The current transliteration of “Tse Si” is “Cixi.”
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FULL TEXT: The London “Daily Telegraph,” in a remarkable
memoir of the late Dowager Empress of China [ruled 1861-1908], reported to have
been written by Sir Robert Hart, says :—
“Tse Si, in the zenith of her power and the flower of her
age, is described by those Mandarins who saw her, as one of the most charming
ladies one could meet in a journey through, the Middle Kingdom. She had grown
into the perfection of womanhood, as Chinamen understand and appreciate it. She
had become fully harmonised with her Imperial surroundings, for, despite her
lowly origin, she possessed the instincts of a queen and the charms of a
sorceress.
There was nothing feverish about her activity, nothing
impulsive in her manner. She was sometimes in haste, but never in a hurry. Her
type of face was that, of a Greek or Italian, rather than a Mongolian woman.
Her eyes were bright and piercing, but her presence, inspired confidence. In
her dealings with her attendants. She could draw with unerring precision the
line between ceremonial stiffness and undue familiarity, arid she compelled
them to keep well within it; but she was served by all with a degree of
devotedness bordering upon affection. Her voice, which was too strident and
harsh to please a European, seemed to the native, accustomed to loudness in
superiors, to have been expressly created for a female ruler. Her powers of
adroitly feigning and seasonably forgetting were unsurpassed, and her
self-control was uncommon even in China, where it seems inborn.
Her authority was usually hidden by grace, her fury often
masked in meekness, and her set purpose disguised when necessary by stimulated
wrath. Her finely chiselled features were but a screen for a soul that would
have suited a tigress. Such was the Chinese Becky Sharp, who presided over the
destinies of the. most ancient kingdom of the globe. If ambition were the mainspring
of this lady’s public acts and power, the only god she worshipped, she was not
by any means insensible to other emotions, and her cult had room for lesser
idols. So long as her late protector was living she was as faithful to him as a
model wife.
But her fidelity was common prudence and love of life. Once
she had the reins of government in her own hands she felt that her baser
appetites were no longer restrained by motives of prudence, and her code of
morals knew none other. In judging a woman like Tse Si it would be unfair to
employ European standards of conduct. Still, even in heathen ethics there are
degrees and limits, and the Chinese parvenu outran them all. She was wont to
select her favourites from among the crowds of students who flocked to Pekin
from all corners of the vast Empire to pass the four examinations which should
throw open to them the portals of fortune and favour, but which for these
chosen ones opened only the gates of death.
She treated all these temporary husbands as Bluebeard dealt
with his wives. As soon as she was tired of one, he passed from the presence of
his Imperial mistress into the hands of the executioner, and was at once
succeeded by another. Love with her was but “a
sighing of hearts and filling up of graves.”
She played with human happiness and human life as a naughty
child with her pretty toys. Her love was
as fierce and as cruel as her hate, and brought certain death to all its
objects. The paramours and the enemies of this Chinese Faustime died in untold
numbers, “unrespited, unreprieved.”
Still there were some few exceptions, else China would have
early lost her most wily diplomatist. Strange, to say, Tse Si manifested traits
which usually bespeak a tender and emotional side in human character. She was
fond of such music as she was able to appreciate, and she was at the pains to
learn to play an instrument.
She also possessed a taste for the art of her own country,
and she acquired some skill in painting, if the pictures attributed to her
brush were indeed her own handiwork. In truth, she was curious of all branches
of culture, and read many Chinese books, including numerous translations from
European tongues. Singularly devoid of prejudices, she eschewed nothing because
it was new, and was quite ready to adopt any innovation which to her own
thinking had anything to recommend it. From physical fear she was absolutely
free.
[“A Female Bluebeard.” The Wanganni Chronicle (N.Z.), Jan.
22, 1909, p. 2]
***
Wikipedia: Empress
Dowager Cixi (Empress Dowager
Tzu-hsi) 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu Yehenara
clan, was a powerful and charismatic woman who unofficially but effectively
controlled the Manchu Qing dynasty in China for 47 years, from 1861 to her
death in 1908.
Selected as an imperial concubine for the Xianfeng Emperor
in her adolescence, she gave birth to a son, in 1856. With Xianfeng’s death in
1861 the young boy became the Tongzh Emperor and she became Empress Dowager.
Cixi ousted a group of regents appointed by the late emperor and assumed
regency, which she shared with the Empress Dowage Ci’an. Cixi then consolidated
control over the dynasty when, at the death of the Tongzhi Emperor, contrary to
the dynastic rules of succession, she installed her nephew as the Guangxu
Emperor in 1875.
Although she refused to adopt Western models of government,
she supported technological and military reforms and the Self-Strengthening
Movement. Cixi rejected the Hundred Days’ Reforms of 1898 as impractical and
detrimental to dynastic power and placed the Guangxu Emperor under house arrest
for supporting reformers. After the Boxer Rebellion and the invasion of Allied
armies, external and internal pressures led Cixi to effect institutional
changes of just the sort she had resisted and to appoint reform-minded
officials. The dynasty collapsed in late 1911, three years after her death, and
the Republican Era was inaugurated 1 January 1912.
Historians both in China and abroad have generally portrayed
her as a despot and villain responsible for the fall of the dynasty, while
others have suggested that her opponents among the reformers succeeded in
making her a scapegoat for problems beyond her control, that she stepped in to
prevent disorder, that she was no more ruthless than other rulers, and that she
was even an effective if reluctant reformer in the last years of her life.
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More: Champion Black Widow Serial Killers
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MORE Female Serial Killers of Asia
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EXCERPT: Cixi ordered executions. The decree that all
foreign prisoners be decapitated was issued by her. numerous Chinese and
foreigners were killed in this manner.
A torturous method of murder was called “slicing.” The
victim was slightly cut repeatedly, scores or hundreds of times, until death
resulted from shock or loss of blood.
Poisoning was another means of murder used by Cixi’s
subordinates and associates. It is believed that she poisoned her nephew. Her
co-dowager and cousin Ci’an (or Niuhuru) died after an unpleasant encounter
with Cixi, with poisoning suspected. …
… When Cixi and her entourage were fleeing the Imperial
Palace during the Boxer Rebellion, she was stopped by her son’s favorite
concubine, known as Pearl Concubine. The girl begged Cixi to stay and defend
Beijing. Cixi ordered that she be tossed into a well in the Forbidden City.
[Di Dirk C. Gibson, Legends,
Monsters, Or Serial Murderers?: The Real Story Behind an Ancient Crime, 2002,
ABC-CLIO, p. 115]
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More: Champion Black Widow Serial Killers
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MORE Female Serial Killers of Asia
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For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.
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[2237-1/13/21]
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Many if not most people murdered through poisoning have been described as having died from natural causes.This is why it is such a popular murder method. ("Her co-dowager and cousin Ci’an (or Niuhuru) died after an unpleasant encounter with Cixi, with poisoning suspected.") I personally do not know the cause of death and would not state definitively, in my own voice, a definitive claim (such as a claim that he definitely "died of natural causes.") I cite the fact that there is a reasonable suspicion and observe that the suspicion is consistent with other claims of Cixi's character.
ReplyDeleteAnswering the question: "Why do you consider Cixi a "black widow?" : "She treated all these temporary husbands as Bluebeard dealt with his wives. As soon as she was tired of one, he passed from the presence of his Imperial mistress into the hands of the executioner, and was at once succeeded by another."