A review by plumrain
Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang

4.0

On one hand, Cixi was pretty badass, orchestrating a coup at 25 to take control of the empire which she was forced to rule through her son but still managed to pass reforms modernizing China and promoting women's rights. On the other hand, the author seems eager to downplay Cixi's brutality when she was ultimately an autocrat concerned with maintaining dynastic supremacy. Not to mention one of her last acts was to poison the Emperor so he wouldn't ally with Japan after her death. Sounds pretty brutal.