China’s Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) had a life filled with intrigue and reversals of fortune to match any dreamt up by Dickens or Dumas. Born into an elite family that fell on hard times during the economic crises triggered by the opium war, she was chosen to join the ranks of palace concubines in 1851. New tribulations followed when foreign troops drove the court from Beijing in 1860, and soon after that the emperor died. But Cixi bounced back, proving so adept at court politics that she secured a place as co-regent of the new ruler, her young son, and then, in 1875, was named sole regent to his successor, the Guangxu Emperor.
慈禧太后(1835-1908，曾在中國最後一個王朝清朝末期「垂簾聽政」多年——譯者注)的一生充滿著權術陰謀和命運起伏，不亞於狄更斯(Dickens)或大仲馬(Dumas)筆下的任何描寫。她生於官宦之家，但隨著鴉片戰爭引發經濟危機，導致其家道中落。1851年，她通過選秀入宮。新的苦難接踵而至：1860年，外國軍隊將清廷趕出北京，不久皇帝去世。但慈禧百折不撓，她深諳宮廷政治，得以在自己的幼子登基後成爲攝政者之一，並在1875年光緒皇帝繼位後成爲唯一的攝政者。