The Last Empress

Начало книги

All of the characters in this book are based on real people. I tried my best to keep the events the way they were in history. I translated or transcribed the decrees, edicts and newspaper articles from the original documents. Whenever there were differences in interpretation, I based my judgment on my research and overall perspective.

Thank you

Anton Mueller

for a masterly job of editing

Sandra Dijkstra

for always being there for me

In 1852, a beautiful seventeen-year-old girl from an important but impoverished family of the Yehonala clan arrived in Peking as a minor concubine to the young Emperor, Hsien Feng. Tzu Hsi, known as Orchid as a girl, was one among hundreds of concubines whose sole purpose was to bear the Emperor a son.

It was not a good time to enter the Forbidden City, a vast complex of palaces and gardens run by thousands of eunuchs and encircled by a wall in the center of Peking. The Ch'ing Dynasty was losing its vitality and the court had become an insular, xenophobic place. A few decades earlier, China had lost the first Opium War, and it had done little since to strengthen its defenses or improve its diplomatic ties to other nations.

Читать дальше →