Here is some photos and information about it, but if you go, please post a picture on Instagram with the #historychicksfieldtrip so that we can live vicariously! Get your Forbidden City bearings straight (and images of it in your head)- this video is a little long, but it’s really pretty:Īnd the Summer Palace is still stunning (even if the cost of it helped China lose the Korean Peninsula). You might be surprised at some of their history, read about them in this Ancient Origins piece on eunuchs. In Cixi’s world eunuchs were ever present and served the court in a number of ways. We gave it our best try (and our deepest apologies) but you give it a go!
Then she boldly stepped beyond that role when she became co-regent to her young son, the Emperor, and her adopted son after that.
Her role: Live out of view of men (except for eunuchs and the emperor) and bear sons to slip into the line of succession. She was born into China’s ruling class and, at 16, entered the Forbidden City as a chosen member of 19 year-old Emperor Xianfeng’s harem. Her name changes several times through her life (and more through translated spellings): Tsing (some sources use her family name which appears first), Lan, Yi and finally the form that she is known to history: Cixi. Yehenara Tsing was born on November 29, 1853. Sometimes it feels as if her history is behind the same silk screen where she ruled, a clear outline with veiled detail. The true story of a woman who, essentially, ruled China for almost 50 years is cloaked by years of inaccurate (read: fabricated) reporting and several sources muddled through translation.