China Under the Empress Dowager

by Backhouse Bland, Derek Sandhaus (Foreword by)

Overview

One of the most popular and controversial Chinese history books ever written, China under the Empress Dowager is also one of the best. Authors Bland and Backhouse take you inside the Forbidden City during the reign of Empress Dowager Cixi (1861-1908), a world of power-thirsty eunuchs, concubines and Mandarins, intrigue, bitter antagonism and ruthless reprisals. The book was unique for its time in its use of sometime controversial Chinese source materials. As entertaining as it is enlightening, the book that presaged the fall of the Qing dynasty is as readable today as it ever was.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789881866745
Publisher:	Earnshaw Books Ltd
Publication date:	04/14/2022
Pages:	552
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

J. O. P. Bland served as China correspondent for the London Times from 1897 until he left China in 1910. Edmund Backhouse was a linguist, a scholar, and a translator, who worked for the British Foreign Service and the London Times. Derek Sandhaus is the chief editor of Earnshaw Books and the author of Tales of Old Hong Kong and Tales of Old Peking.

Table of Contents

I The Parentage and Youth of Yehonala 1

II The Flight to Jehol 14

III The Tsai Yüan Conspiracy 32

IV The First Regency 53

V Tseng Kuo-Fan and the Taiping Rebellion (1864) 66

VI Tzû Hsi and the Eunuchs 83

VII A Question of Etiquette 112

VIII Majority and Death of the Emperor T'ung-Chih 119

IX The Protest and Suicide of Wu K'o-Tu 134

X Tzû Hsi Becomes Sole Regent 150

XI Tzû Hsi "En Retraite" 164

XII The Reform Movement of 1898 181

XIII The Hundred Days of Reform 193

XIV The Coup D'état of 1898 203

XV Tzû Hsi Resumes the Regency (1898) 214

XVI The Genesis of the Boxer Movement 248

XVII The Diary of His Excellency Ching Shan 253

XVIII In Memory of Two Brave Men 310

XIX Sidelights on Tzû Hsi's Statecraft 331

XX The Flight From Pekin and the Court in Exile 344

XXI How The Boxer Leaders Died 367

XXII The Old Buddha Penitent 378

XXIII The Return of the Court to Peking 391

XXVI The Majesty's New Policy 420

XXV The Valedictory Memorial of Jung Lu 438

XXVI Her Majesty's Last Days 445

XXVII Tzû Hsi's Death and Burial 468

XVIII Conclusion 481

Appendix 505

Editorial Reviews

A document more illuminating than perhaps any that has come out of China.”  —London Times

“Probably no such collection of Chinese documents has ever before been given to the world, or one that better reflects the realities of Chinese official life.”  —Sidney G. P. Coryn, New York Times

From the Publisher