Using Chinese sources, totally untapped by western books, this reappraises one of the great monstresses of modern history. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Financial Timesįilled with new revelations, it's a gripping and surprising story of an extraordinary woman in power. Empress Dowager, by returning to female experience in the style of Wild Swans yet focusing, like Mao, on a controversial ruler, should appeal to fans of both. Bel Mooney, Daily MailĬhang has a proven Midas touch.

In this vivid biography, as colourful and intricate as the embroidery on a Chinese robe, uses new evidence and meticulous research to cast a spotlight on the amazing woman she regards as the mother of modern China…This is a rich, dramatic story of rebellions, battles, plotting, rivalry, foreign invasion, punishment and forbidden love. She has a wonderful eye for the telling detail and excels at unravelling palace intrigues and corridor politics.

Chang’s book relies heavily on the vast holdings in the imperial archives in Beijing. If there is one woman who mattered in the history of modern China, it is the empress dowager Cixi… conventional image is queried in this detailed and beautifully narrated biography, which at long last restores the empress dowager to her rightful place. Her story is both important and evocative. Josh Neicho, Independent on SundayĪ truly authoritative account of Cixi’s rule. George Walden, Evening StandardĪn absorbing read. Jung Chang tells a story and what a colourful tale it is…This is history at its most readable. **Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Biography Prize** Read more

Packed with drama, fast-paced and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a woman: as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population, and as a unique stateswoman. Jung Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot and also takes the reader into the depths of her splendid Summer Palace and the harem of Beijing’s Forbidden City, where she lived surrounded by eunuchs – with one of whom she fell in love, with tragic consequences. Under her, the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state and it was she who abolished gruesome punishments like ‘death by a thousand cuts’ and put an end to foot-binding. In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Empress Dowager Cixi – the most important woman in Chinese history – brought a medieval empire into the modern age. From the bestselling author of Wild Swans and Mao: The Unknown Story, the extraordinary story of the woman who single-handedly dragged China into the modern ageĭiscover the extraordinary story of the woman who brought China into the modern age, from the bestselling author of Wild Swans

Empress dowager cixi by jung chang