The Last Empress has been remembered as one of history's most monstrous women--a ruthless Manchu concubine who seduced and murdered her way to the throne in 1861 to rule China through perversion, corruption, and intrigue for half a century. Yet Sterling Seagrave's magnificent biography of the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi is both a timely reassessment of the myth and an unsparing account of the imperialism from which it arose.

The Last Empress has been remembered as one of history's most monstrous women--a ruthless Manchu concubine who seduced and murdered her way to the throne in 1861 to rule China through perversion, corruption, and intrigue for half a century. Yet Sterling Seagrave's magnificent biography of the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi is both a timely reassessment of the myth and an unsparing account of the imperialism from which it arose.

Drawing on a vast array of sources, penetrating the secrecy of the Forbidden City, and the sanctimony of Tzu Hsi's Victorian biographers (the most respected of whom turns out to have been a confidence man and amateur pornographer), Dragon Lady gives the most vivid and accurate portrait to date of the much-maligned last empress. It is also a riveting chronicle of China's terminal encounter with the West and an astute look at the conquerors' need to create a monster where they could not find one.

     Cast of Characters

      Autbor's Note

PROLOGUE  Flowers in the Back Garden

ONE    Lady Yebenara

Two    Foreign Devils

THeE   The Palace Coup

FOUR    Behind a Gauze Curtain

FIVE    Two Men on a Horse

six     Life in a Yellow Mist

SEVEN   Suicide of a Phoenix

EIGHT    "Our Hart"

NINE   A Hostage to Etiquette

TEN    The New Ironbats

ELEVEN   The Wild Fox

TWELVE  The Puppet Show

THIRTEEN  The Betrayal

FOURTEEN  The Fugitive

FIFTEEN  Poisoned Pen

SIXTEEN   The Sly Pornographer

SEVENTEEN Weed People

EIGHTEEN  Something Wicked This Way Comes

NINETEEN  A Mad,Rotten Scheme

TWENTY    The Siege of Peking

TWENTY-ONE  Chinese Takeaway

TWENTY-TWO  Forked Tongue

TWENTY-THREE  The Dragons Flee

TWENTY-FOUR  “That OdiOUS Woman”

TWENTY-FIVE  Hunting Snipe

TWENTY-SIX Hatching the Dragon Lady

EPILOGUE   Dynasty's End

    Notes

    Bibliography

    Acknowledgments

    Index