Customer Reviews

Empress Dowager Cixi: China's Last Dynasty and the Long Reign of a Formidable Concubine

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Cixi had to have been a fascinating woman, to rule China for almost 50 years, but all you get with Woo's book is the same old legends of a beautiful, merciless sexual & political predator. This may be intriguing stuff, but it ISN'T TRUE. Most of these stories of murder, incest, etc., come from an old Victorian hack named Backhouse -- who was also a pornographer -- and wrote sensational stuff that would sell. Woo's book recycles most of it, although I have to say that Woo's style (very English-version-of-a-Chinese-fairy-tale) is a lot better than Backhouse's. Go ahead and read it, but do it for entertainment. Don't think you're getting any history out of it at all.

This is probably the most detailed account in English of the court of Tz'u-hsi. You get character sketches of the prominent figures that reaveal far more of their motivations and personality than any normal history of the period. Most of the book is based on solid factual information from diaries and Chinese histories. It's a pity that this is mingled with legendary anecdotes and no attempt is made to assess their veracity. Professor Woo could have supplied some endnotes to help with this. Still, it's an entertaining read and very helpful for understanding the late Ch'ing.

This account of Empress Dowager Cixi reads suspiciously like a scene-by-scene synopsis of a serialized (TV) dramatization of the Empress' life.

The's very little in the way of documented fact but lots of melodramatic scenes and made-up dialogue.

Even before Cixi died, there were many rumors and speculations floating around her. It was all too easy to use her as a scapegoat and point the finger at her for the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, when in fact, the Qing was under attack well before Cixi was even born, from the Western powers. Even as Empress Dowager, she could only do so much because China was very much a Confucian/patriarchal society, and she was surrounded by princes and male courtiers who often kept knowledge and news from her, due to the sequestered nature of the Forbidden City.

This book reads more like a pulp novel and should only be read for entertainment, NOT historical value. There's plenty of interesting stuff in here - incest, murder, orgies, and the like, but none of it is true, and needs to be read with a grain of salt, especially since much of the content of this book comes from the crud that Edmund Backhouse wrote, which had actually been taken as fact for a long time, but was later discovered to be false (much to the chagrin of historians and scholars). The writing style is also good, and adds a star to the story.

For a well-researched and factual/historical account on Cixi, read 'The Dragon Lady' by Sterling Seagrave.