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Empress Dowager Cixi by Jung Chang6/9/2023 2 consort (after Empress Zhen) when she gave birth to a male heir, Zaichun. And started her life in Emperor Xianfeng’s court as one of a great many concubines, so many that they were grouped into eight ranks, with Cixi assigned to the sixth rank.Ĭixi rose to Xianfeng’s No. She was born into a medieval nation, just two years before, a world away, Victoria assumed the throne in Great Britain. That’s probably because they operated within acceptable and understandable European parameters.Ĭixi, by contrast, maneuvered in the mysterious world of 19 th-century China, a place often seen by European eyes as, at best, weird, and, at worst, wicked, unnatural, sensual and corrupt. In terms of historical reputation, those women had their gender working against them but somehow found ways to be loved or, at least, respected. As a world leader, Empress Dowager Cixi hasn’t had good press, nothing like, say, Queen Elizabeth I or Queen Victoria.
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