Biography chinese empress

Empress of the Qing Dynasty (1835–1908)

"Cixi" redirects here. For the city, see Cixi, Zhejiang.

Empress Dowager Cixi (Mandarin pronunciation:[tsʰɹ̩̌.ɕì]; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908) was a Manchu noblewoman of the Yehe Nara clan who effectively but periodically controlled the Chinese government in the late Qing dynasty as empress dowager and regent for almost 50 years, from 1861 until her death in 1908. Selected as a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor in her adolescence, she gave birth to a son, Zaichun, in 1856. After the Xianfeng Emperor's death in 1861, his five-year-old son became the Tongzhi Emperor, and Cixi assumed the role of co-empress dowager alongside Xianfeng's widow, Empress Dowager Ci'an. Cixi ousted a group of regents appointed by the late emperor and assumed the regency along with Ci'an. Cixi then consolidated control over the dynasty when she installed her nephew as the Guangxu Emperor at the death of the Tongzhi Emperor in 1875. Ci'an continued as co-regent until her death in 1881.

Cixi supervised the Tongzhi Restoration, a series of moderate reforms that helped the regime survive until 1911. Although Cixi refused to adopt Western models of government, she supported technological and military reforms and the Self-Strengthening Movement. She supported the principles of the Hundred Days' Reforms of 1898, but feared that sudden implementation, without bureaucratic support, would be disruptive and permit the Japanese and other foreign powers would take advantage of China. She placed the Guangxu Emperor under virtual house arrest for supporting radical reformers, publicly executing the main reformers. After the Boxer Rebellion led to invasion by Allied armies, Cixi initially backed the Boxer groups and declared war on the invaders. The ensuing defeat was a stunning humiliation, ending with the occupation of Beijing and the Qing regime on the brink of collapse. When Cixi returned from Xi'an, she backtra

Born, raised, and educated in Lincoln, Nebraska USA Laurel A. Rockefeller’s passion for animals comes through in everything she writes. First self-published in 2012 as social science fiction author (the Peers of Beinan series), Laurel has expanded her work into the animal care/guide, history, historical fiction, and biography genres.

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Empress of China from 690 to 705

For other uses, see Wu Zetian (disambiguation).

"Empress Wu" redirects here. For other uses, see Empress Wu (disambiguation).

"Chao Wu" redirects here. For the Maryland politician, see Chao Wu (politician).

Wu Zetian (624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was Empress of China from 660 to 705, ruling first through others and later in her own right. She ruled as empress consort through her husband Emperor Gaozong and later as empress dowager through her sons Emperors Zhongzong and Ruizong, from 660 to 690. She subsequently founded and ruled as Empress Regnant of the Wu Zhou dynasty of China from 16 October 690 to 21 February 705. She was the only female sovereign in the history of China widely regarded as legitimate. Under her 45-year reign, China grew larger, becoming one of the great powers of the world, its culture and economy were revitalized, and corruption in the court was reduced. She was eventually removed from power during a coup and died a few months later.

In early life, Wu was the concubine of Emperor Taizong. After his death, she married his ninth son and

Her name was Wu Zetian, and for half a century she ruled China, in one form or another, ruthlessly removing any rivals to secure her authority and efficiently seeing to governance, the economy and the expansion of the empire. But she also became one of the most demonised and maligned people in China’s history.

Why? Wu was all-powerful, and power was something women should have in seventh-century China, according to a male-dominated society. Her life is mired in controversy, as sources from the time and years afterwards tarred her with the brush of a brutal and despotic ruler. Much of the real Wu remains hidden beneath layers of bias. What is known for certain, though, is that she is the only woman to have ever ruled China in her own right.

Born in AD 624 – to a father who was a timber merchant and a mother in the Yang family – Wu was not raised to be near power. Though lesser nobility, her family was relatively wealthy and the young daughter was afforded an excellent education. This served her immeasurably when summoned to join the royal court at 14 years old, to be an imperial concubine of Emperor Taizong.

She remained a lesser wife until Taizong’s death in AD 649. The new emperor, Gaozong, had by all accounts slept with Wu while his father was still alive, and while custom dictated that childless wives of a deceased emperor should live out their lives in a religious institution, Wu’s banishment did no last long. Gaozong had been so enchanted with her that he soon recalled Wu to court.

Wu’s brutal rise to power

This is when Wu started what would be a monumental rise to power. She rose through the ranks of Gaozong’s concubines with her eyes firmly on the prize of reaching the top. She had already given the emperor a child, proving – by the standards of the day – that she was more suited to the task of being empress than Gaozong’s wife. But Empress Wang, along with another of Gaozong’s favoured women, needed to be removed if Wu was to take what she saw as h