Women in Power---Empress Wu and Cixi

Empress Dowager Cixi accompanied by Princess Der ling on a snowy day

Today, a Malaysian friend Krystle sent me dozens of photos of Cixi, which inspired me to write sth. on women and politics.

The most well-known women who ever held power in Chinese history were Empress Wu Zetian in Tang Dynasty and Empress Dowager Cixi. Both women were professional in political intrigues and grabbing power in their own hands. They were both ruthless in oppressing their political rivals, even when they were their sons.

The difference between these two women, was that firstly, Empress Wu was a real Emperor, which title Cixi never managed to attain for herself. Secondly, Empress Wu's time was one of the most prosperous period in Chinese history while Cixi's time was one of the worst ones. Thirdly, Tang Dynasty is more than 1000 years away from now so that we don't know and can never find out many details concerning court intrigues, however, as Qing's fall is only one century away, we know more or less of many details happened in the court. As a result, Cixi's reputation today is somehow 'notorious' compared to the generally well-recognized 'sage Empress Wu'. However, in my opinion, if these two women shift their eras, Empress Wu might become exactly someone like Cixi, while Empress Dowager Cixi would become someone like Empress Wu. Empress Wu was accused of murdering her own daughter and son because of the desire for power, however, as it was so long ago, no one can testify if they had been actually assasinated or not. In the case of Cixi, as it's been only 100 years, we are still allowed to dig out Guangxu Emperor's bones to examine the percentage of arsenic in his corpse to prove our assumption.

I've seen feminists argue for Empress Dowager Cixi, saying that she wrongly carries all the blames upon her only because she was a woman.The French philosopher Montesquieu, being a very open-minded man of his time, said in his great work 'L'esprit des Lois' that women should be granted equal rights with men in every sphere of life, including the possibility of becoming ruler of a country. Indeed, we see this truth uttered by Montesquieu well-recognized in a great part of the world today, that women are equally qualified to become political leaders as men do. However, I can hardly agree with what he said later on: As women are more tender than men in nature, they are even more qualified than men to become rulers as they suit every political institution i.e, they would remain moderate even in a despot state and not abuse the power. But from the experience in history, women despots who ran a country were more or less the same with their male counterparts, i.e they did abuse their power. Empress Dowager Cixi was a good example. Being a woman ruler should never be an excuse for commiting atrocities when in power. If this positive discrimination is not adjusted, women can never seek to be really equal with men.

I have always being curious to know what Guangxu Emperor would think of Empress Wu Zetian, as in history, opinions upon her were generally negative for not only that she was a woman, but that she usurped power from her sons and the legitimate Li clan. Yesterday, I found something on this which shocked me: On commenting on whether Li Xian, Wu's son should rebel against his 'tyrannic' mother, Guangxu expressed: Wu is the Prince and Li the Vassal, Wu is the Mother and Li the Son. How can a Vassal rebel against his Prince and a Son rebel against his Mother? Guangxu must well know that it was possible that Wu murdered her own son (history books at that time all suggested this), however, even in this case, he said that the son should not rebel. See how he had been brainwashed by Cixi with the Confucian virtue of 'filial piety! I would really like to know what he thought of his 'Imperial Biological Father' when he was struggling on deathbed, knowing that the arsenic had been most likely sent by Cixi.