Cixi

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Empress Dowager Cixi was the last Dowager Empress of China to hold power. She entered history on November 29, 1835 as a rather ordinary Chinese girl named Yehenara. However, there was a certain prestige in being born to a family from the ruling Manchu minority. At age sixteen, she was brought to the Forbidden City to join Emperor Xianfeng's harem—which may sound like punishment to modern ears, but was considered a swank role for Chinese women of her time. Cixi had extremely sharp political sense and implemetned decisively. However, under her rule, the Qing Dynasty grew more corrupt and its power began to diminish. Cixi was born on born November 29, 1835, to a noble Manchu family in China. Some say that prior to age fourteen, she was a beggar on the streets due to her father's opium and drinking problems. Meanwhile, others believe that she was sold as a sex slave to the emperor by her own father. However, by the age of fourteen, historians know that Cixi was a nominee for the position of the imperial concubine. Cixi once said, "I have had a very hard life ever since I was a young g...

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