The Uncrowned Queen: Empress Dowager Cixi

Her surname was Yehenala, from the Xianglan Banner of Manzhou (later recruited into the Xianghuang Banner). She was the noble concubine of Emperor Xianfeng and the biological mother of Emperor Tongzhi. She was born in the Qing Dynasty in the first year of Xianfeng (1851) A girl was selected in the palace draft and entered the palace in May of the following year. In the seventh year, she was named Concubine Yi. Xianfeng died of illness in 1861 and Tongzhi ascended the throne. Both she and Queen Xianfeng were revered as empress dowagers. In November of the same year, with the participation of Prince Gong and Prince Chun, she launched the "Beijing Coup" and killed Sushun and other ministers. From then on, the two empress dowagers listened to the government behind the curtain, but Cixi actually held the power. After that, she reused the Han minister Zeng Guofan, killed the Taiping Army, attacked the Queen Mother of the East, favored Xiao Anzi, and had an affair with the harem... Cixi was shrouded in many unsolvable mysteries. She experienced the three dynasties of Xianfeng, Tongzhi and Guangxu, and established three young emperors: Emperor Tongzhi, Emperor Guangxu and Emperor Xuantong. She reigned for 48 years and actually ruled China for almost half a century. The society she experienced in the late Qing Dynasty is almost equivalent to the entire modern history of China.