垂帘听政
chuílián tīngzhèng · 'ruling from behind a curtain': an empress dowager governing for a child emperor
Chuilian tingzheng means 'lowering the curtain and listening to government'. When an emperor was a child, the empress dowager sat behind a screen or curtain in the audience hall so that she could hear officials and decide matters without breaking the rule that women did not appear in court. It was a workaround that let a woman exercise power she was not formally meant to hold. Cixi governed this way for close to half a century after 1861 across two child emperors' reigns.
