Empress Dowager Cixi ( Nanjing Imperial Examination Museum of China )

            Empress Dowager Cixi1 (Chinese: 慈禧太后; pinyin: Cíxǐ Tàihòu; Manchu: Tsysi taiheo; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu Yehenara clan, was a Chinese empress dowager and regent who effectively controlled the Chinese government in the late Qing dynasty for 47 years from 1861 until her death in 1908.

Selected as an imperial concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor in her adolescence, she gave birth to a son, Zaichun, in 1856. After the Xianfeng Emperor's death in 1861, the young boy became the Tongzhi Emperor, and she became the Empress Dowager. Cixi ousted a group of regents appointed by the late emperor and assumed regency, which she shared with Empress Dowager Ci'an. Cixi then consolidated control over the dynasty when she installed her nephew as the Guangxu Emperor at the death of the Tongzhi Emperor in 1875, contrary to the traditional rules of succession of the Qing dynasty that had ruled China since 1644. Although she refused to adopt Western models of government, she supported technological and military reforms and the Self-Strengthening Movement. Although she agreed with the principles of the Hundred Days' Reforms of 1898, Cixi rejected their sudden implementation, without bureaucratic support, as detrimental to dynastic power. She placed the Guangxu Emperor, who had tried to assassinate her, under virtual house arrest for supporting radical reformers. She may have feared that any perceived weakness in the Imperial Court would have been pounced upon by the Japanese. After the Boxer Uprising led to the invasion of Allied armies, Cixi initially supported the Boxer groups for supporting the dynasty and attacking the foreigners. The ensuing Allied defeat of the Chinese forces was a stunning humiliation. When Cixi returned to Beijing from Xi'an, where she had taken the emperor, she became friendly to foreigners in the capital and began to implement fiscal and institutional reforms that began to turn China into a constitutional monarchy. The death of both Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908 left the court in the hands of Manchu conservatives, a child on the throne, and a restless, rebellious public.

Historians both in China and abroad have long portrayed her as a despot responsible for the fall of the Qing dynasty. Others have suggested that her opponents among the reformers and revolutionaries succeeded in blaming her for problems beyond her control. Furthermore, they claim that she intervened decisively to prevent political disorder, was no more ruthless than other rulers of her time, and that she was an effective reformer in the last years of her life, even if she was reluctant to take on this role.

Taken in: 中國 / 江苏省 / 南京 (show map)

Taken on: June 22, 2017

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Camera: Nikon D7200, f/5.0, 1/50 sec, 62mm (=93mm), ISO 1600 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D7200
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.02 sec (1/50)
Focal Length:	62mm (35mm equivalent: 93mm)
ISO:	1600
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Not Defined
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	High gain up
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.1.00
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