Empress Dowager Cixi
Official Chinese historiography portrays the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) as a corrupt, conservative, deceitful, evil, and malicious woman who seized all power and was willing to do anything in order to preserve that power. It is now held that the series views society, history and historical personage, including Cixi, with the aid of scientific methods and from the point of view of historical materialism.
The series portrays Cixi much more differentiated than official portrayals have. Different, mutually not exclusive, aspects influenced and shaped Cixi; aspects which commonly accompany such eventful and chaotic times of change as the late Qing period. Cixi is pictured as an apt politician who exerts all her efforts to preserve the Qing dynasty and the monarchy and thus also to keep together the empire of the Aisingioro family. Even though she is thirsty for glory and has a tight grip on the affairs of the Imperial Court, she is nonetheless also portrayed as a woman with (maternal) emotions. As the Guangxu emperor’s aunt, she raised him like her own son and helped him succeed to the throne. (This portrayal of her personality evoked mixed feelings in the audience: some criticised it as euphemistic, contesting that the official verdict of her character had been reversed completely.)
Yet, at the same time, the series also depicts her as a narrow-minded ruler and cruel autocrat. Two historically confirmed examples which exemplify this have also been included into the series: She invests great sums of money intended for the construction of a modern and powerful navy into the renovation of the summer palace which was destroyed in 1860 and into the construction of its famous marble boat. As a result, the insufficiently equipped and ill trained Chinese navy loses its modern Beiyang Fleet in the short sea battle against the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese war of 1894/95. In another instance, she has the Guangxu’s favourite concubine Zhen Fei pushed into a well. The latter had protested against the emperor, Cixi and the imperial family being evacuated from Beijing following the defeat of the Boxer rebellion and the foreign powers’ invasion of the capital while the concubines and all others were to remain at the imperial court.
However, the former example is often also interpreted as Cixi’s attempt to save the “imperial court’s face”: her 60th birthday anniversary had been scheduled to take place in the summer palace. It was feared that it might reflect badly on the dynasty and therefore China at large had it not been possible to celebrate the empress dowager’s birthday appropriately due to lack of financial funds. (Thus, Cixi’s motivation is made understandable at the very least)
Historians have estimated Cixi’s educational level to have been very low. She left few written compositions to posterity and most of her daily affairs were handled orally. Her calligraphy is said to have been rather common and instead she employed two professional artists who produced calligraphies and paintings in her name: Wang Shao and Miao Jiahui. However, the series depicts her drawing her paintings herself and composing poems. (e.g. episode 36)
On Chinese internet sites, however, it is argued that Cixi was after all not as conservative and hostile to the West as commonly contended. She had great interest in Western, i.e. French clothing, high heels, perfumes and other cosmetics as well as in foreign music and opera - a fact, which the series highlights by illustrating her interest in Western appliances such as the microscope, the clock and the gramophone. Cixi’s ideas and opinions are also said to have evolved alongside historical developments; she is often portrayed as a fervent opponent of all new, i.e. Western achievements. However, she backed the abolition of the traditional entry examinations against fierce protest voiced by conservative officials and championed the “New Learning”, the Western schools instead. Finally, she even advocated the promulgation of a new constitution, a constitution she had resolutely obstructed during the Hundred Days Reform in 1898. Nevertheless, Cixi’s reforms were at all times aimed at preserving her own power. The portrayal of this diversity is considered to have been successfully achieved by the series.
Prior to shooting, the series the actress Lü Zhong studied the role and Cixi’s history intensively. She sighted large amounts of material and did not wish to mould her interpretation of Cixi according to existing examples given in films and newspapers. She said that she played Cixi according to her own interpretation and as a result of intensive study of the historical person. For the actress the woman and human being Cixi in her very own personal and natural way was central. The special characteristic of the feudal system, she said, was the blending of state power and private emotions, and it was this very blend that characterised Cixi. This is especially lucid in the relationship of Cixi to the Guangxu emperor: when Cixi turned sixty, the Guangxu emperor had long been old enough to reign himself (historically speaking, he was officially already ruling the country himself, but the series depicts this differently and dramatises the situation). Cixi wished to retire to the Summer Palace. Yet, she continued to insist on being informed of the proceedings in the palace. Whenever it appeared necessary to her, she intervened and controlled decisions. When the emperor wished to carry out the Hundred Days Reforms, she saw not only the dynastic regime threatened but also her personal and well-established reign at stake. Thus, she interfered, and ultimately even had the emperor placed in confinement. This was in fact the kind of punishment a mother would inflict upon her little bad son, not a punishment for an emperor. And it was precisely this strained mother-son relationship which lay at the bottom of the political developments that followed it, shaping historical events relevant to the entire Chinese nation.
Former president Jiang Zemin (who has been paralleled to Cixi in media discussions on the series) personally criticised the series’ portrayal of Cixi saying it is inappropriate to depict Cixi as a politician when in fact she was no more than a feudalist autocrat.
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