Empress Dowager Cixi: China's Last Dynasty and the Long Reign of a Formidable Concubine : Legends and Lives During the D

Even before Cixi died, there were many rumors and speculations floating around her. It was all too easy to use her as a scapegoat and point the finger at her for the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, when in fact, the Qing was under attack well before Cixi was even born, from the Western powers. Even as Empress Dowager, she could only do so much because China was very much a Confucian/patriarchal society, and she was surrounded by princes and male courtiers who often kept knowledge and news from her, due to the sequestered nature of the Forbidden City.

This book reads more like a pulp novel and should only be read for entertainment, NOT historical value. There's plenty of interesting stuff in here - incest, murder, orgies, and the like, but show more none of it is true, and needs to be read with a grain of salt, especially since much of the content of this book comes from the crud that Edmund Backhouse wrote, which had actually been taken as fact for a long time, but was later discovered to be false (much to the chagrin of historians and scholars). The writing style is also good, and adds a star to the story.

For a well-researched and factual/historical account on Cixi, read 'The Dragon Lady' by Sterling Seagrave. show less