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

The Disputed curb of Dowager Empress Tzu-hsiHistorical record is not always an accurate representation of fact. An event of this would be the long reign of the Dowager Empress Tzu-hsi, in which there were hundreds of documents written approximately her life. These documents have been taken and used in the production of numerous books, oddly among Western historians. It was these early historians who have established the widely accepted horizon that Tzu-hsi hungered for power, abused it, and retained it using any means necessary. This understanding is echoed like a shot by authors such as W.G. Sebald, author of The Rings of Saturn. There are many differences between the accounts of the Western perspective and that of Sebalds, but the over every root word of Tzu-Hsi as a conniving and unworthy Empress is intact between the two. Still, the investigating is not over. There happens to be an abundance of historical documentation and eyeshot that contradicts the Western vi ew on Tzu-hsi. First, Western accounts of the major issues in Tzu-hsis reign will 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 evidence supporting a different perspective on the great Empress. It is possible the Empress was everything that her enemies said she was, but the evidence at eliminate does not support image of a sinister Tzu-hsi. The Western perspective on the Dowager Empress is harsh 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 craving 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. mainland China Under the Empress Dowager. Boston Houghton Mifflin, 1914.Chung, Sue Fawn. The Much Maligned Empress Dowager A Rev isionist Study of the Empress Dowager Tzu-his. new-fashioned 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 cash in ones chips Empress. Chichester John Wiley, 2003.Seagrave, Sterling. Dragon 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 Dragon Empress. New York Macmillan, 1972.