's milk to drink. Her Majesty, who never
forgets a favor, has always kept this woman in the Palace. Being a Chinese, she
had bound feet. Her Majesty, who cannot bear to see them even, had her feet
unbound and carefully treated, until now she can walk comfortably. Her Majesty
has educated the son, who was an infant at the time of her illness, and whose
natural nourishment she partook of. This young man is already a Secretary in a
good yamen
(government office)."
Cixi enjoyed boating on the lake at the Summer Palace, walks through the
gardens and grounds of the Palace (actually the Imperial family rode in
sedan
chairs so the eunuchs did the majority of the walking), and presentations of
Chinese opera in the Summer Palace Opera house. Cixi smoked Chinese water
pipes as well as European cigarettes through a
cigarette holder. At an age of 69, Cixi was in sufficiently good physical
shape that when providing a tour of the Summer Palace Opera House to Carl, Cixi
"mounted the steep and difficult steps with as much ease and lightness as I did,
and I had on comfortable European shoes, while she wears the six-inch-high
Manchu sole in the middle of her foot, and must really walk as if on stilts."
She is said to have invented the board game
Eight Fairies Travel Across The Sea, which is still popular today as "Eight
Fairies Chess".
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