China Under The Empress Dowager: The History Of The Life And Times Of Tzu Hsi

by Edmund Backhouse

Compiled from state papers and the private diary of Her Majesty Tzu Hsi's household comptroller, this account provides a contemporaneous view of Chinese court life between 1860 and 1908. With particular attention given to the Boxer troubles and the 1900 siege of the Legations, this work presents an account of Tzu Hsi's life and times. Included in the work are chapters on the parentage and youth of Yehonala, Court etiquette, the reform movement of 1898, and Tzu Hsi's death and burial. A work for Asian studies scholars and historians alike.

Genres: History

525 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2010

About the author

Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, 2nd Baronet was a British oriental scholar, Sinologist, and linguist whose books exerted a powerful influence on the Western view of the last decades of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). Since his death, however, it has been established that the major source of his China Under the Empress Dowager, Diary of His Excellency Ching Shan, is a forgery, most likely by Backhouse himself.

His biographer, Hugh Trevor-Roper, unmasked Backhouse as "a confidence man with few equals", who had also duped the British government, Oxford University, the American Bank Note Company and John Brown & Company. Derek Sandhaus, the editor of Backhouse's memoirs Décadence Mandchoue, argues that they are also an undoubted confabulation but contain plausible recollections of scenes and details.

Reviews

[Whitlaw Tanyanyiwa Mugwiji · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tsu Hsi is a very interesting and sophisticated character. She is one of the most powerful women to have ever lived, yet very little is known about her outside China. This is a highly informative book, with so many of the primary sources included as quotes, which makes the book move somewhat slower. But these none fiction books are my kind of books.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic - even if half of it was based on a forgery: it was a great forgery.

[HY · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are into Chinese history, it is still best to read such books in Chinese. I had a hard time trying to figure out the terms used as they were written in English.

[Brandon Kurtz · Rating 1 out of 5]

According to research by late 20th-century historians, Backhouse forged most of the sources on which this book is based. Tzu Hsi (Cixi) has been unfairly vilified by him and other Western and Chinese historians, propagandists, and journalists.

[๖ۣۜSαᴙαh ๖ۣۜMᴄĄłłiƨʈeʀ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Outdated, but good. The factual evidence is still useful even if the arguments are somewhat obsolete.