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 "Drawing on many unpublished or long-overlooked contemporary sources, Sterling Seagrave shows us Tzu Hsi as a complex woman whose desperate--though often misguided--efforts to hold her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 147
... look of fierce intensity in his eyes but none of the bullyboy bluster so common among Foreign Devils along the China coast . He must have smelled Ningpo long before he saw it , as the brigantine Erin eased around a bend in the greasy ...
... look of fierce intensity in his eyes but none of the bullyboy bluster so common among Foreign Devils along the China coast . He must have smelled Ningpo long before he saw it , as the brigantine Erin eased around a bend in the greasy ...
Page 415
... look for me . " Racing across town they were met by Prince Ching's son , Prince Tsai Chen , who would take Vos into ... look at me , no one may ask her anything . . . . I made her favored eunuch stand behind the camera so that she could ...
... look for me . " Racing across town they were met by Prince Ching's son , Prince Tsai Chen , who would take Vos into ... look at me , no one may ask her anything . . . . I made her favored eunuch stand behind the camera so that she could ...
Page 460
... look of an old scholar , quite in line with beard , dress and refined politeness ; suddenly they became the eyes of a monk in religious ecstasy , to change again into the eyes of an old salacious profligate with a very clever cunning look ...
... look of an old scholar , quite in line with beard , dress and refined politeness ; suddenly they became the eyes of a monk in religious ecstasy , to change again into the eyes of an old salacious profligate with a very clever cunning look ...
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 |
Common terms and phrases
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