The Disputed Reign of Dowager Empress Tz’u-hsi Essay -- Essays Papers

The Disputed Reign of Dowager Empress Tzu-hsiHistorical repose is not always an accurate representation of fact. An example of this would be the abundant reign of the Dowager Empress Tzu-hsi, in which there were hundreds of documents written about her life. These documents have been interpreted and used in the production of numerous books, especially among Western historians. It was these primaeval historians who have established the widely accepted perspective that Tzu-hsi hungered for power, abused it, and contain it using any means necessary. This understanding is echoed today by authors such as W.G. Sebald, author of The Rings of Saturn. there are many differences betwixt the accounts of the Western perspective and that of Sebalds, but the overall idea of Tzu-Hsi as a conniving and unworthy Empress is intact between the two. Still, the investigation is not over. There happens to be an abundance of historical documentation and opinion that contradicts the Western be guile on Tzu-hsi. First, Western accounts of the major issues in Tzu-hsis reign lead be examined following this will be a look at how unreliable these sources are by showing their inconsistencies, where the arguments came from, and the all the other differentiate weathering a different perspective on the great Empress. It is mathematical the Empress was everything that her enemies said she was, but the evidence at hand does not support image of a sinister Tzu-hsi. The Western perspective on the Dowager Empress is acerb and W.G. Sebald is perhaps the harshest of all of the Western historians. One of Sebalds first descriptions of the Empress is that her impulse for power was insatiable (Sebald 147). Sebald wastes no time in backing up this claim. At the cru... ...istorians like Sebald recognize the uncertainty.Works CitedBland, J. O. P., and E. Backhouse. China Under the Empress Dowager. capital of Massachusetts Houghton Mifflin, 1914.Chung, Sue Fawn. The Much Maligned E mpress Dowager A Revisionist Study of the Empress Dowager Tzu-his. Modern Asian Studies. 13 vol. Cambrige UP, 1979. JSTOR. 1 May 2005 http//links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026-749X%281979%2913%3A2%3C177%3ATMMEDA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U. Collis, Maurice. The Motherly and Auspicious. New York G.P. Putnams, 1944.Laidler, Keith. The Last Empress. Chichester John Wiley, 2003.Seagrave, Sterling. potassium bitartrate Lady. New York Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.Sebald, W. G. The Rings of Saturn. Trans. Michael Hulse. London Harvill, 1995.Vare, Daniele. The Last Empress. Garden City Doubleday, Doran, 1938.Warner, Marina. The tophus Empress. New York Macmillan, 1972.