Empress Dowager Cixi Empress Dowager Cixi

Empress Dowager Cixi

    • 4.4 • 47개의 평가
    • US$5.99
    • US$5.99

출판사 설명

A New York Times Notable Book

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age.
At the age of sixteen, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor’s numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China—behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male.

In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China. Under her the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state: industries, railways, electricity, the telegraph and an army and navy with up-to-date weaponry. It was she who abolished gruesome punishments like “death by a thousand cuts” and put an end to foot-binding. She inaugurated women’s liberation and embarked on the path to introduce parliamentary elections to China. Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot.

Cixi reigned during extraordinary times and had to deal with a host of major national crises: the Taiping and Boxer rebellions, wars with France and Japan—and an invasion by eight allied powers including Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States. Jung Chang not only records the Empress Dowager’s conduct of domestic and foreign affairs, but also takes the reader into the depths of her splendid Summer Palace and the harem of Beijing’s Forbidden City, where she lived surrounded by eunuchs—one of whom she fell in love, with tragic consequences. The world Chang describes here, in fascinating detail, seems almost unbelievable in its extraordinary mixture of the very old and the very new.

Based on newly available, mostly Chinese, historical documents such as court records, official and private correspondence, diaries and eyewitness accounts, this biography will revolutionize historical thinking about a crucial period in China’s—and the world’s—history. Packed with drama, fast paced and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a woman: as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population, and as a unique stateswoman.

장르
역사
출시일
2013년
10월 29일
언어
EN
영어
길이
464
페이지
출판사
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
판매자
Penguin Random House LLC
크기
40.1
MB

사용자 리뷰

portlandgangster ,

This is in my top 5 books!

This is a THRILLING book with moments of deep reflection packed in!
Like whoa?! How could she?!? Would I? Surly not…??? This book is a must read.

Shirley's mom ,

Loved it

I'm a history lover....international, ancient and modern. This book is just wonderful!

The Opium War The Opium War
2015년
The Last Kings of Shanghai The Last Kings of Shanghai
2020년
The World The World
2023년
The Great Wall The Great Wall
2018년
The War Queens The War Queens
2020년
Western Han Dynasty Western Han Dynasty
2021년
Wild Swans Wild Swans
2008년
Mao Mao
2005년
Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister
2019년
Fly, Wild Swans Fly, Wild Swans
2026년
Cixí, la emperatriz Cixí, la emperatriz
2014년
Las hermanas Soong Las hermanas Soong
2020년
Daughters of the Winter Queen Daughters of the Winter Queen
2018년
Imperial Twilight Imperial Twilight
2018년
Legacy of Violence Legacy of Violence
2022년
Young and Damned and Fair Young and Damned and Fair
2017년
Last Boat Out of Shanghai Last Boat Out of Shanghai
2019년
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
2009년