Dragons Race in the Water

This is the 2nd book I've read in "The Thinking Girl's Treasury of Dastardly Dames." The first was Catherine De' Medici. Interesting book. Hadn't even known about Cixi before reading this book so learned about her as well as some other interesting things about this time period.......more

Did you know that the Chinese also had empresses as well as emperors? The last Chinese empress was Cixi, who was born on November 29, 1835, in Shanxi province, northern China, the daughter of a minor government official, and most likely spent her childhood in Anhui province. Not much is known about......more

Cixi was born in 1835 to a minor government official. Although her childhood was secretive she always felt she was treated differently than her three sisters. When she was a teenager her mother registered her to work at the palace. She could either be a servant or concubine. Cixi chose the latter. S......more