In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Empress Dowager Cixi – the most important woman in Chinese history – brought a medieval empire into the modern age. Under her, the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state and it was she who abolished gruesome punishments like ‘death by a thousand cuts’ and put an end to foot-binding. Jung Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot andalso takes the reader into the depths of her splendid Summer Palace and the harem of Beijing’s Forbidden City, where she lived surrounded by eunuchs – with one of whom she fell in love, with tragic consequences. Packed with drama, fast-paced and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a woman: as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population, and as a unique stateswoman. Empress Dowager Cixi - Jung Chang od authora Jung Chang a nakladatelství v kategorii Knihy za skvělé ceny na e-shopu Martinus.cz Empress Dowager Cixi is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for 47 years, transforming it from a medieval state into a modern society. This groundbreaking biography will revolutionise historical thinking about a crucial period in Chinas - and the worlds - history, and is another fascinating and gripping read from the author of WILD SWANS and MAO: THE UNTOLD STORY. 'Jung Chang tells a story and what a colourful tale it is...This is history at its most readable.' George Walden Evening Standard