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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: 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
was the mother of the heir, of a decaying house. Of the 218 years
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