{"product_id":"9780351186578","title":"The Dragon Empress : Life and Times of Tz'u-Hsi, 1835-1908, Empress Dowager of China","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFrom 1861 to 1908 a woman - the Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi, born the daughter of a minor mandarin - held the supreme power in China. Opportunist, ruthless, malicious, she ruled over 400 million people. This biography explores her complex personality - her extreme conventionalism, her hatred of foreigners, her passion for power and intrigue, her vanity and her delight in ritual, her extravagance and corruption, and her love of gardens, painting and the theatre. The book also portrays a China in rapid decline, as poverty, civil war and foreign exploitation and invasion brought about the fall of the Ch'ing dynasty.\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"Rivendell Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48155819573408,"sku":"9780351186578","price":7.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0582\/8637\/5072\/files\/468721.jpg?v=1704222975","url":"https:\/\/rivendell-books.com\/products\/9780351186578","provider":"Rivendell Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}