The photographs of the Empress Dowager Cixi taken by Xunling ... True, she had been the de facto ruler of China since 1881, maneuvering her way out of concubinage by bearing Emperor Xianfeng ...

He is likened to Empress Dowager Cixi, who in 1900 effectively declared war on the Western powers in China, a disastrous move that helped accelerate the collapse of imperial China To many Chinese ...