Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular bestseller which has sold more than 13 million copies and a critically acclaimed history of China; a tragic tale of nightmarish cruelty and an uplifting story of bravery and survival. Through the story of three generations of women in her own family -- the grandmother given to the warlord as a concubine, the Communist mother and the daughter herself -- Jung Chang reveals the epic history of China's twentieth century. Breathtaking in its scope, unforgettable in its descriptions, this is a masterpiece which is extraordinary in every way.

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age. At the age of sixteen, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor’s numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China—behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male. In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China. Under her the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state: industries, railways, electricity, the telegraph and an army and navy with up-to-date weaponry. It was she who abolished gruesome punishments like “death by a thousand cuts” and put an end to foot-binding. She inaugurated women’s liberation and embarked on the path to introduce parliamentary elections to China. Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot. Cixi reigned during extraordinary times and had to deal with a host of major national crises: the Taiping and Boxer rebellions, wars with France and Japan—and an invasion by eight allied powers including Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States. Jung Chang not only records the Empress Dowager’s conduct of domestic and foreign affairs, but also takes the reader into the depths of her splendid Summer Palace and the harem of Beijing’s Forbidden City, where she lived surrounded by eunuchs—one of whom she fell in love, with tragic consequences. The world Chang describes here, in fascinating detail, seems almost unbelievable in its extraordinary mixture of the very old and the very new. Based on newly available, mostly Chinese, historical documents such as court records, official and private correspondence, diaries and eyewitness accounts, this biography will revolutionize historical thinking about a crucial period in China’s—and the world’s—history. Packed with drama, fast paced and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a woman: as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population, and as a unique stateswoman.

1992年英国ncr图书奖，全英作家协会纪实文学奖，1993年英国fawcett女性文学奖。已被译成三十多种文字，发行一千万本，在西方没有任何一个中国人的文字有这样大的覆盖面。 此书以英语写作，至今天地的中文版本也已经到了第十二版。 本書是敘述張戎與她的母親、外祖母三代女性如何在動亂的社會裡掙扎奮鬥的故事。透過三個女人的血緣關係極深刻地縮影了二十世紀中國的社會與歷史。作者歷盡磨難、理想破滅而重生的心酸史，令人讀來洶湧澎湃。 為你講述中國的天方夜譚　本書是敘述張戎與她的母親、外祖母三代女性如何在動亂的社會裡掙扎奮鬥的故事。 　透過三個女人的血緣關係極深刻地縮影了二十世紀中國的社會與歷史。 　張戎的外祖母十五歲時就被利慾薰心的父親獻給軍閥作妾，自此開始坎坷的一生。張戎的母親少女時代是在日軍統治下的滿洲國度過，飽嘗了亡國奴的悲痛，寄望共產黨革新中國。在不斷的艱苦磨練中，淬礪為一代新女性。張戎出身高幹高庭，吃共產黨的奶水長大，在歷經大大小小的運動、文化大革命之後，她最後領悟了人生。 　作者曾說道：「我享受過特權、也遭受過磨難；有過勇氣，也有過恐懼；見過善良、忠誠，也見過人性最醜陋的一面；在痛苦、毀滅與死亡之中，我更認清了愛及人類不可摧毀的求生存、追求幸福的能力。」 　本書揭露了人性最醜陋的一面，但也表露了人類最真摯的親情。作者歷盡磨難、理想破滅而重生的心酸史，令人讀來洶湧澎湃。