Is it the dowager empress, Tzu Hsi,Empress of the Western palace and the concubine of Manchu Emperor Hsien Feng? She was known also as Yehonala and Empress Orchid. She ruled as regent for her infant son Tung Chih after the death of Hsien Feng. She survived a coup attempt, the Opium Wars, the TaiPing rebellion in Nanking, and the Boxer Rebellion. The British, despised her because she kept China from modernizing and prevented the Europeans from establishing a colonial capitalist economy in China as they had already done in India and Indonesia.