Plausibility check, Dowager Empress as modernizer?

[raharris1973]

In OTL, the Dowager Empress Cixi had effective political control over China from 1861 to 1908. In summary, history has not judged her favorably, although some have defended her against some of the accusations of her many detractors.

She had longevity and political skill going for her.

What is the plausibility of her having an influence that would have historians regarding her as more of a Catherine the Great or an Elizabeth? Or, her being a patron of Chinese self-strengthening as successful as that of the Japanese Genro in the Meiji era?

Was such a positive impact possible, or was her being reactionary and a spoiler of others' reform efforts the only thing that allowed her to be so politically successful and unassailable?

[Color-Copycat]

Cixi can't be a Catherine the Great because she just didn't fucking understand how international diplomacy worked. All she knew how to do was assassinate any threats to her immediate position, and beyond that there was nothing. For instance, during the Boxer Rebellion, she seriously thought that crushing the Peking foreign legations would make all the Japanese, Europeans, and Americans want to go home and give up all their concessions in the treaty ports.

And then there was that whole thing about her poisoning the reform minded emperor before he had a chance to enact his plans. Also, this is the same woman who reappropriated the Chinese navy's entire modernization budget to spend on a marble sculpture of a boat in her pleasure gardens.

[Hyperbolus]

I'd contend that had Cixi been male, numerous historians might praise her for preserving the Empire intact during extraordinarily stressful (Boxer Rebellion, Sino-Japanese war) times. Less subtly defensive leadership would have demonstrably, even profoundly failed under this level of duress. The sort of desultory modernization that the weak central government in Peking was then capable of might only have facilitated greater exploitation. The Western powers were arguably at the height of their prestige, and Japanese influence continued to wax.
Cynical, manipulative leadership was likely still less bad than leaving China to the mercies of rapacious warlords and colonial/commercial states.

[Ming777]

The problem in this case was that Cixi became a senile ruler who really had no reason to rule in her latter years; had reportedly killed many of her nephews.

One story was that when the colonial powers invaded one of the chinese cities, Cixi had the wife of her nephew thrown into a well and left for dead out of spite.

Overall, she was like a mix of Bavaria's King Ludwig "the Mad" and any of the many relative-killing monarchs in history.

[Hobbesian]

Originally Posted by Ming777

The problem in this case was that Cixi became a senile ruler who really had no reason to rule in her latter years; had reportedly killed many of her nephews.

One story was that when the colonial powers invaded one of the chinese cities, Cixi had the wife of her nephew thrown into a well and left for dead out of spite.

Overall, she was like a mix of Bavaria's King Ludwig "the Mad" and any of the many relative-killing monarchs in history.

if you're gonna be a relative-killing monarch, legalize it first: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fratricide#Ottoman_Empire

[Tocomocho]

Originally Posted by Color-Copycat

Cixi can't be a Catherine the Great because she just didn't fucking understand how international diplomacy worked. All she knew how to do was assassinate any threats to her immediate position, and beyond that there was nothing. For instance, during the Boxer Rebellion, she seriously thought that crushing the Peking foreign legations would make all the Japanese, Europeans, and Americans want to go home and give up all their concessions in the treaty ports.

And then there was that whole thing about her poisoning the reform minded emperor before he had a chance to enact his plans. Also, this is the same woman who reappropriated the Chinese navy's entire modernization budget to spend on a marble sculpture of a boat in her pleasure gardens.

I had never realized how similar Cixi and GoT's Cersei were until I read this. Though I suppose the Dowager Empress didn't fuck her twin brother, of course.