SummaryThe setting is China's Forbidden City in the last days of
its imperial glory, a vast complex of palaces and gardens
run by thousands of eunuchs and encircled by a wall in the
center of Peking. In this highly ordered place -- tradition-
bound, ruled by strict etiquette, rife with political and
erotic tension -- the Emperor, "the Son of Heaven,"
performs two duties: he must rule the court and conceive an
heir. To achieve the latter, tradition provides a
stupendous hierarchy of hundreds of wives and concubines.
It is as a minor concubine that the beautiful Tzu Hsi,
known as Orchid as a girl, enters the Forbidden City at the
age of seventeen. It is not a good time to enter the city. The Ch'ing Dynasty
in 1852 has lost its vitality, and the court has become an
insular, xenophobic place. A few short decades earlier,
China lost the Opium Wars, and it has done little since to
strengthen its defenses or improve diplomatic ties.
Instead, the inner circle has turned further inward,
naively confident that its troubles are past and the glory
of China will keep the "barbarians" -- the outsiders -- at
bay. Within the walls of the Forbidden City the consequences of
a misstep are deadly. As one of hundreds of women vying for
the attention of the Emperor, Orchid soon discovers that
she must take matters into her own hands. After training
herself in the art of pleasing a man, she bribes her way
into the royal bedchamber and seduces the monarch. A grand
love affair ensues; the Emperor is a troubled man, but
their love is passionate and genuine. Orchid has the great
good fortune to bear him a son. Elevated to the rank of
Empress, she still must struggle to maintain her position
and the right to raise her own child. With the death of the
Emperor comes a palace coup that ultimately thrusts Orchid
into power, although only as regent until her son's
maturity. Now she must rule China as its walls tumble
around her, and she alone seems capable of holding the
country together. This is an epic story firmly in the mold of Anchee Min"s
Becoming Madame Mao. Like that best-selling historical
novel, the heroine of Empress Orchid comes down to us with
a diabolical reputation -- a woman who seized power through
sexual seduction, murder, and endless intrigue. But reality
tells a different story. Based on copious research, this is
a vivid portrait of a flawed yet utterly compelling woman
who survived in a male world, a woman whose main struggle
was not to hold on to power but to her own humanity. Richly
detailed and completely gripping, Empress Orchid is a novel
of high drama and lyricism and the first volume of a
trilogy about the life of one of the most important women
in history.
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