World History
Chinese Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi - The life of Tzu Hsi, who rose from being a concubine in the Forbidden City to become the empress of China.
From the site:
Tzu Hsi (pronounced "Tsoo Shee" and spelled Cixi in Pinyin) was born on November 29, 1835. Her clan name was Yehonala or Yehenara. Little is known about her background, but according to some accounts her father was a captain in the banner corps that guarded the emperor's home, the Forbidden City.
China at that time was ruled by the Manchus. The Manchus were originally nomads from Manchuria, located northeast of China. Around 220 BC Emperor Shih Hwang-ti of the Ch'in (or Qin) dynasty built a wall to keep Manchus and other barbarians out of China. More walls were built over the next 1,500 years, and the Ming dynasty (which ruled from 1368 to 1644) joined them together, forming the Great Wall of China, which still stands today. It was 1,500 miles long, on average 25 feet tall, and 15 to 30 feet thick at its base. Despite the wall the Manchus ultimately conquered China and established their own dynasty, the Ch'ing dynasty (Qing in Pinyin), so called because they claimed descent from the Ch'in dynasty.
Like the emperor and most other prominent people in China at that time, Yehonala and her family were Manchu, and had little contact with Chinese people. Some writers have claimed that a teenager Yehonala fell in love with a Manchu garrison commander, Jung Lu and they planned to marry. But Yehonala's beauty and charm attracted the attention of others, and at the age of 16 she was chosen to be one of the concubines of Emperor Hsien Feng. Instead of marrying Jung Lu she went to live in the Forbidden City, a vast complex of palaces and gardens run by thousands of eunuchs.
The Forbidden City contained an outer palace with three ceremonial halls where the emperor held audiences. His family lived in the inner palace, surrounded by twelve courtyards where the emperor's concubines lived. Yehonala was now one of those concubines. The emperor would pick which woman he wanted to see each night. To make sure she couldn't smuggle a weapon into his bedroom, she was escorted there by eunuchs and left naked on the foot of the bed.
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World History
Chinese Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi
Chinese Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi - The life of Tzu Hsi, who rose from being a concubine in the Forbidden City to become the empress of China.
From the site:
Tzu Hsi (pronounced "Tsoo Shee" and spelled Cixi in Pinyin) was born on November 29, 1835. Her clan name was Yehonala or Yehenara. Little is known about her background, but according to some accounts her father was a captain in the banner corps that guarded the emperor's home, the Forbidden City.
China at that time was ruled by the Manchus. The Manchus were originally nomads from Manchuria, located northeast of China. Around 220 BC Emperor Shih Hwang-ti of the Ch'in (or Qin) dynasty built a wall to keep Manchus and other barbarians out of China. More walls were built over the next 1,500 years, and the Ming dynasty (which ruled from 1368 to 1644) joined them together, forming the Great Wall of China, which still stands today. It was 1,500 miles long, on average 25 feet tall, and 15 to 30 feet thick at its base. Despite the wall the Manchus ultimately conquered China and established their own dynasty, the Ch'ing dynasty (Qing in Pinyin), so called because they claimed descent from the Ch'in dynasty.
Like the emperor and most other prominent people in China at that time, Yehonala and her family were Manchu, and had little contact with Chinese people. Some writers have claimed that a teenager Yehonala fell in love with a Manchu garrison commander, Jung Lu and they planned to marry. But Yehonala's beauty and charm attracted the attention of others, and at the age of 16 she was chosen to be one of the concubines of Emperor Hsien Feng. Instead of marrying Jung Lu she went to live in the Forbidden City, a vast complex of palaces and gardens run by thousands of eunuchs.
The Forbidden City contained an outer palace with three ceremonial halls where the emperor held audiences. His family lived in the inner palace, surrounded by twelve courtyards where the emperor's concubines lived. Yehonala was now one of those concubines. The emperor would pick which woman he wanted to see each night. To make sure she couldn't smuggle a weapon into his bedroom, she was escorted there by eunuchs and left naked on the foot of the bed.
- Abahai Khan - Manchu Military
Abahai Khan - Manchu MilitaryAbahai (also named Hung Taiji) was the eighth son of Nurhaci, a Jurchen tribal chieftain who founded the Manchu state in what is today northeastern China. Elected by the Hosoi Beile, or council of clan princes and nobles,...
- Dorgon
Prince DorgonDorgon was regent for his nephew between 1644 and 1650. He seized the opportunity offered by Ming general Wu Sangui (Wu San-kuei) to lead the Manchu forces inside the Great Wall and together to defeat the rebels who had seized Beijing (Peking)...
- Southern Ming
Southern MingWhen a frontier people, the Manchus, took over control of China in 1644, Ming dynasty loyalists fled to southern China, where they held out for many years; they became known as the Southern Ming. Over several centuries, descendants of the...
- Wu Sangui (wu San-kuei) - Chinese General
Wu Sangui was the commander of a powerful Ming army stationed at Sanhaiguan (Sanhaikuan), the pass of the Great Wall of China at its eastern terminus. In 1644, faced with a rebel army that had captured Beijing (Peking), and the last Ming emperor dead...
- Zheng Chenggong (cheng Ch’eng-kung)
Zheng Chenggong (or Koxinga) led the longest and most sustained opposition to the Qing (Ch’ing) conquest of China, first from the southern Chinese coast, later from Taiwan after he expelled the Dutch from their forts on the island. His sons held...