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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: and the woof of an Oriental Palace, should have been able to hold
her own in every situation, and never be crushed by the opposing
forces about her, is a phenomenon in itself only to be explained
by due recognition of the influence of individual qualities in a
ruler even in the semi-absolutism of China.
--Arthur H. Smith in "China in Convulsion."
III
THE EMPRESS DOWAGER--AS A RULER
In considering the policy pursued by the Empress-mother after her
accession to the regency, one cannot but feel that she was fully
aware of the fact that she had been the wife of an emperor, and
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