Empress Dowager Cixi was one of the few women who had been in power for a long time during the imperial period. 186 1 year 1 1 month, Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong? He jointly launched a coup d' é tat, then listened to politics three times until/kloc-0 died in 908 and ruled China for 47 years. In China's modern history, when it comes to Empress Dowager Cixi, people often define it as a generation of "evil queen, power-loving, vicious, scheming, ignorant and stubborn".

To this end, she won rave reviews from Chinese people. It can be said that many China people in Cixi are real traitors, vicious and ruthless autocratic fools with a long history. It can be said that she has an unshirkable responsibility for the decline of China, and two generations of emperors were played by her with applause. Besides, she is famous for her cruelty. She used the figures of Xiang Army and Huai Army to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and safeguard its ruling purpose, and did not take the initiative to break the boundary between Manchu and Han.

During her more than 40 years in power, the Qing government headed by her signed many unequal treaties that humiliated the country. 1894 When the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 broke out, she still made great efforts to build the Summer Palace to celebrate her 60th birthday. The Reform Movement of 1898 imprisoned Guangxu, leaving China in a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society.

Although Cixi lost her country and harmed her people, she was able to climb to that height and rule China for half a century. We also have to admit that as a woman, her political skills can be described as brilliant, and her wisdom and strategy should not be underestimated.

Birthday celebration map of Summer Palace

Looking through unofficial history's notes or modern writings and papers, Empress Dowager Cixi is often described as a well-read talented woman. However, if we look closely at the secrets of her own books and the Buddhist scriptures copied, we will find that she not only has no knowledge of calligraphy and painting, but also has a limited educational level. The imperial edicts she wrote are carefully chosen, but compared with other empresses, she has a higher cultural literacy. On the seventieth birthday of Cixi's mother, she wrote such a poem for her mother:

Parents are the most authentic in the world, and tears and blood are dissolved into children.

Exhausted heart will eventually become a child, and the poor will bear the wind!

The literary value of this poem is not ordinary, but the last sentence of the poem "If you are poor, you will think about change" is widely circulated and everyone will recite it.