Empress Dowager Cixi

<p><b>Discover the extraordinary story of the woman who brought China into the modern age from the bestselling author of <i>Wild Swans</i></b><br><br> In this groundbreaking biography Jung Chang vividly describes how Empress Dowager Cixi &#150; the most important woman in Chinese history &#150; brought a medieval empire into the modern age. Under her the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state and it was she who abolished gruesome punishments like &#145;death by a thousand cuts&#146; and put an end to foot-binding. Jung Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot and also takes the reader into the depths of her splendid Summer Palace and the harem of Beijing&#146;s Forbidden City where she lived surrounded by eunuchs &#150; with one of whom she fell in love with tragic consequences.<br><br> Packed with drama fast-paced and gripping it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a woman: as the concubine to a monarch as the absolute ruler of a third of the world&#146;s population and as a unique stateswoman.<br><br> <b>&#145;Powerful&#146; Simon Sebag Montefiore</b><br> <b><br> &#145;Truly authoritative&#146;<i> New York Times</i></b><br> <b><br> &#145;Wonderful&#146; <i>Sunday Times</i></b><br> <b><br> **Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Biography Prize**</b></p>