Even the rare victory is no more than a holding action. Once the rape of China begins, she is powerless to stop it. As the representative of the last Dynasty, she tries to find her way while the China she has known is assaulted by wave after wave of western imperialist pirates under the guise of missionaries, traders, and ambassadors. Her fight against white imperialism is hopeless. She is forced to preside over the destruction of Chinese culture. His early death leaves her regent to her son.
Intelligent, highly (self) educated Tzu Hsi makes herself essential to her debauched, physically weakened, opium-addicted husband.
Still in love with her childhood sweetheart, a single night of love produces a son, the next emperor. First chosen as one of many concubines to the young emperor – no more than a child himself – she manipulates herself into position as his favorite, cultivates his favor until he depends on her completely. The empire collapsed only three years after her death, in 1911. Her death heralded the end of the old China. This is the story of Tzu Hsi, a woman who rose from obscurity to rule first as regent to her son, the boy emperor, then ultimately as the last Empress of China from 1861 to 1908. The Last Empress and the Destruction of China
0 kommentar(er)
