This woman is said to have launched modern China. Who is this concubine-turned-empress who effectively ruled behind the scenes?

Empress Dowager Cixi brought medieval China into the modern world during the 19th century. After being chosen by the emperor as one of his concubines, Cixi's five-year-old son became emperor. Launching a coup against the palace regents, Cixi coached her son behind a silkscreen. Cixi's monumental leadership abolished foot-binding, medieval punishments like "death by a thousand cuts," and otherwise liberated women in China far more than they'd ever been before.

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