Empress Dowager Cixi

Cixi was a charismatic and powerful woman who effectively controlled the Chinese government for 47 years, from 1861 to her death in 1908. Cixi was born on November 29, 1835 and died on November 15, 1908 at the age of 72. Her given name was Yehonala which is her Manchu name originated from the combined name of two tribes, Yeho and Nala. She was born to parents of the middle ranks of Manchu society living in Beijing. Cixi’s father died when she was very young and as an eldest child she felt…

Empress Dowager Cixi was a Manchu regent who effectively ruled over China from her appointment in 1861 until her death in 1908. She ruled during the Boxer Rebellion, an anti-foreign and anti-Christian uprising led by a splinter group called the Boxers towards the end of the Qing Dynasty from 1899 to 1901. Empress Cixi’s changes to Boxer ideologies to reflect those of the state and her actions to preserve the state, doctrine, and race of China express her use of the Boxers as a nationalistic…

China in the hands of imperialism ‘’Cixi, the empress-dowager, a staunch conservative of no uncertain views argued that adopting the ways of westㅡeven in self defenseㅡwould mean surrendering the culture that constituted the very meaning and essence of China. And that result would be certain disaster.’’ (westad,59) Even with this early idea, the dark huge cloud of imperialism couldn’t be resisted and this time the cloud was not to pass easily. It seems very controversial to call this cloud a…

Foot binding first became popular during the Song Dynasty in China. It is thought to have originated Emperor Li Yu asked his concubine, Yao Niang to bind her feet and perform a ballet dance for him. The bound feet were to represent the lotus flower. Niang was so graceful on her feet during this dance that people wished to imitate the bound feet in order to be as graceful and as beautiful. This was practiced mostly in Northern China. After the initial appearance, it became common among the…

Background to the Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion was a group within China that lasted from 1898 to 1900. At its prime time , the rebellion wanted to get rid of the unwanted influence of Western nations. The rebellion was able to gain support am ngst the large population and poor unemployed people in northern China. The force of the Boxer Rebellion was a secret society called the Righteous and Harmonious Fists. Made up of poor and non working young Chinese men, the society was labeled 'The…

Against the background of the First Opium War (1840–42), Western photographers visited China for the first time, accompanying Western military personnel, missionaries, and consular officials. The earliest recorded photographic activity in China by Western photographers was in July 1842, only three years after the invention of the medium. Dr. Richard Woosnam (1815–1888) and Major George Alexander Malcolm (1810–1888) made daguerreotypes at Yangtze (Yangzi) River during the final stages of the…

held the power, and in this case it was the Manchus dominating the Hans, since the Manchus were in control of the Dynasty. The Han citizens, or the lower class, wanted a republic nation so that everyone could be equal. At the time the empress was Empress Dowager Cixi, who effected institutional changes of the same sort that she had resisted and to appoint reform minded officials. China had inaugurated a Republic on 1 January 1912 three years after her death. As the Qing Dynasty was growing…

took the thrown in 1908 at the young age of three. He was taken from the home of his family in Peking and brought to the Forbidden City, which is home to the emperor of China. Pu Yi is accompanied by his nurse and father, and is told by the Empress Dowager Cixi that he would be the next emperor of China because this is what she has decided. He is then left in the Forbidden City, now the imperial ruler of China. Six years after young Pu Yi begins his life as emperor of China in the Forbidden…

got him poisoned and he died. Cixi died three hours later but within these three hours she planned all her will to ensure China stays safe and her Manchu people. She made her cousins son Zaifeng as regent who she had been training from many years and made his son i.e Cixi’s great nephew Piyu as hier apparent, a 2 year old kid. This ensured Zaifeng leads in the name of his son and Cixi remained the head as long as she is alive. Also in her will she declared Empress Dowager Longyu her daughter in…

In May, 1900, troops were sent to China by Western powers to protect their citizens, and on the 21st of June of the same year, the Empress Dowager Cixi chose to support the Boxers; she declared war against the foreign powers. On the 4th of August 1900, a “foreign army composed of about 20,000 troops arrived from Japan, Russia, Britain, the United States and France” (Lai and Brown 194). The…