#empress dowager ci'an

[michelle-yim]

50 Years, 50 Gifs

The Rise and Fall of the Qing Dynasty: Bloodshed Over the Forbidden City | 滿清十三皇朝 之 血染紫禁城 [ATV, 1990]

19/50

[venicepearl]

Empress Dowager Cixi (29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu Yehe Nara clan, was a Chinese noblewoman, concubine and later regent who effectively controlled the Chinese government in the late Qing dynasty for 47 years, from 1861 until her death in 1908. Selected as a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor in her adolescence, she gave birth to a son, Zaichun, in 1856. After the Xianfeng Emperor's death in 1861, the young boy became the Tongzhi Emperor, and she assumed the role of co-empress dowager, alongside the Emperor's widow, Empress Dowager Ci'an. Cixi ousted a group of regents appointed by the late emperor and assumed the regency along with Ci'an, who later died. Cixi then consolidated control over the dynasty when she installed her nephew as the Guangxu Emperor at the death of her son, the Tongzhi Emperor, in 1875. This was contrary to the traditional rules of succession of the Qing dynasty that had ruled China since 1644.

[mydaylight]

QING DYNASTY APPRECIATION WEEK DAY 05  | Prominent Empress Dowagers

Sources: Lee, Lily Xiao Hong; Lau, Clara; Stefanowska, A.D.. Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: v. 1: The Qing Period, Bennett Peterson, Barbara. Notable Women of China.

[inky-duchess]

• In the situation that a emperor dies and a council is ruling because the heir is underage, what would be the former empress's title? {The royal bloodline runs through the emperor} • Are there any historical examples of this sort of situation that you think may be of use to me? Thanks ahead of time!

She would be Dowager Empress [name]. There are plenty of examples of mothers of very young monarchs, all not necessarily Regent but they all have interesting stories:

Margaret Tudor and her son James V

Anne of Austria and her son Louis XIV

Isabella of France and her son Edward III

Catherine of Valois and her son Henry IV

Empress Jingū and her son Emperor Ōjin

Valide Hurrëm Sultan and her grandson Murad III

Empress Dowager Ci'an and Dowager Cixi and Emperor Tongzhi

[1900scartoons]

The Attitude of the Empress Dowager

February 17, 1904

Tsi Ann (a mistake on the part of the author, the dowager empress at the time was Cixi, Ci'an had died in 1881), wielding crow bar and rolling pin, kicks Japan and Russia out of her Open Door house.

The caption reads "She's Going to Have Neutrality in China if She Has to Fight for It."

China was remaining neutral in the Russo-Japanese War.

See Also: Russo-Japanese War

From Hennepin County Library

Original available at: https://digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/collection/Bart/id/4217

[5llowance]

Had Empress Dowager Cixi died sometime in 1875 after the accession of the Guangxu Emperor, would Empress Dowager Ci'an have been able to successfully rule by herself or would she have needed assistance from other members of the Qing imperial court, such as Prince Gong? via /r/China

Had Empress Dowager Cixi died sometime in 1875 after the accession of the Guangxu Emperor, would Empress Dowager Ci'an have been able to successfully rule by herself or would she have needed assistance from other members of the Qing imperial court, such as Prince Gong? No text found Submitted February 29, 2020 at 10:07AM by Optimus_Pyrrha via reddit https://ift.tt/2wRd2Ke

[michelle-yim]

The series I wish was made instead of what they actually came out with in 2012.

Sales Presentation Clip for 大太監, 2010 (Later known in English as “The Confidant and released in 2012) [TVB]

It would have been amazing to have Michelle portray Cixi during the reign of Guangxu 22 years after doing Xianfeng and Tongzhi in Bloodshed Over the Forbidden City,as part of the Rise and Fall of the Qing Dynasty four-part series. Not that TVB would have recognized an ATV series as a prequel (they wouldn’t), but I would have accepted it as a continuation. 

This version of  大太監  could have gone the traditional route and portrayed the more widely-accepted “Cixi is a despot and also the worst,” but it could also have reinterpreted her regencies based on the wider range of sources now available. A better job could have been done addressing the power of rumours on public perception and legacy, which they briefly covered in the 2012 series. I do wonder if Maggie Cheung (張可頤) quit the production abruptly in 2011 because she’d seen enough of the script to realize just how much and how badly they fictionalized the story.

As much as I enjoyed the focus on the eunuchs in the final product, who really were a great team (Wayne Lai, Power Chan and Raymond Cho especially), there were some clearly BS moments involving the Aisin Gioro side of things that make the series unwatchable for me after the brilliance of episode 14.

Critiques of  大太監 -released version, 2012:

1. Cixi was not stupid and would definitely have been aware of court protocol, even as a teen and especially in the precarious life of an imperial concubine.The plot device about her putting on Xianfeng’s dragon robe is silly.

2. Ci’an’s entire storyline. Just..what?