Essay: Cixi

Cixi was able to modernize China in a way that no one saw coming. She created a massive empire while her people were outnumbered 1:100 by the Han. “Cixi had foresight, defiance and courage. What she lacked was a mandate.” (Chang Pg 201) She couldn’t have done what she did alone and had no instructions telling her what to do next. Empress Zhen, a lifelong friend of hers, went behind her dead husbands back and created a coup with Cixi. This coup took out the 8 regents that Emporer Xianfeng put in place to rule until his and Cixi’s son was old enough to take charge. This coup was what landed Cixi a position of political power. She was the first of her time to rule behind the curtains. Her relationships with the West and her resourcefulness like creating the coup as a concubine allowed her to successfully expand and rule China.
Cixi started out as a nameless girl who was born into a family with a government employment background. This helped her get noticed by the Emperor Xianfeng and started what led to the development of modern China. Cixi was now a concubine for the Emperor and would always go against what authority had to say. She even tried to give advice to Emperor Xianfeng because she was used to her family accepting what she had to say. When everyone was against working things out with the West and China was at a complete standstill economically, Cixi took it into her own hands to change that. She wanted to open the gates to the West and also be ready for enemy attacks. She noticed that foreign powers had a lot more technological advances than they did and she made it clear she would do whatever it takes to be up to par with every foreign nation.
“Before she retired, she had built up a navy that was the most powerful in Asia, far better equipped than that of Japan.” (Chang Pg. 184) She knew by building up her gunboats and the navy that this would deter Japan from trying to expand into China. The problem was Japan already took over the Liuqiu Islands with their larger navy and faster up-to-date gunboats. Cixi knew we weren’t strong enough to take them on by ourselves so she used the West as a deterrent. She had Earl Li persuade Korea, another country in Japans cross hairs, to open up trade with the Western powers. This way the powerful countries will have a stake in Korea and will feel obligated to fight with them. By 1889, Cixi developed and put out her guideline for naval development. Her plan was to accelerate the modernization of its military, especially the navy. People were upset with Cixi that she would be spending so much of the countries money in one area. They were struck with multiple natural disasters for three years and people became homeless from the flooding. She did try to alleviate poverty during her rule, she initiated large scale food import and each year spent hundreds of thousands on food to feed everyone in need. Cixi always had the big picture in mind.
“Cixi’s reign was the most tolerant in Qing History; people were no longer killed for what they said or wrote, as they had been under previous emperors.” (Chang Pg 141) After opening up to the idea of trading with the West, China and their foreign relations improved and the relationship between China and the US stayed ‘tranquil and satisfactory’. (Chang Pg 141) She was the first of her race and gender to apprehend the problem of the relation of China to the outside world, and the first to make use of this relation to strengthen her dynasty and to promote material progress like the tea trade. Finally, Cixi had ended China’s self-imposed isolation and brought it into the international community. She did this by opening up railways to carry exports which would take care of the poverty due to the increase in international trade for local goods. The Chinese tea was so popular in European countries that they supplied 90% of the western world’s consumption. (Chang, pg 126) Cixi did this because she wanted to benefit her country who had been on a standstill socially and economically. They isolated themselves because of their hatred towards Western ways and it was up to Cixi to fix China. She made such a big impact in the quarter of a century that she ruled.
Cixi thought out everything and meticulously planned modernization until it was executed. For example, in 1882 Earl Li asked for permission to build some textile factories. Cixi objected because she believed this would take away the jobs of the women in her country. Machine-made fabrics not only steal work from the women it hurts their livelihood. Foreign textiles had already become a problem so why inflict damage to themselves. Cixi was always thinking and wanted to maintain tradition of silk production that had been around for thousands of years. The tradition was that every year in spring, the silkworms would come out and the ladies would pray in the Forbidden City to the Gods of the Silkworm that they will be protected. Cixi and the women would feed the little worms and gather the leaves from the mulberry trees. They would watch the silkworm until it enclosed itself inside their cocoon made of silk. Afterwards, the cocoon would be boiled and the thread would be wound into a spool. Cixi kept some of this silk with her since she was a child. She didn’t want to see the old ways disappear altogether. She was determined to make change in some areas and in others she resisted or accepted it reluctantly. “Under her rule, China’s industrialization did not move like a bulldozer out to destroy all traditions.”(Change pg. 128)
Cixi’s goal to make China strong also included making China rich. Cixi and her circle believed that China was so weak because it’s been in a constant state of poverty and needed to adopt western-style industrial projects to gain wealth. Cixi had a telegraph installed for her to keep up communications with Taiwan because Japan had their eyes on it and China wanted to keep it.
Cixi’s overall power derived from her ability to be open-minded as well as being courageous. Cixi took control of a medieval country who didn’t treat women the same as men and didn’t want any foreign influence. She had to rule behind the curtains because of this and had to use her sons to be able to have any say. Her personality helped her get to ruling one third of the world’s population because she was able to make relationships with people in the Forbidden City that had been wrong by the regents of emperor Xianfeng. She was born into this country that was chaotic and didn’t make sense to her. She put all her energy into changing the ways of the country by bringing in modernity. This wiped out all the absolute power, poverty and savagery that people witnessed on a day to day basis.
Cixi was only brutal when she had to be and when her life or her families lives were in jeopardy. For example, she defended herself when Sushun and the other regents tried to prevent the emperor from seeing his officials. Cixi had Sushun executed by decapitation, a much less painful way than death by a thousand cuts. She did this to show she has power and that the coup was in effect. The other two regents arrested were forced to kill themselves because of the crime.
Overall, Cixi was an incredible women who wasn’t given enough credit. She fought since she was young for a better way of life. She witnessed her family suffering from ridiculous rules and fees that they had to obey and pay or else they would be killed. She helped change China by using her voice and personality instead of her looks to make relationships with people who had the same ideas as her. She looked at the West for advice when no one else would dare. She was open-minded when no one else wanted to be and she proved that women can use their brains just as much if not more than men.