Empress Dowager Cixi

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) was a Manchu noblewoman of the Yehe Nara clan who dominated the government of China's late Qing dynasty as empress dowager and regent from 1861 until her death in 1908. Originally a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor, she rose to power after his death and ruled behind the throne on behalf of her young son and later her nephew, presiding over a turbulent period that included the Boxer Rebellion, foreign encroachment and early attempts at modernizing reform. She remains one of the most powerful and most controversial women in Chinese history, credited by some with holding the empire together and blamed by others for resisting reforms that might have averted its collapse.