DeepSummary
The episode discusses the life and rule of the Empress Dowager Cixi, who was the de facto ruler of China for almost 50 years during the late Qing dynasty. Born in 1835, Cixi started as a low-ranking concubine but rose to power after giving birth to the emperor's only son. When her son became emperor as a child, Cixi ruled through him and later through another child emperor.
Cixi's rule coincided with a period of rapid change and humiliation for China, as Western powers and Japan defeated the country in various wars and treaties. While initially supporting some reforms, Cixi was criticized for obstructing more radical changes that could have modernized China faster. She briefly supported the Boxer Rebellion against Westerners in 1900, leading to further retaliation and indemnity payments.
In the final years of her life, Cixi did implement more significant reforms, such as establishing a modern university and abolishing the traditional examination system. However, these reforms came too late, and the Qing dynasty collapsed shortly after her death in 1908. Historians have debated whether Cixi was a skilled politician acting in China's interests or solely motivated by personal power.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The Empress Dowager Cixi was a skilled political operator who effectively ruled China for nearly 50 years during the late Qing dynasty.
- Cixi's rule coincided with a period of rapid change and humiliation for China due to Western encroachment and defeats in various wars.
- While initially supporting some reforms, Cixi later obstructed more radical changes that could have modernized China faster, prioritizing the survival of the Qing dynasty and her personal power.
- Cixi briefly supported the Boxer Rebellion against Westerners in 1900, leading to further retaliation and indemnity payments.
- In the final years of her life, Cixi did implement more significant reforms, such as establishing a modern university and abolishing the traditional examination system, but these reforms came too late to save the Qing dynasty.
- Historians have debated whether Cixi was a skilled politician acting in China's interests or solely motivated by personal power.
- Cixi's complex legacy represents a crucial period in China's history, marked by tension between tradition and modernity, and the struggle to adapt to the changing global power dynamics.
- The episode highlights the importance of understanding historical figures and events in their full context, acknowledging the nuances and multiple perspectives involved.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “For me, it's her power. For me, she's neither a reformer nor a conservative. Her goal is for the Qing dynasty to live on for herself, her own power to go on. So in a way, she's very complex. She's not just a reformer. She supported reform, but to a degree, to a degree that doesn't threaten the survival of the dynasty. And she would go become conservative when necessary.“ by Yang Wenzheng
- “Well, unlike many of my colleagues, I don't talk about what's discussed around the cabinet table.“ by BBC
- “We flipped, inverted, and we're in an inverted dive with no nose. Explosive decompression and severe pressure.“ by Mint Mobile Unlimited Premium Wireless
- “Yes, there were, because after the war, Zixi realized that, oh, it's really time to really make some real changes now, because we got defeated by the Japanese, our little brothers. I mean, how would it happen?“ by Ronald Po
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Episode Information
In Our Time
BBC Radio 4
6/20/24
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who, for almost fifty years, was the most powerful figure in the Chinese court. Cixi (1835-1908) started out at court as one of the Emperor's many concubines, yet was the only one who gave him a son to succeed him and who also possessed great political skill and ambition. When their son became emperor he was still a young child and Cixi ruled first through him and then, following his death, through another child emperor. This was a time of rapid change in China, when western powers and Japan humiliated the forces of the Qing empire time after time, and Cixi had the chance to push forward the modernising reforms the country needed to thrive. However, when she found those reforms conflicted with her own interests or those of the Qing dynasty, she was arguably obstructive or too slow to act and she has been personally blamed for some of those many humiliations even when the fault lay elsewhere.
With
Yangwen Zheng Professor of Chinese History at the University of Manchester
Rana Mitter The S.T. Lee Professor of US-Asia Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School
And
Ronald Po Associate Professor in the Department of International History at London School of Economics and Visiting Professor at Leiden University
Producer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production
Reading list:
Pearl S. Buck, Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China (first published 1956; Open Road Media, 2013)
Katharine A. Carl, With the Empress Dowager (first published 1906; General Books LLC, 2009)
Jung Chang, Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China (Jonathan Cape, 2013)
Princess Der Ling, Old Buddha (first published 1929; Kessinger Publishing, 2007) Joseph W. Esherick, The Origins of the Boxer Uprising (University of California Press, 1987)
John K. Fairbank and Merle Goldman, China: A New History (Harvard University Press, 2006)
Peter Gue Zarrow and Rebecca Karl (eds.), Rethinking the 1898 Reform Period: Political and Cultural Change in Late Qing China (Harvard University Press, 2002)
Grant Hayter-Menzies, Imperial Masquerade: The Legend of Princess Der Ling (Hong Kong University Press, 2008)
Keith Laidler, The Last Empress: The She-Dragon of China (Wiley, 2003)
Keith McMahon, Celestial Women: Imperial Wives and Concubines in China from Song to Qing (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020)
Anchee Min, The Last Empress (Bloomsbury, 2011)
Ying-Chen Peng, Artful Subversion: Empress Dowager Cixi’s Image Making (Yale University Press, 2023).
Sarah Pike Conger, Letters from China: with Particular Reference to the Empress Dowager and the Women of China (first published 1910; Forgotten Books, 2024)
Stephen Platt, Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age (Atlantic Books, 2019)
Liang Qichao (trans. Peter Zarrow), Thoughts From the Ice-Drinker's Studio: Essays on China and the World (Penguin Classics, 2023)
Sterling Seagrave, Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China (Vintage, 1993)
Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China (first published 1991; W. W. Norton & Company, 2001)
X. L. Woo, Empress Dowager Cixi: China's Last Dynasty and the Long Reign of a Formidable Concubine (Algora Publishing, 2003)
Zheng Yangwen, Ten Lessons in Modern Chinese History (Manchester University Press, 2018)