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. She was bright, attractive, and I think I may add without
fear of contradiction, very ambitious, and this in no bad sense.
She devoted herself to her studies with such energy and diligence
as not only to attract the attention of the teacher, but to make
herself a fair scholar, a good penman, and an exceptional
painter, and it was not long until, from among all the
concubines, she had gained the attention and won the
admiration--and shall we say affection--not only of the Empress,
but of the Emperor himself, and she was selected as the first
concubine or kuei fei, and from that time until the death of the
Empress the two women were the staunchest of friends.
The new favourite had been a healthy and vigorous girl, with
plenty of outdoor life in childhood, and it was not long before
she became the happy mother of Hsien Feng's only son. She was
thenceforward known as the Empress-mother. In a short time she
was raised to the position of wife, and given the title of
Western Empress, as the other was known as the Eastern, from
which time the two women were equal in rank, and, in the eyes of
the world, equal in power.
The first Empress was a pampered daughter of wealth, neither
vigorous of body nor strong of mind, caring nothing for political
power if only she might have ease and comfort, and there is
nothing that exhibits the Empress Dowager's real greatness more
convincingly than the fact that she was able to live for thirty
years the more fortunate mother of her country's ruler, and, in
power, the mistress of her superior, without arousing the
latter's envy, jealousy, anger, or enmity
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