Reign of the Dowager Empress Cixi 慈禧太后

"Empress Dowager Cixi and Four Imperial Physicians" by Huang Zhongyang. Special 

attention should be paid to the expressions of the Physicians as they try to diagnose

the sleeping empress. The look of conspiratorial secrecy in the eyes of the doctors

while the imperial authority sleeps without a clue signifies much.

The latter portion of Qing dynasty's history witnessed many challenges both from within and outside the realm. After suffering repeated defeats at the hands of the British and the French in what was known as the Opium Wars, ethnic tensions within China reached a boiling point. No less than half a dozen of massive rebellions all exploded throughout the various pockets of the empire. At the height of the chaotic unrest China saw tens of millions of Han, Hui, and many other groups openly challenging the supremacy of the Manchu court. Ultimately, the Qing government would triumph and ruthlessly crush the rebellions and prop up its hegemony for almost another half a century more. It was in this environment that the Empress Dowager Cixi came into power. 

THE CURTAIN REIGN: POWER GRAB

She rose to power immediately in the aftermath of Qing's defeat in the 2nd Opium War against the Anglo-French forces. The Qing imperial army had been smashed and the British forces under Lord Elgin looted the Qing Old Summer Palace and burned it to the ground. Beijing was lost and the imperial court took flight. In the ensuing chaos, the 30 year old Xianfeng Emperor died on during his long escape with the royal court. In his will, he named "Eight Regent Ministers" to govern the realm as regent and guide his young five year old son- the Tongzhi emperor until he matures. 

However, Cixi, the mother of Tongzhi, took the initiative and raced back to the imperial capital and degreed that the Eight Regents be immediately executed. From there, imperial power of the dynasty rested in her hands. 

Though she regarded herself as a staunch conservative who championed the supremacy of the Manchus and a defender against foreign influences. In truth, she was ignorant of the threat posed by the western empires and the great military and scientific powers the westerners possessed. During her tenure, the Qing continued to suffer a string of humiliating defeats at the hands of foreign powers while China dangerously lagged behind the rest of the maritime empires. 

During Cixi's rule the citizenry and even the court continued their addiction to opium in great numbers and the imperial military power was slowly absorbed by the regional governors. Corruption was rampant, and the empire's future was deeply uncertain as foreign powers encroached ever closer. 

"Situation in the Far East" by the Chinese revolutionary Tse Tsan Tai, which depicts the

British bulldog, the French frog, the American Eagle, the Russian bear and 

the Japanese sun disk all positioning themselves to take more out of China. Though

initially China only warred against the British, and then the French, in the decades

that followed many groups of foreigners, would arrive and stake their claims 

to carve out their areas of influences in China.

A CHANGING WORLD

Wanguo laichao tu 万国来朝图 (1760) or the "Illustration of the Myriad Tributary Nations coming to Court" Painted during the height of Qing's power during the long reign of the Qianlong Emperor. Most of the dignitaries are positioned at the lower right corner. Click for details.

Detail of the Wanguo laichao tu 万国来朝图 (1760) or the "Illustration of the Myriad Tributary Nations coming to Court" Painted during the height of Qing's power during the long reign of the Qianlong Emperor,  showing tributary representatives from predominantly European states such as England, France, Holland and the "Great Western Ocean," also Asian states such as Vietnam, Japan, the Ryukyu Islands (Kingdom of Okinawa) and the Philippines.

Age of Empires: soldiers of the Eight Nations Alliance who crushed the Boxers in Beijing. The Qing awoke to a world where they are dwarfed by much bigger and much more advanced empires that had already portioned the world among themselves. However, perhaps the most ironic of all, is that the woman who ruled China was unaware of the power posed by these foreigners. During Cixi's rule China lost to the French in Vietnam, lost Taiwan and Korea to Japan, and lost the control of the imperial homelands in Manchuria to encroaching Russian soldiers. Qingdao (Tsingtao) was lost to the Germans, and the Liaodong Peninsula to the Japanese, then the Russians. Meanwhile many ironclad foreign ships sailed in China's waterways. Within half a century, the Qing had went from being the leading power of East Asia, at the head of a dozen tributary kingdoms to being drawn and quartered by strangers from the other side of the globe. Such was the times.

WRONG EMPRESS, WRONG TIME 

Although the Qing was twice disastrously defeated at the hands of the westerners, in the 50 years that followed, there were many opportunities for the dynasty to shrug off the initial setback, modernize, and then rebound to a state of security. After all, the first Opium War happened in the early 1840s- nearly 10 years before America forced an unprepared Japan to modernize, and the 2nd happened around the same decade as Matthew Perry's opening of Japan and Japan's Boshin War. 

Cixi began as only one of the concubines of the young Xianfeng Emperor, and her life 

would have read like the tales of an East Asian Cleopatra if not for her total inability to 

read the signs of her times. She was completely unaware the power possessed by

the westerners and during her reign China was repeatedly defeated at the hands of 

foreign powers. 

However, it was here that Cixi showed her hand. Cixi would prove herself to be one of the staunchest opponents toward modernization and westernization within China. After the initial defeat at the hands of the westerners, more far-sighted ministers like Li Hongzhang attempted to modernize China by cooperating with the French and the British to build a modern army and navy. 

But Cixi staunchly opposed many of the modernization efforts that was championed from within. Because Cixi came from the ranks of the Manchu elites who were never more than a tiny percentage of the realm (as an ethnicity,) the notions of Republicanism and democracy- hence majority rule, and a modernized army with modern weaponry at the hands of the powerful military governors was very much a threat in her eyes. This: when coupled with the rising sentiment of nationalism was something she was utterly unprepared to concede to. Already, the Qing had proven that they were willing to ruthlessly crush any attempt for separatist rebels in the previous decades, in her eyes, all of these flood of "modern" western ideas only agitated for more of that.

3D digital illustration by the talented Teish Wu: The Tongzhi Emperor became emperor at the age of five upon the death of his father, the Xianfeng Emperor. His father's choice of regents for the young boy were executed by his mother, the Empress Dowager Cixi, who ruled through the boy with her ally the Empress Dowager Ci'an, and the boy's sixth uncle Prince Gong. 

\Qing Minister Li Hongzhang was a controversial figure in China because much 

of his career is overshadowed and deeply pegged with that of his patron (matron)

The Dowager Empress Cixi. Li proved his usefulness as a politician when he aided

in crushing the Taiping Rebellion and supported the rise of the Cixi Empress. However

Li was also deeply aware the vulnerability of the Qing when compared to western powers.

Time and time again Li tried to modernize China upon the western model but was

overruled by empress. Li also had the misfortune of speaking to westerners as

China's ambassador after most of Qing's disastrous defeats. For his failures, 

his toadying to Cixi's misrule, and for being the man who "gave" China

away piecemeal, Li was reviled. 

She also regarded many western institutions such as universities and western scientific developments with deep suspicion as well, not only because they contradicted the traditional orthodox Confucian way of Chinese teaching but also the traditional obedient view towards authority in China. She was remembered to have forbid the construction of railroads because they were too loud and would "disturb the emperors' tombs." 

Because Chinese court protocol forbids women from ruling directly in the imperial halls. Cixi- like many powerful female regents thus enthroned herself behind the emperor seperated by a veil. It was called Chui Lian Ting Zheng 垂帘听政: or "Reign Behind the Curtains" lit. "Listening to the Policies Through the Curtains." 

Officially Cixi was only supposed to act as the regent of the empire

while her son- the future Tongzhi Emperor ascended the throne in his majority

However he grew up to be a dissolute and stubborn young man. He clashed 

often with the ministers and spent most of his time as an idle youth. His whole

reign was overshadowed by his mother, the Empress Dowager Cixi, and when he

died childless at the tender age of 19, power was returned to his mother, who 

named his 3 year old cousin as the future Guangxu Emperor.

In the 1880s the French would officially annex Vietnam- then a tributary ally of China, and dealt many defeats to the combined Chinese- Vietnamese forces. Despite the initial modernizing efforts, Qing's Nanyang (South Sea) Fleet suffered heavy losses against the French. Within a decade, the Qing would suffer another series of humiliating defeats, this time, not only at the hands of a western power but at the hands of one of its own former Asian tributary states. 

ENEMY OF REFORM 

Between 1884–95, during the reign of the newly enthroned Guangxu Emperor (r. 1875–1908), Empress Dowager Cixi ordered 22 million silver taels, originally designated for upgrading the Qing navy (the Beiyang Fleet), to be used for reconstructing and enlarging the Summer Palace to celebrate her 60th birthday.

In 1894, Qing China was resoundingly defeated by the Japanese, in the First Sino- Japanese war. The entire Beiyang Fleet- which had been one of the most powerful in East Asia was completely destroyed and as a result of the war, Qing lost control of Taiwan and the strategically critical Liaodong Peninsula to Japan. For many in the Qing court, the fact that a former backwater tributary vassal was able to so resoundingly defeat the Qing with a fully westernized army was a great and humiliating wake up call. But not for the empress.

When Cixi's nephew, Guangxu emperor tried to initiate a series of westernizing reforms called the Hundred Day's Reform in an attempt to copy Japan. The reforms sought to nationalize the Qing state and create a modern- nationalized education system with a modern industry and military, however, Cixi re-entered into politics and dethroned him through a coup and had many of the reformers executed. The Guangxu emperor himself was forced into retirement and put under house unrest. 

Culturally she viewed the encroachment of Christianity and modern factory with deep suspicion. But in this regard, she might not be too incorrect in her judgement. After all, the disastrous Taiping Rebellion, which erupted across the realm and claimed the lives of some 20+ million people while she was young was started by a Chinese religious rebel who thought he was the "brother of Jesus Christ," and that in time, the interest- oriented merchants, might form their own power blocs and rebel against the dynasty.

REACTIONARY NATIVIST

Her suspicions and xenophobia were allayed in 1899 when a deeply disgruntled secret religious society called Yihetuan 义和团 roughly translated as "Righteous and Harmonious Fist society", or "Boxers" as they were known in the west began to attack and slaughter westerners and Chinese christian converts en mass. When the rebels revealed their motive was to totally root out the foreigners and "Revive the Qing and destroy the foreigners," Cixi threw her weight, and that of the Qing military behind the rebels against the foreigners.

In this French satirist cartoon, Britain, Germany, Russia, France, and Japan are 

carving China while a helpless Qing dynasty Mandarin looks on

However her decision- like many of the decision of her life, were poorly calculated for the times. Despite some victories and trapping the foreign legation in a siege at Beijing, the rebels and the Qing army were swept aside when the Eight Nations Alliance breached into Beijing.

For those who are aware of literary ironies and sees symmetries in human history, upon the closing of the Eight Nations Alliance army into Beijing, Cixi would- for the second time in her life escape from the capital city in humiliation. Except this time she was not a virtually unknown concubine but had in fact steered the Qing dynsty directly under her rule. Under a disguise, she fled from the city and would disappear along with her court into staunchly loyalist regions of western China, from where the westerners would have no way to pry her out.

Despite many miscalculations, Cixi was right in this maneuver. As she calculated that the covetous and mutually suspicious members of the Alliance would quickly turn on themselves after they had ransacked Beijing and freed up those who were trapped in the legation. After months of looting and violence around Beijing, the Alliance became directionless, and it was during this time Cixi offered sent Li Hongzhang for peace talks with the Alliance and brokered a peace.

Like all previous times, China would pay heavy reparations and concessions, but seeing no way that any of these nations would truly occupy China (nor does any of them wish any of their nearby rivals to gain a bigger slice of China than they would have) Cixi would be allowed to returned to power as the head of the Qing dynasty. The condition for her return included executing all of the Boxers who were responsible. Cixi agreed to this, and ultimately thousands of supposed Boxers were rounded up and beheaded in mass.

A saying at the time goes: "The peasants fear the government, the government fears the foreigner, and the foreigners fear the peasants" describes the relationship between the western powers and China as a whole at the time. Like the Ottoman Empire, the westerners saw a profitable opportunity to extract beneficial deals from a weak yet very rich central power that could be forced to pay for such reparations. However they also feared having all of the peasants collectively and dreadfully provoked to action in unison, so they resort to keep the weak government as it was to oppress the peasants and keep them in line. More than anything, they needed a tax collector to reap the tributes in a timely manner, and thus the Dowager Empress returned. It should also be noted that the Boxer Rebellion would plant the seed for the Russo Japanese War.

THE LAST ACT

Ironically, the last role Cixi would play was one that she very much did not expect: that of a begrudging reformer. Once back in the palace, Cixi implemented sweeping political reforms. High officials were dispatched to Japan and Europe to gather facts and draw up plans for sweeping administrative reforms in law, education, government structure, and social policy, many of which were modeled on the reforms of the Meiji Restoration. The abolition of the almost millennium old examination system in 1905 was only the most visible of these sweeping reforms.

It was during this time that some of China's first universities and industries began to take off. During this time, some of China's first railroad construction began in earnest. Ironically, Cixi sponsored the implementation of the New Policies, a reform program more radical than the one proposed by the reformers she had beheaded in 1898.

She also embarked on an intense personalized diplomatic campaign toward the westerners in which she had many photographs of her taken to be distributed, as both a stately sovereign, a charming matron who posed in operatic poses, and at times, a Buddhist deity. In combination, these images did their job to humanized her somewhat in the western world's eyes.

However, these measures would come too late to take much effect for her dynasty as well as China as a whole. Cixi died in 1908, only a day after she appointed the whole of the Chinese state in the hands of the 3 year old boy Emperor Puyi, also a day after her imprisoned nephew, the house-arrested Guangxu Emperor mysteriously died. The dynasty would die soon after her, for the power was already completely in the hands of the powerful men in the realm, all they had to do was to pursue their own selfish dreams in their respective domains.

VANITÉ, VANITÉ

Even before her death, Cixi had megalomaniacal dreams of cementing her posthumous status compared to her predecessors. Though she had only been a concubine and was supposed to be interred alongside her husband the Xianfeng Emperor. Cixi was dissatisfied with such a fate and took tens of million taels of silver out of the imperial treasury for the building of a massive mausoleum specifically dedicated to her. The size and scope was much larger that that of her husbands and many previous emperors. But even that was not enough to please her, in 1895, only one year after China's humiliating defeat at the hands of the Japanese in the First Sino- Japanese War, and contemporaneous to when she spent critical amount of the treasury's money on the construction of her pleasure gardens in the new Summer Palace. Cixi, unsatisfied with her already mammoth tomb, ordered its complete destruction and reconstruction in 1895- this time, to be outfitted with great temples, gold-leafed halls, gates and gardens.

For her funeral Cixi ordered one of the most expensive ceremonies. Equivalents of billions of dollars of treasury were emptied for a massive painted funeral barge which was as large as apartment blocks, decorated with effigies and painted temples to be ceremonials set ablaze for her soul. Such was what the nation spent on one who had risen as a concubine, and whose long reign was dreadfully unaware of China's vulnerabilities. Her death was the first of many awkward footings that China woke to find itself in at the beginning of the 20th century. A century of suffering would follow.

The funerary barge, which was 72 metres long and seven metres wide, was made of high-quality wood and covered in expensive silk fabric. The boat was also filled with numerous paper effigies of towers, chambers, pavilions, and dozens of life-size servants dressed in clothes. It was set on fire near the East gate of the Forbidden City, in a ceremony that was believed to grant Cixi a better afterlife. As for her remains, Cixi was buried with with jewellery and other luxury items worth about 1.2 million taels of silver, the equivalent of billions of dollars from the treasury.

THE CURTAINS CLOSES

Ultimately Cixi presided over the terminal stages of the empire while it was diluted from within and carved up from the outside. It is little surprising that only 3 years after Cixi died in 1908 the Qing was completely overthrown by Republican rebels.

To Cixi's credit, she was right in her suspicions, when the Republicans finally toppled the dynasty in 1912, many rebels came from the more "westernized" industrialists from southern China. And one of the key rebels: Sun Yat sen, who would become the president of the new Republic of China was heavily supported his wife's family, themselves being rich Chinese Methodist bankers in Hawaii.

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