Empress Dowager Cixi Adopts Her Nephew To Stay in Power
Channel: The Chinese Revolution
Date: 2024-02-15

This is the second part of the discussion with Lauren Schill about the Empress Dowager Cixi.  We discuss the Empress Dowager Ci'an, as well as Cixi's son Emperor Tongzhi, his marriage, nighttime escapades, death from smallpox and Cixi's adoption of her nephew the Emperor Guangxu and relegation of Prince Chun. 

Cixi deals with the Russians in Xinjiang, the French in Vietnam and the Japanese over Korea. The Dowager Empress builds up the Chinese navy, only to have it cut back by her successors, including by Grand Tutor Weng and Earl Li Hongzhang. 

She is brought out of retirement again during the Sino-Japanese war and Emperor Guangxu signs a devastating peace treaty for China which begins a western scramble for further concessions.  This is a Cixi and Guangxu episode as well as a Cixi Empress Dowager war episode.  Are you interested in Cixi Dowager Empress and the Cixi legacy?

This is the Countess Dowager Cixi.

This is episode 21 of the Chinese Revolution series.  In the next episodes, we will get into the 100 Days of Reform and the Cixi legacy.

My main literary for this episode source was: Chang, Jung. (2013). Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China. Random House Canada 

All sources can be found here: https://chineserevolution.substack.com/p/literary-sources