That was Empress Dowager Cixi’s life story; the woman who ruled China in the 19th century and arguably the most important Chinese woman in history. Born in 1835, Cixi was brought in as a ...

She then issued imperial edicts "from behind the curtains" that she and Dowager Empress Cian would rule China jointly until her son, Tongzhi, was of age. She began overhauling the country's ...

The Empress Dowager died in 1908 ... Though this may not have been an astonishing act, it is, nevertheless, rare in Chinese history. Regent Dorgon was haughty and domineering when he was on ...

Toward the end of the Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi arrogated all powers onto herself. This period, called the Guangxu Xuantong Reign, was China's darkest and most corrupt political period.

The Diplomat’s Justin McDonnell spoke with author Jung Chang about her latest book, Empress Dowager Cixi, a biography of the “most important woman in Chinese history.

Although the Han Chinese and the Roman empires covered ... the affairs of state were not in the hands of the emperor but of the dowager empress, the formidable Grand Empress Dowager Wang, who ...

Jung Chang's fast-paced and gripping story reassesses the reputation of the formidable 19th-century stateswoman. Read by Pik-Sen Lim. Abridged by Sara Davies ...

the Manchu Qing dynasty empress who rose from the ranks of Emperor Xianfeng's many concubines to become the de facto ruler of China for nearly 50 years.