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Rh when they forced him to appoint them to high positions in the government, irrespective of their qualifications. He thus lost the support of many able Chinese officials who might otherwise have come to his aid when the revolution broke out in 1911. Having yielded at every point on essential matters he had finally to yield to the abdication of his son and to the extinction of the dynasty.

The career of Empress Hsiao-ch'in in the Palace began in 1860 and ended with her death in 1908. For thirty-seven of those years she ruled the Palace and those nearest her with virtually absolute power, and for eleven years she ruled indirectly—a total of forty-eight years. Her outstanding endowments were an unquenchable ambition, a love of power, a love of money, and a physical vitality which almost never failed. She knew both the strength and weaknesses of men in high places; tactfully she used their talents to carry out great policies, and did not scruple to take advantage of their foibles for ends both selfish and cruel. She was superstitious, but in matters of policy was realistic. Considering her limited advantages, she gained a broad view of Chinese literature and a good working knowledge of Chinese documentary style. She was interested in music and art, and the theatre owed much to her patronage. Her calligraphy was better than average and she could also paint. After the Boxer turmoil she took sufficient interest in Western customs and modes of social intercourse to appoint, as ladies-in-waiting, two daughters of Yü-kêng 裕庚, one-time minister to Japan (1895–98) and to France (1899–1902). These young women knew several foreign languages and served as interpreters when the Empress Dowager entertained Western guests. One of them, known as "Princess" Der Ling, wrote several accounts of her experiences in the Palace, giving interesting sidelights on the Empress Dowager and her Court.

[1/220/17a; Ch'ing Huang-shih ssŭ-p'u (see under ); Ch'ing lieh-ch'ao hou-fei chuan kao (see under ); Chin-liang, 清后外傳 Ch'ing-hou wai-chuan; ibid, 四朝佚聞 Ssŭ-ch'ao i-wên;, Yüeh-man t'ang jih-chi; Hsi-hsün ta-shih chi (see under ); Tso Shun-shêng, Chung-kuo chin pai-nien shih tzŭ-liao (see under ); Ch'ü Hung-chi, 聖德紀略 Shêng-tê chi-lüeh; Ch'ai E 柴萼, 梵天廬叢錄 Fan-t'ien lu ts'ung-lu, chüan 2, 3; Johnston, R. F., Twilight in the Forbidden City (1934), chapters 1–6; Wu Yung 吳永, The Flight of an Empress (1936), translated by Ida Pruitt; Der Ling, Two Years in the Forbidden City (1911); Conger, Sara P., Letters from China (1909); Headland, I. T., Court Life in China (1909); Carl, Katharine A., With the Empress Dowager (1905); Malone, C. B., History of the Peking Summer Palaces Under the Ch'ing Dynasty (1934), pp. 194–218; See also bibliographies under , , and .]

2em

 HSIAO-chuang Wên Huang-hou 孝莊文皇后, Mar. 28, 1613–1688, Jan. 27, was a secondary consort of (q.v., later canonized as Emperor T'ai-tsung) and the mother of  who ruled under the reign-title, Shun-chih. She was a Mongol princess, the daughter of Jaisang 寨(宰)桑, a prince of the Korcin Mongols and descendant of a brother of Ghenghis Khan. She belonged to the distinguished clan of Borjigit 博爾濟吉特. Jaisang's sister, Empress, was the wife of Abahai, their marriage taking place in 1614.

When she came to Abahai in 1625 Empress Hsiao-chuang was thirteen sui and twenty years his junior. A year later (1626) Abahai ascended the throne. In the following ten years she gave birth to three of his daughters: the fourth, Yatu 雅圖 (Princess Yung-mu 雍穆, 1629–1678); the fifth, Atu 阿圖 (Princess Shu-hui 淑慧, 1632–1700); and the seventh, Princess Tuan-hsien 端獻 (1633–1648). In 1636, when Chinese customs were adopted in Abahai's Court, Hsiao-chuang was given the title of a secondary consort (Chuang Fei 莊妃) and her aunt was made Empress. In 1638 Hsiao-chuang gave birth to Abahai's ninth son, Fu-lin. Abahai died in 1643 and Fu-lin succeeded him. When the Manchu Court moved from Mukden to Peking in 1644, and Fu-lin, then aged seven (sui), became Emperor of China, Hsiao-chuang was made Empress Dowager. After her aunt's death in 1649 she assumed full control inside the Palace and was given in 1651 the title, Empress Dowager Chao-shêng (昭聖皇太后). In the same year (1651) she arranged the marriage of Fu-lin with her own niece, the daughter of her brother, Ukšan 吳克善 (d. 1665). After Fu-lin deposed his wife in 1653 Empress Hsiao-chuang arranged that he should marry her own grandniece, Empress Hsiao-hui (孝惠章皇后, 1641–1718). Possibly thereafter she and her son were not on intimate terms. The decision of Fu-lin to restore the power of the eunuchs (see under ) may  300