Cixi

Empress Dowager Cixi, 慈禧太后,

in the guise of

the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara

(Guanyin,觀音)

This Guangxu period hanging scroll of the Empress Dowager Cixi in the guise of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara appeared in an exhibit at the Freer-Sackler gallery in Washington, DC. It belongs to the Chazen museum in Madison Wisconsin. The label in the Freer-Sackler exhibition was titled “Painted without Approval:”

Dowager Cixi appears as Avalokiteshvata, or Guanyin, a Bodhisattva who promises protection and salvation to devotees. The image of Cixi riding on a lotus petal vehicle suggests salvation is attained by crossing the sea of sufferings. In combining secular and sacred power, emulated Qing male rulers who were believed to be incarnations of Buddhist deities. Despite the exceedingly accurate depiction of Cixi's face, it seems this portrait was created without her knowledge. A court artist painted it as his gift to an American missionary couple whom he wanted to impress. The wife, Dr. Mariam Sinclair Headland, had given Empress Dowager Cixi medical treatment and personally knew her. 

American Missionary Isaac Taylor Headland (1859-1942) used this painting as the frontispiece of his 1909 book Court Life in China. (read Headland's story of how he came to own this painting here.)

The Empress Dowager As The Goddess Of Mercy. 

In this painting the Empress Dowager is represented as the “Goddess of Mercy”, an attitude which she delighted to assume, with her rosary in her hand, standing upon a lotus petal and floating upon the waves of the sea. It was painted for the author by one of the leading portrait painters of Peking.  -- Isaac Taylor Headland

Headland goes on to explain that this painting was made for him by one of the Court painters in gratitude for introducing him to a Dr. Hopkins who removed a fish bone from the painter's throat.

The empress's unbound feet peak out from under her robe. The Qing rulers were Manchu and Manchu women did not bind their feet.  Cixi briefly outlawed foot binding in 1902. (See The History Channel: Feb. 1 1902).

Cixi is often cited comparing foot binding to western corsetry: “It is truly pathetic what foreign women have to endure. They are bound up with steel bars until they can scarcely breathe. Pitiable! Pitiable!”  Miriam Headland told the story in her husband's 1909 book. 

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