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Created page with "*''Born: 1835'' *''Died: 1908'' *''Chinese'': 慈禧太后 ''(Cíxī Tàihòu)'' Empress Dowager Cixi was a concubine to the Xianfeng Emperor, mother to the [[Ton..."
*''Born: [[1835]]''
*''Died: [[1908]]''
*''Chinese'': 慈禧太后 ''(Cíxī Tàihòu)''
Empress Dowager Cixi was a concubine to the [[Xianfeng Emperor]], mother to the [[Tongzhi Emperor]], and aunt of the [[Guangxu Emperor]], in the late [[Qing dynasty]]. She acted as regent from [[1861]] to [[1908]], playing an extremely prominent and influential role in the politics of the time, including in guiding the Qing Empire's response to Western encroachment and resisting wide-ranging reforms which according to her critics might have provided the Qing a stronger ability to compete in the modern world and may have even allowed the regime to avoid inviting the sort of [[Xinhai Revolution|revolution]] which ultimately brought down the Qing in [[1911]]. Though her admirers often describe Cixi as a highly competent leader and a reformer, her critics often paint her as a scheming and extravagant "crone"<ref>Gallery labels, British Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/33763469268/sizes/h/]</ref> who was too conservative in her reforms.
In contrast to Cixi's positions, the Guangxu Emperor sought to enact a number of wide-ranging reforms which might have Westernized and strengthened the Qing military, and otherwise prepared the Qing Empire for a stronger response to the Western world, and to a rising Japan. Following the Qing defeat in the [[1894]]-[[1895]] [[Sino-Japanese War]], in [[1898]], Cixi had the emperor confined in seclusion, and many reformists executed (while others, such as [[Kang Youwei]], escaped into self-exile).
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==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Women]]
[[Category:Meiji Period]]
[[Category:Royalty]]
*''Died: [[1908]]''
*''Chinese'': 慈禧太后 ''(Cíxī Tàihòu)''
Empress Dowager Cixi was a concubine to the [[Xianfeng Emperor]], mother to the [[Tongzhi Emperor]], and aunt of the [[Guangxu Emperor]], in the late [[Qing dynasty]]. She acted as regent from [[1861]] to [[1908]], playing an extremely prominent and influential role in the politics of the time, including in guiding the Qing Empire's response to Western encroachment and resisting wide-ranging reforms which according to her critics might have provided the Qing a stronger ability to compete in the modern world and may have even allowed the regime to avoid inviting the sort of [[Xinhai Revolution|revolution]] which ultimately brought down the Qing in [[1911]]. Though her admirers often describe Cixi as a highly competent leader and a reformer, her critics often paint her as a scheming and extravagant "crone"<ref>Gallery labels, British Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/33763469268/sizes/h/]</ref> who was too conservative in her reforms.
In contrast to Cixi's positions, the Guangxu Emperor sought to enact a number of wide-ranging reforms which might have Westernized and strengthened the Qing military, and otherwise prepared the Qing Empire for a stronger response to the Western world, and to a rising Japan. Following the Qing defeat in the [[1894]]-[[1895]] [[Sino-Japanese War]], in [[1898]], Cixi had the emperor confined in seclusion, and many reformists executed (while others, such as [[Kang Youwei]], escaped into self-exile).
{{stub}}
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Women]]
[[Category:Meiji Period]]
[[Category:Royalty]]