1Until the end of the eighteenth century, China was regarded in the West as a faraway land of beauty, pleasure and wisdom. Poetry, fiction and travel reports praised its philosophy, art, literature and even its landscape. This Western admiration of the genius and wisdom of China was based on the Enlightenment doctrine of uniformitarianism, the view that all men and societies are essentially alike in their intellect and taste and that all customs and values differing from the norm should be discouraged. But commercial expansion and competition in the nineteenth century brought about an abrupt change in attitude. As Western traders accelerated their efforts to extend and increase their activities on Chinese soil, they heightened and magnified traditional Chinese xenophobia, which in turn created Western waves of suspicion and mistrust eventually reflected in literary compositions of all kinds. The earlier romantic view held in the West did not disappear entirely, however, but existed side by side with realistic disparagement. This dichotomy derived partly from the changing perceptions and expectations of Western observers themselves, and partly from the diversity in geography and culture of the Chinese nation, internal variations which are almost as striking as those between the national culture of China and that of Korea or Japan. « La diversité qui a de tous temps caractérisé la Chine se manifeste également sur le plan humain » [1]. Some Western observers, however, have not only been impervious to these distinctions, but have regarded the culture of the Far East as a single phenomenon, a concept of orientalism somewhat resembling that debated today in cultural theory.

2Cultural myths may derive from historical personages or literary creations. The name of the British Queen Victoria, for example, has been used to identify the moral standards of her age as self-righteous or hypocritical. Ci-Xi, whose reign was almost contemporaneous with that of Queen Victoria, has also been transfigured into a cultural icon, but one with a blend of various characteristics almost as diverse as those associated with the major cultures of the Far East. She has been portrayed in a group of Western historical novels as both the essence of the femme fatale and that of the eternal feminine – as a brutal autocrat and a caring mother. She has been affectionately described as « Old Buddha » and ironically portrayed as « le seul homme » of China. The inspiration for these novels was the personality and exploits of the woman herself rather than any outstanding political events or developments during her regime. Indeed China at that time was going through a period of political and social decline. Ci-Xi’s life, therefore, throws more light on the culture than the history of China. In a sense she serves as a stereotype for the Far East itself. The term « exoticism » has gone out of fashion, but Western novels about the Empress Dowager superbly illustrate what is meant by that term, the lure of the unknown, the mysterious, and the far away. Exoticism of this kind prevails in fiction rather than in straight history. Nearly every chapter in Western novels about Ci-Xi contains some explanation of cultural differences.

3Western works of history have had a decided influence on the portrayal of Ci-Xi’s personality; some of them picture her as an oversexed tyrant and others as a highly intelligent and dedicated administrator. The first extreme is represented by two British historians, J. O. P. Bland and Edmund Backhouse, who described her in their China under the Empress Dowager, 1910, as a sexually promiscuous autocrat ruling with extreme cruelty [2]. Almost a century later, however, an American journalist in an extensive historical biography branded their depiction as « scholarly hoax and deliberate pornography » [3].

4The first Western historical novel about Ci-Xi, Tuen, Slave and Empress, published in 1898 while Ci-Xi was still alive, came from the pen of an American journalist, Kathleen Gray Nelson, who had never visited China and knew practically nothing about it [4]. Her book is consequently much closer to myth than to reality. Completely unaware of Ci-Xi’s real name and her origins in a titled Manchu family, Nelson calls her by a variant of Tzu-An, which was the honorific title given in 1861 to her co-regent while she herself received that of Tzu-Hsi [Ci-Xi]. In real life, she entered the palace in 1853 as one of a group of concubines chosen from the cream of society. Nelson, however, depicts her in flight from her birthplace with her mother and father during the Taiping Rebellion in 1850. As a caring and dutiful daughter she persuades her father to sell her as a slave so that her parents may have the means of living out their old age. Nelson also introduces a benevolent foreigner who befriends them and intrigues the young girl with his « Jesus doctrine ». On her 60th birthday, the Christian women of China present her with a New Testament, after which the narrative abruptly ends. The novel has a preface by a Methodist bishop, further supporting the fantasy of favorable links between Ci-Xi and Christianity.

5Because of these egregious flaws, it is somewhat surprising that a work as naive and inept could have been published at all. Far better informed treatments were appearing in the United States at the time, including a magazine article giving an essentially accurate picture of Ci-Xi’s career [5]. Also an attack on both China and the Empress Dowager appeared in 1900 in a vitriolic book, China the Long-Lived Empire by Eliza R. Scidmore. Ci-Xi is condemned as a « despotic ruler » and accused not only of « petticoat tyranny and bullying of poor Kwangsu », the legitimate emperor, but also of engineering the murder of her predecessor Empress Akuta thirty years previously [6].

6Much of the aura of feminine charm and domestic virtue associated with the Empress Dowager derives from two American women and a Chinese lady of the court who eventually became an American citizen and wrote a series of books touching on Ci-Xi’s personality. The first of these, Mrs. Sarah Pike Conger, wife of the American minister, on the strength of merely two encounters with Ci-Xi at formal receptions for wives of the diplomatic corps, published an extensive book, Letters from China with Particular Reference to the Empress Dowager [7]. In it she considers the empress « a great woman », [viii] finds in her « no traces of cruelty » [41] and praises almost fulsomely « her marked love for her country and for her people, and how earnestly she was reaching out to uplift the masses » [367]. Because of judgments like this, Bland and Backhouse consider Conger as « simple minded » [8] although two modern scholars, Boothroyd and Détrie, more kindly observe she has « brought to her observations an enthusiasm and good will without limits » [9].

7One of Mrs. Conger’s positive gestures was to suggest that Ci-Xi sit for her portrait to be painted by an American female artist, the portrait to be exhibited at the approaching St. Louis Exposition in 1904. The chosen artist, Katharine A. Carl, published her observations, essentially a white-wash, in With the Empress Dowager of China, 1906 [10]. She specifically rejects the « false statements » of Western journalists [xxi] and the « learned explanations of the many clever Sinologues, whose works abound » [xxiv]. At her first interview she could not believe that « this kindly looking lady… could be the so-called cruel implacable tyrant, the redoubtable “old” Empress Dowager, whose name had been on the lips of the world » [6]. Completely won over, Carl described the empress as « at once a child and a woman with strong virile qualities », unconsciously summarizing one of the major anomalies of the myth, its combination of masculine and feminine characteristics. Although « the very embodiment of the Eternal Feminine », she was as an unnamed « distinguished Frenchman » had said « le seul homme de la Chine » [101]. Carl observes, furthermore, that « Her Majesty is Universal, the Emperor is typically Oriental », [65] an opinion just the opposite of the usual one based on the Emperor’s presumed greater interest in reform and Westernization. Carl affirms that the emperor « knows and the world will soon see, that Her Majesty the Empress Dowager is also vowed to Progress for China; that she is not anti-Progressive, nor against reform » [69]. Carl specifically denies the rumors that Ci-Xi had encouraged the Boxers and that she was plotting to take the life of the emperor [262-264].

8On the heels of Carl’s reminiscences, the palace interpreter, Miss Yu-kang, brought out between 1911 and 1935 four books, all more or less connected with Ci-Xi. Having spent only two years in the palace, she married an American soldier of fortune Thadeus C. White, gave herself the title of Princess Der Ling, and eventually published in the United States several books under this name. The first of these, Two Years in the Forbidden City, 1911, treats her personal contacts with the Empress, which were not very extensive, and a later one Old Buddha, 1928, gives a fictionalized version of Ci-Xi’s entire life. Noting that many Chinese considered the empress to be an uncivilized barbarian because of her Manchu blood, Der Ling affirms that she wanted to be a man and ordered everyone to address her as one; the young emperor even called her « dear father » [11]. Der Ling, moreover, is the source of the quotation most widely attributed to Ci-Xi in the West : « I have often thought that I am the most clever woman that ever lived and others cannot compare with me. Although I have heard much about Queen Victoria and read a part of her life which has been translated into Chinese, still I don’t think her life was half as interesting and eventful as mine… Now look at me, I have 400,000,000 people, all dependent on my judgment… [A]nything of an important nature I must decide by myself » [12].

9In Old Buddha, which is biographical in form and fictional in content, Der Ling professes to put to rest the idle stories about the empress circulated by scandal-mongers in Peking tea houses, chief of which is that two of the Palace eunuchs were not actually emasculated and that she had been the mistress of both and born a son to one [13]. She also denies the rumor that Ci-Xi had had sexual contact with her girlhood sweetheart Jung Lu either before or after she entered the palace. She similarly contests the rumor that Ci-Xi had murdered her own son in order to advance to the regency, but admits that she had prodded her son’s pregnant wife to commit suicide [170-72]. Although Der Ling in her preface maintains that she and Ci-Xi loved each other, she is extremely critical of the latter’s treatment of her nephew, the emperor Kwang Hsu, declaring that she was « many times a monster » at his death bed [522]. Since all of these events took place before Der Ling began her two years’ residence at the palace, her narratives provide no assurance of authenticity even though they contributed greatly to the legend of the Empresss Dowager’s masculine lust for power.

10Charles Pettit in his title La Femme qui commanda à cinq cents millions d’hommes, 1928, exaggerates Ci-Xi’s powers since in reality she governed merely 400,000,000 individuals [14]. He also associates the aura of mystery surrounding her personality with oriental institutions of government. Presumably Ci-Xi was able to carry on her amorous intrigues with impunity because of the secrecy and isolation in which she reigned. « When a ruler assumes divine attributes it is wise and proper that a certain mystery should surround the throne ! This fact has always been clearly comprehended by Asiatic autocrats, be it in China, Korea, or Japan » [142]. Pettit also emphasizes the six centuries of opposition between oriental and occidental races and cultures. As a result of Western incursions in 1861, Ci-Xi’s life became « poisoned by an underlying rancour, a savage hatred of the Occidental races ! » [100] Pettit describes her as both « a super-woman » and « the loveliest woman in China » as well as selfish, scheming, and obsessed by sex. As an example of inflexible cruelty or indomitable courage, she orders that a group of intruding Boxers be « immediately beheaded before her eyes » [292]. Unable to control her libidinous desires in later life, she has young men brought to her bed at night and poisoned the next morning [238]. When her son becomes emperor, she encourages him to engage in lascivious activities in order to strengthen her authority over him [187]. On her deathbed she allegedly commanded, « Never again allow a woman to assume the supreme power, or eunuchs to meddle with affairs of State », [318] an utterance derived almost verbatim from the now discredited work of Bland and Backhouse [15].

11Bluebell M. Hunter’s The Manchu Empress, 1945, presumably based on two « biographical Chinese novels », has as its purpose « to remove the utmost scorn often lavished upon the China of the past as a nation cruel, backward and incapable of modern advancement » [16]. Despite this noble objective, the preface affirms that Ci-Xi’s career, « with its admixture of bloodthirsty ruthlessness and hypnotic fascination », was guided by three main passions, « lust for unbridled power, thirst for pleasure, often of the baser kind, and a positive hatred of every sort of European influence ». The text demonstrates her cruelty in the form of a petulant mood in which she orders a palace maid to be flogged into insensibility [274]. Her « ardent temperament » is said to have possessed « an exaggerated share of what Chinese fastidiousness glossed over by terming it the romantic side of life » [44]. Out of curiosity to see a Westerner, Ci-Xi dresses as a sing-song girl, has the English General Gordon introduced into a room in the Chief Eunuch’s residence and offers herself to him, but he shows no interest [62]. She also has sexual relations with an actor witnessed by her son [62]. In the same year, a life of Ci-Xi by Maurice Collis appeared in the form of a closet drama, The Motherly and the Auspicious (a translation of the honorific title Ci-Xi, which happens to be a close approximation of Ewigeweibe) [17]. She is portrayed as « the grand adventuress », [11] whose « blind selfishness » led to innumerable « murders and usurpations » [13]. She had no masculine traits, but was « the quintessence of the feminine » [29]. Collis explains the apparently incompatible elements of her stereotype : « In Europe the eternal feminine is supposed to be allied with softness and surrender. But this is not the Asian view; if there is apparent softness, it is the softness of the morass. The feminine has its equal place in the balance of Heaven and Earth, but its domain is distinct, and when it enters that of the masculine, it turns all upside down » [29].

12Peter Bourne’s Twilight of the Dragon, 1954, also uses Ci-Xi as a principal character in a literary genre diverging somewhat from that of biographical fiction [18]. In this fanciful narrative, Ci-Xi has a wealthy maiden kidnapped as a secondary wife for the emperor and attempts to have sexual relations with the girl’s lover under the threat of turning him into a palace eunuch if he refuses.

13Muriel Molland Jernigan’s Forbidden City, 1954, accepts wholesale the femme fatale image and embroiders it with the myth of oriental inscrutability [19]. Ci-Xi’s face is « impassive », and she resolves not « to show fear or pain, sorrow or anger, even delight by word or look » [21]. As a girl she had been taught that « girls and women are nothing… Boys and men, they rule the universe » [8]. When her nurse-maid tries to persuade her that a woman can make her way in the world only by controlling the men around her through sex and procreation, Ci-Xi replies that she will depend upon neither, but enforce her own will openly and directly [45].

14Despite this vigorous statement, Jernigan turns her protagonist into an oriental sex symbol. Ignoring the rigid rules that kept the precincts of the palace completely shut off from the outside world, she portrays Ci-Xi while still in her teens being smuggled inside, where she and Jung Lu witness a nude couple engaged in intercourse [94]. The eunuch who had arranged this display, perceiving her erotic proclivities, suggests to the chief eunuch that she be selected as a royal concubine. Before the selection process, however, she and Jung Lu consummate their mutual physical attraction. When she is subsequently chosen as a concubine, she passes the virginity test by giving her jade bracelets to the chief midwife [167]. She then wins the emperor’s favor, not by her sexual charms, but by her story-telling skills as a « second Scheherazade » [175]. Eventually they have sexual contact, and Ci-Xi becomes the favorite, bringing about mutual animosity between her and her kinswoman Sakota, later co-regent [178]. In the meantime Jung Lu bribes the eunuchs to arrange a secret door from her apartment to an underground passage, making frequent liaisons possible. When she becomes pregnant, she hopes that the infant will turn out to be Jung’s, but its features leave no doubt about the emperor’s paternity. When a peasant girl brought in as a wet nurse takes the emperor’s fancy and is elevated to the concubine status, Ci-Xi’s eunuchs arrange her death. She eventually has a child by Jung Lu, hiding her pregnancy by means of heavy robes, and imports a pregnant servant from her family to pose as the mother [242]. Some time later she orders Jung Lu’s arrest when she discovers him in an amorous situation with a palace concubine [329]. All of this is completely fictitious, based on the established myth attributing to her both female sexuality and masculine despotism.

15The most popular of all novels written about Ci-Xi came from the pen of Nobel Prize-winner Pearl Buck, Imperial Woman, 1956, which has been translated into more than a dozen languages [20]. She portrays Ci-Xi sympathetically as an ordinary woman rather than a myth or stereotype and follows historical truth to the degree that it could then be obtained except for accepting Ci-Xi’s amourous relationship with Jung Lu. Instead of dwelling on the allegedly sensual and despotic elements of Ci-Xi’s character, she describes her as possessing a « man’s mind and a woman’s body » and depicts her as a political leader far more capable than her nephew Kwang-Hsu, who reigned as emperor for a brief period under her supervision.

16In her Foreword Buck affirms that in assessing Ci-Xi’s character, she relied in large measure on her personal recollections of how the Chinese people she knew in her childhood had felt about Her Majesty. « The revolutionary, the impatient, hated her heartily, and she hated them. But the peasants and the small-town people revered her ». « Greatest of all her burdens was the burden of herself. Though she was learned beyond the reach of many scholars, she knew her faults and dangers and that, still young and of passionate heart, she could be betrayed by her own desires… A score of various women hid within her frame, and not all were strong and calm. She had her own softness, her fears, her longing for one stronger than she was, a man whom she could trust » [170]. Subsequently Buck emphasizes the great anomaly of Ci-Xi’s character, that she could be « varied, generous and kind » and yet « vengeful and ruthless » [245]. Throughout most of her reign, Ci-Xi was obsessed by the continuing encroachment of foreigners and foreign culture, representing for her almost the incarnation of evil. When toward the end of her life she finally conquered this xenophobia, or when circumstances forced her to come to grips with reality by recognizing and cooperating with the West, she led her nation into the modern world. The conclusion of Buck’s novel is as abrupt as Nelson’s. The palace ladies insist that a sudden rainfall that has brought relief from a disastrous period of drought is a gift from Heaven for her sake. She says « perhaps », and the novel ends.

17The significance of Imperial Woman lies not only in its masterful literary technique, but also in its interpretations. Ci-Xi admits that the greatest mistake in her life was her antagonism to all foreigners, who had represented for her only « railroads, …guns, navies, wars, armies, attacks on other peoples, the seizure of lands and goods » [320]. But eventually she accepts the Western presence and institutes some of the reforms that her advisors had been advocating for years. This change in attitude was the origin of a vital change in Chinese national policy, one of the most important of all international developments at the turn of the nineteenth century.

18No such historical vision accompanies Lucien Bodard’s portrayal of the Empress Dowager in his La Vallée des roses, 1977, which goes beyond mere eroticism to cultivated pornography [21]. Even the metaphor of its title La Vallée des roses like that of Le Roman de la rose of the Middle Ages refers to the erogenous zone [200]. Sadism is suggested by a comparison of Ci-Xi to the notoriously cruel empress Wu of the ninth century. While still a virgin, she is already immersed by the flame of lasciviousness and cruelty [48]. « Elle s’est servie de son corps pour survolter, pour réduire en loque humaine, un faible Empereur » [48]. Before selection as a concubine, Ci-Xi determines to use as a weapon through life the cleft between her legs that she shaves daily. « Elle a confiance en sa délicate fente, la tirelire de son trésor qui, cachée, intacte, est l’enjeu véritable » [19]. Hieng-fong, the emperor, is described as not only debauched and debilitated, but a homosexual. He enjoys transvestites, but finds real women distasteful; and he hates eunuchs, who hate him in return [21-23].

19After entering the palace, Ci-Xi realizes that her future prosperity will depend upon prostituting her body. She allows the chief eunuch to explore all her sexual parts, giving her in the process an ineffable delight and a final complete consummation [90]. As if this is not fantasy enough, she becomes so frustrated when the eunuch temporarily leaves her in solitude that she attempts suicide by thrusting a sharp instrument into her breast. As she is just on the point of expiring, the eunuch arrives, draws out the blade, and administers from a vial on his person a secret Élixir de la Guérison Immédiate that in the matter of a few minutes completely restores her former healthy condition. This is the source of their subsequent collaboration. He asserts his complete control : « Vous ferez tout ce que je voudrai, même ce qu’il y de plus ignoble et de plus dégoûtant » [114]. Almost 100 pages are then taken up describing the physical details of her delivering an heir to the emperor despite his homosexuality. The novel as a whole has more in common with the modern L’Histoire d’O than with any previous portrayal of the empress. The stereotype is modernized and Westernized to an incredible degree.

20Although nearly all of the foregoing novels portray Ci-Xi as the embodiment of the stereotype, she was in many ways its opposite in real life. According to the myth, she violated the most sacred conventions of court behavior and decorum, but in reality the greatest trials she faced derived from her rigid adherence to these conventions.