Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China

This book is one of the more readable and accessible books by Sterling Seagrave which I have read (the others being Lords of the Rim and The Yamato Dynasty), and much more enjoyable and interesting to read as well. Dragon Lady is a biography of the Last Empress of China, Tzu His. In a highly readable fashion, Seagrave debunks the popular history of Tzu Hsi as a highly sexed, manipulative and ruthless woman. Instead, Seagrave portrays the Dowager Empress as a mere tool, being manipulated by powerful Manchu Princes and other figures behind the throne of the China for their own ends. The general and popular view of Tzu Hsi has its origins in reportings and books by JOP Bland and Sir Edmund Backhouse. In particular, Backhouse, in the late 19th and early 20th century presented himself as an expert in Chinese Royalty, with particularly close ties to the throne. Of course, Backhouse has long been exposed (since 1974) as a historical fraud, but this has not changed the general and traditional view of Tzu Hsi as being a particularly ruthless and unpleasant character in Chinese history. In fact, in my recent trip to Beijing (formerly Peking) last month, as I toured the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, my tour guide during her narration of the sights mentioned several "facts" about the Empress and her activities which have been debunked by Seagrave as lies and fabrications from the pen of Backhouse. Seagrave easily and deftly fills in the background to the history of China in the 18th and 19th century leading up to Tzu Hsi acceding to the throne as Regent, at the time of an increasing foreign interest in China. Characters are vividly sketched out, ranging from the perceptive Prince Kung, the Empress's brother-in-law who played a significant role in shaping the direction of China for the first decade of Tzu Hsi's rule to Viceroy Li, reputedly at one time China's wealthiest man to the stirrer and malcontent Kang, who played a key role in establishing a negative perception of the Empress in the eye's of the Western world, a perception which many hold to today. Dragon Lady is as much the tale of the myths and legend makers of Tzu Hsi as Tzu Hsi herself, and how they (Backhouse in particular) achieved what they did. Dragon Lady is recommended for those interested in Chinese history, particularly the 19th and early 20th century, and the characters, both Chinese and foreign that played key roles in the downfall of the last Chinese dynasty. Dragon Lady draws upon many sources, some of which is Chinese. As discussed by Seagrave, popular histories of China by Western authors have tended to rely directly on the writings of Backhouse, or rely on books which relied on Backhouse for source material. By avoiding these, Seagrave manages to achieve a much more interesting, and balanced, account of a fascinating period in Chinese history.

Seagrave has made a brilliant career of exploding sacred cows and correcting historical falsehoods and lies, and exposing the criminality and propaganda upon which so much of "history" is built. In this epic account, drawing on overlooked and previously unpublished sources, Seagrave destroys longheld myths (that are still touted as "fact" by most western and Chinese scholars) and presents a startling and critical "flip side" reappraisal of the collapse of the Ching dynasty and the life of the eternally demonized Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi. The demented British propagandists, Edmund Backhouse and J.O.P. Bland, are finally exposed as liars and frauds whose blatant propaganda unfortunately helped define world opinion, and in turn agitated further western atrocities upon China and the Ching regime. Chinese operatives Kang Yu-Wei, and the legion of corrupt ultra-reactionary princes behind the throne (the true power in the late Ching), are also spared no quarter. Tzu Hsi herself is shown to be a somewhat ignorant hostage and figurehead, caught between Ironhat Manchu operatives wreaking havoc internally, and imperialist foreign powers intent on using all pretexts to carve open China and plunder it. More importantly, Seagrave provides evidence that virtually none of the hellish acts attributed to Tzu Hsi ever happened, and backs it up with convincing evidence. She was not the all-powerful and evil murderess and animal as depicted by scores of "world class" intellectuals and East Asian scholars (even Jonathan Spence) and generations of books and films glorifying Tzu Hsi's "reptilian evil". This, along with "Soong Dynasty", is an essential read for anyone who wants a starlingly clear view of late Ching-early Republic era China. Highest possible recommendation.

I read this with great interest while studying that period of history. I expected at first, a run-of-the-mill biography of one of history's most notorious women (I've read several, and a few on Cixi), but instead got a crsip, intelligent, highly entertaining and surprisingly sympathetic account of the last dowager. The authors (Sterling and Peggy Seagrave) have done a great job. Not only is this the most readable account by far, but it's also a daring new take at the myth that she was demonic, debuched, and depraved, showing her as a sad, lonely old woman, cut off by her status and encased in the fast-disintegrating world of the Forbidden City. Not since Cleopatra (though this is arguable) has anyone -a woman, particularly- been so vilified (and even now with more understanding at her story, Cleopatra is still regarded by many to be the epitome of of Oriental decadence, and that was two thousand years ago). The Seagraves' version is more spare in its tone, with rich historical fact and subtle humour. It brings one to mind of Evelyn B. McCune's book EMPRESS, on Wu Zitian (or Wu Jao, as she called her). They have the same narrative verve and refreshing outlook, though DRAGON LADY has the advantage of being a serious biography instead of a historical novel.

Seagrave's book is fascinating. He tells how a corrupt Englishman used the London Times to enhance his own career at the expense of the truth and a Chinese Empress who could not defend herself.The book is rich in contextual detail, written in a lively style (it is genuinely hard to put down), and shows so very clearly why many Westerners are clueless and misguided about China: we have had decades, if not centuries, of bad information.

Tzu Hsi is one of those characters in history that suffers from a gross distortion of her actual person on the pages of conventional history. She has been portrayed as an all-powerful conniving and blood thristy leader of the Chinese Empire shortly before the Revolution of 1911. She is portrayed in the opening scenes of the movie, "The Last Emporer" as the somewhat sinister and ancient woman talking with the young 4-year-old Pu Yi. Sterling Seagrave endeavors in his 1992 book called "Dragon Lady" to dispell the myths that have grown up around the life Tzu Hsi. Futhermore, he reveals that the myths had their start with rumormongering on the part of British and European journalists interested in advancing the interests of Britain in China at the expense of the independent Chinese government, nominally headed by a woman, at the time of the Boxer Rebellion.