Empress Dowager Cixi

How effective were the Late Qing Reforms of Empress Dowager Cixi in modernizing early 20th century China 1902-1908 INTRODUCTION Empress Dowager Cixi (alternatively Tz’u-his) has traditionally been characterized as a powerful obstacle to reform; promulgating Qing conservatism, Manchu values and neo-Confucianism, and, throughout the second half of the 19th century, stolidly resisting political reform. However, from her return to court in 1902 to her death, a dramatic revolution in Cixi’s approach towards Western influence brought China across the threshold of the modern world with “no foot-dragging” (Cixi correspondence, First Historical Archives of China, 1996, page 1020). Though she may not have directly initiated the transition into modernity,…

Hsü identifies the major tensions in the court as being those between the Emperor and the Dowager, the moderate reformers and the radical reformers, and the racial antipathy between Chinese and Manchus. Cameron writes of the Emperor and the Dowager, “According to K’ang’s account, the relations between the Empress-Dowager and the Emperor have never been anything but strained.” One of the most glaring examples of this was Cixi’s response to the appointment of Yang Jiu, Liu Guangdi, Lin Xu, Tan…

First of all Empress was “characterized as dictatorial, vicious, reactionary and at fault for the fall of the Qing dynasty”. She was not remembered as anything good. She was also “a remarkable woman”. Also, the traits in the first quote aren't really great traits to be the leader of China, or even a good trait of any sort of leader at all. Also, “her victims included the emperor of Guangxu’s sons favorite concubine, thrown down a well, and Guangxu himself, by then deposed by her, dispatched with…

believed that their magic martial arts training made their bodies invulnerable to modern guns. With this belief, they viciously attacked Christian missionaries and converts, calling for the ending of the special privileges enjoyed by Chinese converts. The Dowager Empress Cixi, frustrated with the growing demands from the West, decided to support the Boxers against the foreign powers, which only invited a military suppression by an Eight-Nation Alliance in August 1900. The army, consisting of…

During the latter half of the 19th century, the Dowager Empress Cixi led the Qing empire. While she was committed to her traditional values, she supported select reforms, like the self-strengthening movement which aimed to update China 's educational system, diplomatic service, and military. Results from this reform movement were mixed. As China 's continuing problems became more apparent, foreign nations took advantage of the situation to take control of China 's economy. European nations as…

A large number of scholars in China now had already realized there would and must be a reform or the Empire would collapse soon, and many of them also regarded the nation as a “corporation” instead of a diverse land. Empress Dowager Cixi’s supports for the self-strengthening movements and New Policy in 1905, which abolished the imperial examination systems proved that the loyalists acknowledged the importance of connecting to the modern world. However, the social and political systems, as…

In the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, many elites, new intellectuals and reform-minded Chinese had realized that the existing political and social systems which lasted for more than thousands years should be changed immediately, or the Qing Empire would collapse quickly. The actual ruler of the Empire, Empress Dowager Cixi, who oppressed the Reform of 1898, recognized the urgent needs for reform as she felt gradually losing control, respects and confidence over both…

The young ruler Guangxu introduced new measure to modernize China. He wanted to reorganize China's education system, strengthen the economy, modernize the military, and streamline the government. At the time, many of the Qing officials saw the modernization of China as a threat to their power. Fearing for their power, they called in the Dowager Empress to handle the current problems. The Dowager Empress immediately placed Guangxu under arrest and took over the control of the government. However,…

supposed to be seen as a warning to other women so they could avoid becoming “morally” corrupted by indulging in sex and power. However, Wu was only heavily criticized because of her gender. If she was a man, she would not been criticized for her harem of men since many Emperors were allowed and were encouraged to have many wives to produce potential heirs. Wu, simply ruled in a period in which Confucianism dominated all aspects of life and in her quest to defy the rules set for women, led her…

This investigation will evaluate the inquiry: To what extent did the Qing Dynasty’s xenophobic attitudes inhibit Empress Dowager Cixi’s ability to prevent the downfall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912? The investigation will focus on the tenure of Empress Dowager Cixi between the years of 1850 -1910. The time period allows for the evaluation of the period before Cixi’s rise to power and the end of the last Chinese dynasty. The first source is the Boxer Protocol of 1901. The relevance of the document…