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When it comes to the cut and thrust of realpolitik, the manipulation and ruthlessness of this woman take second place to no one. She makes the Medici's and Borgia's look like dabblers in intrigue.

Beginning her political life as a low level concubine, she used a series of events and intrigues to become the defacto ruler of China for almost fifty years.

However, while she was extraordinarily adept at seizing and maintaining power, her reactionary and ultra-conservative approach to foreign policy ultimately led to the decline and fall of imperial China.