Empress Cixi, one of the greatest female rulers in history, held supreme power for 47 years as regent for three emperors of the Celestial Empire. During her reign, “from behind the screen” the beginnings of many industries were laid, the first railways and telegraph communications appeared. It was Cixi who abolished painful corporal punishment, forbade the bandaging of girls' feet, and gave women the right to education and work. The Dowager Empress enjoyed the love of her people; the ministers of the Western powers considered her “equal to Catherine the Great in Russia, Elizabeth in England.” However, as a result of the slanderous activities of political opponents, Cixi earned the reputation of an extravagant tyrant and opponent of modernization. The book by authoritative historian Jiong Chang, based on the memoirs of contemporaries and indisputable archival data, is not only the most complete biography of Cixi, but also an “acquittal” of China’s most controversial ruler.