When Wanrong became the Empress of China, she was already ruling over a ghost land. In a matter of months, her country abolished the monarchy, turning all Wanrong’s decadent pleasures into dust.

The empress dowager probably directed the photographer ... and the impression remained long after she died in 1908, having appointed China’s last emperor, Puyi. After Xunling’s sister Deling ...

In sixth-century China, a woman known to history as Empress Dowager Ling ruled over an empire called the Northern Wei. Historians do not know her birth name or in what year she was born ...

Stephanie Balkwill, University of California, Los Angeles (THE CONVERSATION) In sixth-century China, a woman known to history as Empress Dowager Ling ruled over an empire called the Northern Wei.