Empress Dowager Cixi, the regent who effectively controlled the Chinese government in the late Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) for 47 years, enjoyed longevity of 74 years at a time when life expectancy in the country was around 50.
At 60, her skin was "tender and smooth, as fair as that of a young lady," her maid Der Ling recorded in one of her texts. "Dowager Cixi was 70, but she looked just like in her 30s," wrote Katharine Carl, a U.S. artist who often painted portraits of the empress. What are the secrets of such a healthy and beautiful long life?
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Historians both in China and abroad have long portrayed her as a despot responsible for the fall of the Qing dynasty. Others have suggested that her opponents among the reformers and revolutionaries succeeded in blaming her for problems beyond her control. Furthermore, they claim that she intervened decisively to prevent political disorder, was no more ruthless than other rulers of her time, and that she was an effective reformer in the last years of her life, even if she was reluctant to take on this role
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