On my decision to re-evaluate Cixi:

Empress Dowager Cixi has been a topic of fascination to me for years, ever since I first learned of her existence when I took AP World History in 11^th grade. Nineteenth century China (and consequently, Cixi) was a topic I’d always wanted to know more about, but never got around to researching because I had an even bigger obsession with the 19^th and 20^th century Middle East. But, two things have brought China and Cixi back to the front burner: this blog, and my job.

            This blog – in case you didn’t guess – is an excuse/motivator for me to research topics I’m interested in, so, Cixi was bound to come up. As for my job: my rudimentary knowledge of China was enough to get me decently through teaching World and U.S. history, but I started teaching an East Asian history elective this year, sending me on a surprise journey through the history of a region for which my knowledge is – shall we say – fuzzy.

            In the process of conducting this research, I have come upon and started reading Jung Chang’s biography of Cixi: Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China. Chang’s central argument is that Cixi needs to be re-evaluated, and as such, her representation of Cixi (based on Chinese primary sources) is painting a much fuller picture than what I previously understood. Since I have not yet finished reading the book, I am postponing my complete post about Cixi until I have time to finish reading and sorting out my thoughts.

            I was never planning to do super intense research for any of my posts, but rather rehashing my old research, or recycling new research that I was already going to do to prepare to teach, with maybe some extra forays onto the internet or short excerpts of books. I am, after all, very busy writing a book and teaching full time.

            But, Cixi deserves special treatment. She is undeniably influential and important to modern Chinese history, and yet, she is so often overlooked or misrepresented. It is understandable that a world history textbook would only spare a few lines for Cixi – most world leaders get similar treatment – but even in more regionally specific texts, she is glossed over. Charles Holcombe’s A History of East Asia scarcely mentions her. John Keay (who started this whole thing by introducing me to Lakshmi Bai) gives Cixi a little more space in his history of China, but gets some of the simple facts about her wrong.

For example, he writes that Cixi was the Xianfeng Emperor’s mother, when in fact she was his concubine and the mother of his son and successor the Tongzhi Emperor. Keay then gives Prince Gong, the Xianfeng Emperor’s half-brother, and one of Cixi’s allies, all the credit for anything good that happened during her rule. Just in case his family tree isn’t tangled enough, Keay also claims that Gong was Cixi’s nephew. It is of course possible that Gong could have been Cixi’s nephew (even if the Xianfeng Emperor was her son) but I have never seen any other historian claim this relationship between them, which makes me suspect that Keay is confusing Prince Gong for the Guangxu Emperor who was Cixi’s nephew.

Keay’s depiction of Cixi as “dread and devious” (as compared to a “dumpy and reassuring” Queen Victoria) is not an uncommon one. She is the quintessential “dragon lady,” the perfect villain for the collapse of the Qing Empire, much as Marie Antoinette was for Bourbon France. In most (but certainly not all) cases, when a person is depicted as an incontrovertible villain, or an incorruptible hero, the uncomfortable truth is probably more complicated.

I cannot promise that I won’t make mistakes or accidentally misrepresent someone – even the pros with armies of grad students do it. But, I can promise a more careful consideration and reevaluation of Empress Dowager Cixi – once I’ve had the time to do more research.

Next week: the last queen of Hawaii – and maybe some of her badass, lady predecessors.