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Imperial Woman
Pearl S. Buck.Imperial Woman. New York: John Day, [1956]. Eighth Impression. Signed by Buck on the half-title. Octavo. 376 pages.
The story of Tzu Hsi is the story of the last Empress in China. In the novel Nobel Prize winner Pearl S. Buck recreates the life of one of the most intriguing rulers during a time of intense turbulence.
Tzu Hsi was born into one of the lowly ranks of the Imperial dynasty. According to custom, she moved to the Forbidden City at the age of seventeen to become one of hundreds of concubines. But her singular beauty and powers of manipulation quickly moved her into the position of Second Consort.
Tzu Hsi was feared and hated by many in the court, but adored by the people. The Empress's rise to power (even during her husband's life) parallels the story of China's transition from the ancient to the modern way.
Pearl S. Buck's knowledge of and fascination with the Empress's life are contagious. She reveals the essence of this self-involved and infamous last Empress, at the same time she takes the reader through China's struggle for freedom and democracy.
376 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1956
About the author
Pearl S. Buck
798 books3,124 followersPearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for The Good Earth, the best-selling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China" and for her "masterpieces", two memoir-biographies of her missionary parents.
Buck was born in West Virginia, but in October 1892, her parents took their 4-month-old baby to China. As the daughter of missionaries and later as a missionary herself, Buck spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, with her parents, and in Nanjing, with her first husband. She and her parents spent their summers in a villa in Kuling, Mount Lu, Jiujiang, and it was during this annual pilgrimage that the young girl decided to become a writer. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, then returned to China. From 1914 to 1932, after marrying John Lossing Buck she served as a Presbyterian missionary, but she came to doubt the need for foreign missions. Her views became controversial during the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy, leading to her resignation. After returning to the United States in 1935, she married the publisher Richard J. Walsh and continued writing prolifically. She became an activist and prominent advocate of the rights of women and racial equality, and wrote widely on Chinese and Asian cultures, becoming particularly well known for her efforts on behalf of Asian and mixed-race adoption.
Buck was born in West Virginia, but in October 1892, her parents took their 4-month-old baby to China. As the daughter of missionaries and later as a missionary herself, Buck spent most of her life before 1934 in Zhenjiang, with her parents, and in Nanjing, with her first husband. She and her parents spent their summers in a villa in Kuling, Mount Lu, Jiujiang, and it was during this annual pilgrimage that the young girl decided to become a writer. She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, then returned to China. From 1914 to 1932, after marrying John Lossing Buck she served as a Presbyterian missionary, but she came to doubt the need for foreign missions. Her views became controversial during the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy, leading to her resignation. After returning to the United States in 1935, she married the publisher Richard J. Walsh and continued writing prolifically. She became an activist and prominent advocate of the rights of women and racial equality, and wrote widely on Chinese and Asian cultures, becoming particularly well known for her efforts on behalf of Asian and mixed-race adoption.
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December 17, 2015
Before I attempt to say anything about this novel, I simply wish to note that I do not in any way award these five stars out of some misguided sentiment that this book accurately portrays China and all its entailing history as its own cultural members would. The most concrete experience I have with the country is having been taught the Chinese phrases for 'left turn', 'right turn', and 'straight ahead' during a road trip many years ago, and I assure you, neither my intercultural credibility nor my accent has improved since then. What I do award these five stars for is the wonderful piece of work that Buck created, a fictional recounting of the life of the last Empress of China.
It wasn't too long ago that I read Memoirs of Hadrian, another novel concerned with the fictional portrayal of a historical personage who ruled for much of their life over a vast and complex culture. Both that novel and this required my reader self to step back a moment from their usual outpost of critiquing from the realms of factual accuracy and moral codes, and instead plunge headfirst into the lives of these individuals, both of whom entire empires held in reverence. Within this respective novel, the girl Orchid, the imperial concubine Yehonala, the Empress Mother Tzu Hsi, and the venerable Old Buddha play out their shared life within the bodily confines of a single woman. A woman who grew from one of millions to be one of the chosen hundreds to finally the one venerated above all others, who stayed that way through thriving peace and cultural upheaval until the end of her days. A woman who never needed full approval from neither her kinsman nor the reader, but simply a willingness to follow her. And follow her I did.
The ease with which I immersed myself in this fictionalized biography of a foreign land is a credit to Buck and her lovingly thorough storytelling. For the difficulty with historical fiction, a difficulty that only increases when the fiction chooses to follow a single personage of notable fame, is the ever present competition between the enraptured gaze of the reader and the desire to fact check. What worsens the latter distraction even more so is when the cultural setting is completely foreign and, as noted previously, tempts the reader to view the book penned by an outsider as a true glimpse of the inside. And with the feeling of reading truth, comes the ease of subsequent judgment and all too frequent condemnation.
Thus, I could have tired of Buck's page after page of detailing the life of this young Manchu girl who grew to become the Empress of China, the traditional values, the cultural artifacts, the countless court proceedings that meandered as slowly as was needed to recount the days with full insight into the visual splendor and historical significance. I could have become frustrated with the Empress herself, achieving such power and all the self righteous confidence that often accompanies it, adhering to standards of living that seem so strange in comparison to my own. I could have turned the final page with a feeling that my time would have been better spent with an accredited biography, or even a book written by an actual denizen of that far off mainland.
But I didn't. I watched this Empress grow from the impetuous courage of youth to the venerable wisdom of old age, and I rooted her on in every page. I delighted in the beauty of both the aesthetic and the erudite contained within the walls of the Forbidden City, as well as the sheer wealth of this culture that despite my long familiarity with I in truth know so little about. I watched as the future took its horrific toll on the heartfelt desire to maintain the value of the past, and mourned the tragedy of one world power colliding with another in an overwhelming miasma of violent misunderstanding. From this fictional seat in the so called East, I watched as the West and its drastically different histories flung itself upon these shores so foreign to its inherent sociocultural natures. From the mind of an Empress, I understood the disparity between the power a ruler has, and what is truly required of them in order to successfully rule.
In short, while the setting was foreign and the facts perhaps not in full adherence, the story was a human one, something I can recognize in any form. I felt for this Empress and the country she cherished in her own brilliant and steadfast ways, and perhaps even learned a few things about an ancient world that exists alongside my own to this day. And when it comes to the realm of historical fiction, that's all that I ask for.
It wasn't too long ago that I read Memoirs of Hadrian, another novel concerned with the fictional portrayal of a historical personage who ruled for much of their life over a vast and complex culture. Both that novel and this required my reader self to step back a moment from their usual outpost of critiquing from the realms of factual accuracy and moral codes, and instead plunge headfirst into the lives of these individuals, both of whom entire empires held in reverence. Within this respective novel, the girl Orchid, the imperial concubine Yehonala, the Empress Mother Tzu Hsi, and the venerable Old Buddha play out their shared life within the bodily confines of a single woman. A woman who grew from one of millions to be one of the chosen hundreds to finally the one venerated above all others, who stayed that way through thriving peace and cultural upheaval until the end of her days. A woman who never needed full approval from neither her kinsman nor the reader, but simply a willingness to follow her. And follow her I did.
The ease with which I immersed myself in this fictionalized biography of a foreign land is a credit to Buck and her lovingly thorough storytelling. For the difficulty with historical fiction, a difficulty that only increases when the fiction chooses to follow a single personage of notable fame, is the ever present competition between the enraptured gaze of the reader and the desire to fact check. What worsens the latter distraction even more so is when the cultural setting is completely foreign and, as noted previously, tempts the reader to view the book penned by an outsider as a true glimpse of the inside. And with the feeling of reading truth, comes the ease of subsequent judgment and all too frequent condemnation.
Thus, I could have tired of Buck's page after page of detailing the life of this young Manchu girl who grew to become the Empress of China, the traditional values, the cultural artifacts, the countless court proceedings that meandered as slowly as was needed to recount the days with full insight into the visual splendor and historical significance. I could have become frustrated with the Empress herself, achieving such power and all the self righteous confidence that often accompanies it, adhering to standards of living that seem so strange in comparison to my own. I could have turned the final page with a feeling that my time would have been better spent with an accredited biography, or even a book written by an actual denizen of that far off mainland.
But I didn't. I watched this Empress grow from the impetuous courage of youth to the venerable wisdom of old age, and I rooted her on in every page. I delighted in the beauty of both the aesthetic and the erudite contained within the walls of the Forbidden City, as well as the sheer wealth of this culture that despite my long familiarity with I in truth know so little about. I watched as the future took its horrific toll on the heartfelt desire to maintain the value of the past, and mourned the tragedy of one world power colliding with another in an overwhelming miasma of violent misunderstanding. From this fictional seat in the so called East, I watched as the West and its drastically different histories flung itself upon these shores so foreign to its inherent sociocultural natures. From the mind of an Empress, I understood the disparity between the power a ruler has, and what is truly required of them in order to successfully rule.
In short, while the setting was foreign and the facts perhaps not in full adherence, the story was a human one, something I can recognize in any form. I felt for this Empress and the country she cherished in her own brilliant and steadfast ways, and perhaps even learned a few things about an ancient world that exists alongside my own to this day. And when it comes to the realm of historical fiction, that's all that I ask for.
March 26, 2020
Rating: 3.5* of five (rounded up)
The Publisher Says: Imperial Woman is the fictionalized biography of the last Empress in China, Ci-xi, who began as a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor and on his death became the de facto head of the Qing Dynasty until her death in 1908. Buck recreates the life of one of the most intriguing rulers during a time of intense turbulence. Tzu Hsi was born into one of the lowly ranks of the Imperial dynasty. According to custom, she moved to the Forbidden City at the age of seventeen to become one of hundreds of concubines. But her singular beauty and powers of manipulation quickly moved her into the position of Second Consort. Tzu Hsi was feared and hated by many in the court, but adored by the people. The Empress's rise to power (even during her husband's life) parallels the story of China's transition from the ancient to the modern way.
My Review: Few women in China's very long history have been as well-documented as rulers as has Cixi. I suspect that Mrs. Buck, daughter of missionaries to China and a reluctant missionary herself, wrote of this larger-than-life figure because she felt great kinship with her. Cixi was an outsider in a closed world, the Imperial Court, but whose sterling native qualities gave her tremendous influence over that closed world. Buck was in much the same situation vis-a-vis the Chinese culture she was native to for the first forty years of her life. Her parents raised her to be bilingual in Chinese and English, gave her no model for a racist view of the Chinese, and allowed her to mingle with the children of their Chinese converts to Presbyterianism mostly without interference. This made her a fish out of water everywhere, but also gifted her with an amazing insight into the cross-cultural communication disasters that have plagued China's relations with the world forever.
Cixi was an intelligent young woman of relatively modest, though not humble, birth, gifted with great personal grace and beauty. Her enormous elevation to the relatively modest in Imperial Court terms position of Imperial Concubine afforded Cixi the opening to become a powerful woman; her excellent fortune in giving birth to the Emperor's only son allowed her to move well beyond the considerable but constrained power of a favored concubine/consort into a full governing partnership as a Regent for her son, with a council appointed by her late Imperial master.
Buck portrays Cixi as a schemer, but not a wastrel as she is often portrayed. Her intrigues had at their heart a sincere and abiding belief that dynastic continuity was the sole means by which the Chinese body politic could be served by their government as foils against the colonial depredations of the Western powers. All the pomp and the excess Cixi loved was put on for the demonstration of her dynasty's power and dominance. All the machinations she undertook were meant to keep her position—but so that she might continue to fight against China's diminution and beggarment.
Fundamentally, Cixi behaved no differently than the Communist Party has since Chairman Mao's death in 1976. She was a strong leader, and a flawed person; she was also too late to do much about the long, slow fall of her form of government. History's tides catch up with all governments eventually; the Party's current grandees know this, and are behaving in their stewardship of China as Cixi herself did 125 years ago.
As all Pearl S. Buck novels are, this gracefully told tale is a pleasure to read and a treasure house of outside/insider information and opinions now irreplaceable with the death of the author. It is an exciting story, a well-told tale, and a still-invaluable look into a difficult life lived in service to a misunderstood ideal. A must-read for all Sinophiles.
The Publisher Says: Imperial Woman is the fictionalized biography of the last Empress in China, Ci-xi, who began as a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor and on his death became the de facto head of the Qing Dynasty until her death in 1908. Buck recreates the life of one of the most intriguing rulers during a time of intense turbulence. Tzu Hsi was born into one of the lowly ranks of the Imperial dynasty. According to custom, she moved to the Forbidden City at the age of seventeen to become one of hundreds of concubines. But her singular beauty and powers of manipulation quickly moved her into the position of Second Consort. Tzu Hsi was feared and hated by many in the court, but adored by the people. The Empress's rise to power (even during her husband's life) parallels the story of China's transition from the ancient to the modern way.
My Review: Few women in China's very long history have been as well-documented as rulers as has Cixi. I suspect that Mrs. Buck, daughter of missionaries to China and a reluctant missionary herself, wrote of this larger-than-life figure because she felt great kinship with her. Cixi was an outsider in a closed world, the Imperial Court, but whose sterling native qualities gave her tremendous influence over that closed world. Buck was in much the same situation vis-a-vis the Chinese culture she was native to for the first forty years of her life. Her parents raised her to be bilingual in Chinese and English, gave her no model for a racist view of the Chinese, and allowed her to mingle with the children of their Chinese converts to Presbyterianism mostly without interference. This made her a fish out of water everywhere, but also gifted her with an amazing insight into the cross-cultural communication disasters that have plagued China's relations with the world forever.
Cixi was an intelligent young woman of relatively modest, though not humble, birth, gifted with great personal grace and beauty. Her enormous elevation to the relatively modest in Imperial Court terms position of Imperial Concubine afforded Cixi the opening to become a powerful woman; her excellent fortune in giving birth to the Emperor's only son allowed her to move well beyond the considerable but constrained power of a favored concubine/consort into a full governing partnership as a Regent for her son, with a council appointed by her late Imperial master.
Buck portrays Cixi as a schemer, but not a wastrel as she is often portrayed. Her intrigues had at their heart a sincere and abiding belief that dynastic continuity was the sole means by which the Chinese body politic could be served by their government as foils against the colonial depredations of the Western powers. All the pomp and the excess Cixi loved was put on for the demonstration of her dynasty's power and dominance. All the machinations she undertook were meant to keep her position—but so that she might continue to fight against China's diminution and beggarment.
Fundamentally, Cixi behaved no differently than the Communist Party has since Chairman Mao's death in 1976. She was a strong leader, and a flawed person; she was also too late to do much about the long, slow fall of her form of government. History's tides catch up with all governments eventually; the Party's current grandees know this, and are behaving in their stewardship of China as Cixi herself did 125 years ago.
As all Pearl S. Buck novels are, this gracefully told tale is a pleasure to read and a treasure house of outside/insider information and opinions now irreplaceable with the death of the author. It is an exciting story, a well-told tale, and a still-invaluable look into a difficult life lived in service to a misunderstood ideal. A must-read for all Sinophiles.
June 16, 2019
”Поради липсата на широко скроен ум и достатъчно познание бе изгубена една велика кауза.”
В името на славата една жена съзнателно пропуска целия си живот. В името на абсолютната власт тя с плам избира абсолютната самота и стъпква и буквално убива всяка искрица любов - към любим, син, приятели. Избира да наточи ума си като острие и да заплати с почти умъртвено сърце.
Пърл Бък рисува в личен план доста смекчен и очовечен портрет на Цъси в сравнение с реалната и политика, също добросъвестно описана в книгата: консерватизъм, арогантност и закостенялост, жертване на голяма част от националните и икономически интереси на империята за сметка на единовластие и несменяемост, с ръководен принцип - “Държавата, това съм аз”. Жената и императрицата, както са описани, за мен така и не се сляха в една личност, а личните симпатии на Бък, макар и балансирани донякъде с представяне на реалните действия на героинята и, стоят като пришити с бели конци към сюжета.
Нека видим поне императрицата. Цъси от романа счита себе си и се стреми да бъде силна и справедлива владетелка - по конфуцианските разбирания, тълкувани като стражи на статуквото. Тя е едва втората жена на престола на Поднебесната империя, като повече от хилядолетие дели нейния 19 век от този на предшественичката и У. Но - за съжаление - Цъси е по-скоро недалновиден и доста тесногръд деспот, който полага началото на края за империята, подценявайки, игнорирайки или отстъпвайки пред всяка ключова заплаха, която ще хвърли Китай в кървав хаос през следващото столетие. Колониалните хищници, японският империализъм, прогесът и ползите от индустриалната революция, смесването на търговия и култура и разширяването на света, са само част от факторите, които Цъси твърдо и последователно игнорира, и чиито предимства никога не използва. Понятието “реформа” изобщо не фигурира в политическия и инструментариум, тя докрай остава твърд защитник на миналото като утвърден модел за бъдещето. За капак, умишлено не оставя след себе си силен наследник, тъй като е изтребила, прогонила и задушила всякаква конкуренция, което предопределя до голяма степен сривовете от 20 век.
Трудно е за жена да управлява в мъжки свят. Но още по-жалко, ако е това е съчетано с пропусната мъдрост и нереализирани възможности. В този случай човек се чуди струвало ли си е всички тези жертви и цял пропуснат човешки живот, в който е можело да има поне щастие и любов. Докрай отговорът за мен си остана отрицателен. Пърл Бък се опитва с прекрасния си стил да придаде по-човечно излъчване на героинята си, но уви - на фона на реалните исторически действия, дори и писателската симпатия (или хайде, тази на Жун Лу) е безсилна. Такава императрица не може да бъде уважавана напълно, нито пък обрисуваната жена - обичана докрай.
***
Красиво издание на “Изток-Запад”.
П.С. Бих се радвала да прочета и други преведени книги на Бък, тя е писала доста, но малко са преведени на български.
В името на славата една жена съзнателно пропуска целия си живот. В името на абсолютната власт тя с плам избира абсолютната самота и стъпква и буквално убива всяка искрица любов - към любим, син, приятели. Избира да наточи ума си като острие и да заплати с почти умъртвено сърце.
Пърл Бък рисува в личен план доста смекчен и очовечен портрет на Цъси в сравнение с реалната и политика, също добросъвестно описана в книгата: консерватизъм, арогантност и закостенялост, жертване на голяма част от националните и икономически интереси на империята за сметка на единовластие и несменяемост, с ръководен принцип - “Държавата, това съм аз”. Жената и императрицата, както са описани, за мен така и не се сляха в една личност, а личните симпатии на Бък, макар и балансирани донякъде с представяне на реалните действия на героинята и, стоят като пришити с бели конци към сюжета.
Нека видим поне императрицата. Цъси от романа счита себе си и се стреми да бъде силна и справедлива владетелка - по конфуцианските разбирания, тълкувани като стражи на статуквото. Тя е едва втората жена на престола на Поднебесната империя, като повече от хилядолетие дели нейния 19 век от този на предшественичката и У. Но - за съжаление - Цъси е по-скоро недалновиден и доста тесногръд деспот, който полага началото на края за империята, подценявайки, игнорирайки или отстъпвайки пред всяка ключова заплаха, която ще хвърли Китай в кървав хаос през следващото столетие. Колониалните хищници, японският империализъм, прогесът и ползите от индустриалната революция, смесването на търговия и култура и разширяването на света, са само част от факторите, които Цъси твърдо и последователно игнорира, и чиито предимства никога не използва. Понятието “реформа” изобщо не фигурира в политическия и инструментариум, тя докрай остава твърд защитник на миналото като утвърден модел за бъдещето. За капак, умишлено не оставя след себе си силен наследник, тъй като е изтребила, прогонила и задушила всякаква конкуренция, което предопределя до голяма степен сривовете от 20 век.
Трудно е за жена да управлява в мъжки свят. Но още по-жалко, ако е това е съчетано с пропусната мъдрост и нереализирани възможности. В този случай човек се чуди струвало ли си е всички тези жертви и цял пропуснат човешки живот, в който е можело да има поне щастие и любов. Докрай отговорът за мен си остана отрицателен. Пърл Бък се опитва с прекрасния си стил да придаде по-човечно излъчване на героинята си, но уви - на фона на реалните исторически действия, дори и писателската симпатия (или хайде, тази на Жун Лу) е безсилна. Такава императрица не може да бъде уважавана напълно, нито пък обрисуваната жена - обичана докрай.
***
Красиво издание на “Изток-Запад”.
П.С. Бих се радвала да прочета и други преведени книги на Бък, тя е писала доста, но малко са преведени на български.
March 3, 2017
Portrait of Tzu-hsi by Hubert Vos, 1906
In the Foreword to this book, the author says the following:
TZU HSI, THE LAST ruling Empress of China, was a woman so diverse in her gifts, so contradictory in her behavior, so rich in the many aspects of her personality, that it is difficult to comprehend and convey her whole self. She lived in a crucial period of history, when China was struggling against encroachment while at the same time the need for modern reform was obvious. In this period Tzu Hsi was conservative and independent. She was ruthless when necessary. Those who opposed her feared and hated her and they were more articulate than those who loved her. Western writers, with few exceptions, describe her unfavorably and even vindictively...The empress passed away on November 15th, 1908.
...To them she was the imperial woman. Good and evil mingled in her, but always in heroic dimension. She resisted modern change as long as she could, for she believed that the old was better than the new. When she saw change was inevitable, she accepted it with grace but an unchanged heart...
...Her people loved her—not all her people, for the revolutionary, the impatient, hated her heartily and she hated them. But the peasants and the small-town people revered her. Decades after she was dead I came upon villages in the inlands of China where the people thought she still lived and were frightened when they heard she was dead. “Who will care for us now?” they cried. This, perhaps, is the final judgment of a ruler.
WHY I WANTED TO READ THIS BOOK
To get books from the TO READ-shelf to the READ-shelf, a few days of dedication must happen. One book at a time. I'm currently shifting books around on GR, from the one to the other shelf. A New Year's resolution. A frantic urge to get it done.
This is one such read. Pearl. S. Buck's trilogy made me want to read this book as well.
Trilogy:
(i) The Good Earth (1931) (House of Earth, #1) - a Pulitzer Prize and William Dean Howells Medal winner;
(ii) Sons (House of Earth, #2)
(iii) A House Divided (House of Earth, #3)
I read these three books long before joining GR, and they brought my first real glimpse of China's history and people. But they also saved me from myself in turbulent times of my own history in my own country. It opened up a new world to me, reading about China's history for the very first time. Since then it remained a passion.
Like Willa Cather, Pearl S. Buck fascinates me for unknown reasons. They just do. And I am this willing follower of both authors. Ms Buck was not as good a writer as Ms Cather, but she was one of the biggest humanitarians of the previous century and she used her income from her books to change the lives of millions of children. Her life story is worth reading too.
She spent half her life in China as the child of a missionary and brought back a wealth of stories to share. Pearl S Buck was a gentle soul. A curious mind. A great narrator. She was an original voice. She's worth reading.
August 22, 2018
My friend sent me this book without warning. She thought I might like it, and she was right.
Imperial Woman was a fascinating story of the Chinese Dowager Empress Cixi, or Tsu-Hsi as she's called in the book. Cixi joins the court of the Emperor as a concubine and manages to become the main influence over the Emperor, and eventually Empress - by means that are sometimes ruthless, sometimes kind, but always with the goal in sight of extrapolating herself from a position of servitude.
Buck's portrayal of Cixi was fascinating. It cannot have been easy to create even a fictional character in such a lifelike fashion when the characters life depended on her keeping her thoughts and feelings to herself, and whose legend is blurred by rumours and superstitions that were rife during her reign, and where a breach of confidentiality or a breach of loyalty may well have carried a death sentence.
I had some issues with the book after the first half, where the story dragged a little and where I got a bit lost in trying to figure out how and why Buck wanted to force a love story into a plot that was already filled with political intrigue, suspense, historical events, and fascinating tidbits about life at the Chinese court during the late Qing dynasty. It just didn't need a love story that may or may not be based on historical fact. To me this just distracted from Cixi's mission to restore China as a respected, economically autonomous country, free from the colonial grip of the 8 Nation Alliance.
This historical setting, the discussion of China's struggle against the powers that tried to claim China as their own, was what made the book stand out for me.
Buck challenged the notions of colonialism from an unusual perspective. She does not paint China, or the Chinese court in any case, through a romanticised view by any stretch - there were plenty of descriptions that made me wince - but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story from a point of view that does not presume the respectability and civility of the Western European governments as part of the story. The issues of colonialism were fascinating in this book. The only other aspect that eclipsed this for me was Buck's portrayal of a woman in a man's world, trying to save a bankrupt empire from disaster. Even though some of the historical events are given in general terms rather than details, this was an informative, entertaining, and though-provoking work of historical fiction.
Imperial Woman was a fascinating story of the Chinese Dowager Empress Cixi, or Tsu-Hsi as she's called in the book. Cixi joins the court of the Emperor as a concubine and manages to become the main influence over the Emperor, and eventually Empress - by means that are sometimes ruthless, sometimes kind, but always with the goal in sight of extrapolating herself from a position of servitude.
Buck's portrayal of Cixi was fascinating. It cannot have been easy to create even a fictional character in such a lifelike fashion when the characters life depended on her keeping her thoughts and feelings to herself, and whose legend is blurred by rumours and superstitions that were rife during her reign, and where a breach of confidentiality or a breach of loyalty may well have carried a death sentence.
I had some issues with the book after the first half, where the story dragged a little and where I got a bit lost in trying to figure out how and why Buck wanted to force a love story into a plot that was already filled with political intrigue, suspense, historical events, and fascinating tidbits about life at the Chinese court during the late Qing dynasty. It just didn't need a love story that may or may not be based on historical fact. To me this just distracted from Cixi's mission to restore China as a respected, economically autonomous country, free from the colonial grip of the 8 Nation Alliance.
This historical setting, the discussion of China's struggle against the powers that tried to claim China as their own, was what made the book stand out for me.
Buck challenged the notions of colonialism from an unusual perspective. She does not paint China, or the Chinese court in any case, through a romanticised view by any stretch - there were plenty of descriptions that made me wince - but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story from a point of view that does not presume the respectability and civility of the Western European governments as part of the story. The issues of colonialism were fascinating in this book. The only other aspect that eclipsed this for me was Buck's portrayal of a woman in a man's world, trying to save a bankrupt empire from disaster. Even though some of the historical events are given in general terms rather than details, this was an informative, entertaining, and though-provoking work of historical fiction.
May 23, 2016
This historical novel was first published in 1956, some forty eight years after the death of the last Qing Empress Cixi (named “Tzu Hsi” in the book). It tells her extraordinary life story from childhood to the time near her death.
The author skillfully weaved intricate historical accounts of Cixi’s 47-year reign (her reign was in most part unofficial) which was marked by her tyranny, paranoia and xenophobia, with enthralling fiction that paints a lively portrait of her person, complete with colorful characterization and romantic love.
After so many years, although there is general consensus that Cixi was a strong-willed and manipulative ruler, opinions are still divided as to whether she was shrewd and fair-minded in state affairs or whether she was obsessed with vainglory and self-interest. It would seem that Pearl Buck did succeed in presenting a somewhat balanced view, with sympathetic undertone.
There is no lack of evidence showing Cixi’s hard-heartedness and scheming nature in dealing with whoever she perceived to be her enemies, but then she was after all just a lonely, insecure and helpless woman locked within the unforgiving Forbidden City, trying first to preserve herself and later to shoulder an impossibly heavy state burden in times of great turmoil (with internal rebellions and foreign enemies at the gate). On the one hand, she could be extremely petty-minded, vengeful and ruthless when her feathers were ruffled, on the other she could also be gentle, considerate and gracious to those who loved her and were loyal to her. As sympathetic as Buck tried to be, she didn’t make any effort to gloss over the Empress’s lust for extravagance, pomp, jewelry and luxury as well as her reckless self-indulgence. However, in order to soften Cixi’s image, the author lent her power of imagination and created a life-long, handsome lover for the Empress, who is said to have fathered her only son – Emperor Tongzhi (named “Tung Chih” in the book). This creation not only served to bring out the woman side of the Empress, but also helped to spice up the entire novel a good deal.
I think it would be fair to say that Cixi was not any different from other tyrannical despots, past or present, east or west. When a nation leader has absolute power, unchecked in any way, he/she is bound to fall into the trap of megalomania and varying degrees of narcissism, to the detriment of all those under his/her rule.
The author skillfully weaved intricate historical accounts of Cixi’s 47-year reign (her reign was in most part unofficial) which was marked by her tyranny, paranoia and xenophobia, with enthralling fiction that paints a lively portrait of her person, complete with colorful characterization and romantic love.
After so many years, although there is general consensus that Cixi was a strong-willed and manipulative ruler, opinions are still divided as to whether she was shrewd and fair-minded in state affairs or whether she was obsessed with vainglory and self-interest. It would seem that Pearl Buck did succeed in presenting a somewhat balanced view, with sympathetic undertone.
There is no lack of evidence showing Cixi’s hard-heartedness and scheming nature in dealing with whoever she perceived to be her enemies, but then she was after all just a lonely, insecure and helpless woman locked within the unforgiving Forbidden City, trying first to preserve herself and later to shoulder an impossibly heavy state burden in times of great turmoil (with internal rebellions and foreign enemies at the gate). On the one hand, she could be extremely petty-minded, vengeful and ruthless when her feathers were ruffled, on the other she could also be gentle, considerate and gracious to those who loved her and were loyal to her. As sympathetic as Buck tried to be, she didn’t make any effort to gloss over the Empress’s lust for extravagance, pomp, jewelry and luxury as well as her reckless self-indulgence. However, in order to soften Cixi’s image, the author lent her power of imagination and created a life-long, handsome lover for the Empress, who is said to have fathered her only son – Emperor Tongzhi (named “Tung Chih” in the book). This creation not only served to bring out the woman side of the Empress, but also helped to spice up the entire novel a good deal.
I think it would be fair to say that Cixi was not any different from other tyrannical despots, past or present, east or west. When a nation leader has absolute power, unchecked in any way, he/she is bound to fall into the trap of megalomania and varying degrees of narcissism, to the detriment of all those under his/her rule.
May 12, 2019
В тази книга е описан живота на последната Императрица на Китай. Историята е предадена под формата на художествена литература, при все че в нея има исторически и биографични елементи. Образът на Цъси е доста противоречив. В хрониките тя фигурира като деспот, като владетел с твърда ръка, чиято единствена цел е да властва, поставяйки себе си над всичко и всички, на първо място, дори пред семейството. В " Императрицата" обаче тя е представена по много по- деликатен и умекотен начин. Изтъкнати са нейните положителни качества и силни страни.
Авторката Пърл Бък дълго време е живяла в Китай, попивала е тяхната култура и история и носи в себе си любов, премесена с частици носталгия.
Тя рисува образа на Цъси през нейния поглед, в който определено се открива слабостта ѝ към нея. На страниците на книгата срещаме една силна девойка, която попада в двореца като наложница и от тази позиция се издига до Императрица. Хареса ми тази Цъси, която надничаше от романът, с нейното хладнокръвие, бърз и ясен ум, непоколебимост, целеустременост и твърдост да опази традициите на своя народ; Императрицата, която оставя ясна следа в китайската история.
Романът е много красиво написан, което резонира на прекрасната корица и оформление. Винаги съм изпитвала жив интерес към китайската култура, а
" Императрицата" ме опияни с автентичната си атмосфера. Завладяваща история.
Авторката Пърл Бък дълго време е живяла в Китай, попивала е тяхната култура и история и носи в себе си любов, премесена с частици носталгия.
Тя рисува образа на Цъси през нейния поглед, в който определено се открива слабостта ѝ към нея. На страниците на книгата срещаме една силна девойка, която попада в двореца като наложница и от тази позиция се издига до Императрица. Хареса ми тази Цъси, която надничаше от романът, с нейното хладнокръвие, бърз и ясен ум, непоколебимост, целеустременост и твърдост да опази традициите на своя народ; Императрицата, която оставя ясна следа в китайската история.
Романът е много красиво написан, което резонира на прекрасната корица и оформление. Винаги съм изпитвала жив интерес към китайската култура, а
" Императрицата" ме опияни с автентичната си атмосфера. Завладяваща история.
February 18, 2021
This book has been on my bookshelves waiting to be read for decades (literally) and I am so glad that its turn finally arrived.
This is a fictional biography of Tzu Hsi, the last Empress in China. Although she was born (1835) into one of the lowly ranks of the Imperial dynasty, she managed to be chosen as one of the hundreds of concubines of Emperor Xianfeng when she was only 17. From here, she quickly rose to the position of Second Consort and gave birth to a son. After the Emperor's death, when she was only 26, the young boy became Emperor, but because he was still a child, Tzu Hsi assumed regency.
Tzu Hsi is not a consensual historical figure, the most common version being that she was a ruthless despot. However, some historians claim that the communist regime deliberately discredited her image to fit their political reforms. Whatever the truth is, Tzu Hsi was loved by her people. In the foreword to this edition, Pearl Buck says that decades after the Empress death, she came upon villages in the inlands of the country where the people thought she still lived and were frightened when they heard she was dead: “Who will care for us now?” they cried.
Fictional though it is, this book is clearly very well researched. The author managed to make a vivid and wonderfully well written portrait not just of her main character, but through her, of China as well, during a tumultuous historical period. It was a delightful read that had me searching the web for info about the history of China and left me curious to rummage my mother’s bookshelves, as I know she was a big fan of this author.
This is a fictional biography of Tzu Hsi, the last Empress in China. Although she was born (1835) into one of the lowly ranks of the Imperial dynasty, she managed to be chosen as one of the hundreds of concubines of Emperor Xianfeng when she was only 17. From here, she quickly rose to the position of Second Consort and gave birth to a son. After the Emperor's death, when she was only 26, the young boy became Emperor, but because he was still a child, Tzu Hsi assumed regency.
Tzu Hsi is not a consensual historical figure, the most common version being that she was a ruthless despot. However, some historians claim that the communist regime deliberately discredited her image to fit their political reforms. Whatever the truth is, Tzu Hsi was loved by her people. In the foreword to this edition, Pearl Buck says that decades after the Empress death, she came upon villages in the inlands of the country where the people thought she still lived and were frightened when they heard she was dead: “Who will care for us now?” they cried.
Fictional though it is, this book is clearly very well researched. The author managed to make a vivid and wonderfully well written portrait not just of her main character, but through her, of China as well, during a tumultuous historical period. It was a delightful read that had me searching the web for info about the history of China and left me curious to rummage my mother’s bookshelves, as I know she was a big fan of this author.
December 29, 2015
It isn't often I give up on a novel. Generally it's my policy to finish a book whether I'm enjoying the journey or not, because often I'm surprised in the last moments, finding the author has brought all the elements of the story together in a brilliant finish.
Such is not the case with Imperial Woman, by Pearl S. Buck.
Buck presents what should be a fascinating story about the last, and most famous, empress of China, Tzu Hsi. Instead Buck has taken the easy route and presented what is very nearly a Harlequin romance, instead of a tightly written novel rife with the subtleties and intrigues of the Imperial Court. There were moments I asked myself how many times we were going to be told about the beauty and grace of the Empress.
When Buck does present historical facts, it ends up being a dry, drawn-out narrative heavy on the expository and devoid of deep character point of view or input.
The result is a novel which feels interminable, plodding between longings of the heart and retention of power.
I am sure many readers would take issue with my assessment. That is the joy of debate and variety. But for me, this is a novel which falls into an epic fail category.
Such is not the case with Imperial Woman, by Pearl S. Buck.
Buck presents what should be a fascinating story about the last, and most famous, empress of China, Tzu Hsi. Instead Buck has taken the easy route and presented what is very nearly a Harlequin romance, instead of a tightly written novel rife with the subtleties and intrigues of the Imperial Court. There were moments I asked myself how many times we were going to be told about the beauty and grace of the Empress.
When Buck does present historical facts, it ends up being a dry, drawn-out narrative heavy on the expository and devoid of deep character point of view or input.
The result is a novel which feels interminable, plodding between longings of the heart and retention of power.
I am sure many readers would take issue with my assessment. That is the joy of debate and variety. But for me, this is a novel which falls into an epic fail category.
September 12, 2014
Good and evil mingled in her, but always in heroic dimensions.
3.5 stars. This is the story of Empress Tzu-hsi, who ruled the Manchu dynasty in China for 47 years. In 1852 she was selected as a concubine for the Emperor. She was extremely strong-willed and decided that she would become the Emperor's favourite. She did this by studying 5 hours every day, staying up to date with all gossip, studying all edicts, becoming very close with the Dowager mother and ,according to this novel, giving up her one true love. She captivated the very weak Emperor, and ensured that he loved no other liked her, and even allowed her to rule the country in his stead.
Tzu-hsi is one of the most complex characters I've ever come across. She could be gentle and kind, but also cruel and vain. She was always strong and majestic. Unfortunately her negative characteristics became more pronounced as she got older, causing me to become quite averse to her by the end of the book.
I always enjoy reading books about other cultures, and this books was especially fascinating, because of the time period and country. Reading about the Forbidden city (where the Emperor was the only male allowed at night. To stay in the city past twilight you had to be a woman or a eunuch.)and all the royal rituals was intriguing.
Although I realize the importance of the portrayal of the wars and resistances, I have to say it became a bit too longwinded. That said I will be reading The Good Earth by this Nobel prize winning author soon.
"You have chosen greatness," he said in her silence. "Therefore you must be great."
July 16, 2009
I read this book for the first time when I was in fifth grade. My mom was/is an avid reader and Pearl S. buck is one of the authors she really enjoyed. She encouraged me to read it thinking, I believe, it would keep me out of her hair for a month or so (as a kid this seemed a pretty fat book at the time.) She could not have been more wrong. I devoured it like a Little Debbie cake. It is packed with drama, intrigue, history, fashion, military prowess...and on top of it all a major female figure. She is strong, manipulative, sexy and feared. This book drew me to read a slew of Buck books that summer. Each one of them only made me want to read another one.
Of course, most of the story is fiction spooned from truth which makes it a fascinating read but also a fictionalized account on many levels. If you are looking for a complete history of the last empress of China this is not the book but if you are looking to learn some important facts about China at the time and read about a fascinating woman, I highly recommend this book.
Of course, most of the story is fiction spooned from truth which makes it a fascinating read but also a fictionalized account on many levels. If you are looking for a complete history of the last empress of China this is not the book but if you are looking to learn some important facts about China at the time and read about a fascinating woman, I highly recommend this book.
January 2, 2008
This might be my all time favorite book. It had historical properties, strong women, lots of descriptive scenery and well developed characters. I learned alot about China.
June 3, 2021
Както се казва в предговора на книгата, има доста противоречиви исторически сведения за последната китайска императрица. За едни тя е силна личност, направила много да съхрани, доколкото може, Китай в лицето на настъплението на световния империализъм. За други е психически нестабилна, безскрупулна садистка, която играе политическите си игри в двора и държи властта със зъби и нокти, докато Китай се разпада около нея.
Докато книгата Имепратрица Цъси разказва втората, определено по-интересна история, настоящата книга се занимава с първата - представяйки ни един идеализиран до глупост образ на неукото, скромно селско момиче, което за дни се преобразява в невиждана прелъстителка и се научава да играе дворцовите игри до съвършенство.
Описанието на китайския двор и порядките му е елементарно и дори детинско, авторът цитира разни известни древни китайски литературни произведения, за да покаже, че много знае по тоя въпрос, но явно нищо не разбира нито от политика и държавно устройство, нито от администрация, еле пък от политика, държавно устройство и администрация на Китай в края на 19 в.
Всичко това нямаше да е голяма работа, ако книгата все пак беше интересна, което тя за съжаление изобщо не е. Действието е елементарно, какъвто е и стилът на автора, а голямата част от обема на написаното ни занимава с какви дрехи точно е облечена императрицата, какви са декорациите по стряхата на двореца и с какви цветчета точно са изпъстрени плочките на тронната зала.
Докато книгата Имепратрица Цъси разказва втората, определено по-интересна история, настоящата книга се занимава с първата - представяйки ни един идеализиран до глупост образ на неукото, скромно селско момиче, което за дни се преобразява в невиждана прелъстителка и се научава да играе дворцовите игри до съвършенство.
Описанието на китайския двор и порядките му е елементарно и дори детинско, авторът цитира разни известни древни китайски литературни произведения, за да покаже, че много знае по тоя въпрос, но явно нищо не разбира нито от политика и държавно устройство, нито от администрация, еле пък от политика, държавно устройство и администрация на Китай в края на 19 в.
Всичко това нямаше да е голяма работа, ако книгата все пак беше интересна, което тя за съжаление изобщо не е. Действието е елементарно, какъвто е и стилът на автора, а голямата част от обема на написаното ни занимава с какви дрехи точно е облечена императрицата, какви са декорациите по стряхата на двореца и с какви цветчета точно са изпъстрени плочките на тронната зала.
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November 2, 2024"Императрицата" е художествена биография за живота и управлението на Цъси, последната императрица на Китай. Не познавам историята на Китай, но с малко четене разбирам, че Пърл С. Бък се опира на реалните събития. Личи си също така, че си е позволила лично пристрастие в изграждането на образа на самата Цъси, защото макар последната императрица на Китай да е деспотична, властна и изключително арогантна, а увправлението й закостеняло, еднолично и назадничаво, й симпатизирам. Чудя се, дали е заради чистата и ясна граница между източния и западния свят, която така добре е начертала Пърл Бък или заради задълбоченото разбиране на Бък към китайската култура и история. Не знам, но въпреки че ясно мога да се дистанцирам и да разгранича вижданията и светогледа си от този на Цъси, след последната страница и въпреки всичко, което крещи силно против разбиранията ми, аз я харесвам и уважавам. Тя е силна, властна и обиграна жена, която със зъби и нокти, с ласки и топлина, с премерени ходове и бистър ум си проправя път нагоре в йерархията на едно от най-силно изразените мъжки общества в света. Цъси не е просто императрица, тя е Императрицата в един свят, в който жената е украшение с функцията да ражда деца.
Образът на Цъси е сложен и противоречив. Тя е достатъчно умна и ерудирана, за да поеме управлението на държавата, слагайки в малкия си джоб мнозина съветници. И в същото време е тесногръда и арогантна до степен, която отвежда Китай до края на една епоха.
Цъси е привърженик на китайските традиции и доктрината на Конфуций, това е рамката, която тя сляпо и целеустремено следва. Не толкова по лични убеждения, колкото защото е закърмена с тези разбирания, а характерът й е крайно неподатлив на промени. Цъси поставя Свещената китайска империя над всичко и всички, освен разбира се над себе си, защото тя самата като владетел е символ на империята и като такава, нейната дума е свята.
За добро или лошо обаче на Цъси се пада честта да управлява във времена изпълнени с промени и непостоянство. Европейското влияние на континента се засилва и вече не може да бъде пренебрегвано, нито прогреса и последствията от индустриалната революция, проблемите с Япония се изострят. А Цъси отказва да приеме променящия се свят и управлява по познатия модел от миналото, което пречи на Китай да намери своето място в динамично променящия се политически живот и предизвиква редица кръвопролития.
Макар и императрица Цъси остава самотна до края на живота си, но това е въпрос на личен избор. Не буди симпатия и съжаление у читателя, поне у мен не провокира такива чувства. Въпреки че от гледна точка на историята, на времето, на географията и политическата карта на света накрая бих казала, че последната императрица на Китай е един тесногръд недалновиден владетел, не мога да изтръгна чувството за дълбоко уважение към решителността и размаха, с който оставя своя отпечатък в историята на света.
Пърл Бък пише омагьосващо, разказва умело и мелодично, с много изящество и вещина за азиатската култура и история, точно както приляга и заслужава.
Към блога
Depeche Mode - Heaven
Образът на Цъси е сложен и противоречив. Тя е достатъчно умна и ерудирана, за да поеме управлението на държавата, слагайки в малкия си джоб мнозина съветници. И в същото време е тесногръда и арогантна до степен, която отвежда Китай до края на една епоха.
Цъси е привърженик на китайските традиции и доктрината на Конфуций, това е рамката, която тя сляпо и целеустремено следва. Не толкова по лични убеждения, колкото защото е закърмена с тези разбирания, а характерът й е крайно неподатлив на промени. Цъси поставя Свещената китайска империя над всичко и всички, освен разбира се над себе си, защото тя самата като владетел е символ на империята и като такава, нейната дума е свята.
За добро или лошо обаче на Цъси се пада честта да управлява във времена изпълнени с промени и непостоянство. Европейското влияние на континента се засилва и вече не може да бъде пренебрегвано, нито прогреса и последствията от индустриалната революция, проблемите с Япония се изострят. А Цъси отказва да приеме променящия се свят и управлява по познатия модел от миналото, което пречи на Китай да намери своето място в динамично променящия се политически живот и предизвиква редица кръвопролития.
Макар и императрица Цъси остава самотна до края на живота си, но това е въпрос на личен избор. Не буди симпатия и съжаление у читателя, поне у мен не провокира такива чувства. Въпреки че от гледна точка на историята, на времето, на географията и политическата карта на света накрая бих казала, че последната императрица на Китай е един тесногръд недалновиден владетел, не мога да изтръгна чувството за дълбоко уважение към решителността и размаха, с който оставя своя отпечатък в историята на света.
Пърл Бък пише омагьосващо, разказва умело и мелодично, с много изящество и вещина за азиатската култура и история, точно както приляга и заслужава.
Към блога
Depeche Mode - Heaven
August 14, 2008
so here you go: China at its most peculiar and perplexing in a turbulent and precarious time. Imperial Woman is story of the life of Tsu Hsi Empress of the early twentieth century, one of the most formidable and powerful women in China's history. She's up there with Wu Zetian and Jiang Qing as the most ruthless, shrewd and manipulative figures in politics. Coming from a modest background, she exploited her charm to seduce the Emperor, took power when he died, poisoned her own son, allied with a corrupt and cunning eunuch to seize control of the Qin dynasty, assassinated her opponents and signed a notorious treaty with the western imperialists, forever leaving a humiliating mark on china's history. Pearl Buck added a very personal touch to this intriguing drama with her first hand account and observation. I read the book quite a few years back, but still have a lingering impression of the complexity of life in the Forbidden City and the continual ferocious struggle of a new and an old china, all entwined in this curious woman's life.
July 1, 2020
نخستین خوانش سال ۸۴
December 19, 2014
Why, yes, this is my fourth review of a book about Cixi. I’m a little obsessed. (You can read my take on Anchee Min’s books here and here and Jung Chang’s here.)
When I saw that Pearl S. Buck had a novel about Cixi, I just had to read her version of this fascinating woman. While Buck was not a contemporary of Cixi, she lived in China while some of Cixi’s contemporaries still lived, and her legacy was still fresh in the minds of the people. Buck even says in her forward that she visited remote villages where people thought Cixi was still alive and reigning decades after her death. I was interested to see if her version of Cixi would be different than writers today. While the novel itself was interesting enough, from a historical perspective, I found the novel sorely wanting.
In her forward for Imperial Woman, Buck says “Western writers, with few exceptions, describe [Cixi] unfavorably and even vindictively.” I find it amazing that Buck realized that at the time. Today, Min and Jung (and anyone with internet) has access to mountains of information about Cixi, and it is easy to look at a survey of works written about her during her lifetime and shortly after and see the damning campaign that was waged against this powerful woman, both in China and in the West. For Buck to see that Cixi was painted as a villain mostly for political reasons, if they had a reason at all, was very astute. Buck says, “I have tried in this book to portray [Cixi] as accurately as possible from available resources and my own memories of how the Chinese whom I knew in my childhood felt about her.”
However, Buck seems to fall into the same old rhetoric used by authors she started out criticizing. Throughout the novel, Buck has no problem portraying Cixi as “evil” and a “tyrant,” using those words with abandon. Cixi is exceedingly selfish and makes one bad decision after another. When she reached out to the wives of foreign dignitaries, a significant milestone in the China/Western relationship, she is portrayed as exceedingly fake, not wanting to engage in any real dialogue or wanting to improve relationships at all, which was bitterly disappointing. I’m not saying Cixi was perfect (as I have written before, her complexity is what makes her so amazing), but Buck’s portrayal was not the enlightened, balanced novel I was hoping for. The last decade of Cixi’s life, the time when she made the most revolutionary changes to China that ushered the country into a new age, takes only the last few pages of the book.
The book, as a novel, was entertaining enough. Her descriptions are vivid, and her story is compelling. It’s a bit long, but certainly not a hard read. It was at least better than Min’s The Last Empress. I wouldn’t say the book was terrible or don’t read it, but I came to the book with very high expectations for a brilliant and fair novelization of Cixi, so the fact that I was disappointed was probably more my fault than Buck’s.
- See more at: http://www.twoamericansinchina.com/20...
When I saw that Pearl S. Buck had a novel about Cixi, I just had to read her version of this fascinating woman. While Buck was not a contemporary of Cixi, she lived in China while some of Cixi’s contemporaries still lived, and her legacy was still fresh in the minds of the people. Buck even says in her forward that she visited remote villages where people thought Cixi was still alive and reigning decades after her death. I was interested to see if her version of Cixi would be different than writers today. While the novel itself was interesting enough, from a historical perspective, I found the novel sorely wanting.
In her forward for Imperial Woman, Buck says “Western writers, with few exceptions, describe [Cixi] unfavorably and even vindictively.” I find it amazing that Buck realized that at the time. Today, Min and Jung (and anyone with internet) has access to mountains of information about Cixi, and it is easy to look at a survey of works written about her during her lifetime and shortly after and see the damning campaign that was waged against this powerful woman, both in China and in the West. For Buck to see that Cixi was painted as a villain mostly for political reasons, if they had a reason at all, was very astute. Buck says, “I have tried in this book to portray [Cixi] as accurately as possible from available resources and my own memories of how the Chinese whom I knew in my childhood felt about her.”
However, Buck seems to fall into the same old rhetoric used by authors she started out criticizing. Throughout the novel, Buck has no problem portraying Cixi as “evil” and a “tyrant,” using those words with abandon. Cixi is exceedingly selfish and makes one bad decision after another. When she reached out to the wives of foreign dignitaries, a significant milestone in the China/Western relationship, she is portrayed as exceedingly fake, not wanting to engage in any real dialogue or wanting to improve relationships at all, which was bitterly disappointing. I’m not saying Cixi was perfect (as I have written before, her complexity is what makes her so amazing), but Buck’s portrayal was not the enlightened, balanced novel I was hoping for. The last decade of Cixi’s life, the time when she made the most revolutionary changes to China that ushered the country into a new age, takes only the last few pages of the book.
The book, as a novel, was entertaining enough. Her descriptions are vivid, and her story is compelling. It’s a bit long, but certainly not a hard read. It was at least better than Min’s The Last Empress. I wouldn’t say the book was terrible or don’t read it, but I came to the book with very high expectations for a brilliant and fair novelization of Cixi, so the fact that I was disappointed was probably more my fault than Buck’s.
- See more at: http://www.twoamericansinchina.com/20...
September 17, 2018
The characters leap out of the pages, and the descriptions make you feel like you are actually there. You really sympathize with Tzu-Hsi. It's like watching a movie in your mind. There are only four chapters, about 100 pages in length, each. This makes reading a little lengthy, but it is well worth it.
October 20, 2019
Fascinating but really tedious towards the end!
September 12, 2024
Авторът е пресъздал добре историческия период. Многото описания и подробностите допринасят за навлизане в епохата и в нравите на това време, атмосферата е жива и дишаща. Лично на мен, тези описателни моменти ми бяха скучни, но това си е моя особеност – не харесвам големи описателни пасажи.
След като прочетох историята, се поинтересувах повече от тази последна императрица. Естествено образа е доста романтизиран, но не е по-малко интересен.
Изключително двойствен образ. Изключително силна жена, до степен стигаща жестокост и егоцентризъм. Няма как читателя да не се замисли коя е движещата я сила – себеотрицателната жертвоготовност в името на добруването на народа или всепоглъщащата жажда за власт и сила…
След като прочетох историята, се поинтересувах повече от тази последна императрица. Естествено образа е доста романтизиран, но не е по-малко интересен.
Изключително двойствен образ. Изключително силна жена, до степен стигаща жестокост и егоцентризъм. Няма как читателя да не се замисли коя е движещата я сила – себеотрицателната жертвоготовност в името на добруването на народа или всепоглъщащата жажда за власт и сила…
July 13, 2020
„Imperial Woman“ es la historia de la última emperatriz de China Cixí (emperatriz del palacio occidental) también conocida como Orquídea, que pasó de ser concubina a emperatriz y que se aseguró de que su hijo heredará el trono. Una mujer de fuertes ambiciones, fuerte personalidad y extrema belleza. En extremo nacionalista y conservadora, autodidacta, pues ella misma decidía leer muchos libros para aprender de sus ancestros.
El libro es muy descriptivo, a veces parece exagerar en los detalles, capítulos muy largos, a veces lo mismo pero aparte de eso la narrativa es buena y amena.
El libro es muy descriptivo, a veces parece exagerar en los detalles, capítulos muy largos, a veces lo mismo pero aparte de eso la narrativa es buena y amena.
February 15, 2025
Uma história sobre uma concubina imperial, que graças à sua inteligência e perfeita compreensão das normas e da etiqueta da corte, consegue transcender as limitações de poder impostas às mulheres.
Retratada como uma feroz resistente à mudança, confrontada com derrotas retumbantes impostas pelos bárbaros ocidentais, apenas no final da sua vida se resigna a aceitar a modernidade do princípio do século XX.
Um "romance histórico" de 1956, quando este nicho de literatura ainda não tinha sido inventado, vivo e sem uma página aborrecida.
Retratada como uma feroz resistente à mudança, confrontada com derrotas retumbantes impostas pelos bárbaros ocidentais, apenas no final da sua vida se resigna a aceitar a modernidade do princípio do século XX.
Um "romance histórico" de 1956, quando este nicho de literatura ainda não tinha sido inventado, vivo e sem uma página aborrecida.
March 4, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed learning about this era and this court culture, neither of which I knew anything about. The book is not always the easiest to read but what I took away from it far outweighs the sometimes slow reading and awkward sentences.
April 30, 2020
Fabuloso, lo he disfrutado un montón. Merece la pena conocer la figura de esta mujer que para mí era completamente desconocida y marcó un antes y un después en la historia de China.
October 26, 2018
I enjoyed this book but not nearly as much as The Good Earth. I felt this went on too long!
March 17, 2021
This biography does a good job helping the leaders understand Empress Cixi and what makes her such a significant figure in Chinese history. Although I enjoyed this book interesting overall, I found some parts of this book rather dry.
May 29, 2017
Inhalt: In Das Mädchen Orchidee schildert die Nobelpreisträgerin Pearl S. Buck das abenteuerliche Leben der letzten chinesischen Kaiserin Tsu Hsi, die als Konkubine an den Hof befohlen wurde und durch ihre Klugheit und Tatkraft zur Kaiserin emporstieg. Über vierzig Jahre steuerte sie das Reich mit staatsmännischem Geschick zwischen allen Klippen hindurch. Im Alter genoss sie im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes göttliche Verehrung und erhielt von ihrem Volk den Ehrentitel "Alter Buddha".
In diesem Roman wird man als Leser in die verschlossene Welt des verbotenen Palast entführt, ab der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Orchidee kommt als Konkubine an den Hof des Mandschu-Kaisers Xianfeng. Mit Glück, Fleiß und List steigt sie zur Nebenfrau auf und wird später auch Kaiserin und Kaiserinmutter und lenkt über Jahrzehnte die Geschicke des Landes. Ihr Versuch das Land weiterhin gegen Europäer abzuschotten gelingt ihr nicht und stürzt das Land immer wieder in Revolten und Kämpfe, aber sie schafft es den Thron für ihren Nachfolger zu halten.
Das Leben in der verbotenen Stadt mit seinen starren Traditionen, die kaum Raum zur Entfaltung lassen wird in diesem Buch eindrucksvoll geschildert. Allerdings wiederholen sich im Ablauf der Jahrzehnte ständig die äußerlichen Beschreibungen von Orchidee/Tsu Hsi, ihr Gefühlsleben und ihre Gedankengänge, was diese Stellen für mich wirklich immer zäher machten beim Lesen und mich auch irgendwann langweilten. Die Einflechtung der politischen Ereignisse und das Unverständnis gegenüber der Lebensform der Europäer hat die Autorin interessant und gelungen geschildert.
Mein Fazit:
Ein interessantes Werk über die letzte Kaiserin Tsu Hsi, das für mich aber doch einige Längen aufwies.
In diesem Roman wird man als Leser in die verschlossene Welt des verbotenen Palast entführt, ab der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Orchidee kommt als Konkubine an den Hof des Mandschu-Kaisers Xianfeng. Mit Glück, Fleiß und List steigt sie zur Nebenfrau auf und wird später auch Kaiserin und Kaiserinmutter und lenkt über Jahrzehnte die Geschicke des Landes. Ihr Versuch das Land weiterhin gegen Europäer abzuschotten gelingt ihr nicht und stürzt das Land immer wieder in Revolten und Kämpfe, aber sie schafft es den Thron für ihren Nachfolger zu halten.
Das Leben in der verbotenen Stadt mit seinen starren Traditionen, die kaum Raum zur Entfaltung lassen wird in diesem Buch eindrucksvoll geschildert. Allerdings wiederholen sich im Ablauf der Jahrzehnte ständig die äußerlichen Beschreibungen von Orchidee/Tsu Hsi, ihr Gefühlsleben und ihre Gedankengänge, was diese Stellen für mich wirklich immer zäher machten beim Lesen und mich auch irgendwann langweilten. Die Einflechtung der politischen Ereignisse und das Unverständnis gegenüber der Lebensform der Europäer hat die Autorin interessant und gelungen geschildert.
Mein Fazit:
Ein interessantes Werk über die letzte Kaiserin Tsu Hsi, das für mich aber doch einige Längen aufwies.
April 5, 2016
Great book! I read this book 30 years ago, and it was interesting to come back to it now. In the intervening years, I've read many excellent historical fiction novels by talented writers, such as Philippa Gregory, Margaret George, and Conn Iggulden. As a result, I enjoyed "Imperial Woman" this time around a little less than 30 years ago.
Pearl Buck's style was slightly more plodding than that of the other authors whom I like better. The details she brought to the story were not quite as interesting. However, she still did a great job of bringing this dynamic empress to life and evoking my sympathies for the empress, with all of her positive and negative characteristics. And I learned a lot about the last part of the Qing Dynasty.
Also, it was a delight to be able to check the details of the novel with facts about the Empress Dowager that I found from online sources. I couldn't do that thirty years ago! And I discovered that Miss Buck got most of her information right! Okay, sometimes she indulged in a rumor or two, but then her work wouldn't be historical fiction now, would it?
I give "Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China" an 8 on a scale of 10.
二零一六年： 第十五本书
Pearl Buck's style was slightly more plodding than that of the other authors whom I like better. The details she brought to the story were not quite as interesting. However, she still did a great job of bringing this dynamic empress to life and evoking my sympathies for the empress, with all of her positive and negative characteristics. And I learned a lot about the last part of the Qing Dynasty.
Also, it was a delight to be able to check the details of the novel with facts about the Empress Dowager that I found from online sources. I couldn't do that thirty years ago! And I discovered that Miss Buck got most of her information right! Okay, sometimes she indulged in a rumor or two, but then her work wouldn't be historical fiction now, would it?
I give "Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China" an 8 on a scale of 10.
二零一六年： 第十五本书
June 25, 2016
Pearl Buck's novel of the life of the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) is over long and written in over wrought prose. making the omnipresent narrator appear to be writing in some kind of strangled English for Chinese speakers. This made the book extremely difficult for me to read an it took me forever to make it through its almost 400 pages.
I know enough about Chinese history to know that Dowager Empress Cixi was an intelligent and ruthless palace schemer who, but the luck of having given birth to the only surviving male child of the Emperor, quickly maneuvered herself from position of lowly concubine to that of Second Consort, and then seized power in her own right and, through her arrogance and hubris largely caused the fall of the Qing dynasty.
Buck, however, while showcasing Cixi's intelligence, also portrays her as a lovesick female over her kinsman and former lover, Jung Lu. Maybe this is because Buck in her own life developed a cult of the personality around herself and earned was regarded by many as being a spiteful and thoroughly disagreeable woman. Perhaps she identified with the Dowager Empress, but for whatever reason, this is a poorly written book that paints the Dowager Empress in a dishonest light.
I know enough about Chinese history to know that Dowager Empress Cixi was an intelligent and ruthless palace schemer who, but the luck of having given birth to the only surviving male child of the Emperor, quickly maneuvered herself from position of lowly concubine to that of Second Consort, and then seized power in her own right and, through her arrogance and hubris largely caused the fall of the Qing dynasty.
Buck, however, while showcasing Cixi's intelligence, also portrays her as a lovesick female over her kinsman and former lover, Jung Lu. Maybe this is because Buck in her own life developed a cult of the personality around herself and earned was regarded by many as being a spiteful and thoroughly disagreeable woman. Perhaps she identified with the Dowager Empress, but for whatever reason, this is a poorly written book that paints the Dowager Empress in a dishonest light.
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