Cixi was born the daughter of a low ranking military officer, and became a concubine in the harem of Emperor Xianfeng at the age of 16. This was a great honor, even though it sounds super iffy. It was a swank appointment. At the time, he was relatively new to the job. The story goes that her beautiful singing voice drew the emperor’s attention and she quickly became one of his favorites. She bore him his only son and was named “Virtuous Imperial Concubine” (which sounds, to me, a lot like “Pure Hooker”, but whatever). She was, like, third in rank. The next year, she was promoted to second in rank and was called “Virtuous Honorable Concubine”. At this point, the second Opium war was underway. In 1861, Xianfeng fled Peking, fell ill and died at his Imperial Summer Resort (spiffy!). That left Cixi’s 5 year old son as the only heir, so he became Emperor Tongzhi, which made Cixi the Honored Mother Empress Dowager.
Before he had died, Xianfeng had actually appointed 8 ministers to assist little Tongzhi in ruling, but Cixi wasn’t havin’ none o’ dat. Allegedly, Cixi had already done some behind the curtains ruling for Xianfeng while he was sick, and didn’t want to give up this power. This, however, is not well substantiated by actual evidence and could be a load of hooey.One way or another, Cixi formed an alliance with the Empress Dowager Ci’an, who was the #1 wife. This alliance made them much stronger than they would have been alone, so they held considerable clout. Cixi also allied with two of the imperial princes, Gong and Chun, Xianfeng’s brothers.
She pulled this badass stunt where she and Tongzhi led the funeral parade for Xianfeng, and when she arrived in Peking, before the ministers got there, she and the princes charged the ministers with incompetency in the second Opium war. She and Gong made this document that basically said “These guys are poor advisors. They weakened the emperor’s position and let the west walk all over us!” Eventually, all of those ministers were dismissed and three of them were executed. Don’t fuck with Cixi.
This put the 2 dowagers in power. Dowager Ci’an wasn’t really interested in political power, she just liked money and stuff, so Cixi and Gong ran the show. Tongzhi turned 17, and Cixi stepped down to let him rule on his own, but he died two years later. There are many historical gossips that will tell you that he died of an STD, but officially, he died of smallpox. Could be hokum. I dunno.
Soooooooo, Cixi’s nephew by marriage became Emperor Guangxu, but he was only 3. That means Cixi’s back, yo! Still, there was yet more gossip surrounding this. When Tongzhi died, one of his concubines was pregnant, but she and her possible heir died while the debate over the successor was still happening. Cixi may or may not have poisoned her. Imma put it in the “mebbe” category. Cixi continued ruling from behind a screen, even when little Guangxu came of age. These two absolutely did NOT agree about what was best for China. During the first Sino-Japanese war, Guangxu wanted to engage the enemy, but Cixi wasn’t feeling it. After China was defeated, Guangxu became a big supporter of the reform movement. On June 11, 1888, he started the 100 days reform. He wanted to reform their education, their industry, their foreign affairs. Total overhaul. Totally opposite to the conservative opposition, especially Cixi (uh oh.) She staged a coup using the military, reestablished her role as regent, and sent the emperor to confinement for 10 years (aww shit!). She told everyone that he was super sick and probably contagious and definitely was too sick to rule don’t even try just trust me he’s sick ok? He basically stayed there for the rest of his life.
During the Boxer rebellion led by the Righteous Fists of Harmony (which sounds like a crappy cover band), she sided with the insurgents against the westerners. This went badly. It ruined her global image and left her looking like a close-minded, stubborn dragon lady. To improve her image, she commissioned these photographs where she was trying to look like Queen Victoria, but nobody cares about your selfies, Cixi. They were supposed to be given as gifts to visiting dignitaries, but “Thank you for coming, have a picture of me” doesn’t come off well.
Guangxu died in 1908 at the age of 37, and Cixi died the next day at the age of 74. There were rumors, of course, that he had been murdered, and historians were like, “yeah, sure”, but it turns out he totally was. In 2008, there was a 5 year research study that found that he had actually been killed with one huge-ass dose of poison, rather than an accidental self poisoning over a long period of time. Cixi is a big suspect, because, even though she knew she was dying, she was a stone cold bitch who don’t take shit from no one. She left a trail of (alleged) bodies in her wake. She was (apparently) as pretty as an angel, as trustworthy as a snake and about as politically competent as a basket.
For example, one time, she spent naval funds on a summer palace, which weakened the military and possibly lost the Sino-Japanese war. AND her mausoleum, which she had built before her death, is filled with so much expensive shit that it exceeds most emperor’s tombs. Like, most tombs had about three golden pillars in them and hers has something like 64. Cixi is possibly one of the worst rulers that China ever had. She’s crazy and I love her.
Her biographies have actually caused a bunch of really serious debates that historians foam at the mouth about. This mostly stems from the fact that her original western biographer would just make shit up to sell copies, so everyone is like “WHAT EVEN IS REAL LIFE?!!” Scholarly drama.
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