Cixi Dowager

Dowager Cixi, after giving birth of her fail of leader son, is now seen by historians as the cow the screwed over China before WWI. She was the last of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, though her legitimacy to the imperial thrown was questioned. Cixi is, without a doubt, one of the greatest female leaders of the 20th century. She had the big dragons balls; supported The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Yihetuan movement. When given the ultimatum to surrender China's military power, she stood up to the Grand Council stating that she would ''fight to the death'' rather than allow foreign influences to go up her imperial skirt.

Cixi started her political career as a concubine to Emperor Xian Feng in 1851. Five years later she gave birth to a son who would become Emperor. After the birth of Tongzhi the Emperor made her consort. When Xian Feng died in 1861, Tongzhi started his reign. This period would come to be known as the ''Tongzhi Restoration;'' an attempt to stabilise and modern China. (It failed.)

Cixi was a strict mother. Evidence left at the ''Forbidden City'' shows a wall of bricks she had placed to deny any entree to his royal chambers. Even his Empress, Xiaozheyi could not enter without permission. Cixi, before Tongzhi turned 18 was planning a reform removal of his claim to the thrown with scholars but it was not needed. He died at 18 years old without any sons to succeed him. His Empress, a few month after his death, followed him to his demise. There is some lore that he caught an sexually transmitted disease, but it was actually small pox. During his reign, his mother was made regent, but who knows just how much power she had between his young minded ego and advisors. As all mothers do, I think she tried her best. There is also the issue that her legitimacy to power over China was questioned. She was one in a thousand concubines. The only thing that made her different is that was lucky enough to bare the Emperor a son.

Cixi became Empress after his death in January 1875. Cixi position during his reign may have factored in the Imperial fuck up, (historically speaking) but she was ready to clean her boys mess up. This also included the other minor set backs which his Dynasty had inherited. Nothing major, just the implications of the second Opium war as well as the western realm's sinophila.

Events leading up to the boxer rebellion include many elements, many of which the Chinese blamed the Western World. These include opium traders, political invasions, economic manipulation, and missionary evangelism.

The second opimum war in the mid 1850's resulted in the Treaties of , Tianjin. These treaties legalized the opium trade, a loss of territory to Russia as well as revealing the weakness if the Qing dynasty. The Japan Western War of 1894-5 made another huge revealation of how weak China was. This made the world look to Japan as the leading power in Asia.

Western exploitation ended with the complete map of the world and there was a shortage of claimable territory available. The world powers eyes turned to China. Cixi was dealing with fear that China would be the slaves of Western Powers. Already it ran on an almost feudal system of government.

The rebels of Righteous and Harmonious Fists/Society, also known as the Boxer Rebellion, banded together for the purpose of the rebellion in March 1898. Their existance, however; can be dated back to the 1700's with the explusion of a jesiut missionary group. They were Proto-Nationalist group that opposed the push of Foreign Imperialism. China was and remains a large country, and the west viewed their old civilization as backwards and ripe for the taking. With a lack of terrority left to claim, there was an ever pressing need for conquest in order to expand their resources.

The Boxers' main mission was to keep out foreign practises and ideologies in order to preserve China of its spiritual beliefs and traditions. The Rebellion started in November 1899 in the Shandong Province. Boxers believed that Foreigners were pure evil, Chinese Catholics corrupted by evil and anyone working for foreigners were part of the machine that gave strength to such evil, and righteously believed it was their mission to rid China of this said evil. The rebellion peaked with the 55 day siege of Foreign embassies in Beijing. A Hollywood representation of this event exist in movie format; check out the ''55 Days at Peking,'' by Samuel Broston Productions in 1963.

After the massacre of Chinese catholics and the destruction of much foreign property around the times of the anti-western riots, it was clear that Rebellion was out of control. The Boxer Rebellion ended in September 7th of 1901, with the signing of the Boxer Protocol. The siege was relieved by 20,000 Japanese, American, and European soldiers fighting against the Boxers and the Imperial soldiers. The Protocol demanded the death of the leaders of the Boxer rebels, as well as 67 million pounds of gold, or 450 million silver teals to be paid over the course of 39 years. This amount was much more than the government tax revenue could afford.

From Imperial Concubine to Empress, Cixi never saw the beginning of World War I. Much of the Asian esthetics's can attributed to her style portrayed by the photography. At the end of her life, she began warming up to western ideas. She is now known as one of the most influential women in political history. Little is certain about her death, though there is lore about how she committed suicide by starvation.  

Natalia Ginzburg

Natalia Ginzburg, unlike many of the noble women mentioned in previous post, was a writer. This is later portray of an Italien woman during the WWII era, a struggling mother, as well as an established author. This contempory author is as interesting as the woman Boccaccio imortalized in his works.

Facism, like Patrarch's concept of the Dark Ages, spawned from the boot itself. The term is often applied to the German National Socialism party, or Nazism. The linguistic roots can be traced all the way to the latin word Fasces, and the symbol of the soverignty of the Roman Republic. In 1870, the term fascio was used by a radical social and political organization found on the left of the political scale. Benito Mussolini coined the term in 1919 and due to the aftermath of WWI, the political dictatorship was established in 1925. Thus, Facism in Italy is born.

One-forth of Italien participants in the Italien Resistance during WWII were women, many taking on dangerous missions. These women had the duties of relaying messages, and delivering weapons, money, food and clothing. Fully aware that failing to complete the mission may lead in rape, torture, and death. In most Major cities, groups offered protection, jobs and training for women and young infants. No matter side the women chose, life was difficult and involved more than knitting and sewing for soldiers.

Ginzburg wrote essays, short stories and novels about family life and politics during and after the second world war. This philosopher one two prizes (Strega and Bagutta), and was elected in the Italien Parlament. The same year Mussolini emerged her father accepted a pisition in the University of Turin and was renowned for his works in history. She grew up in a home which entertained many intellectuals, and activists of her time. At age 17, she first published a short story. She married multiple times. One of her husbands was exiled, created an anti-fascist zine, and killed for his political views.

Much is printed on Ginzburg, and I find her much more appealing and sexy than the portrays of the victimized cows of the medieval ages. For more reading on Ms. Natalia Levi Ginzburg, feel free to click the link provided.

Beatrice and Dante, their 3rd encounter?

Beatrice, assumed to be Misses Bice di Folco Portinari, was inspiration to Dante's work in literature and perhaps even his life. Wife to Mr. Simone dei Bardi, related to a family of rich bankers, Beatrice was married off in her early twenties by her father Folco Portinari. Her father was also a rich banker. Dante met Beatrice when they were both children. Beatrice continues to fascinate people. This woman even has a rock in the sky (asteroid 83 Beatrix) named after her. Historians only know of two of their encounters, and I believe there might of been a third.

Dante expresses his love and respect for his fare, green eyed lady in two works, that we know of. The Divine Comedy, and a book of his poetry. He wrote the latter first, and the Comedy was a commissioned satire of the religious ideas of his era.

I read something curious on Wikipedia which mirrors my thoughts:

It is more likely that the encounters with Beatrice that Dante writes of are the two that fulfill his poetic vision, and Beatrice, like Petrarch's Laura, seem to blur the line between an actual love interest and a means employed by the poet in his creations.

I find it an odd coincidence that both Laura and Beatrice died in their early 20's. Studying the Tutors, I find it common in medieval culture for men to dispose of their women at the suggestion of infidelity. I believe, their third encounter may have been the cause of her death, and women in the medieval ages had few reasons to live out their lives longer than biological prime.

Shot down by Laura de Noves

According to Strand and Boland in their  Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, ''The Making of a Poem,'' The Patrarchan sonnet spawns from the boot of Italy. Fourteen line iambic, octave and sestet, the rhyming scheme usually goes as follows: ababcdcdc and cdecde.

The Sonnet is usually attributed to Shakespeare. It actually took two centuries before it became popular in English courts. The purpose of this form was to bring inform a woman of a young man's passion, in a courtly love fashion. This was not always welcomed, so many are not preserved.

Francesco Patrarca, a colourful character from Italian history, gave up his priesthood at the sight of a woman during Good Friday, on April 6th 1327. This woman, in his poems, goes by the name of Laura. According to Wikipedia, she was possibly, Laura de Noves. She is known as the wife of some lesser Italian Count, known mostly because he was related to some French nut, during the French Revolution.

Besides her noble birth, she is mainly known for the love affair. Patrarca's boner for her was expressed through his sonnets. Never consummated their affair, as she was already married. She was a good childbearing wife, and died young. This devastated Patrarca as he stalked the fuck out of this bitch, and this made her famous.

To get back to the subject of poetic form, many interpretation are smarita in comparison to the original. Let's take the Higgenson's translation.

Soleasi Nel Mio Cor

She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine,
A noble lady in a humble home,
And now her time for heavenly bliss has come,
'Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine.

Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, retrieved on Sonnet.org.

Right away, standard rhyming scheme is ignored. Perhaps it was to emphasize the theme of the poem, or to illustrate his passion for Dr. Sues rhymes. This is up to the interpreter. The theme of sonnets, is usually the courtship of a noble lady. Women of noble birth, like Laura, are usually married at a young age ensure the bargain of noble men. Courtly love, kept to retain the boners of virtuous men for virtuous and/or noble women, is an expression of tragic emotion. To sum up, Sonnets spawned from a love that could never have been.

This very idea made Shakespeare rich. We know Shakespeare for his play, which incorporated his poetry, however; it is his sonnets he was commissioned for and not many of them have been preserved. The idea of a woman cheating on her older, fatter, busier husband was not a welcomed signed in court, and usually does not end well... Laura de Noves did die young.