Wei Yan'wan's list of victims: according to the prayer banners: 1. Lancui 2. Ling Yunche 3. 6th princess 4. Midwife Tian 5. Borjigit Eyinzhu 6. 13th prince Yongjing 7. Keliyete Zhaqi 8. 5th princess Jingsi 9. Yehe Nara Yihuan 10 & 11. no closeups and blocked by Qianlong's head 12. Hu Yunjiao 13. 10th prince 14. Jinzhong 15. 5th prince Yongqi --- according to the drama + original novel (includes deceased, injured, & implicated; not extensive hence maybe more): 1.1. *Lancui* -in the original novel poisoned alongside Borjigin Eyinzhu 1.2. *Jinzhong* 1.3. Chunchan - in the original novel, was dispatched by Qianlong in the same manner as A'ruo: force fed muteness medicine by Liyu (as punishment for being both criminal accomplice and for disloyalty to her mistress) 1.4. Wangchan 2.1. *Ling Yunche* 2.2. Zhao Jiuxiao 3. *6th princess* 4.1. *Midwife Tian* 4.2. Tian Jun - hostaged by Wei Yan'wan's family to keep Nanny Tian in check 4.3. *Tian Yun'er/Hu Yunjiao* - aka evil!Xiao Yanzi 5. *Borjigin Eyinzhu* - similar to 1.1. 6. Maoqian 7.1. Hailan 7.2. *5th prince Yongqi* 7.3. *Keliyete Zhaqi* - in the original novel committee ŝụıčįđə by head-banging 8.1. *Yehe Nara Yihuan* 8.2. *10th prince* 9.1. Ruyi - in the original novel, Ruyi's "death" was blamed onto Wei Yan'wan 9.2. *5th princess Jingsi* - in the original novel it's explicitly stated COD was rabies due to dog bite 9.3. 12th prince Yongji 9.4. *13th prince Yongjing* - contrary to drama, extant historical records state that 13th prince lived for more than a year 9.5. Ruyi's mother Lady Langgiya 10.1. 8th prince Yongxuan 10.2. 9th prince - Jin Yuyan's son; in the original novel born well before the fabricated infidelity plotline, but was ill with colds at the time of Jin Yuyan's fall from favor; COD suffocation secondary to external shock (trapped rat breaking Joseon tribute porcelain) 10.3. Fugui'er - related to 9.2., in the original novel the dog that bit Jingsi wasn't even Fugui'er but a look alike stray that was deliberately infected with rabies 11. Su Luyun - in the original novel 9th prince's death was unfairly blamed towards her, since she was in charge of 9th prince due to both Ruyi & Jin Yuyan under respective palace arrests at the time 12. Lu Ying'luo/Lu Muping - sewed the _qizhuang_ for 12 prince Yongji but was worn by 5th princess Jingsi instead 13.1. Jin Wan'yin - compiled the Xiaoxian Elegies™ 13.2. Xiaoqing'er - in the original novel was Qianlong's attendant eunuch in charge of ink grinding, dispatched during the poem compilation plotline for somehow enraging Qianlong 14. Chief Imperial Astronomer - most probable candidate for one of the sutra banners since his death scene was shown 15.1. Wei Yan'wan's mother Lady Yang 15.2. Wei Zuolu 16.1. Jingse - used by Wei Yan'wan to topple Ruyi; in the original novel shamelessly used the memory of Empress Xiaoxianchun, which was strike 1 16.2. Qingyou - in the original novel, the "accident" was intentional, and that was strike 2 in Jingse's book
12:05 This is the reason why I love dramas like Zhen Huan and Ruyi so much -- they don't romanticise the lifestyle of ancient concubines and instead show the depressing truth of the situation. Way too many dramas romanticise palace lifestyle and portray it as a utopia where true love with the Emperor is possible as long as you're smart, attractive and resourceful --- this could not be further from the truth. There's a Chinese phrase, "前朝后宫", which is used to refer to both the imperial harem and the imperial court. The fact of the matter is that the lifestyles of imperial concubines are so intrinsically linked to court politics that it's practically impossible to lead a peaceful and happy life as a concubine. Brief moments of happiness can be ruined by so, so many things. You're beautiful, talented and have the Emperor's true love and affections? Oh no, the Empress Dowager doesn't like the influence you have over the Emperor, so she decides to drown you in a well (Consort Zhen of the Guangxu Emperor). You're fertile, likeable, and on good terms with everyone including the Emperor and other consorts? Oh no, you have too many sons and they all want to be the next Emperor, breaking your heart as they fight with one another for the throne (Consort De of the Kangxi Emperor). You're kind-hearted, peaceful and mostly stay out of everyone else's way including the Emperor? Oh no, you're low-ranked and neglected for most of your life and now you're old and lonely in a cold palace with no children to keep you company, never being able to leave (Consort Wan of the Qianlong Emperor). And these are just the stories of women we were lucky enough to learn about -- there are countless others whose tales have been lost to history, especially since no one back then cared to document the feelings of imperial concubines. They were simply recorded as "Empress"; "Mother of Prince A"; "Daughter of General B" when such labels are probably overly simplistic generalisations of their lives -- as seen from Ruyi and Zhen Huan, just because you're an Empress/favoured concubine/mother of a prince doesn't mean that your life is happy. There's a good reason why China left behind the concubine system -- there's simply no way for women to be happy in a system that exploits young girls to serve a much older and much more powerful Emperor, actively oppresses them with countless archaic rules and robs of them of the little agency they had in the first place. It's a system where your marriage is your job - so many of us modern people already get tired doing 9-5 jobs -- now imagine having to work 24/7 while letting your workplace police who you're allowed to meet, who you're allowed to fall in love with and how many children you're able to have. To make matters worse, you can't ever leave your job and most likely didn't even choose to have this job in the first place. Yet, you're at the mercy of much more powerful man who can kill your entire family with just a flick of his finger. As a teenager, I grew up with palace dramas like Beauty's Rival in the Palace (美人心计), Scarlet Heart (步步惊心) and Beyond the Realm of Conscience (宮心计) where palace life was romanticised. Those dramas gave the impression that life in the palace can be good as long as you're a good person and the Emperor loves you -- the good guys always end up winning and the bad guys always end up losing. This has led to a phenomena in China -- “不吝美化帝王丞相,淡化今朝英模光辉” -- where the kings and emperors of the past are romanticised and idealised while the benefits of modern society are cast away/forgotten. There are some people who genuinely wish they could go back to the past and become a palace concubine (the entire Chuanyue fiction genre), thanks to the popularity of such unrealistic and unhistorical dramas which glamorise the life of a concubine. I'm so glad that ZhenHuan and Ruyi were able to stand out from other palace dramas by providing a viewpoint into what an ancient concubine's life would realistically look like -- full of loneliness, betrayal and tragedy. Any girl who wants to time travel back to the ancient Chinese dynasties should watch Ruyi -- and think again if they really want to live in such a dystopia.
I think that's why China actually cracked down on these palace dramas. As they got more popular around the world, everyone started getting VERY negative opinions about the past emperors. 😅
@@TJRhea Actually I think it's the opposite reason -- as they got more popular around the world, more and more people started to romanticise the past, creating an entire genre of fiction called Chuanyue in which modern protagonists time travel back to the ancient dynasties. The CCP actually wants their citizens to hate the old dynasties and have negative opinions about past emperors (since they need to justify their rule over China! What better argument than "we were the ones who saved you from the terrible Emperors of the past"), so that's why they banned palace dramas. The Legend of Zhen Huan was given an exemption from the ban though, due to its popularity and the fact that its one of the few dramas that doesn't romanticise ancient lifestyle :D
Then again, Qing dynasty harem was the most peaceful any imperial harem had ever been. Most likely because of extremely rigid structures as set days when who can sleep with the emperor depending on status, very little room for arbitrary promotion because of fixed number of higher ranked consorts (pin and higher) etc. The only time there were rumours a concubine (Consort Ji of the Xianfeng emperor) miscarried due to another concubine was actually when lady yehe nara (future empress dowager CiXi) was rumoured to have pushed someone. Compare that to the wild stories of the Ming dynasty and Qing was really really tame.
That is very true! Qing dynasty did not have anywhere close to the amount of drama and corruption of the other dynasties. The eunuchs are another example of that.
@@woordenhechtster To be fair to other dynasties, the fixed number of higher ranked consorts also existed in previous dynasties 😂 And in the Qing Dynasty, Emperors didn't follow the fixed number most of the time anyways; at one point Qianlong had six Consorts even though he technically was only supposed to have four. It's hard to judge which dynasty is worse than which when a lot of stories have been lost to time + there's no way of confirming the authenticity of such stories especially when later dynasties have every incentive to make up false stories about earlier dynasties and imperial families have every incentive to cover up and censure as many of the stories as possible even if they were actually true. Moral of the story is that ancient dynasties were bad for women and we're so lucky to be living in the 21st century instead of the Qing, Ming or Tang dynasties etc.
Honestly, the last few episodes are so beautifully bittersweet. As much as I can't stand Yanwan she does her role well. She will never be a Hua-fei or Jia, but you do love to hate her. Also Jia's sons got a good deal. They aren't crown princes, but they are alive.
7:23 who would've thought this is the same woman that used to be so shy and bullied around? Look at her now, even her hair pins look like armor. Love Hailan!
Notes: -Good lord, you manage to sire 17 princes and only 6 of them survive this series?! You can kind of understand why big harems were necessary for most Emperors: between infant mortality, childhood accidents/sickness, and palace infighting, it's a wonder any of his kids made it to adulthood; his wikipedia page lists nine princes (YongHuang, Zhang, Cheng, Qi, Rong, Xuan, Xing, Yan, and Lin) and five princesses (HeJing, Jia, Jing #2, Ke and Xiao) as making it to adulthood. -Jingyuan (her title is Hejing, which she shares with Jingse) is really a good kid---in fact, all of Yanwan's kids are---which goes to show the whole 'nurture vs. nature' thing; they're not born malicious schemers or arrogant snots, they're taught that. Ying kinda hits the jackpot here: she has no kids of her own, but she gets an adopted daughter and son, her powerful clan background ensures she'll never be neglected, and the emperor still seems to like her. -Ling has the exact same issue as late-stage Jia: can't shut the hell up. If she. hadn't opened her big mouth, she might've been able to get at least partial custody of Jingyuan. As if that wasn't enough, she then tells Yongyan, one of the potential crown princes, to obey her in all matters, *out in the open*. You have an entire palace! Wait until you're away from prying eyes/ears before you start scheming! -Jingyuan's 妧/yuan appears to mean 'beautiful, good-looking', while her sister Jingyun's 妘/yun might be the same as Yunche's (meaning 'cloud'). Meanwhile, her brother Yongyan's character 琰/yan means 'gem, beautiful jade'. -Ruyi's move was very smart; Yanwan and Hongli have the exact same character flaw: overly suspicious. All she needed to do was plant that seed of doubt, and she knew Chunchan would fall from Yanwan's good graces sooner or later, and then she could be prompted to spill the beans. -The practice of secretly hiding a scroll containing the name of the future emperor was instituted by Qinalong's grandfather Kangxi, following a nasty sucession dispute. Yinreng, his legitimate son by the late Empress Xiaochengren, had been groomed to be his sucessor, but later proved to be a really vile human being (beating and killing servants, purchasing small children for.....nefarious purposes, carrying on an affair with one of his father's concubines, etc). His father was so enraged by this, and by the subsequent turmoil over who would be the next Crown Prince, that he refused to name anyone until his death. Political parties formed in court, some backing the 14th prince, Yinti, the 8th prince, Yinsi, and the 4th prince, Yinzhen. On his deathbed, Kangxi summoned his surviving crown prince candidates and had his court official Longkodo deliver the edict: Yinzhen was to succeed him, as Emperor Yongzheng. (This is why Yongzheng and Qianlong, in both their respective series, hated crown prince shenanigans). There were two copies of the scroll: one carried on the Emperor's person at all times, and one hidden behind the sign hanging behind the throne in Qianqing Palace (it bears an inscription by the Shunzhi Emperor, the second Qing ruler, reading '正大光明' (lit. 'Let the righteous shine')). -During the confrontation with the Emperor, after Chunchan blows him in for stealing Fugui'er (Jia's dog), Ling's eunuch Wangchan ends up squealing as well (after being nudged by Hailan earlier). -Several commenters on the English sub I was watching noted Halian's silver hair ornaments and big liangbatou as 'looking like battle armor', and I have to agree---a fully-decked out, grieving Yu Fei is a force to be reckoned with. -Yanwan almost manages to weasel her way out, not only with the 'oh it's too convenient' excuse, but because the witnesses so far are Hailan (a known Ruyi supporter), Chunchan (who could've been bribed/forced to confess), Wangchan (who literally just started confessing under pressure) and Zoulu (a convicted criminal)---not exactly the most trustworthy lineup. If not for Hailan's continued pressure and the Empress Dowager's timely arrival, she might've actually wormed her way out of any severe punishment (Also, her excuse for the crown prince scroll fakery? 'I was so worried about what might happen to the country if you died without an heir'. Bleh.) -The Empress Dowager actually schemed with the imperial doctors to make it seem like the Emperor was close to death, even though it was only a mild illness. Early on in episode 85, she's even sitting by his bedside and crying about him 'leaving her all alone in her old age' to make it seem more convincing. Also, her lines during Ling's interrogation go hard: "You said you got schemed, but a rotten corpse courts the maggots...You just said that this was a trap. Yes. Ruyi wanted me to tell you that this was indeed a trap. But all these traps were chosen by yourself. It's like the roads before us: just where you go is also decided by yourself. Others are not to be blamed." She just destroys her 'everyone else's fault' attitude with a few lines, and the venom in her voice is just perfect. Nobody messes with Zhenhuan's grandkids. Finally, she uses Ruyi's real name--not 'Huanghuo', just 'Ruyi'---while calling Ling 'Madam Wei' instead of 'Wei Huangguifei'. In the first case, it means she truly respects Ruyi, while in the second, she utterly disdains Yanwan. -The scripture flags (jingfan, or Tibetan prayer flags) were a brilliant touch, putting the sheer number of people Yanwan hurt and/or killed into perspective for the entire room to see (by my count, there are 15 total). You can see Hailan blinking back tears at some of them, and even the Emperor seems saddened (Hell, I teared up while rewatching the episode for these notes, when I saw the ones for Ling Yunche and Jingsi). Ruyi's intentions, as laid out by the ED, are to get Yanwan to repent and to release the souls of her victims from their torment. Even then, in her delusional pride, Yanwan won't bow. The scene cutting between her being forced to kowtow to the flags and Ruyi fervently praying at her altar, with the triumphant yet mournful music, is beautiful. Even if it is a victory, the show is telling us, it's still a pyrrhic one; too many people died due to one person's lust for power, and bringing her down won't bring them back. -Ruyi is wearing a simple black bianpao during Ling's punishment, black means death/mourning in the West, she's both Ling's judge/executioner, and she knows she's dying. Ling's wearing imperial yellow, a sign of her high status---but yellow is often considered the color of cowardice. More (unintentional? maybe?) color symbolism. -The 'qianji ('levitating')' poison that the Emperor grants Ling (also called maqianzi ('poison nut'), fanmubie ('animal's claw'), and kushi ('bitter')) is derived from the Strychnos nux-vomica (the name comes from the Greek 'strúkhnon', meaning 'acrid, bitter'). In TCM, small amounts are said to treat typhoid, sore throat, and excess phlegm, but in large amounts, it causes muscular convulsions and death by asphyxia. It was apparently a common drug for 'granting death', and Yuhu says that it causes a sensation of one's limbs detaching and floating above oneself, alongside great pain. The term 'qianji' originally referred to a weaving shuttle, due to the fact that victims of the poison jerked about like a shuttle being worked on a loom, a very cheery mental image. (She deserves it, 100%). -As she's dying, Ling unleashes on the Emperor, telling him that, by turning a blind eye to the harem's inner workings, and by calculating himself, he 'taught' her to scheme and use underhanded methods to gain his favor. She's actually right----if he hand't indulged her and others, and hadn't gone light on punishing consorts for the sake of his own reputation, this drama would've been a lot shorter and a lot happier. She says he 'never had half a true heart towards her', but that's fine, because he never got her heart either. I love this exchange in particular: Hongli: I am the emperor, who dares not to obey sincerely? Yanwan: Obeying, yes, but with no sincerity whatsoever. -Finally (I know this is so long, but there's a ton of stuff): Ruyi knows the TB is contagious. She doesn't want to risk the other consorts, especially Hailan, getting it too, and she doesn't want them to see her suffering. She's not their Empress anymore---she's just Ruyi.
@@ivanholok2046 China had a "generation name" which is usually based off a mnemonic-style poem (unique to each family lineage) wherein the names of one's children (mostly sons) and their fellow generation shares a common syllable eventually both Koreas & Vietnam adopted this system examples: 1. the Four Confucian Sages 2. Hongxi Emperor's generation was 高 (gao) 3. Xuande Emperor's generation was 瞻 (zhan) 4. Emperor Yingzong & Jingtai Emperor's generation was 祁 (qi) 5. Yongzheng Emperor's generation was 胤 (yin), but when he became Emperor the rest of his brothers and cousins changed their first syllable (which became a "taboo name" (避諱 _bihui_ )) to 允 (yun) 6. Qianlong Emperor's generation was 弘 (hong) 7. Jiaqing Emperor's generation was 永, but when he became Emperor he changed his syllable to 顒 since 永 (both _yong_ in Mandarin) is a very common character and an imperial order would inconvenience hundreds of thousands 8. Tongzhi & Guangxu Emperors, as well as Puyi's father's generation was 載 (zai) 9. Xuantong Emperor's generation was 漙 (pu) 10. BTS's Suga & his elder brother's generation (31st) is 基 (gi/ki); the succeeding generation (32nd) is 庚 (gyeong/kyeong/gyung/kyung), as attested by BUZZ's Min Kyung Hoon 11. BTS's Jungkook & his elder brother's generation is 楨 (jeong/jung); though in Jungkook's case, that is only in their family registry/genealogical record, since his personal name uses 柾 12. House of Nguyen during their heyday
Zhou Xun's acting is so danggone good. When she said "But the people who are gone, still can't come back"-like she recognizes this is a pyrrhic victory. And I wonder if deep down she blames herself for not protecting herself and those she cared about better.
We made it y'all 🎉🎉 tomorrow is the final drama video (followed by a final novel video covering the last chapters of the novels since the endings differ so drastically). Any guesses who got the audacity award this year? 😂
Episode 86 is the BEST episode in the entire drama. So much is happening in that one scene alone. Yanwan is finally exposed for her bs. What makes it even BETTER is the fact that she herself said “it’s crazy how everyone who’s treated you with a sincere heart, you’ve harmed”. The bastard had the AUDACITY to continue calling her and evil and despicable and this and that (not that she wasn’t), but he acted like he didn’t have a hand in her acting that way as well. Every time she was exposed of a crime, she just had to cry and act up and open her legs and he’d be so kitty whipped that he’d be like “oh she’s so virtuous and wants me to be happy. There’s no way that she’s even capable of doing that.” That’s why I loved their little showdown when everyone left. He was all “you evil murderous wench,” and she’s like “aww, well look at the pot calling the kettle black” it was low key funny to me. Also this bastard has the nerve to try and give Ruyi back her scroll. She CUT HER HAIR! That means she’s fed up with your bs you disgusting horndog! I do have to admit though, every time he cried, I did. Not bc I empathized with him in ANY way, but bc it pisses me off. Tf are YOU crying for? YOU caused this. Maybe if you acted like an actual emperor and less of someone so desperate for some kitty, you’d be able to maybe fix the patches in the marriage that you BEGGED for just to destroy.
I always rewatch Hailan's ending speech/ confrontation when I can't stomach watching the entire drama. Keliyete Hailan has grown so much, and despite the terrible things she's done, but I'm so proud of her 😭 💕
If you look closely at Ying’s face when she said that Yanwan wasn’t at ease with her raising her daughter, you can see she’s a bit mischievous. She had set a trap for Yanwan to say out loud that foster mothers can’t raise a child. Also, in real life, the 15th Prince was raised by Imperial Concubine Qing. That’s why Qing ended up being posthumously titled “Imperial Noble Consort”. Im surprised how this didn’t make it to the show because it would’ve put Qing in odds with Yanwan. She might have even helped Hailan in exposing Yanwan as to keep her new foster son, which is something realistic. I guess since she’s ZhenHuan’s spy, it wouldn’t make sense for the Emperor to trust her a child
I LOVE the way the servants reacted to Ling's instruction to slap Ying. Yanwan was like "Slap her!" and then the servants are like "Mistress please calm the f#ck down".🤣
Because Ying is the daughter of the Emperor’s arguably most powerful Mongolian ally, if shes severely punished, it could mean literal WAR especially since shes her dad’s ONLY daughter
The audacity of Yanwan acting shock after offending the Empress Dowager. Like girl you can not be this dumb after everything you done. And I'm so happy Jingsi can see the Light😂😂😂❤❤
She’s used to getting away with it with the emperor so I’m not surprised especially since she’s the de facto leader of the harem at that point. Plus the more power she got the more arrogant she became.
This is yet another example of how evidence was needed to prove Yinwan was evil but it he literally took every one at their word when Ruiy was accused.
Isn’t it evidence enough proving that he didn’t really like Ruyi? Actions speak louder than words and from the beginning i never got any indication from Qianlong that he loved Ruyi and we saw that over and over again in this series all based on his actions towards her even compared to other consorts, he actually even treated Hailan better than he treated Ruyi even when he was no longer interested in Hailan as his bed servant, I thought he was warmer towards her although historically he literally wasn’t interested in her
ooooo i love this chapter, i love it when our empowered consort yu finally shows all yanwan's misdeeds! And I also like that the yanwan herself tells the emperor to his face that the only one who really loves him and loved him, and not because of his power or position, but because of his person is ruyi. It's something it also shares with the Yanxi Palace drama (which I like to see as an alternate timeline to this drama). I think the lesson I get from these harem stories in general is that the best way to survive here is to be pretty bad and not sincerely love the emperor at all (which is ironic because as a consort you have to do the opposite) since zhe zuan, through wu meniang to haolan... their triumph is that they basically never fell in love with the emperor and therefore could lie to his face and manipulate him to their liking.
It still amazes me when some historians say “There is no proof that the scheming and danger shown in drama harems ever happened in history”. yeah like having a bunch of women married to one man, having to please him, gain power to survive, and walk a tight rope where ONE misstep can kill you and your entire clan, not just immediate family members wouldn’t create an environment of schemers and power struggles. Even Imperial Noble Consort Ling was not safe in real history. Her remains are the most well preserved of any consort AND full of poison which actually preserved her body after death. She was a threat for having too many children and sons and obviously someone in power thought she needed to die before her son ascended the throne and she became the Empress Dowager. It’s the same thing from the drama, Zhen Huan had to escape the same fate because she had too much power as a favoured consort with the most kids. Some ministers wanted to kill her to stop her from becoming the Empress Dowager.
Regarding irl!Ling, some of the historians said that she drank things that we now classified as poison to cure her sickness 😂😂 If there is no harem drama in irl, how come suddenly Step Empress Nara cut her hair? If I was a sane empress with no involvement of harem drama (no drama in managing the harem whatsoever, everyone is following the rules blablabla) why tf I want to ruined my position because of Emperor wanted to sleep around with brothels ladies lmao? Even Fuca Fuheng himself defended Step Empress for cutting her hair 😂
@@aliciagorgont2677 I still don’t believe the “she drank it as medicine” theory. It’s like historians try to over simply everything lol. China is ancient and there is no way they didn’t know mercury and consuming most metals were bad for your health. Plus Ling was of a lower background (Bao yi) but not low enough that they didn’t know some upper class etiquette and practices. So that theory seems way too simple imo. Plus the medicine would not have made her health better and she obviously would have stopped it.
Are there really historians who say that there's no proof of harem drama? The entire Cixi/Cian controversy; Cixi drowning Consort Zhen in a well and possibly murdering the pregnant wife of her own son the Tongzhi Emperor -- is proof enough that ancient Chinese harems were wild, we just don't know much about the concubines before the late Qing Dynasty since most of those stories have been lost to history + the royal family would have taken great efforts to cover up as many of the scandals as possible to protect their own reputation. And despite the ancient Emperor's attempts to censure, there are still tales of harem drama from older dynasties -- Consort Gong from the Ming Dynasty cried herself blind because the Emperor ignored her and her son in favour of Noble Consort Zheng; Consort Wan of the Chenghua Emperor famously employed eunuchs to murder all of his male offspring -- so much so that when Consort Ji got pregnant, she had to hide her pregnancy and subsequently her young infant son with the help of the Empress and some eunuchs; Wu Zetian from the Tang Dynasty killed her own daughter so she could frame her main rival in the harem and get rid of her once and for all.
@@lilytay9211 I don’t believe some of the stories of the Consorts, Cixi definitely. She was one of the last and most popular consorts who we have records and pictures of. Wu Zetian I don’t because so many stories about her are exaggerated and possibly created by the disgruntled male officials. There is a theory that possibly her daughter was born stillborn and she simply capitalized on that opportunity to frame her rival for it. That seems a possibility too.
The confrontation scene is so epic! The writers knew how to deliver a satisfying payoff. Yanwan was taken down so completely but she’s was quick thinking to end. She points out suspicious details, causes confusion, and creates a narrative while trying to save herself. The evidence is just to strong but she did make an effort. Also she was totally right about the Emperor. What does he expect? When you push away people who love you, you’ll only be left with people who want to use you.
The Empress dowager saying "是吗?" and Mei saying "一报还一报" are some of the best underrated moments in this show and I will run up that hill and die on it.
i literally say 是吗 in real life and i don't even speak chinese. i hate it because i look like i'm trying too hard or weird or whatever, but i just think it sounds cool and kinda, natural so it comes out of me lol
@@satyasyasatyasya5746 thank you! I realized later on when the clip came what it was and found it funny because I also say it a lot (tho admittedly not around people and likely with the wrong intonations😂)
@@tealhiid You're welcome. don't worry about tones. learn from context and actually, just literally copy the way they say it, almost as if you're doing an impression. My Empress Dowager is pretty good at this point! hahahaha that how babies learn. too much focus on tones as some intentional nuance makes people too selfconcious and stifles learning, I find. Just listen, and copy :)
The scene with the names is so emotional and powerful.. I never get tired of watching it .. Ruyi’s pained expression is so sad yes her name is cleared but so what? It won’t bring back her children or her friends.. I agree the first time I watched Ruyi I was so depressed it didn’t help that I had already watched a sad depressing cdrama before Ruyi so I took a break from cdramas.. but now I can enjoy Ruyi without being too sad
I definitely agree with you! Yanwan made an amazing villain. In the same way we see Ruyi as a girl go from a prince's second wife all the way to Empress, we see Yanwan begin as a fairly innocent nice girl working as a maid. She was nice to first prince and her relationship with Yunche (at first) was very cute and wholesome. We see her be bulled and mistreated and abused for years before she becomes the emperor's consort. We see her bad experiences make her more jaded, similar to Hailan. Despite Ruyi's clear dislike of her because she used Yunche, at least she hadn't committed any straight up evil acts. Until that point, I actually liked her a lot because she was just a woman struggling on her own to make something of herself. I like how those initial little moments where you see she has a selfish/greedy side to her become a big green monster, as she gains more power. Also, Consort Ying is so underrated and one of my top favorite characters. She loves 7th princess so much and is raising her so well. I'm sure putting aside her feelings for her own passed away daughter would've been hard but she did it. And her smart mention of the way Yanwan is raising her own kids to Jingse was genius. Such a small thing she said, but it was instrumental in Yanwan's downfall to lose all her kids at her side. The scene where she Ling tries to take 7th princess back is one of my faves. That line of Ruyi's at the end is one that always stuck out to me. "Those who have left, will never return". Damn. This line and the line Jia says before she dies "you must never live this kind of life again" were so heavy hitting for this series
Ep. 86 notes (WIP): in the penultimate chapter, Jin Wan'yin and Hailan had a conversation at Yanxigong Palace, where they reminisced on everything, even the part where they're now the only ones left from way back the Prince Bao Manor, and even how everything in Yanxigong Palace was as old as them (Hailan mentioned that everything belonged to Ruyi, and that she was cherishing everything that was left) Hailan then *produced a folded sheet and gave it to Wan'yin and urged her to go to Qianlong and reveal everything in it* . After some tearful pleadings and convincing from Hailan that *Qianlong will surely listen to her due to her neglected status* , Jin Wan'yin finally agreed. And *of course Qianlong listened to everything* , as he then summoned Chunchan, and from what I can infer, even Wangchan & Zuolu (while writing this I was suddenly reminded of how in "Empresses in the Palace" Zhen Huan somehow managed to convince Consort Duan to impart practical wisdom to Yongzheng Emperor during the Cui Jinxi-Shu Peisheng plotline) 1. basically *not as dramatic* as the final episode 2. Wei Yan'wan's downfall happened *on the eve of her 50th birthday* , and it was even noted that Qianlong was to gift her a huge af tourmaline carved in the shape of a lotus flower 3. though this took place at Yangxindian Hall, it was specifically at *Meiwu Cottage* 4. after Chunchan confessed everything (see previous video), Qianlong then summoned *Wei Yan'wan who was hidden behind a screen* (similar to Ruyi during the Khorchin bride plotline) 4. when presented with the ruby ring, at first Wei Yan'wan was surprised, but *later on caressed and cherished the artfiact* in front of Qianlong's salad 1. Wei Yan'wan *mocked how Qianlong himself destroyed the relationship* between himself and Ruyi, even saying *"I'm so happy!"* 2. when finally alone *Qianlong cried bitterly* on how *he had misunderstood Ruyi and even Ling Yunche* (imagine a 65-year old man belting out Steelheart's "She's Gone") 3. was indeed what it said on the tin: _qianji_ was actually described as the *king of poisons* , but it was *Liyu* who did the force feeding when Liyu deposited the writhing Wei Yan'wan on the floor of Yongshougong Palace, he informed her that: 3.a. *Qianlong intended for Wei Yan'wan a slow painful death* , hence why Qianlong gave her _qianji_ instead and *not hedinghong (red arsenic)* 3.b. *Jiang Yubin modified the potency of the qianji* so that Wei Yan'wan was *given an almost torturous death that lasted hours and into the following morning*
i think the scene where Hailan and Wanyin reminiscent kinda appear on the show but in different form, after Luyun died is a scene where the two of them along with Ruyi reminiscent their past and think about their future and how Wan rarely being called by the emperor and that Zhongcui palace is quiet ever since Luyun gone. It was a warming and bittersweet scene
@@magicwandstudio3141 yes I know that one, that was after Xiangjian accepted her role as Qianlong's concubine the difference is that they can only scoff at how Wei Yan'wan can dare to celebrate her 50th birthday while Ruyi lies undignified¹ and nameless² inside Su Luyun's tomb for eternity 1 - Step Empress's funeral was conducted according to the rank of Imperial Noble Consort but with a very substandard coffin and shortened mourning period & ceremonials. Her remains were unceremoniously shoved in Imperial Noble Consort Chunhui's tomb, in effect making her Chunhui's lowliest maidservant (if you search on Google Images "繼皇后墓" you'd want to cry due to the top images shown) 2 - Step Empress had no spirit tablet to identify her with, condemning her to being a hungry ghost for eternity (I'm assuming Sun Dian'ying's infamous 1928 looting only centered on the main Yuling Mausoleum and not on the Yuling Consort Mausoleum)
God when Yanwan finally was exposed I almost jumped in joy but immediately after I got tears in my eyes from Ruyi saying this won’t bring anybody back (plus the actress who’s name I am forgetting at the moment performed the fuck out of her in that moment). You know what’s funny? SPOILER I think if she’d kept her mouth shut after being administered the poison, instead of further taunting the emperor, I believe he’d have just let her die but nah she had to say something. I figure she’d gotten so used to getting away with being disrespectful that she couldn’t help saying something, or that she’s also at this point such a vindictive person she can’t help but twist the knife like she’s done to Ruyi all this time. Honestly, I get her scheming to get power, wealth, glory, stability, etc. but her vindictiveness and hatred towards Ruyi was stupid let’s be honest she didn’t actually have a legitimate reason for hating her. Although I think her and the emperor share that same train of thought which is “I’m going to blame everything terrible happening to me on Ruyi because it’s her fault” lol even when she got her children taken away she still blamed Ruyi like girl your insane.
I really loved this drama although it made me suffer a lot. And also I don’t blame the villain’s actions, because they were just trying to survive. I don’t like Yanwan but I guess she had to do all kind of evil things to have a stable position. I always like to believe the real villain was just the emperor, all the women were just victims. I really liked the intro song because we see all the women struggling no matter how favored they were
I argue even the emperor is a pawn to this system. He is basically a stud stallion who is pimped out to his supporters daughters. Forget him ever being faithful in this system (although there are a few emperors who were completely devoted). Also, I don’t fault Yanwan for playing the game honestly since everyone does. Like you have to cheat to win, but that makes the system itself flawed if you have to become vicious to survive in the harem. Imagine if Yanwan lived a different life and became an opera singer and lived her best life. Imagine if Jia was allowed to stay at her home and marry the love of her life? Imagine if Hui could have married someone she loved and had the baby she always wanted? Hell, imagine if Empress Fuca was allowed to be her own person and not forced to marry and fight for her clan?
@@LittleClarinetPlayerTHIS. Everyone says the women are all victims of the system. The emperor is too, even if he’s got it better he’s still a victim, its weird he doesn’t get excused like all the evil women do. Its like Recaps said, a polygamous relationship where you’re being shared with 20+ women is impossible to keep healthy, you wont be able to give them all enough time and love even if you’re the best person in the world
@@sawk1875 I agree. Imagine a normal modern day relationship where Hongli and Qingyin just fell out of love. Went their separate ways? It sucks but it happens, yet this is times 100X to the insanity level. What is sad is that the emperor ideally has the most power to change the system, yet he has to not manage just 20 women but their very strong influential tribes as well! Imagine if you punish a concubine too harshly and her warlord daddy goes to war with you? There is no winning unless they pull freaking straws each night for bed service and even then he’s forced to sleep with women he doesn’t like.
@@Raunak-dk6ow Basically the patriarchy also hurts men too. Like imagine having to fit in as a man you gotta have X amount of wives to show off? Man, I hate it here 😩
That fortune teller Mrs YanWan’s Mom visited said YanWan had the fortune but not the fate, and RuYi the fate but not the fortune. You nailed that culmination!
Ep. 84 notes, mostly original novel: 1. Qianlong had no choice but to choose 15th prince Yong'yan, since if he chose 17th prince Yong'lin instead 1.1. that would've put the realm into *another regency similar to Kangxi era* if he ďıęđ and Yong'lin was still a minor 1.2. as later events would prove, *Yong'lin was half of a duo of **#TheWorst** children* : among his £ụčк-ups, he gave presents to his adoptive mother Noble Consort Ying WITHOUT HIS FULL-BROTHER (Jiaqing Emperor)'S PERMISSION, ruining her (what was to be the final) birthday party (she died days later) 2. 7th princess Jing'yuan kidnapping: 2.1. it was *during nighttime service* that Wei Yan'wan broached the topic of having 7th princess Jing'yuan be brought back to her, *arguing that Lady Barin must be too busy* (as she's *in charge of Ruyi's funeral* ) 2.2. Qianlong *readily gave her consent* , and Wei Yan'wan *immediately ordered Wangchan to kidnap Jing'yuan from Xianfugong Palace* (in the drama Qianlong said to *take it slow* , but no...) 2.3. Jing'yuan repeatedly replied to both Wei Yan'wan & Chunchan's entreaties: *"I want to return to Xianfugong Palace!" and "Consort Ying is my mother!"* 2.4. Lady Barin only found out when she returned from funeral duties after dressing up, and began running in her socks 2.4.1. it was due to the Mongolian concubines (Noble Lady Ke & Gong) who found her in such a harried state that *Lady Barin openly voiced her suspicions on Ruyi's death* : recalling how *she and Jing'yuan saw a haughty Wei Yan'wan walk out of Yikunmen Gate and then heard about Ruyi's death afterward* (context: *Ruyi summoned both Lady Barin & Jing'yuan to Yikun'gong Palace* ) 2.4.2. like a ninja Hailan then approached their group and *offered her assistance in recovering Jing'yuan* ; at the same time, Hailan confirmed one of the Mongolian concubines' remark that the *Forbidden City is currently rife with rumors of Ruyi's "suspicious" death* 2.5. Wei Yan'wan was very frustrated that *both Jing'yuan and Lady Barin were acting contrary to her plans* that she was beginning to neglect Qianlong 2.5.1. *Jing'yuan was holding a hunger strike* (but not refusing water) while *Lady Barin was calmly holding out* (as per Hailan's instructions) 2.5.2. in the middle of *threatening to starve Jing'yuan to ðəąťн* , Jing'yuan shocked Wei Yan'wan by asking *"You like watching people die don't you?"* 2.6. Wei Yan'wan then thought of *having her children interact with each other* , and then ordered the children's wet nurses bring them 2.7. per Hailan, Lady Barin then went to Qianlong (who was then watching an opera performance) and then *raised her voice to save Jing'yuan from starvation, which surprised Qianlong* 2.7.1. Lady Barin repeated her plea, and after Qianlong noted the child's temper was nothing like either mothers, *Lady Barin mentioned Ruyi (and even had a moment of regret and was about to blame Hailan)* 2.7.2. *Qianlong then allowed Lady Barin to rescue Jing'yuan* and have a meal together at Yangxindian Hall since he was hungry as well 2.8. while Wei Yan'wan was busy ordering a new concubine draft (that Qianlong already refused prior due to Ruyi's death), the children were interacting 2.8.1. contrary to expectations *Jing'yuan was rather accommodating to her biological siblings* 2.8.2. 9th princess Jing'yun begged her elder sister to eat and not make their mother mad, *Jing'yuan said "She's not my mother."* (apparently *Jing'yun was neglected a little since she was both a girl and the middle child* , reflecting her historical RL counterpart's unfortunate fate: *too small dowry and princess rank not raised* ) 2.8.3. even after Jing'yun & 15th prince Yong'yan tried to dissuade her, *she loudly proclaimed "Wei Yan'wan bad, she killed Ruyi, I saw everything!"* 2.9. in such timely manner Wei Yan'wan came and heard this 2.9.1. when she threatened the her child by power-tripping Lady Barin, *Jing'yuan repeated #2.8.3.* while adding (similar to the drama) *"14th & 16th princes đįəď because of your karma"* 2.9.2. *Wei Yan'wan hit Jing'yuan's hands with a ruler and then subsequently slapped her* 2.9.3. unfortunately *the children saw this ugly side of her* (the wet nurses too late to protect them) and *were traumatized for life* 2.10. *Jing'yuan managed to escape Yongshougong Palace* from all the kerfufle, but due to starvation couldn't run far as well as became lost, and *only managed to scream "Mother save me!"; luckily Lady Barin immediately saw her and her wounds* 2.11. Wei Yan'wan's planned punishment for Lady Barin was *The Stick™* 2.12. Chongqing was coming back *from 12th prince Yongji* , and without further cue *ordered everyone to Cininggong Palace for their dignities' sakes* 2.12.1. *Chongqing held Jing'yuan by her side* all the way 2.12.2. *Fujia tended to her wounds* and it was notable that *Jing'yuan didn't cry once* 2.12.3. Wei Yan'wan did say @1:59-2:05 and *everyone present felt the chill of mentioning the taboo* (also IMO, not only Zhen Huan/Chongqing, but *Wei Yan'wan was also insulting Li Jin'gui* ) 2.12.4. after entrusting Jing'yuan to Lady Barin, Chongqing even mentioned to Wei Yan'wan *the rumors about Ruyi's death* ; if you can't convince a child otherwise, what can you do 2.12.5. it was a miracle Wei Yan'wan managed to leave intact 3. Qianlong's reaction: 3.a. original novel: 3.a.1. punished Wei Yan'wan by *having all her children totally separated from her and henceforth brought up at Xiefangdian Hall* and was *limited to monthly visits* 3.a.2. Yong'yan could only say before he was separated by Jinbao *"You were so scary" and "Don't defame Ruyi"* (because she said "Ruyi bad") 3.a.3. according to extant historical records: -15th prince Yong'yan was brought up by Consort Qing (hence why she became Imperial Noble Consort Qinggong) -9th princess was brought up by Consort Shu -17th prince Yong'lin was brought up by Noble Consort Ying who spoiled him rotten (his residence is currently the Prince Gong Mansion; during Xianfeng era the Imperial Household Bureau seized the residence from Yong'lin's descendants and gifted it instead to Xianfeng Emperor's half-brother Imperial Prince Gong) 3.b. drama 3.b.1. after Yuhu added the Mongolian Consortium™'s dissatisfaction (see below) on top of the kidnapping & taboo incident, *Qianlong openly regretted ever promoting Wei Yan'wan to Imperial Noble Consort* in a reactionary whim 3.b.2. he then *orders the Mongolian Consortium™ to no longer attend Wei Yan'wan's Morning Greetings™* & *5th prince Yongqi's funeral handled by Hailan instead* , while allowing *Ruyi to visit after everyone had gone* 5. regarding #3.2. 5.1. the Mongolian Consortium™ was *already in open rebellion against Wei Yan'wan since Ruyi's funeral* : the seeds were sown by *Xiangjian and Noble Ladies Gong & Ke* 5.2. Wei Yan'wan's POV at this time: this should've been my happiest and most glorious moment but *Ruyi's đęăţĥ became a golden noose around my neck* 6. Jingse *already severed ties with Wei Yan'wan for many years now* (relevant notes later)
2.7.1. Lady Barin repeated her plea, and after Qianlong noted the child's temper was nothing like either mothers, Lady Barin mentioned Ruyi (and even had a moment of regret and was about to blame Hailan) Is there added explanation on what the emperor and Lady Barin meant here? I wonder what she said about Ruyi and if the emperor maybe described Jing'yuan's personality as someone he knows?
Episode 86 I cried at the end with Ruyi’s final speech with Rongpei. Also I was cheering when Yanwan was exposed and also as much as I hate her what she said to the Emperor wasn’t wrong. He had a harem of women who never truly loved him and simply wanted political power and riches for themselves and their families. The people who truly loved him like Ruyi he treated like trash to the point they wanted nothing to do with him anymore.
Yanwan’s treatment of her children is super flawed at best. If she wanted Jinyuan to live with her, she should’ve went for a less forceful approach. Here’s what I would’ve done if I were her. I would’ve went to her myself and told her that I understand that Ying is the mother that raised her and that I don’t want to separate them and that I just want to connect with her. I’d tell her that she’s welcome to live in my palace temporarily and to connect with her siblings but she can choose to leave whenever she wants.
As for the fifteenth prince, yeah I agree that the way he’s raising him is super dangerous. “Always be loyal to me and listen to be first?” Yikes. Also, filial piety exists. If she raises him well and he becomes the crown prince, he’ll naturally have loyalty to her and his success will reflect will on her. But she literally wants him to be solely loyal to her and she’s teaching this to him when he’s young and super impressionable. Aside front that, she seems like a decent parent to him (nice, attentive), but it’s hard to tell with the kid so young. I guess she can be nice to her children but only when they’re not disobeying her.
@@moonstarstories1298 Yanwan takes after her own mother in that she treats her sons the best while neglecting her daughters. This is indicated by Jingyun, Yanwan's second daughter, who was under her biological mother's care from birth but was neglected in favor of her brothers and therefore has a weak relationship with her mother which quickly falls apart the moment she is taken out of Yanwan's care.
Consorts Ying and Rong are the only ones who can say what they think with little to no consequences. 06:10 is hillarious! XD Also, in Episode 86, when the banners were finally showed with Yunche's name one of the first we see in view, the emperor lowered his eyes and I hoped that he did that out of shame for being such an egoistic idiot. I'm excited to see your last video for this series and I hope you also do Story of Yanxi Palace.
This ending is so bittersweet. Its so nice to see ruyi vindicated but it all just comes too late. But you've covered this show and legend of zhen huan so well. If you're looking for new dramas to do, might i suggest New Life Begins. We've got so many familiar faces there and its such an entertaining drama!!
So many people have recommended that show! I'm definitely doing YanXi next because I wanted to get the holy trifecta out of the way first, but maybe that one next, who knows? I haven't actually watched it and it'll be fun to do a new show instead of a rewatch this time
Honestly, I really cant blame Yanwan either. Especially since she had every card against her in rhe beginning as she was a lowborn palace maid. Nobody befriended her in the harem either and all she had was the Emperor, she had so many children but couldn't raise any of them by her side. I think anyone would turn diabolical from a life like that.
oh I do love that soundtrack the name of which translating to sinking shattered pearls, pearls in this case being used as a reference to royalty or more loosely an important character. It usually only plays when someone important dies or when a villain is taken down for good. love the run down of the princes 1:20 Ling Huang Guiifei literally does everything wrong when trying to get back 7th princess, also she angers Empress Dowager 2:03 I don't know why Ling Huang Guifei is so shocked when the servants take one step to slap Ying Fei then fall back as they realise they'd probably find themselves in a messy diplomatic disaster and why Jingyuan loves Ying Fei so much 2:25 exactly all children deserve parents, but not all parents deserve children; Ling Huang Guifei is an ample example of that 2:25 seems like Ling Huang Guifei's mother's fault being so rash with her words 2:55 yep, Jiingse was pretty much never gonna let anyone else have a good time holding onto the empress seat or reach the empress dowager seat. Ying Fei comes in here clutch too, helping Jiingse see Ling Huang Guifei's greed. Also Jingse was not happy with Yongqi's death 3:15 sowing discord too in camp. Ling Huang Guifei has already killed off creepy eunuch and Lancui, close people to Ling Huang Guifei; Ling Huang Guifei has shown herself to not be a person to put trust into, and it shows as she seeks to kill off Chunchan too. Yu Fei has an easy time instilling fear into Wangchan, the last of Ling Huang Guifei's inner circle of servants 4:15 very smart, Empress Dowager is very capable 4:56 very dark and very scary; it's a good thing Jingse wasn't found out by Ling Huang Guifei... 5:15 excellent choice ^^ Ke Pin and Ying Fei are good people and the remaining dowager imperial consorts and concubines would be happy to raise a prince 5:25 this also applies to Yu Fei since Keliyete is also a Mongolian clan 5:50 creepy... 6:17 this is why you have an imperial doctor on your side :D 6:40 dun dun dun 6:50 guess Qianlong Emperor really didn't want to set a crown prince; guess the disaster of Yonghuang and Yongzhang was a bit much 7:10 yep and yet it takes everything to take her down 7:23 8:18 wow Zuolu was easy to convince to take down his own sister XD; though from his perspective it was Ling Huang Guifei to discard him first so... 8:55 Ling Huang Guifei really knows how to wiggle her way out of these situations too bad 9:10 empress dowager lands the final blows 9:31 all those sutra flags T-T all those victims 9:54 so sad T-T 10:03 it's the levitating poison makes you feel like you're floating away as your limbs lose feeling... I wonder what kind of poison does that ^^; 10:18 yep sounds about right... 10:48 I know right 11:14 thank goodness and finally 11:43 it took virtually everyone left; and partially it was cause she knew how to squirm her way out of a bad situation, get ahead by using the situation, and discard pawns and allies no matter who they were 11:55 that is true, it's very difficult to manage a harem, the people in it must respect, care, and harbor no deadly jealousies toward each other at the least; something that an Emperor's harem can't quite reach with the Emperor being unable to properly manage the harem and the political marriages outnumbering the marriages made by careful selection Even Puyi's Harem was filled with petty schemes... though none of the consorts used directly deadly schemes
Finally, some justice. It's sad how it all ends but Ruyi's attitude is admirable, this was never a power fight for her, it's not about being the empress because her dignity is not defined by a rank. But even so, a life like that undoubtedly tires anyone, her lack of interest in everything is sad but it is so real and understandable, not wanting anything more than to be at peace... Btw this is so sad but your humor makes watching this again much easier so thank you ❤
I have been following you this past few weeks after the hiatus and let me tell you - You make my day! With your humor, editing, storytelling.❤ Thank you for your work! I hope you continue making content at your pace. About your review, I agree wholeheartedly. It’s difficult to keep your hands and mind clean in the harem. You obviously don’t want to be powerless ex-concubine living and existing in your palace. You can’t even blame Jia and Yenwan for wanting power.
I do pity the actress who played as Yanwan, she had to take inhaler for the confrontation scene, probably due to short breath or the actress herself have asthma 😭😭😭
I think that might have happened bc they had to make her down bowls of liquid... I'm going to guess they shot it too many times that it probably went down the wrong pipe and irritated her respiratory tract.
Yanwan finally getting exposed and punished and Ruyi finally having her freedom, is just everything. but its so bittersweet. The people lost and the sadness endured. I also think that at the end of the show, its such a clever move to have Ruyi cut herself out of history rather than have some man do it because he's angry at her. She didn't want any of this and she takes herself back from all of it.
Ruyi erasing herself from the narrative reminds me of Hamilton’s Eliza Hamilton. They would have a lot to talk about how the men they loved so devotedly didn’t appreciate anything they did. What’s even wilder to me is the real life history behind the step empress. The show is 100% fictional but there are facts of the real life emperor and empress that make this such a story of intrigue.
My first palace drama was Yanxi Palace and I never thought I'd like another drama as much as I did that one. When I first started Ruyi, I thought it was boring and there would be no way I could get into it, but here I am finishing the series and literally sobbing. Forget palace dramas, this is by far one of the best shows I've watched in general. For the story and acting to be so good to move me to tears for a 45 minute period? Insane.
Consorts Ying and Rong are the Queens of Throwing Shade and Cutting. Oh, and the servants don't dare to hit Ying, because she basically has diplomatic immunity as her clan is very important and influental in backing the emperor. And the emperor told YanWan that she can have her daughter back _provided said daughter gives her consent_ -- a caveat YanWan promptly ignored to her own detriment.
New life begins has the best version of a harem drama I have ever seen, but I totally agree, the harem system itself in most of these dramas is the cause of so much misery. So many excellent, smart, intelligent, and beautiful women who could have had amazing fulfilling lives in our current day are reduced to livestock for some man. If they never came there they could have been potential friends. We should want to do better for everyone. Even Zhen Huan was unable to break the system and she did try to control the emperor. Imagine never being able to go home or leave or walk to the store. It would drive people insane and knowing your actions could get your loved one killed. Then if you don’t scheme like Ruyi you end up schemed against. The biggest villain is the system itself. Then you can’t raise your damn kid unless you have a good family or you end up a pawn for someone else to use.
i loved new life begins! ruyi's royal love was a drama i was interested in watching, but i actually started watching the _second_ i recognized suoxin 😂
its interesting that you said the real problem is the system itself instead of the emperor. because i kept thinking (and I know this is an unpopular opinion), the emperor turned to shit but i dont think he started that way, i think he really loved Qingying back then, but he was force to take the throne and then watch his son died in such horrible way (Mei Pin child who are deformed and Yi Pin as well) and seeing Xiyue and the Empress who he taught was a kind girl turn out to be a schemers might hardened him. So even if we replace the emperor with someone who are kindhearted, I dont think the proble will be solve, in fact that kindhearted person can possibly be corrupted due to all the schemers. Add that to all ther hard decision he have to take as the emperor like when he has to make her sister stay with the enemy to prevent war. The harem thing is truly imposibble for everyone.
I really enjoyed your recap! Thank you for sharing the novel version to highlight the differences. It was a nice touch. Can you do a series on Yanxi Palace?
Actually when I double-think about this drama, I understand that the Emperor's character in his late age is the consequence of a mixture of: the middle-age chrisis, childhood trauma (having Zhen Huan as a mother is not cool at all), being tired of scheming and failing the trial with Power. In the end, it doesn't matter who is scheming against whom, he already doesn't distinguish between good and evil, devotion and treason, start mistreating people who are true to him, and cherish people who want to use him (just because the latter just know how to play their part around around him). In the end, it doesn't matter anymore who would scheme: would it be YanWan or anyone else, he will anyway find a reason to be angry at RuYi, and more he hurts her feelings more he hates her for that (if that makes sense to you: he needs to justify his actions so it would sound rightful from his perspective, something like "I hurt her, but probably she deserved it"). The same happens when he discovers YanWan's plot. It looks to me that he is happy to think that the reason he mistreated RuYi was Yanwan's plot, and that he was forced into doing so, but nope, he just found another dummy to place the responsibility for his stupid behavior on. It is a behavior that usually you would expect from children and teenager's rather from a grown up man, but sometimes aging is about getting wrinkles and not wisdom.
really enjoyed your recaps, i had notifs on and would always look forward to your videos! to pay you back, here's my recap of your recap: "jia sucks, but i can't stay made at her because' she's a little bit ~girlboss.~ " "hailan is the best, love her, total bestie moment there, also she is terrifying and should probs be in jail haha" "SOMEONE SAVE THE PRINCES." "Ruyi, for the love of GOD--" But mostly: "I am going to hit the emperor with my car." thanks again for all the effort you put in!
First Prince's mom was Consort Zhemin (posthumously titled: Imperial Noble Consort Zhemin- 2nd rank below Empress) She was from the same clan as Empress Langhua (Fuca clan). She didn't appear in the tv-drama although I wish they would've shown a flashback. I love these recaps, thank you for making them 💜
I must say, even this recap series is one o the funniest things which I recently watched and I diligently watched this series every day instead of rewatching Ruyi, the last one was still hard to watch. But this eps!!! ok, I guess I will watch these eps again! Thank you so much! I hope, someone will edit Hailan in the palace.
i wish the music in the scene where yanwan applies lip tint on chunchan didn't scream SUSPENSE SUSPENSE TENSION SOMETHING'S WRONG so loud. would be cool if there was some space for the viewer to believe that maybe they are actually just having a cute bonding moment in contrast to all the schemes and fights? and then boom nope it was poison
Yesss! I thought the exact same thing about ARuo (when she came crawling back to RuYi after kneeling in the rain) why the obvious music? Let us be as surprised as RuYi is by the betrayal!
To be honest I didn't expect the emperor to remain good to Ruyi for long. Not after what the Dowager told him about their personalities. Emperors were always supposed to be right in those days and that was the mentality always among the people. so i didn't expect much after Zhen Huan.
I've loved these videos. Every day at 6PM my time, I'm "Ooh, what's next?" I'll miss that, but I really do hope you'll be back soon with another drama.
Yan’wan wears so much yellow, I think I read somewhere that there’s different shades that are ok for different ranks but it must be a nightmare to memorize.
What happens to emperors son who don’t become emperor like they work in court as official or are they powerful meaning rich like other officials from major clans
Now this drama coming to an end, i really wanna rewatch story of yanxi Palace with you, and you know seeing "yan wan" as "ying lou" a good person there, being emperor's love and all good girl vibeee. (idk why i hate her in that drama too). I had stop watching this drama when ruyi and emperor fell out of love it was just too much for me watch. 😢😢
Finally, karma smacks Yanwan down on the ground. I enjoyed every second of seeing her uselessly squirm for her life 😈. We are down to the final episode of the drama, and it's going to be heartbreaking to watch.
The Qing dynasty harem, in real history, was not known for that many intrigues because it was rigidly structured, and there was no set order of succession. Battle among the imperial princes was, however, a reality. The Ming dynasty harem was full of violent intrigues, though.
I've had a few other movie recommendations and was thinking of doing a string of movies at some point since they're not as much of a commitment! Though this channel is called "drama" recaps... hopefully I'll be forgiven😂
Legit question. In Ruyi canon, since Yanwan is out and Ruyi is also out (due to not wanting to be Empress anymore and her death) who will be managing the harem? Is it Hailan, Xiangjian or Meiruo? It’s just that Hailan was a servant so I thought she wouldn’t be a candidate but Yanwan was a servant, too. Or would it be Qing Pin (legit she is so insignificant that I even forgot her real name) since she’s from a good family and is a nice lapdog to the Emperor and the Empress Dowager?
In drama canon, it seems like Hailan would be the one to take charge of the harem at first after Ruyi's death and Yanwan's downfall. Then management switches to Muping (Consort Qing) when she is promoted to noble consort. Then back to Hailan after Noble Consort Qing dies a year before Yanwan dies. Then management probably falls under Meiruo after Hailan dies. In novel canon, it would likely be Meiruo as she along with Ying'luo (novel Consort Qing under a different name) are both promoted to noble consort while Yanwan is still alive, with Meiruo becoming the highest ranking consort in the harem when she outlives Yanwan and Ying'luo.
Wei Yan Wan's body was still intact after 250 + years. She died with a smile on her face, apparently reported when they opened her coffin. That did not happened to other consorts or concubines. Poisoning by medicine or on whose order? Good performance by the actress as Wen! I have become a fan of Zhou Xun after this series. The first Chinese drama series I have ever watched and I am not even a regular movie watcher. The series is superbly made. Complimenti!
According to historical data. It seems she wasn’t actually poisoned, maybe she was taking medication that had cinnabar as apparently it was a thing,I’m not sure know her actual illness was but according to palace records, Qianlong visited her every single day after he finished working to sit with her right up until her death, he had her move closer to him to make his visits easier and was devastated after she died so it definitely made no sense that she was poisoned deliberately and definitely not by Qianlong especially considering that these events are actually made up. Even Ruyi’s 2 children that died young didn’t happen the way the show put it as the last son actually lived to 19 months before he died of illness, her daughter was 2 and didn’t die from a dog attack and she didn’t have a name like the drama said and she wasn’t posthumously titled either. 5th prince did have a bone disease and after rescuing Qianlong from a fire , it seems the inhalation of the smoke or something caused his illness to worsen, there was no foul play in his cause of death so , the fact that non of these things actually happened then what would be the actual cause for poisoning other than jealousy and I doubt it would’ve been easy to poison her with the rank she held up until her passing. It’s also said she had a smile on her face after all those years. No one would be smiling or even looking comfortable with poison as dying from poison is very painful.
@@Winter74575the screenplay was only a novel the rest we have to look up ourselves. The actors there were superb. I haven’t watched anything else on the Qing Dynasty since. My Chinese is not good due to no use and I cannot read simplified Chinese yes I read about that cinnabar usage as well. Did you find out by reading in Chinese?
@ no I didn’t read it in Chinese but there use to be a vid here with some Chinese historians discussing it all with records in a panel, they removed the video now sadly, but they had inner court records with Qianlong visiting Ling every day to sit with her when she was sick, records of the closing of all court affairs for 5 days after her death, they we’re debating and showing evidence that Qianlong couldn’t possibly had poisoned her based on the evidence they had of how he treated her and how depressed he was after her passing, it was so good I even had it saved in my library but because they deactivated the channel it seems because i can’t seem to find it and I can’t remember the name of the actual channel 😭
@@jsychu if you like Qing historical stuff, The channel called “ China institute in America” had a few videos dedicated to Qianlong era, the women in his harem etc. it doesn’t go through their names but it shows how they lived, with items he gifted them and the ED etc, what they did during the days etc, what was expected of them, it says they were free to go into the gardens but could only be invited to the garden if Qianlong was in the garden, it’s actually good because it gives you a better insight into how things really were. Also they discussed the paintings as most historians are saying the paintings we see are not exactly how these women looked, they were painted to look better than they did mostly ( fantasy paintings) apparently Yongzheng and Qianlong seemed to have been a little obsessed by Han Chinese women so it seems they had the women painted to look similar to Han Chinese women ( features and sometimes clothing) and it’s true because if we look at real photos of the harem ladies in the late Qing dynasty, Ci’xi’s time , the Manchu women have a very distinctive look which looks nothing whatsoever like any paintings I’ve seen so far of any of the Qing harem women, he even sent them paintings of Han Chinese women as reminder of how they should prepare to serve 👀 Yongzheng ( Qianlong’s father) had a painting hidden in his secret chambers called the 12 beauties I think it’s probably in the museum but the 12 women were painted in the palace but painted wearing Han Chinese clothes, hairstyles and even their facial features, it’s a little weird but it was their secret obsession but was restricted from making Han Chinese women their empresses which was sad because. You should watch that documentary . If you do let me know your thoughts here.
@@jsychu have you watched Yanxi Palace? It’s the view from Ling’s perspective, much lighter lots of detours from historic facts but I liked it as I think the actors were also great especially The step empress, I actually preferred her story there to this one because she wasn’t so perfect as she’s portrayed here yet not completely evil as her actions had reasoning even though they weren’t good but the characters are more grey than simply just black or white.
i really hope so! the differences would make for a great palate cleanser. recapping a drama with a similar plot but through another person's eyes feels like a perfect sequel.
Finally the cathartic scene ... ahhhhhhhhh. Plus you really see Yanwan going psycho before this when she actually tries to strangle Chunchan herself -- crazy eyes! She doesn't even go through the servants at that point! I also love Hailan's heavy-metal hairdo. Oh, yeah, about hating Yanwan -- I think she is the monster the whole system created. I hate the Emperor and the system most of all.
Im just wondering what happened in real life after Ling became imperial noble consort. Did Qianlong favor her till the end.. or being exposed to her schemes like in this drama?
The real life Imperial Noble Consort Ling was favored but would never have a chance to become empress consort (due to her family background as both a servant and being a member of the Han ethnic group (Only Manchu and (in early Qing Dynasty) Mongolian woman would be considered viable candidates for becoming empress consort). This is seen in her rank as Imperial Noble Consort as it did not receive the additional title 'managing inner court' which was usually used to signify that the imperial noble consort being promoted is going to become the next empress (Empress Xiaojingcheng of the Daoguang Emperor, who had ambitions of becoming empress consort, also had a similar predicament in that Daoguang promoted her to imperial noble consort but didn't add the 'managing inner court' title, which made it clear that he was not planning on promoting her to empress). Qianlong was also very careless with his rewards to her as the rewards he gave to her family when Consort Ling was at the rank of consort and pregnant was less than what he rewarded to Concubine Yi and her family who was of a lower rank. Even when he posthumously promoted Consort Ling to empress, Qianlong omitted some of the ceremonies that were expected to be performed for a dead consort being promoted to empress. Really calls into question in real history just what their relationship was like outside of portrayals in dramas. A lot of this information can be found in "ancient chinese history with Bing's" channel, especially in the video 'Was the consort Ling Qianlong's favorite consort?'
@@satyasyasatyasya5746 "Ancient Chinese History with Bing" is a good channel for discussing the history of Chinese imperial families and how history as portrayed in dramas is actually very different to how it happened in real life.
I have to say, yes I hate Yanwan even if I understand her. She had so many opportunities to be good, but she chose schemes instead and hurt/ killed a lot of people. Instead, she should have had empathy considering she experienced the darker side of harem life before she got "lucky". Her true luck was winning Ling Yunche's love, but she rejected it. Makes me happy for my simple, commoner's life too.
Personally for me, what really made Yanwan go from "evil but understandable" to "I straight up can't stand her" is that she feels entitled to Ling Yunche, even though she rejected him twice (although I'll give her a pass for the first attempt) and all of her evil schemes towards Ruyi are literally just because she thinks he's moved onto her. If her story ended with her accepting Ruyi's offer to marry Yunche, she would have had a (at that point) well-deserved happy ending along with him. Also the things she did to Ling are just straight up irredeemable. Like she tried to force herself on him!
No it hurts Hailan not to be allowed to see her but I know Hailan would know immediately that she was going to die. That woman is so in tune to her She would look at her and be devastated
Also TB is contagious and if Ruyi is out of favour it’s dangerous to ally openly with her. 2 very good reasons to limit who she sees and in what circumstance.
Hey, love your videos been keeping up everyday. This drama was well written and well acted. I think having a princess would be the best case scenario, especially if you are not well favored. The emperor would not neglect you, and the other women would not be out to get you. Since the emperor doesn't like you a lot the princess may not be forced to marry far and get to marry someone she actually likes, or she may just be set off faster because the emperor does not like you. Have you decided on what drama you will do next?
I have a question, was it according to plan that the Emperor woke up when Yanwan was scheming; and if it was how? Did they give him medicine to wake up or was it just crazy timing. How did they know to have everything ready for this particular day?
I dislike YanWan. I understand the harem is cut throat and you've got to watch your back and pave your own path but her motives for harming Ruyi were pure evil and greed.
I feel so sorry for all these women, really for everyone in the palace...even Jia, Hui, and Langhua....really everyone except Yanwan. She had a chance to get out, and have a decent life and she spat on it
i seriously cannot believe Yanwan drank so deeply from the dumb dumb cup to just put her own paper in the box xD I know signatures can be faked, but damn, especially because she screwed herself over since her son was already the best choice (granted that's definitely in part due to her poisoning all the better options xD) Also, i hate all the yanwan < Ruyi fanfiction of this drama, but my god, the banner with all the names has always amazed me. Like Ruyi only decided once she got her diagnosis to do that, so she was putting in hella overtime, and as someone who can appreciate dedication i can put my love for historical accuracy aside to admire that move xD BUT THEN WE GET TO THE POISON BIT AND I CAN'T Yes it's dramatic, yes we want this Yanwan to die, but it's so over the top as to toss out any believability to this "Untold stories" drama. We literally have records of her over the next ten years acting as empress stand in for so many events, and giving birth to at least one final son i believe, not *this* dramatic mess they gave us. And I know people are probably sick to death of me screaming historical innacuracy but it is literally this scene right here that ruins the entire drama for me and it's such a shame as I otherwise love this drama. But they just couldn't bear to back a losing horse despite otherwise being so faithful to history and it really is a shame. Anyways looking forward to the novels take and moving on to a happier drama to soak my depressed self in xD
@@sawk1875 oh god I hope not! I meant this drama in the sense they keep trying to portray Ruyi as the better woman despite history literally telling us that wasn't the case. Like Imperial Noble Consort Wei lived long after Ruyi, was the last figurehead Emperor Qianlong had as pseudo empress, and while she didn't live to see it her son would become the next emperor and thus herself Empress. There is a winner and a loser here but this drama, despite otherwise loving it's historical references, is just blatantly pulling a "I do not comprehend" and it's both jarring and dissapointing.
oh I don't mean to imply i think she was good or anything, really as a sucessful consort and ancestress of the Qing dynasty odds are really good she was the *opposite* to have survived and thrived in the harem. She just clearly never got caught like this drama is implying, and no matter how ill the emperor treated her he never deposed her, but really after Ruyi died he was genuinely on a downward spiral of tyranny so i'm not suprised to hear that and this drama is one of the few that *does* call him out about that. Really it's the fact this drama is *so* historically accurate otherwise that these ending episodes bug me. They try so hard to sell this fake narrative after being so real with every other detail that it just comes off as a plastered on attempt instead of just comitting to the bit of having a fallen protagonist who was replaced by a younger model (which is basically what i understand happened in the historical case of Imperial Noble Consort Wei vs Step Empress
@Raunak-dk6ow I'll admit I am not familiar with who is who on the show. I only know who Wallace is because of all the hate mail he got for his phenomenal performance 🤣
@Raunak-dk6ow gotcha! Well, yeah, if the ending was the literal actresses idea it makes a lot more sense. But while that works in movies like IT (the addition of that kid who gets killed in chapter 2 was added for narrative) where things are entirely fictional in historical drama narrative satisfaction needs to take a backseat to believability. You can make up minor details but one quick Wikipedia search is all it takes for this ending to be ruined and really stain an otherwise amazing drama for me.
Ep. 85 notes (WIP): 1. Ruyi & Zhen Huan's final conversation 1.1. while Ruyi was in Anhuadian Hall for Yongqi's memorial, *she sent a folded note to Zhen Huan* (via Fujia) with only the words *"毒心"* in it 1.2. when Zhen Huan arrived, she could only note with resigned pity that *it's their first meeting since the infamous Southern Trip* and *Ula Nara clanswomen were very unlucky indeed* 1.3. Zhen Huan then asks about the note, to which Ruyi replies that "毒心" (lit. "poison heart") was basically how Yixiu ruled the imperial harem during her time 1.4. Ruyi then says "I'm a useless person, I couldn't even protect my children" which mystifies 2. Wei Yan'wan vs. Chunchan 1.1.a. in the original novel, *there was neither distrust between Wei Yan'wan & Chunchan* (and for that, even the plot with 12th prince Yongji) 1.1.b. in the revised version of the original novel, one of Ruyi's final orders to Hailan was to *divide Wei Yan'wan & Chunchan apart* (which IMO had already cracked with Lancui's ďəąťн) 1.2. Rongpei's words that stuck to Chunchan: Lancui is gone, and Jinzhong is now gone. *You were so close to her, who do you think is she going to get rid of next?* (Ruyi had actually been requesting Yongji be raised by Chongqing *as far back as prior to Xiaoxian Elegies™* ), in the original novel: 1. depending on when you place Qianlong's illness - *Qianlong would be in his mid-50's* , hence comparison with Yongzheng Emperor is false since *he was in his 30's* when _karoshi_ himself -by the penultimate chapters *Qianlong was 65* and had even sired 10th princess Jingxian 2. Qianlong *didn't write anything* to intend as Crown Prince
![RuYi's Royal Love [Episodes 86-87] Recap + Review](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/6c1Sf4wA1rs/mqdefault.jpg)
![RuYi's Royal Love [Episodes 86-87] Recap + Review](/img/tr.png)
![RuYi's Royal Love [Novel ending]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/g51o2iPyvHM/mqdefault.jpg)
![RuYi's Royal Love [Episodes 80-81] Recap + Review](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DC9z2To3_hc/mqdefault.jpg)
Wei Yan'wan's list of victims:
according to the prayer banners:
1. Lancui
2. Ling Yunche
3. 6th princess
4. Midwife Tian
5. Borjigit Eyinzhu
6. 13th prince Yongjing
7. Keliyete Zhaqi
8. 5th princess Jingsi
9. Yehe Nara Yihuan
10 & 11. no closeups and blocked by Qianlong's head
12. Hu Yunjiao
13. 10th prince
14. Jinzhong
15. 5th prince Yongqi
---
according to the drama + original novel (includes deceased, injured, & implicated; not extensive hence maybe more):
1.1. *Lancui* -in the original novel poisoned alongside Borjigin Eyinzhu
1.2. *Jinzhong*
1.3. Chunchan - in the original novel, was dispatched by Qianlong in the same manner as A'ruo: force fed muteness medicine by Liyu (as punishment for being both criminal accomplice and for disloyalty to her mistress)
1.4. Wangchan
2.1. *Ling Yunche*
2.2. Zhao Jiuxiao
3. *6th princess*
4.1. *Midwife Tian*
4.2. Tian Jun - hostaged by Wei Yan'wan's family to keep Nanny Tian in check
4.3. *Tian Yun'er/Hu Yunjiao* - aka evil!Xiao Yanzi
5. *Borjigin Eyinzhu* - similar to 1.1.
6. Maoqian
7.1. Hailan
7.2. *5th prince Yongqi*
7.3. *Keliyete Zhaqi* - in the original novel committee ŝụıčįđə by head-banging
8.1. *Yehe Nara Yihuan*
8.2. *10th prince*
9.1. Ruyi - in the original novel, Ruyi's "death" was blamed onto Wei Yan'wan
9.2. *5th princess Jingsi* - in the original novel it's explicitly stated COD was rabies due to dog bite
9.3. 12th prince Yongji
9.4. *13th prince Yongjing* - contrary to drama, extant historical records state that 13th prince lived for more than a year
9.5. Ruyi's mother Lady Langgiya
10.1. 8th prince Yongxuan
10.2. 9th prince - Jin Yuyan's son; in the original novel born well before the fabricated infidelity plotline, but was ill with colds at the time of Jin Yuyan's fall from favor; COD suffocation secondary to external shock (trapped rat breaking Joseon tribute porcelain)
10.3. Fugui'er - related to 9.2., in the original novel the dog that bit Jingsi wasn't even Fugui'er but a look alike stray that was deliberately infected with rabies
11. Su Luyun - in the original novel 9th prince's death was unfairly blamed towards her, since she was in charge of 9th prince due to both Ruyi & Jin Yuyan under respective palace arrests at the time
12. Lu Ying'luo/Lu Muping - sewed the _qizhuang_ for 12 prince Yongji but was worn by 5th princess Jingsi instead
13.1. Jin Wan'yin - compiled the Xiaoxian Elegies™
13.2. Xiaoqing'er - in the original novel was Qianlong's attendant eunuch in charge of ink grinding, dispatched during the poem compilation plotline for somehow enraging Qianlong
14. Chief Imperial Astronomer - most probable candidate for one of the sutra banners since his death scene was shown
15.1. Wei Yan'wan's mother Lady Yang
15.2. Wei Zuolu
16.1. Jingse - used by Wei Yan'wan to topple Ruyi; in the original novel shamelessly used the memory of Empress Xiaoxianchun, which was strike 1
16.2. Qingyou - in the original novel, the "accident" was intentional, and that was strike 2 in Jingse's book
I was so hoping you'd put together something like this! Thanks for sharing
@@dramarecaps4217 I haven't got round to most of the recaps because I landed a job recently
This is crazyyy. That woman is a serial killer😫 not even HuaFei,Jiafei, Yixiu or Langhua come close!
@@Greyce118 tbf in the original novel Langhua is downright evil, and Jin Yuyan's list of victims are actually comparable
The 2nd list shows Hailan - I thought she lived on past RuYi's death and got the rest of the harem to team up against Qianlong.
Yes the dowager is hella late on the ruyi train but I do love when she rubs salt on the emperor 😂
Agreed tbh
12:05 This is the reason why I love dramas like Zhen Huan and Ruyi so much -- they don't romanticise the lifestyle of ancient concubines and instead show the depressing truth of the situation. Way too many dramas romanticise palace lifestyle and portray it as a utopia where true love with the Emperor is possible as long as you're smart, attractive and resourceful --- this could not be further from the truth. There's a Chinese phrase, "前朝后宫", which is used to refer to both the imperial harem and the imperial court. The fact of the matter is that the lifestyles of imperial concubines are so intrinsically linked to court politics that it's practically impossible to lead a peaceful and happy life as a concubine.
Brief moments of happiness can be ruined by so, so many things. You're beautiful, talented and have the Emperor's true love and affections? Oh no, the Empress Dowager doesn't like the influence you have over the Emperor, so she decides to drown you in a well (Consort Zhen of the Guangxu Emperor). You're fertile, likeable, and on good terms with everyone including the Emperor and other consorts? Oh no, you have too many sons and they all want to be the next Emperor, breaking your heart as they fight with one another for the throne (Consort De of the Kangxi Emperor). You're kind-hearted, peaceful and mostly stay out of everyone else's way including the Emperor? Oh no, you're low-ranked and neglected for most of your life and now you're old and lonely in a cold palace with no children to keep you company, never being able to leave (Consort Wan of the Qianlong Emperor). And these are just the stories of women we were lucky enough to learn about -- there are countless others whose tales have been lost to history, especially since no one back then cared to document the feelings of imperial concubines. They were simply recorded as "Empress"; "Mother of Prince A"; "Daughter of General B" when such labels are probably overly simplistic generalisations of their lives -- as seen from Ruyi and Zhen Huan, just because you're an Empress/favoured concubine/mother of a prince doesn't mean that your life is happy.
There's a good reason why China left behind the concubine system -- there's simply no way for women to be happy in a system that exploits young girls to serve a much older and much more powerful Emperor, actively oppresses them with countless archaic rules and robs of them of the little agency they had in the first place. It's a system where your marriage is your job - so many of us modern people already get tired doing 9-5 jobs -- now imagine having to work 24/7 while letting your workplace police who you're allowed to meet, who you're allowed to fall in love with and how many children you're able to have. To make matters worse, you can't ever leave your job and most likely didn't even choose to have this job in the first place. Yet, you're at the mercy of much more powerful man who can kill your entire family with just a flick of his finger.
As a teenager, I grew up with palace dramas like Beauty's Rival in the Palace (美人心计), Scarlet Heart (步步惊心) and Beyond the Realm of Conscience (宮心计) where palace life was romanticised. Those dramas gave the impression that life in the palace can be good as long as you're a good person and the Emperor loves you -- the good guys always end up winning and the bad guys always end up losing. This has led to a phenomena in China -- “不吝美化帝王丞相,淡化今朝英模光辉” -- where the kings and emperors of the past are romanticised and idealised while the benefits of modern society are cast away/forgotten. There are some people who genuinely wish they could go back to the past and become a palace concubine (the entire Chuanyue fiction genre), thanks to the popularity of such unrealistic and unhistorical dramas which glamorise the life of a concubine. I'm so glad that ZhenHuan and Ruyi were able to stand out from other palace dramas by providing a viewpoint into what an ancient concubine's life would realistically look like -- full of loneliness, betrayal and tragedy. Any girl who wants to time travel back to the ancient Chinese dynasties should watch Ruyi -- and think again if they really want to live in such a dystopia.
I think that's why China actually cracked down on these palace dramas. As they got more popular around the world, everyone started getting VERY negative opinions about the past emperors. 😅
@@TJRhea Actually I think it's the opposite reason -- as they got more popular around the world, more and more people started to romanticise the past, creating an entire genre of fiction called Chuanyue in which modern protagonists time travel back to the ancient dynasties. The CCP actually wants their citizens to hate the old dynasties and have negative opinions about past emperors (since they need to justify their rule over China! What better argument than "we were the ones who saved you from the terrible Emperors of the past"), so that's why they banned palace dramas. The Legend of Zhen Huan was given an exemption from the ban though, due to its popularity and the fact that its one of the few dramas that doesn't romanticise ancient lifestyle :D
Then again, Qing dynasty harem was the most peaceful any imperial harem had ever been. Most likely because of extremely rigid structures as set days when who can sleep with the emperor depending on status, very little room for arbitrary promotion because of fixed number of higher ranked consorts (pin and higher) etc. The only time there were rumours a concubine (Consort Ji of the Xianfeng emperor) miscarried due to another concubine was actually when lady yehe nara (future empress dowager CiXi) was rumoured to have pushed someone. Compare that to the wild stories of the Ming dynasty and Qing was really really tame.
That is very true! Qing dynasty did not have anywhere close to the amount of drama and corruption of the other dynasties. The eunuchs are another example of that.
@@woordenhechtster To be fair to other dynasties, the fixed number of higher ranked consorts also existed in previous dynasties 😂 And in the Qing Dynasty, Emperors didn't follow the fixed number most of the time anyways; at one point Qianlong had six Consorts even though he technically was only supposed to have four. It's hard to judge which dynasty is worse than which when a lot of stories have been lost to time + there's no way of confirming the authenticity of such stories especially when later dynasties have every incentive to make up false stories about earlier dynasties and imperial families have every incentive to cover up and censure as many of the stories as possible even if they were actually true. Moral of the story is that ancient dynasties were bad for women and we're so lucky to be living in the 21st century instead of the Qing, Ming or Tang dynasties etc.
Honestly, the last few episodes are so beautifully bittersweet. As much as I can't stand Yanwan she does her role well. She will never be a Hua-fei or Jia, but you do love to hate her.
Also Jia's sons got a good deal. They aren't crown princes, but they are alive.
AND they're dukes!
7:23 who would've thought this is the same woman that used to be so shy and bullied around? Look at her now, even her hair pins look like armor. Love Hailan!
Notes:
-Good lord, you manage to sire 17 princes and only 6 of them survive this series?! You can kind of understand why big harems were necessary for most Emperors: between infant mortality, childhood accidents/sickness, and palace infighting, it's a wonder any of his kids made it to adulthood; his wikipedia page lists nine princes (YongHuang, Zhang, Cheng, Qi, Rong, Xuan, Xing, Yan, and Lin) and five princesses (HeJing, Jia, Jing #2, Ke and Xiao) as making it to adulthood.
-Jingyuan (her title is Hejing, which she shares with Jingse) is really a good kid---in fact, all of Yanwan's kids are---which goes to show the whole 'nurture vs. nature' thing; they're not born malicious schemers or arrogant snots, they're taught that. Ying kinda hits the jackpot here: she has no kids of her own, but she gets an adopted daughter and son, her powerful clan background ensures she'll never be neglected, and the emperor still seems to like her.
-Ling has the exact same issue as late-stage Jia: can't shut the hell up. If she. hadn't opened her big mouth, she might've been able to get at least partial custody of Jingyuan. As if that wasn't enough, she then tells Yongyan, one of the potential crown princes, to obey her in all matters, *out in the open*. You have an entire palace! Wait until you're away from prying eyes/ears before you start scheming!
-Jingyuan's 妧/yuan appears to mean 'beautiful, good-looking', while her sister Jingyun's 妘/yun might be the same as Yunche's (meaning 'cloud'). Meanwhile, her brother Yongyan's character 琰/yan means 'gem, beautiful jade'.
-Ruyi's move was very smart; Yanwan and Hongli have the exact same character flaw: overly suspicious. All she needed to do was plant that seed of doubt, and she knew Chunchan would fall from Yanwan's good graces sooner or later, and then she could be prompted to spill the beans.
-The practice of secretly hiding a scroll containing the name of the future emperor was instituted by Qinalong's grandfather Kangxi, following a nasty sucession dispute. Yinreng, his legitimate son by the late Empress Xiaochengren, had been groomed to be his sucessor, but later proved to be a really vile human being (beating and killing servants, purchasing small children for.....nefarious purposes, carrying on an affair with one of his father's concubines, etc). His father was so enraged by this, and by the subsequent turmoil over who would be the next Crown Prince, that he refused to name anyone until his death. Political parties formed in court, some backing the 14th prince, Yinti, the 8th prince, Yinsi, and the 4th prince, Yinzhen. On his deathbed, Kangxi summoned his surviving crown prince candidates and had his court official Longkodo deliver the edict: Yinzhen was to succeed him, as Emperor Yongzheng. (This is why Yongzheng and Qianlong, in both their respective series, hated crown prince shenanigans). There were two copies of the scroll: one carried on the Emperor's person at all times, and one hidden behind the sign hanging behind the throne in Qianqing Palace (it bears an inscription by the Shunzhi Emperor, the second Qing ruler, reading '正大光明' (lit. 'Let the righteous shine')).
-During the confrontation with the Emperor, after Chunchan blows him in for stealing Fugui'er (Jia's dog), Ling's eunuch Wangchan ends up squealing as well (after being nudged by Hailan earlier).
-Several commenters on the English sub I was watching noted Halian's silver hair ornaments and big liangbatou as 'looking like battle armor', and I have to agree---a fully-decked out, grieving Yu Fei is a force to be reckoned with.
-Yanwan almost manages to weasel her way out, not only with the 'oh it's too convenient' excuse, but because the witnesses so far are Hailan (a known Ruyi supporter), Chunchan (who could've been bribed/forced to confess), Wangchan (who literally just started confessing under pressure) and Zoulu (a convicted criminal)---not exactly the most trustworthy lineup. If not for Hailan's continued pressure and the Empress Dowager's timely arrival, she might've actually wormed her way out of any severe punishment (Also, her excuse for the crown prince scroll fakery? 'I was so worried about what might happen to the country if you died without an heir'. Bleh.)
-The Empress Dowager actually schemed with the imperial doctors to make it seem like the Emperor was close to death, even though it was only a mild illness. Early on in episode 85, she's even sitting by his bedside and crying about him 'leaving her all alone in her old age' to make it seem more convincing. Also, her lines during Ling's interrogation go hard: "You said you got schemed, but a rotten corpse courts the maggots...You just said that this was a trap. Yes. Ruyi wanted me to tell you that this was indeed a trap. But all these traps were chosen by yourself. It's like the roads before us: just where you go is also decided by yourself. Others are not to be blamed." She just destroys her 'everyone else's fault' attitude with a few lines, and the venom in her voice is just perfect. Nobody messes with Zhenhuan's grandkids. Finally, she uses Ruyi's real name--not 'Huanghuo', just 'Ruyi'---while calling Ling 'Madam Wei' instead of 'Wei Huangguifei'. In the first case, it means she truly respects Ruyi, while in the second, she utterly disdains Yanwan.
-The scripture flags (jingfan, or Tibetan prayer flags) were a brilliant touch, putting the sheer number of people Yanwan hurt and/or killed into perspective for the entire room to see (by my count, there are 15 total). You can see Hailan blinking back tears at some of them, and even the Emperor seems saddened (Hell, I teared up while rewatching the episode for these notes, when I saw the ones for Ling Yunche and Jingsi). Ruyi's intentions, as laid out by the ED, are to get Yanwan to repent and to release the souls of her victims from their torment. Even then, in her delusional pride, Yanwan won't bow. The scene cutting between her being forced to kowtow to the flags and Ruyi fervently praying at her altar, with the triumphant yet mournful music, is beautiful. Even if it is a victory, the show is telling us, it's still a pyrrhic one; too many people died due to one person's lust for power, and bringing her down won't bring them back.
-Ruyi is wearing a simple black bianpao during Ling's punishment, black means death/mourning in the West, she's both Ling's judge/executioner, and she knows she's dying. Ling's wearing imperial yellow, a sign of her high status---but yellow is often considered the color of cowardice. More (unintentional? maybe?) color symbolism.
-The 'qianji ('levitating')' poison that the Emperor grants Ling (also called maqianzi ('poison nut'), fanmubie ('animal's claw'), and kushi ('bitter')) is derived from the Strychnos nux-vomica (the name comes from the Greek 'strúkhnon', meaning 'acrid, bitter'). In TCM, small amounts are said to treat typhoid, sore throat, and excess phlegm, but in large amounts, it causes muscular convulsions and death by asphyxia. It was apparently a common drug for 'granting death', and Yuhu says that it causes a sensation of one's limbs detaching and floating above oneself, alongside great pain. The term 'qianji' originally referred to a weaving shuttle, due to the fact that victims of the poison jerked about like a shuttle being worked on a loom, a very cheery mental image. (She deserves it, 100%).
-As she's dying, Ling unleashes on the Emperor, telling him that, by turning a blind eye to the harem's inner workings, and by calculating himself, he 'taught' her to scheme and use underhanded methods to gain his favor. She's actually right----if he hand't indulged her and others, and hadn't gone light on punishing consorts for the sake of his own reputation, this drama would've been a lot shorter and a lot happier. She says he 'never had half a true heart towards her', but that's fine, because he never got her heart either. I love this exchange in particular:
Hongli: I am the emperor, who dares not to obey sincerely?
Yanwan: Obeying, yes, but with no sincerity whatsoever.
-Finally (I know this is so long, but there's a ton of stuff): Ruyi knows the TB is contagious. She doesn't want to risk the other consorts, especially Hailan, getting it too, and she doesn't want them to see her suffering. She's not their Empress anymore---she's just Ruyi.
What does yong and jing in their names means ?
A very informative and well thought out comment. Thank you!
@@ivanholok2046 China had a "generation name" which is usually based off a mnemonic-style poem (unique to each family lineage) wherein the names of one's children (mostly sons) and their fellow generation shares a common syllable
eventually both Koreas & Vietnam adopted this system
examples:
1. the Four Confucian Sages
2. Hongxi Emperor's generation was 高 (gao)
3. Xuande Emperor's generation was 瞻 (zhan)
4. Emperor Yingzong & Jingtai Emperor's generation was 祁 (qi)
5. Yongzheng Emperor's generation was 胤 (yin), but when he became Emperor the rest of his brothers and cousins changed their first syllable (which became a "taboo name" (避諱 _bihui_ )) to 允 (yun)
6. Qianlong Emperor's generation was 弘 (hong)
7. Jiaqing Emperor's generation was 永, but when he became Emperor he changed his syllable to 顒 since 永 (both _yong_ in Mandarin) is a very common character and an imperial order would inconvenience hundreds of thousands
8. Tongzhi & Guangxu Emperors, as well as Puyi's father's generation was 載 (zai)
9. Xuantong Emperor's generation was 漙 (pu)
10. BTS's Suga & his elder brother's generation (31st) is 基 (gi/ki); the succeeding generation (32nd) is 庚 (gyeong/kyeong/gyung/kyung), as attested by BUZZ's Min Kyung Hoon
11. BTS's Jungkook & his elder brother's generation is 楨 (jeong/jung); though in Jungkook's case, that is only in their family registry/genealogical record, since his personal name uses 柾
12. House of Nguyen during their heyday
Zhou Xun's acting is so danggone good. When she said "But the people who are gone, still can't come back"-like she recognizes this is a pyrrhic victory. And I wonder if deep down she blames herself for not protecting herself and those she cared about better.
We made it y'all 🎉🎉 tomorrow is the final drama video (followed by a final novel video covering the last chapters of the novels since the endings differ so drastically). Any guesses who got the audacity award this year? 😂
Yanwan or The king
Arou or first prince’s nanny
I do want to ask is the end of the recaps 👀
So many folks qualify but Arou, Maoqian
Or Mongolian Consort Yu top my list
So many candidates for that title lol but Yanwan and the emperor are the ones for me 🥴
Episode 86 is the BEST episode in the entire drama. So much is happening in that one scene alone. Yanwan is finally exposed for her bs. What makes it even BETTER is the fact that she herself said “it’s crazy how everyone who’s treated you with a sincere heart, you’ve harmed”. The bastard had the AUDACITY to continue calling her and evil and despicable and this and that (not that she wasn’t), but he acted like he didn’t have a hand in her acting that way as well. Every time she was exposed of a crime, she just had to cry and act up and open her legs and he’d be so kitty whipped that he’d be like “oh she’s so virtuous and wants me to be happy. There’s no way that she’s even capable of doing that.” That’s why I loved their little showdown when everyone left. He was all “you evil murderous wench,” and she’s like “aww, well look at the pot calling the kettle black” it was low key funny to me. Also this bastard has the nerve to try and give Ruyi back her scroll. She CUT HER HAIR! That means she’s fed up with your bs you disgusting horndog! I do have to admit though, every time he cried, I did. Not bc I empathized with him in ANY way, but bc it pisses me off. Tf are YOU crying for? YOU caused this. Maybe if you acted like an actual emperor and less of someone so desperate for some kitty, you’d be able to maybe fix the patches in the marriage that you BEGGED for just to destroy.
Perfectly said!!!👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
I always rewatch Hailan's ending speech/ confrontation when I can't stomach watching the entire drama. Keliyete Hailan has grown so much, and despite the terrible things she's done, but I'm so proud of her 😭 💕
I love Hailan! She's very very clever and complex. I find her the most beautiful of them all.
If you look closely at Ying’s face when she said that Yanwan wasn’t at ease with her raising her daughter, you can see she’s a bit mischievous. She had set a trap for Yanwan to say out loud that foster mothers can’t raise a child.
Also, in real life, the 15th Prince was raised by Imperial Concubine Qing. That’s why Qing ended up being posthumously titled “Imperial Noble Consort”. Im surprised how this didn’t make it to the show because it would’ve put Qing in odds with Yanwan. She might have even helped Hailan in exposing Yanwan as to keep her new foster son, which is something realistic. I guess since she’s ZhenHuan’s spy, it wouldn’t make sense for the Emperor to trust her a child
I LOVE the way the servants reacted to Ling's instruction to slap Ying. Yanwan was like "Slap her!" and then the servants are like "Mistress please calm the f#ck down".🤣
Because Ying is the daughter of the Emperor’s arguably most powerful Mongolian ally, if shes severely punished, it could mean literal WAR especially since shes her dad’s ONLY daughter
The audacity of Yanwan acting shock after offending the Empress Dowager. Like girl you can not be this dumb after everything you done. And I'm so happy Jingsi can see the Light😂😂😂❤❤
She’s used to getting away with it with the emperor so I’m not surprised especially since she’s the de facto leader of the harem at that point. Plus the more power she got the more arrogant she became.
Let’s not forget the empress dowager caught on to Yanwan earlier scheme when she got rid of consort shu and the 10th prince.
Ooooof every time that banner of names comes out I get chills. It’s SUCH a powerful scene. 💜
Literally 🥲🥲
why is the emperor always kicking around his ladies😂he needs to be locked up
Even yongzheng wasn't just slapping his consorts willy nilly , iirc he only hit 2 women and and 1 was kinda justified
@@annamariathomas4116 yongzheng, was Qianlong's (Hongli) father-this emperor is Hongli
@@noellamonyuy26 I know I am simply referencing the emperor from empresses in the palace.
This is yet another example of how evidence was needed to prove Yinwan was evil but it he literally took every one at their word when Ruiy was accused.
That part irritated me to no end!!!
Isn’t it evidence enough proving that he didn’t really like Ruyi? Actions speak louder than words and from the beginning i never got any indication from Qianlong that he loved Ruyi and we saw that over and over again in this series all based on his actions towards her even compared to other consorts, he actually even treated Hailan better than he treated Ruyi even when he was no longer interested in Hailan as his bed servant, I thought he was warmer towards her although historically he literally wasn’t interested in her
ooooo i love this chapter, i love it when our empowered consort yu finally shows all yanwan's misdeeds! And I also like that the yanwan herself tells the emperor to his face that the only one who really loves him and loved him, and not because of his power or position, but because of his person is ruyi. It's something it also shares with the Yanxi Palace drama (which I like to see as an alternate timeline to this drama). I think the lesson I get from these harem stories in general is that the best way to survive here is to be pretty bad and not sincerely love the emperor at all (which is ironic because as a consort you have to do the opposite) since zhe zuan, through wu meniang to haolan... their triumph is that they basically never fell in love with the emperor and therefore could lie to his face and manipulate him to their liking.
Well put! It is sad though as you have to resign yourself to never having a romantic relationship in your life. But yeah, as long as you can survive!
It still amazes me when some historians say “There is no proof that the scheming and danger shown in drama harems ever happened in history”.
yeah like having a bunch of women married to one man, having to please him, gain power to survive, and walk a tight rope where ONE misstep can kill you and your entire clan, not just immediate family members wouldn’t create an environment of schemers and power struggles.
Even Imperial Noble Consort Ling was not safe in real history. Her remains are the most well preserved of any consort AND full of poison which actually preserved her body after death. She was a threat for having too many children and sons and obviously someone in power thought she needed to die before her son ascended the throne and she became the Empress Dowager.
It’s the same thing from the drama, Zhen Huan had to escape the same fate because she had too much power as a favoured consort with the most kids. Some ministers wanted to kill her to stop her from becoming the Empress Dowager.
I mean there really isn't 'proof'. But who'd be dumb enough to leave 'proof'.
Regarding irl!Ling, some of the historians said that she drank things that we now classified as poison to cure her sickness 😂😂 If there is no harem drama in irl, how come suddenly Step Empress Nara cut her hair? If I was a sane empress with no involvement of harem drama (no drama in managing the harem whatsoever, everyone is following the rules blablabla) why tf I want to ruined my position because of Emperor wanted to sleep around with brothels ladies lmao?
Even Fuca Fuheng himself defended Step Empress for cutting her hair 😂
@@aliciagorgont2677 I still don’t believe the “she drank it as medicine” theory. It’s like historians try to over simply everything lol. China is ancient and there is no way they didn’t know mercury and consuming most metals were bad for your health. Plus Ling was of a lower background (Bao yi) but not low enough that they didn’t know some upper class etiquette and practices. So that theory seems way too simple imo. Plus the medicine would not have made her health better and she obviously would have stopped it.
Are there really historians who say that there's no proof of harem drama? The entire Cixi/Cian controversy; Cixi drowning Consort Zhen in a well and possibly murdering the pregnant wife of her own son the Tongzhi Emperor -- is proof enough that ancient Chinese harems were wild, we just don't know much about the concubines before the late Qing Dynasty since most of those stories have been lost to history + the royal family would have taken great efforts to cover up as many of the scandals as possible to protect their own reputation. And despite the ancient Emperor's attempts to censure, there are still tales of harem drama from older dynasties -- Consort Gong from the Ming Dynasty cried herself blind because the Emperor ignored her and her son in favour of Noble Consort Zheng; Consort Wan of the Chenghua Emperor famously employed eunuchs to murder all of his male offspring -- so much so that when Consort Ji got pregnant, she had to hide her pregnancy and subsequently her young infant son with the help of the Empress and some eunuchs; Wu Zetian from the Tang Dynasty killed her own daughter so she could frame her main rival in the harem and get rid of her once and for all.
@@lilytay9211 I don’t believe some of the stories of the Consorts, Cixi definitely. She was one of the last and most popular consorts who we have records and pictures of.
Wu Zetian I don’t because so many stories about her are exaggerated and possibly created by the disgruntled male officials.
There is a theory that possibly her daughter was born stillborn and she simply capitalized on that opportunity to frame her rival for it. That seems a possibility too.
The confrontation scene is so epic! The writers knew how to deliver a satisfying payoff.
Yanwan was taken down so completely but she’s was quick thinking to end. She points out suspicious details, causes confusion, and creates a narrative while trying to save herself. The evidence is just to strong but she did make an effort.
Also she was totally right about the Emperor. What does he expect? When you push away people who love you, you’ll only be left with people who want to use you.
The Empress dowager saying "是吗?" and Mei saying "一报还一报" are some of the best underrated moments in this show and I will run up that hill and die on it.
i literally say 是吗 in real life and i don't even speak chinese. i hate it because i look like i'm trying too hard or weird or whatever, but i just think it sounds cool and kinda, natural so it comes out of me lol
Could you please tell me what it means in english?
@@tealhiid it just means like "oh really?" or "oh yes?" sometimes sarcastically.
@@satyasyasatyasya5746 thank you! I realized later on when the clip came what it was and found it funny because I also say it a lot (tho admittedly not around people and likely with the wrong intonations😂)
@@tealhiid You're welcome.
don't worry about tones. learn from context and actually, just literally copy the way they say it, almost as if you're doing an impression. My Empress Dowager is pretty good at this point! hahahaha
that how babies learn. too much focus on tones as some intentional nuance makes people too selfconcious and stifles learning, I find. Just listen, and copy :)
The scene with the names is so emotional and powerful.. I never get tired of watching it .. Ruyi’s pained expression is so sad yes her name is cleared but so what? It won’t bring back her children or her friends.. I agree the first time I watched Ruyi I was so depressed it didn’t help that I had already watched a sad depressing cdrama before Ruyi so I took a break from cdramas.. but now I can enjoy Ruyi without being too sad
I definitely agree with you! Yanwan made an amazing villain. In the same way we see Ruyi as a girl go from a prince's second wife all the way to Empress, we see Yanwan begin as a fairly innocent nice girl working as a maid. She was nice to first prince and her relationship with Yunche (at first) was very cute and wholesome. We see her be bulled and mistreated and abused for years before she becomes the emperor's consort. We see her bad experiences make her more jaded, similar to Hailan. Despite Ruyi's clear dislike of her because she used Yunche, at least she hadn't committed any straight up evil acts. Until that point, I actually liked her a lot because she was just a woman struggling on her own to make something of herself. I like how those initial little moments where you see she has a selfish/greedy side to her become a big green monster, as she gains more power.
Also, Consort Ying is so underrated and one of my top favorite characters. She loves 7th princess so much and is raising her so well. I'm sure putting aside her feelings for her own passed away daughter would've been hard but she did it. And her smart mention of the way Yanwan is raising her own kids to Jingse was genius. Such a small thing she said, but it was instrumental in Yanwan's downfall to lose all her kids at her side. The scene where she Ling tries to take 7th princess back is one of my faves.
That line of Ruyi's at the end is one that always stuck out to me. "Those who have left, will never return". Damn. This line and the line Jia says before she dies "you must never live this kind of life again" were so heavy hitting for this series
"This series is so depressing and I love it." - I agree!
Ep. 86 notes (WIP):
in the penultimate chapter, Jin Wan'yin and Hailan had a conversation at Yanxigong Palace, where they reminisced on everything, even the part where they're now the only ones left from way back the Prince Bao Manor, and even how everything in Yanxigong Palace was as old as them (Hailan mentioned that everything belonged to Ruyi, and that she was cherishing everything that was left)
Hailan then *produced a folded sheet and gave it to Wan'yin and urged her to go to Qianlong and reveal everything in it* . After some tearful pleadings and convincing from Hailan that *Qianlong will surely listen to her due to her neglected status* , Jin Wan'yin finally agreed. And *of course Qianlong listened to everything* , as he then summoned Chunchan, and from what I can infer, even Wangchan & Zuolu
(while writing this I was suddenly reminded of how in "Empresses in the Palace" Zhen Huan somehow managed to convince Consort Duan to impart practical wisdom to Yongzheng Emperor during the Cui Jinxi-Shu Peisheng plotline)
1. basically *not as dramatic* as the final episode
2. Wei Yan'wan's downfall happened *on the eve of her 50th birthday* , and it was even noted that Qianlong was to gift her a huge af tourmaline carved in the shape of a lotus flower
3. though this took place at Yangxindian Hall, it was specifically at *Meiwu Cottage*
4. after Chunchan confessed everything (see previous video), Qianlong then summoned *Wei Yan'wan who was hidden behind a screen* (similar to Ruyi during the Khorchin bride plotline)
4. when presented with the ruby ring, at first Wei Yan'wan was surprised, but *later on caressed and cherished the artfiact* in front of Qianlong's salad
1. Wei Yan'wan *mocked how Qianlong himself destroyed the relationship* between himself and Ruyi, even saying *"I'm so happy!"*
2. when finally alone *Qianlong cried bitterly* on how *he had misunderstood Ruyi and even Ling Yunche*
(imagine a 65-year old man belting out Steelheart's "She's Gone")
3. was indeed what it said on the tin: _qianji_ was actually described as the *king of poisons* , but it was *Liyu* who did the force feeding
when Liyu deposited the writhing Wei Yan'wan on the floor of Yongshougong Palace, he informed her that:
3.a. *Qianlong intended for Wei Yan'wan a slow painful death* , hence why Qianlong gave her _qianji_ instead and *not hedinghong (red arsenic)*
3.b. *Jiang Yubin modified the potency of the qianji* so that Wei Yan'wan was *given an almost torturous death that lasted hours and into the following morning*
Thank you for your insights on the novel. Could you tell us what was the plot line about a concubine selected by Hailan that looked just like Ruyi?
i think the scene where Hailan and Wanyin reminiscent kinda appear on the show but in different form, after Luyun died is a scene where the two of them along with Ruyi reminiscent their past and think about their future and how Wan rarely being called by the emperor and that Zhongcui palace is quiet ever since Luyun gone. It was a warming and bittersweet scene
@@magicwandstudio3141
yes I know that one, that was after Xiangjian accepted her role as Qianlong's concubine
the difference is that they can only scoff at how Wei Yan'wan can dare to celebrate her 50th birthday while Ruyi lies undignified¹ and nameless² inside Su Luyun's tomb for eternity
1 - Step Empress's funeral was conducted according to the rank of Imperial Noble Consort but with a very substandard coffin and shortened mourning period & ceremonials. Her remains were unceremoniously shoved in Imperial Noble Consort Chunhui's tomb, in effect making her Chunhui's lowliest maidservant
(if you search on Google Images "繼皇后墓" you'd want to cry due to the top images shown)
2 - Step Empress had no spirit tablet to identify her with, condemning her to being a hungry ghost for eternity
(I'm assuming Sun Dian'ying's infamous 1928 looting only centered on the main Yuling Mausoleum and not on the Yuling Consort Mausoleum)
God when Yanwan finally was exposed I almost jumped in joy but immediately after I got tears in my eyes from Ruyi saying this won’t bring anybody back (plus the actress who’s name I am forgetting at the moment performed the fuck out of her in that moment). You know what’s funny? SPOILER I think if she’d kept her mouth shut after being administered the poison, instead of further taunting the emperor, I believe he’d have just let her die but nah she had to say something. I figure she’d gotten so used to getting away with being disrespectful that she couldn’t help saying something, or that she’s also at this point such a vindictive person she can’t help but twist the knife like she’s done to Ruyi all this time. Honestly, I get her scheming to get power, wealth, glory, stability, etc. but her vindictiveness and hatred towards Ruyi was stupid let’s be honest she didn’t actually have a legitimate reason for hating her. Although I think her and the emperor share that same train of thought which is “I’m going to blame everything terrible happening to me on Ruyi because it’s her fault” lol even when she got her children taken away she still blamed Ruyi like girl your insane.
I really loved this drama although it made me suffer a lot. And also I don’t blame the villain’s actions, because they were just trying to survive. I don’t like Yanwan but I guess she had to do all kind of evil things to have a stable position. I always like to believe the real villain was just the emperor, all the women were just victims. I really liked the intro song because we see all the women struggling no matter how favored they were
I argue even the emperor is a pawn to this system. He is basically a stud stallion who is pimped out to his supporters daughters. Forget him ever being faithful in this system (although there are a few emperors who were completely devoted). Also, I don’t fault Yanwan for playing the game honestly since everyone does. Like you have to cheat to win, but that makes the system itself flawed if you have to become vicious to survive in the harem. Imagine if Yanwan lived a different life and became an opera singer and lived her best life. Imagine if Jia was allowed to stay at her home and marry the love of her life? Imagine if Hui could have married someone she loved and had the baby she always wanted? Hell, imagine if Empress Fuca was allowed to be her own person and not forced to marry and fight for her clan?
@@LittleClarinetPlayerTHIS. Everyone says the women are all victims of the system. The emperor is too, even if he’s got it better he’s still a victim, its weird he doesn’t get excused like all the evil women do. Its like Recaps said, a polygamous relationship where you’re being shared with 20+ women is impossible to keep healthy, you wont be able to give them all enough time and love even if you’re the best person in the world
@@sawk1875 I agree. Imagine a normal modern day relationship where Hongli and Qingyin just fell out of love. Went their separate ways? It sucks but it happens, yet this is times 100X to the insanity level.
What is sad is that the emperor ideally has the most power to change the system, yet he has to not manage just 20 women but their very strong influential tribes as well! Imagine if you punish a concubine too harshly and her warlord daddy goes to war with you? There is no winning unless they pull freaking straws each night for bed service and even then he’s forced to sleep with women he doesn’t like.
@@LittleClarinetPlayer Exactly!
@@Raunak-dk6ow Basically the patriarchy also hurts men too. Like imagine having to fit in as a man you gotta have X amount of wives to show off? Man, I hate it here 😩
That fortune teller Mrs YanWan’s Mom visited said YanWan had the fortune but not the fate, and RuYi the fate but not the fortune.
You nailed that culmination!
Hailan, what she did was always for Ruyi's sake. Talk about a loyal friend! I always enjoyed watching those two!
Ep. 84 notes, mostly original novel:
1. Qianlong had no choice but to choose 15th prince Yong'yan, since if he chose 17th prince Yong'lin instead
1.1. that would've put the realm into *another regency similar to Kangxi era* if he ďıęđ and Yong'lin was still a minor
1.2. as later events would prove, *Yong'lin was half of a duo of **#TheWorst** children* : among his £ụčк-ups, he gave presents to his adoptive mother Noble Consort Ying WITHOUT HIS FULL-BROTHER (Jiaqing Emperor)'S PERMISSION, ruining her (what was to be the final) birthday party (she died days later)
2. 7th princess Jing'yuan kidnapping:
2.1. it was *during nighttime service* that Wei Yan'wan broached the topic of having 7th princess Jing'yuan be brought back to her, *arguing that Lady Barin must be too busy* (as she's *in charge of Ruyi's funeral* )
2.2. Qianlong *readily gave her consent* , and Wei Yan'wan *immediately ordered Wangchan to kidnap Jing'yuan from Xianfugong Palace*
(in the drama Qianlong said to *take it slow* , but no...)
2.3. Jing'yuan repeatedly replied to both Wei Yan'wan & Chunchan's entreaties: *"I want to return to Xianfugong Palace!" and "Consort Ying is my mother!"*
2.4. Lady Barin only found out when she returned from funeral duties after dressing up, and began running in her socks
2.4.1. it was due to the Mongolian concubines (Noble Lady Ke & Gong) who found her in such a harried state that *Lady Barin openly voiced her suspicions on Ruyi's death* : recalling how *she and Jing'yuan saw a haughty Wei Yan'wan walk out of Yikunmen Gate and then heard about Ruyi's death afterward*
(context: *Ruyi summoned both Lady Barin & Jing'yuan to Yikun'gong Palace* )
2.4.2. like a ninja Hailan then approached their group and *offered her assistance in recovering Jing'yuan* ; at the same time, Hailan confirmed one of the Mongolian concubines' remark that the *Forbidden City is currently rife with rumors of Ruyi's "suspicious" death*
2.5. Wei Yan'wan was very frustrated that *both Jing'yuan and Lady Barin were acting contrary to her plans* that she was beginning to neglect Qianlong
2.5.1. *Jing'yuan was holding a hunger strike* (but not refusing water) while *Lady Barin was calmly holding out* (as per Hailan's instructions)
2.5.2. in the middle of *threatening to starve Jing'yuan to ðəąťн* , Jing'yuan shocked Wei Yan'wan by asking *"You like watching people die don't you?"*
2.6. Wei Yan'wan then thought of *having her children interact with each other* , and then ordered the children's wet nurses bring them
2.7. per Hailan, Lady Barin then went to Qianlong (who was then watching an opera performance) and then *raised her voice to save Jing'yuan from starvation, which surprised Qianlong*
2.7.1. Lady Barin repeated her plea, and after Qianlong noted the child's temper was nothing like either mothers, *Lady Barin mentioned Ruyi (and even had a moment of regret and was about to blame Hailan)*
2.7.2. *Qianlong then allowed Lady Barin to rescue Jing'yuan* and have a meal together at Yangxindian Hall since he was hungry as well
2.8. while Wei Yan'wan was busy ordering a new concubine draft (that Qianlong already refused prior due to Ruyi's death), the children were interacting
2.8.1. contrary to expectations *Jing'yuan was rather accommodating to her biological siblings*
2.8.2. 9th princess Jing'yun begged her elder sister to eat and not make their mother mad, *Jing'yuan said "She's not my mother."*
(apparently *Jing'yun was neglected a little since she was both a girl and the middle child* , reflecting her historical RL counterpart's unfortunate fate: *too small dowry and princess rank not raised* )
2.8.3. even after Jing'yun & 15th prince Yong'yan tried to dissuade her, *she loudly proclaimed "Wei Yan'wan bad, she killed Ruyi, I saw everything!"*
2.9. in such timely manner Wei Yan'wan came and heard this
2.9.1. when she threatened the her child by power-tripping Lady Barin, *Jing'yuan repeated #2.8.3.* while adding (similar to the drama) *"14th & 16th princes đįəď because of your karma"*
2.9.2. *Wei Yan'wan hit Jing'yuan's hands with a ruler and then subsequently slapped her*
2.9.3. unfortunately *the children saw this ugly side of her* (the wet nurses too late to protect them) and *were traumatized for life*
2.10. *Jing'yuan managed to escape Yongshougong Palace* from all the kerfufle, but due to starvation couldn't run far as well as became lost, and *only managed to scream "Mother save me!"; luckily Lady Barin immediately saw her and her wounds*
2.11. Wei Yan'wan's planned punishment for Lady Barin was *The Stick™*
2.12. Chongqing was coming back *from 12th prince Yongji* , and without further cue *ordered everyone to Cininggong Palace for their dignities' sakes*
2.12.1. *Chongqing held Jing'yuan by her side* all the way
2.12.2. *Fujia tended to her wounds* and it was notable that *Jing'yuan didn't cry once*
2.12.3. Wei Yan'wan did say @1:59-2:05 and *everyone present felt the chill of mentioning the taboo*
(also IMO, not only Zhen Huan/Chongqing, but *Wei Yan'wan was also insulting Li Jin'gui* )
2.12.4. after entrusting Jing'yuan to Lady Barin, Chongqing even mentioned to Wei Yan'wan *the rumors about Ruyi's death* ; if you can't convince a child otherwise, what can you do
2.12.5. it was a miracle Wei Yan'wan managed to leave intact
3. Qianlong's reaction:
3.a. original novel:
3.a.1. punished Wei Yan'wan by *having all her children totally separated from her and henceforth brought up at Xiefangdian Hall* and was *limited to monthly visits*
3.a.2. Yong'yan could only say before he was separated by Jinbao *"You were so scary" and "Don't defame Ruyi"* (because she said "Ruyi bad")
3.a.3. according to extant historical records:
-15th prince Yong'yan was brought up by Consort Qing (hence why she became Imperial Noble Consort Qinggong)
-9th princess was brought up by Consort Shu
-17th prince Yong'lin was brought up by Noble Consort Ying who spoiled him rotten (his residence is currently the Prince Gong Mansion; during Xianfeng era the Imperial Household Bureau seized the residence from Yong'lin's descendants and gifted it instead to Xianfeng Emperor's half-brother Imperial Prince Gong)
3.b. drama
3.b.1. after Yuhu added the Mongolian Consortium™'s dissatisfaction (see below) on top of the kidnapping & taboo incident, *Qianlong openly regretted ever promoting Wei Yan'wan to Imperial Noble Consort* in a reactionary whim
3.b.2. he then *orders the Mongolian Consortium™ to no longer attend Wei Yan'wan's Morning Greetings™* & *5th prince Yongqi's funeral handled by Hailan instead* , while allowing *Ruyi to visit after everyone had gone*
5. regarding #3.2.
5.1. the Mongolian Consortium™ was *already in open rebellion against Wei Yan'wan since Ruyi's funeral* : the seeds were sown by *Xiangjian and Noble Ladies Gong & Ke*
5.2. Wei Yan'wan's POV at this time: this should've been my happiest and most glorious moment but *Ruyi's đęăţĥ became a golden noose around my neck*
6. Jingse *already severed ties with Wei Yan'wan for many years now* (relevant notes later)
wow thank you for doing this!! very detailed :D
Thank you so much for the notes!! 💯👍
2.7.1. Lady Barin repeated her plea, and after Qianlong noted the child's temper was nothing like either mothers, Lady Barin mentioned Ruyi (and even had a moment of regret and was about to blame Hailan)
Is there added explanation on what the emperor and Lady Barin meant here? I wonder what she said about Ruyi and if the emperor maybe described Jing'yuan's personality as someone he knows?
@@char_lang Hailan coached Lady Barin to say Jing'yuan's temperament is similar to Ruyi's
Episode 86 I cried at the end with Ruyi’s final speech with Rongpei. Also I was cheering when Yanwan was exposed and also as much as I hate her what she said to the Emperor wasn’t wrong. He had a harem of women who never truly loved him and simply wanted political power and riches for themselves and their families. The people who truly loved him like Ruyi he treated like trash to the point they wanted nothing to do with him anymore.
Yanwan’s treatment of her children is super flawed at best.
If she wanted Jinyuan to live with her, she should’ve went for a less forceful approach. Here’s what I would’ve done if I were her. I would’ve went to her myself and told her that I understand that Ying is the mother that raised her and that I don’t want to separate them and that I just want to connect with her. I’d tell her that she’s welcome to live in my palace temporarily and to connect with her siblings but she can choose to leave whenever she wants.
As for the fifteenth prince, yeah I agree that the way he’s raising him is super dangerous. “Always be loyal to me and listen to be first?” Yikes. Also, filial piety exists. If she raises him well and he becomes the crown prince, he’ll naturally have loyalty to her and his success will reflect will on her. But she literally wants him to be solely loyal to her and she’s teaching this to him when he’s young and super impressionable.
Aside front that, she seems like a decent parent to him (nice, attentive), but it’s hard to tell with the kid so young. I guess she can be nice to her children but only when they’re not disobeying her.
@@moonstarstories1298 Yanwan takes after her own mother in that she treats her sons the best while neglecting her daughters. This is indicated by Jingyun, Yanwan's second daughter, who was under her biological mother's care from birth but was neglected in favor of her brothers and therefore has a weak relationship with her mother which quickly falls apart the moment she is taken out of Yanwan's care.
Yanwan basically won as an antagonist at a very high cost.
Consorts Ying and Rong are the only ones who can say what they think with little to no consequences.
06:10 is hillarious! XD
Also, in Episode 86, when the banners were finally showed with Yunche's name one of the first we see in view, the emperor lowered his eyes and I hoped that he did that out of shame for being such an egoistic idiot.
I'm excited to see your last video for this series and I hope you also do Story of Yanxi Palace.
Do you think the emperor even has any shame left 😢But thank you for appreciating my lame joke lol
That was a wild ride. I'm glad you went through with the review.
This ending is so bittersweet. Its so nice to see ruyi vindicated but it all just comes too late.
But you've covered this show and legend of zhen huan so well. If you're looking for new dramas to do, might i suggest New Life Begins. We've got so many familiar faces there and its such an entertaining drama!!
So many people have recommended that show! I'm definitely doing YanXi next because I wanted to get the holy trifecta out of the way first, but maybe that one next, who knows? I haven't actually watched it and it'll be fun to do a new show instead of a rewatch this time
Honestly, I really cant blame Yanwan either. Especially since she had every card against her in rhe beginning as she was a lowborn palace maid. Nobody befriended her in the harem either and all she had was the Emperor, she had so many children but couldn't raise any of them by her side. I think anyone would turn diabolical from a life like that.
oh I do love that soundtrack the name of which translating to sinking shattered pearls, pearls in this case being used as a reference to royalty or more loosely an important character. It usually only plays when someone important dies or when a villain is taken down for good.
love the run down of the princes
1:20 Ling Huang Guiifei literally does everything wrong when trying to get back 7th princess, also she angers Empress Dowager 2:03
I don't know why Ling Huang Guifei is so shocked when the servants take one step to slap Ying Fei then fall back as they realise they'd probably find themselves in a messy diplomatic disaster and why Jingyuan loves Ying Fei so much
2:25 exactly
all children deserve parents, but not all parents deserve children; Ling Huang Guifei is an ample example of that
2:25 seems like Ling Huang Guifei's mother's fault being so rash with her words
2:55 yep, Jiingse was pretty much never gonna let anyone else have a good time holding onto the empress seat or reach the empress dowager seat. Ying Fei comes in here clutch too, helping Jiingse see Ling Huang Guifei's greed. Also Jingse was not happy with Yongqi's death
3:15 sowing discord too in camp. Ling Huang Guifei has already killed off creepy eunuch and Lancui, close people to Ling Huang Guifei; Ling Huang Guifei has shown herself to not be a person to put trust into, and it shows as she seeks to kill off Chunchan too. Yu Fei has an easy time instilling fear into Wangchan, the last of Ling Huang Guifei's inner circle of servants
4:15 very smart, Empress Dowager is very capable
4:56 very dark and very scary; it's a good thing Jingse wasn't found out by Ling Huang Guifei...
5:15 excellent choice ^^ Ke Pin and Ying Fei are good people and the remaining dowager imperial consorts and concubines would be happy to raise a prince
5:25 this also applies to Yu Fei since Keliyete is also a Mongolian clan
5:50 creepy... 6:17 this is why you have an imperial doctor on your side :D
6:40 dun dun dun 6:50 guess Qianlong Emperor really didn't want to set a crown prince; guess the disaster of Yonghuang and Yongzhang was a bit much
7:10 yep and yet it takes everything to take her down 7:23
8:18 wow Zuolu was easy to convince to take down his own sister XD; though from his perspective it was Ling Huang Guifei to discard him first so...
8:55 Ling Huang Guifei really knows how to wiggle her way out of these situations too bad 9:10 empress dowager lands the final blows
9:31 all those sutra flags T-T all those victims 9:54 so sad T-T 10:03 it's the levitating poison makes you feel like you're floating away as your limbs lose feeling... I wonder what kind of poison does that ^^;
10:18 yep sounds about right...
10:48 I know right 11:14 thank goodness and finally 11:43 it took virtually everyone left; and partially it was cause she knew how to squirm her way out of a bad situation, get ahead by using the situation, and discard pawns and allies no matter who they were
11:55 that is true, it's very difficult to manage a harem, the people in it must respect, care, and harbor no deadly jealousies toward each other at the least; something that an Emperor's harem can't quite reach with the Emperor being unable to properly manage the harem and the political marriages outnumbering the marriages made by careful selection
Even Puyi's Harem was filled with petty schemes... though none of the consorts used directly deadly schemes
Finally, some justice. It's sad how it all ends but Ruyi's attitude is admirable, this was never a power fight for her, it's not about being the empress because her dignity is not defined by a rank.
But even so, a life like that undoubtedly tires anyone, her lack of interest in everything is sad but it is so real and understandable, not wanting anything more than to be at peace...
Btw this is so sad but your humor makes watching this again much easier so thank you ❤
I fucking love Yuhu's face when she pours the poison down Yanwan's troath
I have been following you this past few weeks after the hiatus and let me tell you - You make my day! With your humor, editing, storytelling.❤ Thank you for your work! I hope you continue making content at your pace.
About your review, I agree wholeheartedly. It’s difficult to keep your hands and mind clean in the harem. You obviously don’t want to be powerless ex-concubine living and existing in your palace. You can’t even blame Jia and Yenwan for wanting power.
I do pity the actress who played as Yanwan, she had to take inhaler for the confrontation scene, probably due to short breath or the actress herself have asthma 😭😭😭
I think that might have happened bc they had to make her down bowls of liquid... I'm going to guess they shot it too many times that it probably went down the wrong pipe and irritated her respiratory tract.
Yanwan finally getting exposed and punished and Ruyi finally having her freedom, is just everything. but its so bittersweet. The people lost and the sadness endured. I also think that at the end of the show, its such a clever move to have Ruyi cut herself out of history rather than have some man do it because he's angry at her. She didn't want any of this and she takes herself back from all of it.
Ruyi erasing herself from the narrative reminds me of Hamilton’s Eliza Hamilton. They would have a lot to talk about how the men they loved so devotedly didn’t appreciate anything they did. What’s even wilder to me is the real life history behind the step empress. The show is 100% fictional but there are facts of the real life emperor and empress that make this such a story of intrigue.
@@LittleClarinetPlayer I was thinking of that song as RuYi cut herself out of the picture and burned it! So perfect!
WE MADE ITTTTT. Omg I’m waiting for the final episode 😭
My first palace drama was Yanxi Palace and I never thought I'd like another drama as much as I did that one. When I first started Ruyi, I thought it was boring and there would be no way I could get into it, but here I am finishing the series and literally sobbing.
Forget palace dramas, this is by far one of the best shows I've watched in general. For the story and acting to be so good to move me to tears for a 45 minute period? Insane.
Consorts Ying and Rong are the Queens of Throwing Shade and Cutting.
Oh, and the servants don't dare to hit Ying, because she basically has diplomatic immunity as her clan is very important and influental in backing the emperor. And the emperor told YanWan that she can have her daughter back _provided said daughter gives her consent_ -- a caveat YanWan promptly ignored to her own detriment.
New life begins has the best version of a harem drama I have ever seen, but I totally agree, the harem system itself in most of these dramas is the cause of so much misery. So many excellent, smart, intelligent, and beautiful women who could have had amazing fulfilling lives in our current day are reduced to livestock for some man. If they never came there they could have been potential friends. We should want to do better for everyone. Even Zhen Huan was unable to break the system and she did try to control the emperor. Imagine never being able to go home or leave or walk to the store. It would drive people insane and knowing your actions could get your loved one killed. Then if you don’t scheme like Ruyi you end up schemed against. The biggest villain is the system itself. Then you can’t raise your damn kid unless you have a good family or you end up a pawn for someone else to use.
i loved new life begins! ruyi's royal love was a drama i was interested in watching, but i actually started watching the _second_ i recognized suoxin 😂
its interesting that you said the real problem is the system itself instead of the emperor. because i kept thinking (and I know this is an unpopular opinion), the emperor turned to shit but i dont think he started that way, i think he really loved Qingying back then, but he was force to take the throne and then watch his son died in such horrible way (Mei Pin child who are deformed and Yi Pin as well) and seeing Xiyue and the Empress who he taught was a kind girl turn out to be a schemers might hardened him. So even if we replace the emperor with someone who are kindhearted, I dont think the proble will be solve, in fact that kindhearted person can possibly be corrupted due to all the schemers. Add that to all ther hard decision he have to take as the emperor like when he has to make her sister stay with the enemy to prevent war. The harem thing is truly imposibble for everyone.
I really enjoyed your recap! Thank you for sharing the novel version to highlight the differences. It was a nice touch. Can you do a series on Yanxi Palace?
The victory is sad, but it's still a win!
Actually when I double-think about this drama, I understand that the Emperor's character in his late age is the consequence of a mixture of: the middle-age chrisis, childhood trauma (having Zhen Huan as a mother is not cool at all), being tired of scheming and failing the trial with Power. In the end, it doesn't matter who is scheming against whom, he already doesn't distinguish between good and evil, devotion and treason, start mistreating people who are true to him, and cherish people who want to use him (just because the latter just know how to play their part around around him). In the end, it doesn't matter anymore who would scheme: would it be YanWan or anyone else, he will anyway find a reason to be angry at RuYi, and more he hurts her feelings more he hates her for that (if that makes sense to you: he needs to justify his actions so it would sound rightful from his perspective, something like "I hurt her, but probably she deserved it"). The same happens when he discovers YanWan's plot. It looks to me that he is happy to think that the reason he mistreated RuYi was Yanwan's plot, and that he was forced into doing so, but nope, he just found another dummy to place the responsibility for his stupid behavior on. It is a behavior that usually you would expect from children and teenager's rather from a grown up man, but sometimes aging is about getting wrinkles and not wisdom.
really enjoyed your recaps, i had notifs on and would always look forward to your videos!
to pay you back, here's my recap of your recap:
"jia sucks, but i can't stay made at her because' she's a little bit ~girlboss.~ "
"hailan is the best, love her, total bestie moment there, also she is terrifying and should probs be in jail haha"
"SOMEONE SAVE THE PRINCES."
"Ruyi, for the love of GOD--"
But mostly: "I am going to hit the emperor with my car."
thanks again for all the effort you put in!
First Prince's mom was Consort Zhemin (posthumously titled: Imperial Noble Consort Zhemin- 2nd rank below Empress) She was from the same clan as Empress Langhua (Fuca clan). She didn't appear in the tv-drama although I wish they would've shown a flashback. I love these recaps, thank you for making them 💜
The scene where yanwan is playing with the poison before chuchan comes in 😵💫 that b was really crazy
I'd personally join a nunnery like Zhen Huan--forsaking the venomous bonds of the Forbidden City.
I must say, even this recap series is one o the funniest things which I recently watched and I diligently watched this series every day instead of rewatching Ruyi, the last one was still hard to watch. But this eps!!! ok, I guess I will watch these eps again! Thank you so much! I hope, someone will edit Hailan in the palace.
i wish the music in the scene where yanwan applies lip tint on chunchan didn't scream SUSPENSE SUSPENSE TENSION SOMETHING'S WRONG so loud. would be cool if there was some space for the viewer to believe that maybe they are actually just having a cute bonding moment in contrast to all the schemes and fights? and then boom nope it was poison
Yesss! I thought the exact same thing about ARuo (when she came crawling back to RuYi after kneeling in the rain) why the obvious music? Let us be as surprised as RuYi is by the betrayal!
To be honest I didn't expect the emperor to remain good to Ruyi for long. Not after what the Dowager told him about their personalities.
Emperors were always supposed to be right in those days and that was the mentality always among the people.
so i didn't expect much after Zhen Huan.
15th Prince is SOOOO CUTEEE!!!!
DANG! Your editing and commentary is Outstanding! TY!
I've loved these videos. Every day at 6PM my time, I'm "Ooh, what's next?" I'll miss that, but I really do hope you'll be back soon with another drama.
Thank you :) I'll be back as soon as I can!
Yan’wan wears so much yellow, I think I read somewhere that there’s different shades that are ok for different ranks but it must be a nightmare to memorize.
What happens to emperors son who don’t become emperor like they work in court as official or are they powerful meaning rich like other officials from major clans
Now this drama coming to an end, i really wanna rewatch story of yanxi Palace with you, and you know seeing "yan wan" as "ying lou" a good person there, being emperor's love and all good girl vibeee.
(idk why i hate her in that drama too).
I had stop watching this drama when ruyi and emperor fell out of love it was just too much for me watch. 😢😢
Oh shiiittttt, Yanwan is going down!!!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉
Finally, karma smacks Yanwan down on the ground. I enjoyed every second of seeing her uselessly squirm for her life 😈.
We are down to the final episode of the drama, and it's going to be heartbreaking to watch.
The Qing dynasty harem, in real history, was not known for that many intrigues because it was rigidly structured, and there was no set order of succession. Battle among the imperial princes was, however, a reality.
The Ming dynasty harem was full of violent intrigues, though.
Since you are almost done with Ruyi i hope you recap the movie the lady in the portrait it's also about this empress but Fan Bing Bing portrays her
I've had a few other movie recommendations and was thinking of doing a string of movies at some point since they're not as much of a commitment! Though this channel is called "drama" recaps... hopefully I'll be forgiven😂
11:35 I'm still confessed yanwan got plot armor
You are so right. It is sooooo depressing and yet so good
I think Consort Diwager didnt hate Ruyi anymore ever since she helped her so her daughter would not be sent away. So i gave her some slack.
I love these reviews you should do yanxi palace next
Legit question. In Ruyi canon, since Yanwan is out and Ruyi is also out (due to not wanting to be Empress anymore and her death) who will be managing the harem? Is it Hailan, Xiangjian or Meiruo? It’s just that Hailan was a servant so I thought she wouldn’t be a candidate but Yanwan was a servant, too.
Or would it be Qing Pin (legit she is so insignificant that I even forgot her real name) since she’s from a good family and is a nice lapdog to the Emperor and the Empress Dowager?
In drama canon, it seems like Hailan would be the one to take charge of the harem at first after Ruyi's death and Yanwan's downfall. Then management switches to Muping (Consort Qing) when she is promoted to noble consort. Then back to Hailan after Noble Consort Qing dies a year before Yanwan dies. Then management probably falls under Meiruo after Hailan dies.
In novel canon, it would likely be Meiruo as she along with Ying'luo (novel Consort Qing under a different name) are both promoted to noble consort while Yanwan is still alive, with Meiruo becoming the highest ranking consort in the harem when she outlives Yanwan and Ying'luo.
Where can I read the novel in English???
Wei Yan Wan's body was still intact after 250 + years. She died with a smile on her face, apparently reported when they opened her coffin. That did not happened to other consorts or concubines. Poisoning by medicine or on whose order?
Good performance by the actress as Wen! I have become a fan of Zhou Xun after this series. The first Chinese drama series I have ever watched and I am not even a regular movie watcher. The series is superbly made. Complimenti!
According to historical data. It seems she wasn’t actually poisoned, maybe she was taking medication that had cinnabar as apparently it was a thing,I’m not sure know her actual illness was but according to palace records, Qianlong visited her every single day after he finished working to sit with her right up until her death, he had her move closer to him to make his visits easier and was devastated after she died so it definitely made no sense that she was poisoned deliberately and definitely not by Qianlong especially considering that these events are actually made up. Even Ruyi’s 2 children that died young didn’t happen the way the show put it as the last son actually lived to 19 months before he died of illness, her daughter was 2 and didn’t die from a dog attack and she didn’t have a name like the drama said and she wasn’t posthumously titled either. 5th prince did have a bone disease and after rescuing Qianlong from a fire , it seems the inhalation of the smoke or something caused his illness to worsen, there was no foul play in his cause of death so , the fact that non of these things actually happened then what would be the actual cause for poisoning other than jealousy and I doubt it would’ve been easy to poison her with the rank she held up until her passing. It’s also said she had a smile on her face after all those years. No one would be smiling or even looking comfortable with poison as dying from poison is very painful.
@@Winter74575the screenplay was only a novel the rest we have to look up ourselves. The actors there were superb. I haven’t watched anything else on the Qing Dynasty since.
My Chinese is not good due to no use and I cannot read simplified Chinese yes I read about that cinnabar usage as well. Did you find out by reading in Chinese?
@ no I didn’t read it in Chinese but there use to be a vid here with some Chinese historians discussing it all with records in a panel, they removed the video now sadly, but they had inner court records with Qianlong visiting Ling every day to sit with her when she was sick, records of the closing of all court affairs for 5 days after her death, they we’re debating and showing evidence that Qianlong couldn’t possibly had poisoned her based on the evidence they had of how he treated her and how depressed he was after her passing, it was so good I even had it saved in my library but because they deactivated the channel it seems because i can’t seem to find it and I can’t remember the name of the actual channel 😭
@@jsychu if you like Qing historical stuff, The channel called “ China institute in America” had a few videos dedicated to Qianlong era, the women in his harem etc. it doesn’t go through their names but it shows how they lived, with items he gifted them and the ED etc, what they did during the days etc, what was expected of them, it says they were free to go into the gardens but could only be invited to the garden if Qianlong was in the garden, it’s actually good because it gives you a better insight into how things really were. Also they discussed the paintings as most historians are saying the paintings we see are not exactly how these women looked, they were painted to look better than they did mostly ( fantasy paintings) apparently Yongzheng and Qianlong seemed to have been a little obsessed by Han Chinese women so it seems they had the women painted to look similar to Han Chinese women ( features and sometimes clothing) and it’s true because if we look at real photos of the harem ladies in the late Qing dynasty, Ci’xi’s time , the Manchu women have a very distinctive look which looks nothing whatsoever like any paintings I’ve seen so far of any of the Qing harem women, he even sent them paintings of Han Chinese women as reminder of how they should prepare to serve 👀
Yongzheng ( Qianlong’s father) had a painting hidden in his secret chambers called the 12 beauties I think it’s probably in the museum but the 12 women were painted in the palace but painted wearing Han Chinese clothes, hairstyles and even their facial features, it’s a little weird but it was their secret obsession but was restricted from making Han Chinese women their empresses which was sad because. You should watch that documentary . If you do let me know your thoughts here.
@@jsychu have you watched Yanxi Palace? It’s the view from Ling’s perspective, much lighter lots of detours from historic facts but I liked it as I think the actors were also great especially The step empress, I actually preferred her story there to this one because she wasn’t so perfect as she’s portrayed here yet not completely evil as her actions had reasoning even though they weren’t good but the characters are more grey than simply just black or white.
we made it! 🎉 will yanxi palace be the next drama we go over? i’m so excited
i really hope so! the differences would make for a great palate cleanser. recapping a drama with a similar plot but through another person's eyes feels like a perfect sequel.
Hoping there will still be an episode with your favourites like in legend of Zhen Huan
Finally the cathartic scene ... ahhhhhhhhh. Plus you really see Yanwan going psycho before this when she actually tries to strangle Chunchan herself -- crazy eyes! She doesn't even go through the servants at that point!
I also love Hailan's heavy-metal hairdo. Oh, yeah, about hating Yanwan -- I think she is the monster the whole system created. I hate the Emperor and the system most of all.
eagerly awaiting the last chapter
I hope you recap story of yanxi palace too❤
Im just wondering what happened in real life after Ling became imperial noble consort. Did Qianlong favor her till the end.. or being exposed to her schemes like in this drama?
The real life Imperial Noble Consort Ling was favored but would never have a chance to become empress consort (due to her family background as both a servant and being a member of the Han ethnic group (Only Manchu and (in early Qing Dynasty) Mongolian woman would be considered viable candidates for becoming empress consort). This is seen in her rank as Imperial Noble Consort as it did not receive the additional title 'managing inner court' which was usually used to signify that the imperial noble consort being promoted is going to become the next empress (Empress Xiaojingcheng of the Daoguang Emperor, who had ambitions of becoming empress consort, also had a similar predicament in that Daoguang promoted her to imperial noble consort but didn't add the 'managing inner court' title, which made it clear that he was not planning on promoting her to empress).
Qianlong was also very careless with his rewards to her as the rewards he gave to her family when Consort Ling was at the rank of consort and pregnant was less than what he rewarded to Concubine Yi and her family who was of a lower rank. Even when he posthumously promoted Consort Ling to empress, Qianlong omitted some of the ceremonies that were expected to be performed for a dead consort being promoted to empress. Really calls into question in real history just what their relationship was like outside of portrayals in dramas.
A lot of this information can be found in "ancient chinese history with Bing's" channel, especially in the video 'Was the consort Ling Qianlong's favorite consort?'
for real life history linked to the show "ancient chinese history with Bing" is a nice little channel
@@satyasyasatyasya5746 "Ancient Chinese History with Bing" is a good channel for discussing the history of Chinese imperial families and how history as portrayed in dramas is actually very different to how it happened in real life.
Qianlong didnt promote her posthumously to empress, Jiaqing (her son) did
We made at the final 🎉🎉🎉
Lol on her way to the grave in more ways than 1! Hahaha 😂
I never pass up the opportunity for a corny joke lol
I have to say, yes I hate Yanwan even if I understand her. She had so many opportunities to be good, but she chose schemes instead and hurt/ killed a lot of people. Instead, she should have had empathy considering she experienced the darker side of harem life before she got "lucky". Her true luck was winning Ling Yunche's love, but she rejected it. Makes me happy for my simple, commoner's life too.
Personally for me, what really made Yanwan go from "evil but understandable" to "I straight up can't stand her" is that she feels entitled to Ling Yunche, even though she rejected him twice (although I'll give her a pass for the first attempt) and all of her evil schemes towards Ruyi are literally just because she thinks he's moved onto her. If her story ended with her accepting Ruyi's offer to marry Yunche, she would have had a (at that point) well-deserved happy ending along with him.
Also the things she did to Ling are just straight up irredeemable. Like she tried to force herself on him!
Can you recap: story of the yanxi palace
No it hurts Hailan not to be allowed to see her but I know Hailan would know immediately that she was going to die. That woman is so in tune to her She would look at her and be devastated
Also TB is contagious and if Ruyi is out of favour it’s dangerous to ally openly with her. 2 very good reasons to limit who she sees and in what circumstance.
Please do story of yanxi palace next
Will u watch Yanxi Palace after?
It's more lightweight than Ruyi's one
Yes!
12:03 you know I’ve heard a documentary of something like this happening in modern times and it’s just… so sad.
Like a sister-wives harem situation? Sounds interesting, do you remember the name?
@@dramarecaps4217 I do not sadly. If I find the video on it I'll let you know though.
Hey, love your videos been keeping up everyday. This drama was well written and well acted. I think having a princess would be the best case scenario, especially if you are not well favored. The emperor would not neglect you, and the other women would not be out to get you. Since the emperor doesn't like you a lot the princess may not be forced to marry far and get to marry someone she actually likes, or she may just be set off faster because the emperor does not like you. Have you decided on what drama you will do next?
Yes, I suppose you're right! Your life wouldn't be glamorous but at least you would be able to live a proper life. Yanxi palace is next :)
Are you gonna do a story of yanxi palace recap next?
Yep!
I have a question, was it according to plan that the Emperor woke up when Yanwan was scheming; and if it was how? Did they give him medicine to wake up or was it just crazy timing. How did they know to have everything ready for this particular day?
It makes me so sad that Ruyi didn’t allow Hailan in 🤧
I dislike YanWan. I understand the harem is cut throat and you've got to watch your back and pave your own path but her motives for harming Ruyi were pure evil and greed.
I also could not truly hate yan wan as well, but i really hated fucha empress. Even though Fucha was not the worst, i still hated her the most.
Me too. I find her to be such a hypocrite and a poor excuse of an empress
I hated her from the beginning because of the way she treated Yunche.
Yanxi palace next pls
Yanxi doesn't have as good writing or acting compared to empress in the palace (legend of Zhen Huan) or Ruyi's royal love. Still good tho.
New Life Begins! We need a break from the misery 😩✊🏽
@@noellamonyuy26that's subjective, though
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
I feel so sorry for all these women, really for everyone in the palace...even Jia, Hui, and Langhua....really everyone except Yanwan. She had a chance to get out, and have a decent life and she spat on it
i seriously cannot believe Yanwan drank so deeply from the dumb dumb cup to just put her own paper in the box xD I know signatures can be faked, but damn, especially because she screwed herself over since her son was already the best choice (granted that's definitely in part due to her poisoning all the better options xD)
Also, i hate all the yanwan < Ruyi fanfiction of this drama, but my god, the banner with all the names has always amazed me. Like Ruyi only decided once she got her diagnosis to do that, so she was putting in hella overtime, and as someone who can appreciate dedication i can put my love for historical accuracy aside to admire that move xD
BUT THEN WE GET TO THE POISON BIT AND I CAN'T
Yes it's dramatic, yes we want this Yanwan to die, but it's so over the top as to toss out any believability to this "Untold stories" drama. We literally have records of her over the next ten years acting as empress stand in for so many events, and giving birth to at least one final son i believe, not *this* dramatic mess they gave us. And I know people are probably sick to death of me screaming historical innacuracy but it is literally this scene right here that ruins the entire drama for me and it's such a shame as I otherwise love this drama. But they just couldn't bear to back a losing horse despite otherwise being so faithful to history and it really is a shame.
Anyways looking forward to the novels take and moving on to a happier drama to soak my depressed self in xD
WAIT THERES YANWAN X RUYI FANFICTION????? GOD WHYYYYYYYYY
@@sawk1875 oh god I hope not! I meant this drama in the sense they keep trying to portray Ruyi as the better woman despite history literally telling us that wasn't the case. Like Imperial Noble Consort Wei lived long after Ruyi, was the last figurehead Emperor Qianlong had as pseudo empress, and while she didn't live to see it her son would become the next emperor and thus herself Empress.
There is a winner and a loser here but this drama, despite otherwise loving it's historical references, is just blatantly pulling a "I do not comprehend" and it's both jarring and dissapointing.
oh I don't mean to imply i think she was good or anything, really as a sucessful consort and ancestress of the Qing dynasty odds are really good she was the *opposite* to have survived and thrived in the harem. She just clearly never got caught like this drama is implying, and no matter how ill the emperor treated her he never deposed her, but really after Ruyi died he was genuinely on a downward spiral of tyranny so i'm not suprised to hear that and this drama is one of the few that *does* call him out about that.
Really it's the fact this drama is *so* historically accurate otherwise that these ending episodes bug me. They try so hard to sell this fake narrative after being so real with every other detail that it just comes off as a plastered on attempt instead of just comitting to the bit of having a fallen protagonist who was replaced by a younger model (which is basically what i understand happened in the historical case of Imperial Noble Consort Wei vs Step Empress
@Raunak-dk6ow I'll admit I am not familiar with who is who on the show. I only know who Wallace is because of all the hate mail he got for his phenomenal performance 🤣
@Raunak-dk6ow gotcha! Well, yeah, if the ending was the literal actresses idea it makes a lot more sense. But while that works in movies like IT (the addition of that kid who gets killed in chapter 2 was added for narrative) where things are entirely fictional in historical drama narrative satisfaction needs to take a backseat to believability. You can make up minor details but one quick Wikipedia search is all it takes for this ending to be ruined and really stain an otherwise amazing drama for me.
😅
Ep. 85 notes (WIP):
1. Ruyi & Zhen Huan's final conversation
1.1. while Ruyi was in Anhuadian Hall for Yongqi's memorial, *she sent a folded note to Zhen Huan* (via Fujia) with only the words *"毒心"* in it
1.2. when Zhen Huan arrived, she could only note with resigned pity that *it's their first meeting since the infamous Southern Trip* and *Ula Nara clanswomen were very unlucky indeed*
1.3. Zhen Huan then asks about the note, to which Ruyi replies that "毒心" (lit. "poison heart") was basically how Yixiu ruled the imperial harem during her time
1.4. Ruyi then says "I'm a useless person, I couldn't even protect my children" which mystifies
2. Wei Yan'wan vs. Chunchan
1.1.a. in the original novel, *there was neither distrust between Wei Yan'wan & Chunchan*
(and for that, even the plot with 12th prince Yongji)
1.1.b. in the revised version of the original novel, one of Ruyi's final orders to Hailan was to *divide Wei Yan'wan & Chunchan apart* (which IMO had already cracked with Lancui's ďəąťн)
1.2. Rongpei's words that stuck to Chunchan: Lancui is gone, and Jinzhong is now gone. *You were so close to her, who do you think is she going to get rid of next?*
(Ruyi had actually been requesting Yongji be raised by Chongqing *as far back as prior to Xiaoxian Elegies™* ),
in the original novel:
1. depending on when you place Qianlong's illness
- *Qianlong would be in his mid-50's* , hence comparison with Yongzheng Emperor is false since *he was in his 30's* when _karoshi_ himself
-by the penultimate chapters *Qianlong was 65* and had even sired 10th princess Jingxian
2. Qianlong *didn't write anything* to intend as Crown Prince
Thank you so much! This is super detailed and fun to read!! 😃