But the newly named Empress Dowager Cixi quickly ousted them on fabricated charges of incompetence. She then issued imperial edicts "from behind the curtains" that she and Dowager Empress Cian ...

Han Hsiang Li's lush epic re-creates the fascinating life and times of Tzu Hsi, the Manchu Qing dynasty empress who rose from the ranks of Emperor Xianfeng's many concubines to become the de facto ...