Cixi: The Woman Behind the Throne
The concubine who became China’s last empress
- By Amanda Bensen
- Smithsonian.com, March 01, 2008, Subscribe
"Too much mystery surrounds the Forbidden City for us to write of its inmates with assured authority. Even when the facts are known, there are two or three versions, each giving a different rendering of what occurred. This vagueness is like the nebulous parts of a Chinese painting; it has a charm that it might be a mistake to dispel. Nor is it certain that the historian, could he lift the veil, would discover the truth."
—Daniele Vare, an Italian diplomat in Peking, in his 1936 biography of Cixi,"The Last Empress"
History can be a slippery substance, particularly when it comes to personalities. A century after the death of China's last and most famous empress, Cixi, the story of her life and reign remains veiled by varying versions of the truth.
Some sources paint her as a veritable wicked witch of the east, whose enemies often mysteriously dropped dead. Others link her to tales of sexual intrigue within the palace walls, even questioning whether her favorite eunuch was truly a eunuch. But recent scholarly analyses discredit many of those sensational stories and suggest a more complicated woman than this caricature.
What do we really know about this woman who indirectly controlled China's throne for almost half a century, in the twilight of the Qing dynasty?
She entered history on November 29, 1835 as a rather ordinary Chinese girl named Yehenara, although there was a certain prestige in being born to a family from the ruling Manchu minority. At age 16, she was brought to the Forbidden City to join Emperor Xianfeng's harem—which may sound like punishment to modern ears, but was considered a swank role for Chinese women of her time.
Daniele Vare's book, The Last Empress, says Yehenara (he calls her Yehonala) rose to the top of the concubine ranks when the emperor overheard her singing and asked to see her. Infatuated, he began picking her name from the nightly roster of choices to visit his bedchamber, and soon she bore him a son. This earned her the title Tzu Hsi, meaning "empress of the western palace," spelled Cixi these days.
When Xianfeng died in 1861, Cixi's five-year-old son was his only male heir and became the emperor Tongzhi, making her the "empress dowager" and a regent ruler. Cixi relinquished the regency when her son turned 17, but Tongzhi died two years later and Cixi became a regent again, this time for her three-year-old nephew Guangxu.
Some historians have pointed to this turn of events as proof of Cixi's political shrewdness because it defied tradition for the new emperor to be of the same generation as his predecessor. Also, although Tongzhi had no heir when he died, his first-ranking concubine, Alute, was pregnant. So it seems far too convenient that Alute and her unborn child died during the debate over succession. The court announced it as a suicide, but as the New York Times reported at the time, the circumstances "aroused general suspicion."
Even if Alute was murdered, Cixi wasn't necessarily responsible, as author Sterling Seagrave points out. The late emperor had five brothers, princes of the imperial court, who had their own rivalries and ambitions for controlling the throne indirectly.
Seagrave's 1992 biography of Cixi, Dragon Lady, is among the most thorough attempts to sift the solid facts from the sticky sea of rumors about the empress. He takes nearly 500 pages to explain what he calls "the hoodwinking of history" by a British journalist and his assistant in the early 20th century.
As a reporter for the Times of London, George Morrison's dispatches from Peking in the late 1890s and early 1900s were the only glimpse most Westerners got inside the Forbidden City. He wasn't a bad reporter, but he made the mistake of listening to a young man named Edmund Backhouse, an Oxford-trained linguist who contributed to many of Morrison's articles. As other sources—including Morrison's own diary—later revealed, much of Backhouse's "reporting" was utter fiction. But by the time Morrison realized this, it would have damaged his own reputation too much to reveal the truth.
In 1898, the emperor Guangxu launched the Hundred Days Reform, a well-intentioned but poorly implemented attempt to modernize many aspects of Chinese society that nearly caused a civil war. Cixi ultimately regained the regency with support from conservatives who opposed the reforms. She stayed in power until her death in 1908, but her reputation was tarnished by slanderous rumors spread by the leader of the failed reform, Kang Yu-Wei.
The image of Cixi as a cruel and greedy tyrant gained historical traction in 1910, when Backhouse and another British journalist, J.O.P. Bland, published the book China Under the Empress Dowager. It was praised at the time for being a thoroughly researched biography, but as Seagrave notes, Backhouse forged many of the documents he cited.
It's hard to know what Backhouse's motivations may have been for this historical hoax, but perhaps sensational lies simply paved an easier path to fame than nuanced truth. Seagrave suggests that Backhouse had an unhappy childhood, suffered from mental illness and was "brilliant but highly unstable."
Through Seagrave's lens, the historical image of Cixi takes on a softer, sadder aura than the monster of Backhouse's creation. She was certainly a bright, ambitious woman, but her life was anything but a fairy tale.
"One might wish for her sake that her life had been just such a burlesque filled with Florentine intrigues and Viennese frivolity, because the truth is melancholy…Under those layers of historical graffiti was a spirited and beautiful young woman trapped in a losing proposition: …A figurehead empress who lost three emperors to conspiracy; a frightened matriarch whose reputation was destroyed as she presided over the decline of a bankrupt dynasty," he writes.
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Comments (23)
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While visiting the Forbidden City we came across a small hut with a picture of a concubine situated at the very back of the compound, apparently drowned outside the well and murdered by the Empress, could anyone enlighten me whether this is true or not?
Posted by Yee on February 17,2012 | 07:47 PM
It's quite interesting to read in "Hermit of Peking" (a book about Edmund Backhaus by Hugh Trevor-Roper, p. 281 of the italian version)the all the story of the "Two Years in the Forbidden City" by Princess Der Ling is somehow fabricated, something between a fake and a hoax. There was no such a princess but simply a chinese woman married to Thaddeus White, who was asked as interpreter whenever foreigners came to pay a visit. She had something to do with the Court, but she seems to have neither put a foot in the Forbidden City, nor attend to Court cerimonies.
Posted by andrea botto on January 21,2012 | 11:36 AM
Good research, shame that the author did not consult a Chinese speaker about the meaning of Cixi (慈禧). It does not mean empress of the Wester Palace which would have been Si Taihou. Rather it means kind and the joyful one.
Posted by CN CHUA on December 10,2011 | 03:25 AM
I've just returned from a cruise to Beijing, including a tour of the Forbidden City and the apartment of Empress Cixi. The rooms are furnished with beds, tapestries, other furniture, carved jade, and even an Art Nouveau brass electric ceiling fixture.
Posted by Chris Tuttle on December 5,2011 | 08:13 PM
great story
Posted by echowu on October 17,2011 | 12:55 PM
I am a retired teacher, 62 years of age. I am just learning to use the computer and internet.I am interested in Chinese emperors and the lives of royalty in the forbidden city.HAVING JUST VISITED THE WEBSITE OF "THE LAST EMPRESS OF cHINA" I am so impressed by the research and writings done on this remarkable woman by so many well known authors. I wish I can find the time to read all these enlightening books. Awesome !!
Posted by susan chong of Malaysia on October 12,2011 | 04:31 AM
Among my deceased mother's cherished possessions is a copy of Princess Der Ling's book, Two Years in the Forbidden City, copywright 1911, by Moffat, Yard and Company, NY. There are several photo illustrations, many duplicates of those referred to in Oct. 2011 Smithsonian, taken by photographer Xunling. Mother acquired the book when we lived in Peking in 1946-47.
I am now forced to sell this and other treasures, but have no idea of its value. Any ideas would be most appreciated.
Posted by Nancy Austin Gardner on October 11,2011 | 07:19 PM
I have been listening to a book on disk "Two Years in the Forbidden City" by Princess Der Ling. (Available in MP3 format for free from Librivox.com) The Princess served as favorite lady in waiting to the Dowager Empress. In this book she describes all she saw and experienced there in amazing detail. I came to this site seeking the painting and photos she describes in the book.
Posted by Barbara on August 29,2011 | 04:34 PM
Now, i just kinda feel sad for the empress dowager. Being a woman in a ancient chinese palace cannot be anything cool.
Posted by johnson tay on June 20,2011 | 10:51 AM
You guys maybe also interested to read Anchee Min book regarding the empress’life. She wrote it into two books. First is “Empress Orchid” followed with “The Last Empress”.
It is so much well written!!!
Posted by sherry on August 24,2010 | 09:39 PM
I have just finished Sterling Seagrave's book, "Dragon Lady", and have to say it's one of the most well-written biographies I have read. He appears to have done exhaustive research on this topic and era, and writes in an easy to read, visual style.
To Gerald C. Bigus—For years, the Boxers were thought to have attacked the foreigners and foreign legations in Peking and that was supposed to have brought on the 8 nation allied invasion. According to Seagrave, the Boxers were a disorganized peasant group who, at times, launched anti-Manchu attacks but in the events leading up to the so-called "Boxer" rebellion, were intent on attacking Chinese Christian converts whom they blamed for their misery, not foreigners. A few foreigners were targeted for assassination, not by the Boxers, but by the IronHats, the conservative faction of the Manchu court. Imperial troops under orders of the court had more or less dispersed this group before the "Boxer" Rebellion began. Thus, according to Seagrave, the Boxers weren't really even present for the Boxer rebellion. Cixi had actually ordered her general Jung Lu to protect the foreign legations. She was a conservative, but according to Seagrave's book, being isolated in the Forbidden City, was not aware of many of the atrocities of what happened in and around Peking until later and she was totally suppressed and intimidated by the wily and ruthless, Prince Tuan who really called the shots.
Posted by Natasha Carter on August 10,2010 | 10:30 AM
I have a beautiful set of combs that I believe are ivory. They hung in my Grandmother's bedroom for as long as I can remember. When she passed away, they were given to me.
Supposedly, when her mother, Lelia Sinclair Montague Barnett, was married to the commandant of the Marine Corps,General George Barnett, and they were stationed in Beijing, they were given the combs by the Dowager Empress. I would like to know if this is true and how I can find evidence of it. Is there a record of people who were prensented to her "highness"? Any information would be greatly appreciated! LSDB
Posted by Lelia Sinclair Dickey Baldassari on February 3,2010 | 11:51 PM
Thank you for this informative article. As a student of all things Chinese I have become a fan of Pearl S. Buck ever since I found a used copy of, The Good Earth. (about one year before Oprah put it on her book club list) Need less to say, I was greatly excited when I recently found a hard-cover copy of, Imperial woman, in a local used book store.
I just finished doing a marathon read of this book, and as always with Ms. Buck's works, I came away illuminated with details of China's history that I previously had not known. Even though Ms. Buck is a writer of novels, as a child of China, she ensures that her books, if not biographical, are historically in-line to the times of her subject matter.
So it is that I arrived here, scant minutes after absorbing the final pages of the book, to see how historically accurate the book is. Luckily, after doing a search on the internet I found this page. I say luckily because I see the reference to several other sources of Chinese history including: Grant Hayter-Menzies's book, The Legend of Princess Der Ling, Sterling Seagrave's book, Dragon Lady and the movie, The Reign Behind The Iron Curtain. (I'm wondering if this title is accurate...maybe,...Behind The Silk Curtain???)
Prior to arriving at this site I had not been aware of, Dragon Lady, but I was aware of Mr. Seagrave due to having read his book, The Soong Dynasty, which to this day I consider to be the best book I have ever read on modern Chinese history (late 19th century to the communist revolution). So I know of how in-depth and accurate Mr. Seagrave is in his research. With this in mind I will now search out a copy of, Dragon Lady to see Mr. Seagrave's analysis of the topic.
My thanks to all who have commented here also.
Posted by Rob Smith on January 15,2010 | 03:51 AM
Great article! does anyone know the italian translation of the quote by Daniele Vere?
Posted by Fra on September 15,2009 | 11:01 AM
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