Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China"The last empress of China--Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi (1835-1908)--is remembered as one of history's monsters, an iron-willed concubine who, after usurping power in 1861, ruled from the Dragon Throne for half a century. Her reign, in the aftermath of the Opium Wars and through the Boxer Rebellion until the collapse of the 2,000-year-old empire, has traditionally been seen as one of murder, poison, and intrigue. But the wicked image is false." "In 1974, to the dismay of scholars, Sir Edmund Backhouse--the biographer most responsible for the widespread vision of Tzu Hsi as monster--was revealed to be a con man. And now the author of the celebrated best-seller The Soong Dynasty has undertaken the first complete reappraisal of the empress--exposing Backhouse's writings about her as a major hoax and forgery, and establishing that the most important Western correspondent in Peking during her reign--Dr. George Morrison of the London Times--kept a secret diary contradicting his own dispatches about Tzu Hsi." "Drawing on many unpublished or long-overlooked contemporary sources, Sterling Seagrave shows us Tzu Hsi as a complex woman whose desperate--though often misguided--efforts to hold her country together take on a different coloration in the context of unrelenting foreign attempts to colonize and tear it apart. Far from being all-powerful, she was actually a hostage of vengeful Manchu princes who were using her in a power struggle against both Chinese reformers and foreign interference." "Here at last is an authentic portrait of this fascinating historical figure, as well as insight into the Western craving to believe in a sinister, dragon-haunted Orient. Dragon Lady is at once a compelling biography and the equally compelling story of how a myth was contrived, how it endured, and how, ultimately, the truth has emerged."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
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Page 5
... Sir Robert Hart , where it mingled with the bergamot in the tea . In his mid - sixties , Sir Robert Hart was still vigorous after forty years in China . His hair was thin but dark , his beard neatly trimmed ; he always wore a frock coat ...
... Sir Robert Hart , where it mingled with the bergamot in the tea . In his mid - sixties , Sir Robert Hart was still vigorous after forty years in China . His hair was thin but dark , his beard neatly trimmed ; he always wore a frock coat ...
Page 453
... Hart's wealth and honors galled Morrison , who was deep in debt and feeling cheated of his own knighthood . In his diary Morrison described his meeting with Hart bitterly : “ Sir Robert looked exceedingly shaky and frail , shattered in ...
... Hart's wealth and honors galled Morrison , who was deep in debt and feeling cheated of his own knighthood . In his diary Morrison described his meeting with Hart bitterly : “ Sir Robert looked exceedingly shaky and frail , shattered in ...
Page 466
... Sir Claude MacDonald writing to Morrison , [ Septem- ber ] 1898 , quoted in Lo Hui - men . " The two curios of Peking " : Stanley Bell , Hart ... Robert Hart , ' " quoted in Pearl , p . 83 . " I rarely meet the I.G. " : Morrison letter to ...
... Sir Claude MacDonald writing to Morrison , [ Septem- ber ] 1898 , quoted in Lo Hui - men . " The two curios of Peking " : Stanley Bell , Hart ... Robert Hart , ' " quoted in Pearl , p . 83 . " I rarely meet the I.G. " : Morrison letter to ...
Contents
ONE Lady Yebenara | 18 |
NINETEEN | 29 |
TWO Foreign Devils | 42 |
Copyright | |
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Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China Sterling Seagrave No preview available - 1993 |
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advisers Allied American appeared army arrived attack Backhouse became become began Boxers British brother called Chang chief Chihli China Chinese Ching City commander concubine court death diary died edict Eight emperor empress dowager eunuchs failed fire followed Forbidden City force foreign Gang gave give given Grand hand Hart head Hsi's Hsien Feng hundred immediately imperial Ironhats Japan Japanese Jung Lu Kang Kuang Hsu ladies later legations lived look Manchu matter military minister missionaries months Morrison mother murder never officials once Palace Peking political present Press Prince Kung Prince Tuan reform remained reported Robert secret sent Shanghai Shun Summer Palace taken thousand throne Tientsin took Tung Tung Chih turned Tzu Hsi Viceroy Western woman women wrote Yehenara young Yuan