...of the Manchu Yehenara clan, was a powerful political figure and charismatic woman who unofficially but effectively controlled the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China for 47 years, from 1861 to her death in 1908.
Selected by the Xianfeng Emperor as a low-ranking imperial concubine, she gave birth to his only son, who became the Tongzhi Emperor upon Xianfeng's death. Cixi ousted a group of corrupt regents appointed by the late emperor and assumed regency over her young son with her former senior consort, the Empress Dowager Ci’an. Cixi further consolidated control over the dynasty when, upon the death of the Tongzhi Emperor, contrary to the rules of succession, she installed her nephew as the Guangxu Emperor in 1875. A thorough conservative, she nonetheless half-heartedly supported the technological and military Self-Strengthening Movement. Later, however, she undermined the Hundred Days' Reforms of 1898, which she found impractical and detrimental to dynastic power. After the Boxer Rebellion and the subsequent invasion by Allied armies, external and internal pressures led Cixi to effect institutional changes of just the sort she had resisted. Three years after her death the dynasty collapsed, and China took on a republican form of government in 1912.
Some historians both in China and abroad have portrayed her as a devious and depraved despot and villain responsible for the fall of the Dynasty, while others have suggested that her opponents among the reformers succeeded in making her a scapegoat for problems beyond her control, that she stepped in to prevent disorder, that she was no more ruthless than other rulers, and that, shrewd and bright, she was even an effective if reluctant reformer in the last years of her life.
Early years
Cixi was born in the winter of 1835 on Firewood Alley of West Sipailou, Beijing. In 1851, she participated in the selection of consorts for the new Xianfeng Emperor alongside sixty other candidates. The old Dowager Consort Kangci, foster-mother of the Xianfeng Emperor, hosted the selection of Xianfeng's consorts. Kangci supervised the entire process in the emperor’s absence and made every decision on behalf of the emperor. Cixi was one of the few candidates chosen to stay, and was created Worthy Lady Yi.
In 1854, Cixi was elevated to Concubine Yi, and in 1855, Cixi became pregnant. On 27 April 1856, she gave birth to Zaichun, the Xianfeng Emperor's only surviving son. Soon afterward, she was elevated to the rank of Consort Yi. In 1857, when her son reached his first birthday, Cixi was elevated to the rank of Noble Consort Yi. This rank placed her second only to the Empress within Xianfeng's harem.
Unlike many other women in the imperial harem, Cixi was known for her ability to read and write Chinese. This granted her ample opportunities to help the ailing emperor in daily tasks of governing. On various occasions, the Xianfeng Emperor had Cixi read palace memorials for him, and write instructions on the memorials according to his will. As a result, Cixi became well-informed on state affairs, and learned the art of governance from the ailing emperor.