The Last Empress - Anchee Min [150]
Postscript
Orchid—Lady Yehonala, Empress Tzu Hsi—died at the age of seventy-three.
China began to fall apart after her funeral. The country entered a dark time of warlords and lawlessness. While the Western powers carved up coastal China into colonial concessions, Japan penetrated into northern China, establishing what would be called the Kingdom of Manchuria.
In 1911, Sun Yat-sen landed in Shanghai. He succeeded in stirring up a military uprising and declared himself the first provisional president of China's new republic.
On February 12, 1912, Emperor Puyi abdicated power to Yuan Shih-kai, who declared himself president of the republic, taking over from Sun Yat-sen, and then immediately founded his own dynasty. Yuan Shih-kai soon died of a stroke, and he was ridiculed as "the eighty-three-day Emperor."
In 1919, a warlord named Chiang Kai-shek declared himself a disciple of Sun Yat-sen. After Sun's death in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became the new president of the republic. He relied on American financial and military support and promised to build a democratic China.
In 1921, backed by Soviet Communists, Mao Tse-tung, a student rebel and guerrilla soldier from Hunan province, founded, with twelve followers, the Communist Party of China.
In 1924, Japan made Puyi the puppet emperor of Manchuria and pushed him to "take back Imperial China."
In 1937, Japan invaded China.
Reformer Kang Yu-wei continued to live in Japan. He broke with his disciple Liang Chi-chao, who first joined Sun Yat-sen, then Yuan Shih-kai. He finally quit both and became a private citizen.
Li Lien-ying left the Forbidden City after the Dowager Empress's funeral. He went to live in the monastery near his beloved lady's tomb until his death.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Author's Note
Dedication
The Beginning
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Postscript