Copying the Painting of Plum Blossom and a Pair of Magpies by Tang Zhengzhong (hanging scroll)

Express Dowager Cixi (Cixi Taihou) (1835-1908), also known as Xi Taihou(empress dowager of the Western Palace) and Nala Taihou(empress dowager Nala), of the Manchu Yehenara clan, was an imperial concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor, Qing Dynasty. With Xianfeng’s death in 1861, their six-year-old son, Zai Chun, became the Tongzhi Emperor and she became Empress Dowager, titled in honor of “Cixi”. Then, Cixi Planned with Yixin, the Prince Gong(gongqinwang), to execute the Regent Ministers, and to rule from ”behind the curtains” (chuiliantingzheng) nominally along with Empress Dowager Ci’an. To suppress the Taiping Rebellion and the uprising by the Muslim and the ethnic Miao people from Yunnan, Guizhou, Shaanxi and Gansu Province, Cixi adopted the “Relying on the Foreign Soldiers to Suppress”(jieyangbingzhujiao) policy, relying on the help of foreign invaders and the army forces of Han Chinese landlords. Cixi decided to establish military industries and to train the navy and army under the policies, which are “self-strength” (ziqiang) and “seeking prosperity” (qiufu), of Westernization Group (yangwupai). However, Cixi was subservient to foreign countries, and accepted a series humiliating peace terms.