内容简介
The Last Empress has been remembered as one of history＇s most mon-strous women-a ruthless Manchu concubine who seduced and murdered her way to the throne in 1861 to rule China through perversion,corrup-tion,and intrigue for half a century.Yet Sterling Seagrave＇s magnificent biography of the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi is both a timely reassessmenht of the myth and an unsparing account of the imperialism from which it arose. Drawing on a vast array of sources,penetrating the secrecy of the Forbidden City and the sanctimony of Tzu Hsi＇s Victorian bIOGRAPHERS Dragom ;adu goes tje ,most vivid and accurate portrait to date of the much-maligned last empress.It is also a riveting chornicle of China＇s termi-nal encounter with the West and an astute look at the conquerors＇ need to create a monster where they could not find one. Sterling Seagrave,best-selling author of The Soong Dynasty,grew up on the China-Burma border,the fifth generation of an American family living in the Orient for nearly two centuries.As an ivestigative jounalist in Asia,he contributed to many major newspapers and magazines.His other books include Yellow Rain and The Marcos Dynasty.He and his wife and collaborator,Peggy Sawyer Seagrave,Live in Europe.
目录
Cast of Cbaracters Autbor''s Note PROLOGUE Flowers in the Back Garden ONE Lady Yebenara TOW Foreign Devils THREE The Palace Coup FOUR Bebind a Gauze Curtain FIVE Two Men on a Horse SIX Life in a Yelow Mist SEVEN Suicide of a Phoenix EIGHT “Our Hart” NINE A Hostage to Etiquette TEN The New Ironbats ELEVEN The Wild Fox TWELVE The Puppet Show THIRTEEN The Betrayal FOURTEEN The Fugitive FIFTEEN Poisoned Pen XIXTEEN The Sly Pornograpber SEVENTEEN Weed People EIGHTEEN Somebing Wicked Tbis Way Comes NINETEEN A Mad,Rotten Scheme TWENTY The Siege of Peking TWENTY-ONE Chinese Takeaway TWENTY-TWO Forked Tongue TWENTY-THREE The Dragons Flee TWENTY-FOUR “That Odious Woman” TWENTY-FIVE Hunting Snipe TWENTY-SIX Hatching the Dragon Lady EPILOGUE Dynasty''s End Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index
