Essay about Sterling Seagrave's Dragon Lady

It is often debated whether an individual person can make a difference. Whether an individual can change or help shape history. Throughout all of our World’s history, there have been many empires; some have prospered, while others have failed. At the heart of the more successful and enduring empires, typically, is a strong leader. The most successful leaders have unified feuding nations, brought law and order to regions where only chaos existed, and drove change; carrying their countries and people into the future. One such leader was Shi Huangdi. Shi Huangdi was born Zhao Zheng in 259 BCE, once in power he changed his name to Shi Huangdi, this means the “First Emperor”. He did this with the belief that all of China’s royal posterity would run through his bloodline. “Shi Huangdi was the first emperor of the Qin dynasty in the third century BCE” (Blackwell). Shi Huangdi ruled the Qin dynasty for a very brief time and isn’t one of China’s more celebrated rulers; largely because harsh rule and cruel methods of imposing punishment. However, during his reign, laws were established, great progress was made, China flourished, and Shi Huangdi cemented himself in history forever.

In the history of imperial China, The Tang dynasty Empress Wu Zetian occupies a unique place. She is the only one Empress that ruled a dynasty in China with its thousand years of history. For almost 50 years she enjoyed the supreme power, first she was in partnership with Tang Gaozong, a ruler usually considered weak and ineffectual, later as de facto regent for her youngest son and finally, from 690 to 705 A.D., as China’s sole female emperor. Her rise from the obscurity of Tang Taizong’s harem was dramatic and her pursuit of power was ruthless. Her political policies were controversial and her lifestyle flamboyant.

Empress Wu climbed the political and social ladders from being a member of Emperor Taizong’s harem to ruling the empire of Gaozong from “behind the curtain” several years later. When Gaozong died in 683 she maintained control of the throne as regent to her sons before claiming the throne for herself in 690. Being a singular female empress was an extremely foreign thought in this time and Empress Wu tactfully employed acts of patronage to legitimize her right to the throne.

Empress Dowager Longyu's contribution to the nation seems to be minimal, as she was so preoccupied with court politics that the affairs of the nation were not her priority. Living completely insulated from the world in the Forbidden City, she was unable to sense the tide of history or adjust to its changing times.

All throughout history and in different regions of the world, ambitious female rulers have discovered that their greatest challenge was to overcome society’s negative perception of women gaining power. As did all rulers, female leaders also had to overcome obstacles in times of political disorder in order to gain power. The theme of a female ruler’s ability to overcome challenges in times of political turmoil has manifested similarly and differently in the rule of Chinese Empress Wu and England’s Queen Elizabeth I. The megalomaniacal Empress Wu has garnered sizable attention for being the first and only empress of China and for her devious methods to gain the title and violent tendencies to keep it. Queen Elizabeth has been praised for becoming

Empress Dowager was the last remaining ruler from the Manchu dynasty or the Qing dynasty. Her reign was only secondary to the male heir to the throne but she essentially ruled the country and influenced policy. Her ascent to power began when she was part of the Emperor Xianfeng’s court. She and Xianfeng produced a male heir Tongzhi. After Xianfeng’s death, Tongzhi was appointed heir to the thrown by his mother Cixi. Her ruthlessness thus started when it was said that she poisoned her own son according to the Film: China: The roots of Madness. Others have postulated other accounts of what happened to her son. “Shrewd, determined and ruthless, Cixi had no intention of relinquishing power and when her son came of age at 17 she kept him busily

In the feudal era of China, when Confucianism played a dominant role in human thoughts and was the measure for all ethical standards, so that a woman became the Emperor, holding power absolutely could not be possible. The men chauvinism affected deeply in the root of each generations, each classes in the society which is heavily feudal as China. But Wu Zetian, from a very normal woman, with her intellect, cunning and also cruelty, she rose to be the Emperor and till now, she was the only female Emperor in Chinese history.

The novel of “Empress Orchid” is dated back to the historical times in ancient China. As an ethnic Chinese born and raised in Canada, I found this book to be very relatable as the customs and traditions that are mentioned in the novel still holds true today, but at the same time unbelievable in its tactics in rivalry for the emperor’s attention. Although I could understand the character’s rationale for the decisions they make and the way they make sense of their actions, I could not empathize with the means to how the character acts to achieve the ends. In the novel “Empress Orchid” by Anchee Min, the theme of power achieved through struggle is indicative throughout the novel and the story is one of a compelling journey that witnesses the hardships

Growing up in the large country China, I have noticed the nation has suffered from many difficulties beginning in the early 1793’s. In my opinion, everything that has happened to China between 1793 and 1912 have been nothing but damaging to China’s lifestyles. Some of the harshest events that China experienced were the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, and the Boxer Rebellion. Some people would not agree that these series of rebellions hurt our country and some do agree. China was one of the strongest empires until Lord Macartney’s Visit- when the empire came to an end.

Jung Chang’s “Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China” is a biography of three generations of women growing up in an era of China where the continued change in leaders and their politics contributed to their struggles as women. Women were seen as second class citizens in every aspect of their lives. Jung Chang begins the story with the life of her grandmother who was a warlord’s concubine, her mother’s life as the wife of a communist party leader, and her coming of age during the Cultural Revolution. While there has been some advancement in each era for women, there are universal issues which are still prevalent in today’s China. In order to demonstrate the advancement of women, I will discuss the roles of women through each woman’s era. There is also a need to address the lack of representation of women from a political and economic aspect as they relate to current day in China and the treatment of women activists who dare to fight back. Because of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which was designed to do away with the old ways of China, some might argue that women are no longer excluded from the social and political decisions.

To discuss this I will be joined by Professor Catherine Chan, a lecturer of Modern Chinese History at Kings College

From an oversimplified perspective, the history of China would be understood as just a history of the changes of dynasties, and there had been no “progress” or “advance” before the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which overthrew China’s last imperial dynasty; however, the preface of the book says, seeing the history of China from the inside makes it possible to discover the gradual but

The T’ANG Dynasty is known not just by being the second largest and enduring empire after the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – A.D. 220), but also by being a time of apogee and reunification between North and South China. Such reunification dates it’s beginning from “the end of the sixth century under the short-lived Sui Dynasty (581-617)” . However, it was during the T’ANG Dynasty itself that China could see such reunification. Moreover, it was thanks to this ‘formal reunification’ during this period time that China became one of the most prosperous empires of the time. Growing in military power and governmental structure, wealth, and in culture, the T’ANG Dynasty earn the qualification of “Cosmopolitan Empire,” and “China’s Golden Age.”

The Empress Dowager Tzi-his (1835-1908) was a unique ruler unlike any other China had ever seen. She is considered to be one of the most influential people in Chinese history, a rarity in the male dominated Chinese world. The empress dowager exerted great power over the Chinese empire and influenced the political structure in ways it had never been influenced before, making many great reforms that she believed would help the Chinese people.

In November 29, 1835, a girl was born to a noble Manchu family in China. Her birth name was not recorded, but many people now remember her as Empress Dowager Cixi. In 1849, when she was fourteen, she was one of 60 nominees for the position of imperial concubine. Fortunately, after a two-year preparation period, she was selected by the current Empress Dowager and would serve Emperor Xian Feng as a fourth-rank concubine. It is an incredibly steep climb to become an Empress, or even more, someone who has power over the entire Empire. As a women and a low-rank concubine, Cixi had to fight her way to the top, therefore she encountered many