Books published by publisher John Day Company

When Pearl S. Buck finished writing her autobiographical work, My Several Worlds, she found that the most vivid character memory of her childhood life was Tzu Hsi, the last Empress of China. This is the woman usually known to Westerners as the Empress Dowager, or "Old Buddha." But how little the West really knows of her! She has figured in an occasional book, but never before in English, nor indeed in any language so far as we know, has the whole story of this fabulous woman been told. She ranks in history with Victoria of England and Catherine of Russia. Indeed, Tzu Hsi liked to think of Victoria as her sister-ruler and often remarked that thy divided the world between them, Victoria the Empress of the West and she the Empress of the East. Of the two, however, Tzu Hsi had the more romantic and extraordinary reign. She was born into violent and troubled times, in the last century of China's empire. Already the West was compelling that ancient and impregnable country to face the modern age. Slow to change, entrenched in pride and tradition, the ruling dynasty of the Manchus was reluctant to realize the portent of the times. It Tzu Hsi, this powerful and beautiful woman, who held the empire and the dynasty from the 1860's until her death in 1908 at the age of 74.

Imperial Woman: The Story of the Last Empress of China. Classic book from Pearl S. Buck. Publ. by John Day Co. 1956, 356 pp. Imperial Woman is the fictionalized biography of the last Empress in China, Ci-xi, who began as a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor and on his death became the de facto head of the Qing Dynasty until her death in 1908.Buck recreates the life of one of the most intriguing rulers during a time of intense turbulence.Tzu Hsi was born into one of the lowly ranks of the Imperial dynasty. According to custom, she moved to the Forbidden City at the age of seventeen to become one of hundreds of concubines. But her singular beauty and powers of manipulation quickly moved her into the position of Second Consort.Tzu Hsi was feared and hated by many in the court, but adored by the people. The Empress's rise to power (even during her husband's life) parallels the story of China's transition from the ancient to the modern way.