Posted on 11/08/2021 5:00:45 PM PST by CheshireTheCat
One hundred fifty years ago today, Qing China’s last great ruler, the Empress Dowager Cixi, having seized the helm of the state she would drive for 47 years, had her deposed predecessor executed.
Formally, China was being “ruled” at this time by the illustrious Tongzhi Emperor, age five.
This child’s old man, depressively self-medicating at the drubbing China was taking in the Second Opium War, had died young, leaving his only son the throne, in care of a council of regents.
As one of the late monarch’s key advisors, Sushun was among that eight-strong panel, and he was popularly regarded as the worst of the lot — vicious, drunken, spendthrift, and just the guy to blame (along with co-regents Zaiyuan and Duanhua) for all the vicious, drunken, and spendthrift stuff the deceased emperor had put his seal to. Or, just the sort of stories trumped up by the rivals of the man really steering the state. Either way is good.
More perilous for Sushun was his burgeoning rivalry with “the Concubine Yi,” the master of harem politics and mother of the new boy-emperor. She had long distrusted the courtier.
Recast in both title and name with her lover’s passing, the woman now known as “Empress Dowager Cixi” was able to obstruct the regency’s policies. And she did one better than that, intrepidly allying with disgruntled princes to engineer a coup d’etat against Sushun’s faction....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Cixi was quite a fascinating figure.
Wow! What a hard-riding b1tch that chick was!
I think there was a movie
Cheshire; Always interesting! I start with the post and end up looking through 5 or 6 other cases!
Cixi’s son would die of smallpox at the age of 18. His successor, a cousin, would be kept under virtual house arrest by Cixi until shortly before her death, when she (most likely) had him poisoned with arsenic. His successor was the 3 year old Puyi, the “Last Emperor” of the movie.
Cixi was quite a fascinating figure.
She was the best master of palace intrigues and dark state politics.
As far as China, she did not care about the ordinary people and her policies, both internal and foreign were terrible.
China, as a country, hit the bottom during her rule, but she did great for herself.
I wonder: In a contest between Hillary and Cixi, who would win?
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