Anchee Min
The Last Empress
The second book in the Empress Orchid series, 2007
AUTHOR'S NOTE
All of the characters in this book are based on real people. I tried my best to keep the events the way they were in history. I translated or transcribed the decrees, edicts and newspaper articles from the original documents. Whenever there were differences in interpretation, I based my judgment on my research and overall perspective.
Thank you
Anton Mueller
for a masterly job of editing
Sandra Dijkstra
for always being there for me
My intercourse with Tzu Hsi started in 1902 and continued until her death. I had kept an unusually close record of my secret association with the Empress and others possessing notes and messages written to me by Her Majesty, but had the misfortune to lose all these manuscripts and papers.
– SIR EDMUND BACKHOUSE,
coauthor of China Under the Empress
Dowager (1910) and Annals and Memoirs
of the Court of Peking (1914)
In 1974, somewhat to Oxford's embarrassment and to the private dismay of China scholars everywhere, Backhouse was revealed to be a counterfeiter… The con man had been exposed, but his counterfeit material was still bedrock scholarship.
– STERLING SEAGRAVE,
Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of
the Last Empress of China (1992)
One of the ancient sages of China foretold that "China will be destroyed by a woman." The prophecy is approaching fulfillment.
– DR. GEORGE ERNEST MORRISON,
London Times China correspondent,