Following Empresses In the Palace and The Legend of Mi Yue, the same team is back with another epic harem story of 2016. Adapted from the novels (6!) Harem: Zhen Huan Chuan written by female writer Liu Lian Zi, Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace plans to have ~80 whopping episodes. The story revolves around the reign of Qian Long Emperor, focusing on the harem battles between his empresses and consorts. What I know of Qian Long is what was told in Huan Zhu Ge Ge 1 and 2, mostly. Lol. Li Bing Bing’s name is out and the main character, Ru Yi, is played by Zhou Xun.
Let the casting begin! 😀
There are many big and small ladies in the battles but the are four main females altogether.
First one is his first empress, Xiao Xian Chun. Second lady is the evil empress that is always creating troubles for Zi Wei and Little Sparrow in Huan Zhu Ge Ge, step Empress Ula Nara (Ru Yi’s character is based on). This is gonna be interesting. We hated her so much in that classic drama and now we have to erase that image and like her? His third empress is Xiao Yi Chun (the kind Consort Ling in HZGG). Fourth lady is Imperial Noble Consort Hui Xian.
Directed by Zheng Xiao Long (The Legend of Mi Yue), Liu Lian Zi will be in charge of the drama scripts. Filming is due to start in August of this year. So long?!! I guess if they want to get big names on board…most have busy schedules until then. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of palace dramas (too long and repetitive) so I will be following the news but most likely won’t be watching.
Via: 01
14 thoughts on “Zhou Xun to headline Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace”
AGAIN? harem battles are getting old, boring and done to death! why doesn’t someone do a theme about the lives of palace tailors, cooks, historians, gardeners and the behind-the-scene helpers who keep the palace functioning?
14 thoughts on “Zhou Xun to headline Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace”
*shrugs* The monster ratings of Mi Yue is not helping the trend either.
I would like dramas about the chefs! TVB did them pretty good in the past.
14 thoughts on “Zhou Xun to headline Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace”
Mi Yue is about harem? I thought they said it was not? I want to try it but I’ve watched 76 episodes of Zhen Huan and it was fantastic but I don’t think I need another 80 episodes about that particular theme…
14 thoughts on “Zhou Xun to headline Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace”
If anyone is up for a history lesson on this empress, let me know. Poor woman’s image has been tarnished completely due to HZGG.
Maybe Zhou Xun’s husband can play Qian Long…
14 thoughts on “Zhou Xun to headline Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace”
I read into her history and was (totally) surprised how HZGG twisted her character. Lol.
I’m up for some history lessons. ^_^
14 thoughts on “Zhou Xun to headline Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace”
I’m up for it too :).
14 thoughts on “Zhou Xun to headline Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace”
Alrighty, I’ll dig up my Qing Consorts book when I get home. Although I think most of the information is already on Wikipedia lol.
14 thoughts on “Zhou Xun to headline Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace”
I simply can’t envision Archie Kao as Qian Long
14 thoughts on “Zhou Xun to headline Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace”
***BACKGROUND ON ULANARA***
To make things easier, Wikipedia’s page for Ulanara is quite detailed. I would recommend reading that first and then my post here with some more details.
– In addition to only having two maids, only 5 of her original 8 eunuchs remained and she had only 2 cooks. Empresses at the time were granted either 12 or 13 maids.
– In June, so about a month before she died, she was already quite ill at that point obviously but Qianlong still insisted on going to Chengde’s Mountain Resort to avoid the heat. And from the Wikipedia article you already know he sent his son back to handle matters after her death. If taking away her maids and ru yis were bad, this was even worse as it was no different than ignoring her existence. Plus, you’d think he’d cut his hunting trip short to save “face” but he just didn’t give a damn about her to do so.
– Wikipedia says that her ceremony was scaled down. That’s true, but also the fact that the wood for her coffin was the cheap kind and the whole thing itself was poorly made. I think that’s why when Puyi was emperor (the last emperor), they had to replace hers along with the consort that she was interred with. It was just rotting away, which is expected given the time passed, but the material probably deteriorated faster than the others because of the quality and degree of care it was given when it was made.
– You know how they have tablets for the ancestors? Well, yeah, hers was definitely not placed with the rest of the family. (I don’t think Qianlong even gave her one to be honest.) That meant no one for hundreds of years no one came to worship her. Even the lowest ranking concubines were given this privilege but not her. (I’m feeling really sorry for her.)
– Her death wasn’t recorded on any official court documents as Wiki says, but for 200 years her place of rest was actually a mystery until historians finally dug up an old guidebook used by the court officials as a for burials and funerals.
Theories on why she was punished
– On the southern China tour, she was trying to stop him from seeking women and to focus on political matters. She had written up some document—I believe it was criticism or something related to him not doing his job and seeking pleasure—and decided to present it to him on his boat. When she got there, she saw that a flag had been put up outside. The flag was used for when he was having some good times with a concubine. Of course being the empress herself she knew that there was no concubine with him. When she went inside, she saw him with a naked Buddhist nun. Ulanara was obviously furious with him, he too for she had intruded on a private moment of his. She proceeded to cut her hair while saying “Since you prefer to put aside government/political matters for hairless women then perhaps I shall cut my hair to please you!”. So she cut her hair and then you know the rest about what happened to her after that. However, it is said that she actually enjoyed not being the empress and that she was secretly let go to become a nun. This is apparently the most common theory out there. (I wish I could make this up but the book was serious about it.)
– Qianlong’s theory: The empress had developed a mental illness (cutting her hair) and could not take on the role anymore so he disposed of her while issuing a decree that made him seem generous and forgiving. Tsk tsk.
– The third theory sounds so much more plausible. Some officials suggested a new empress because Ulanara wasn’t good at her job and something to do with her personality. They wanted Consort Ling (the one we all loved in HZGG because she was so nice) to become empress. This had to do with political power and the usual “we need to get rid of this family in the court” kind of thing. So Ulanara had to put a stop to it not only for that reason but also because Consort Ling was younger and therefore prettier. Plus Consort Ling had 6 kids in 10 years which shows how much more she was favored. So Ulanara pleaded/requested Qianlong not to make Consort Ling his empress. And then the whole hair cutting incident appeared again.
Safe to say that all theories have that hair cutting faux pas.
14 thoughts on “Zhou Xun to headline Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace”
Thanks Polaris for the detailed information! I guess she did cut her hair since that was mentioned in all three versions and my grandma as well. Funny how no one stepped up to explain her side of the story during HZGG. At the time, I still thought tv was always right with historical facts. Boy, how wrong were many.
14 thoughts on “Zhou Xun to headline Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace”
I read the Chinese Wikipedia for this book and it looks insane just like Zhenhuan (which I did not watch because too many women too much petty drama) so I’ll be waiting to see how this turns out.
14 thoughts on “Zhou Xun to headline Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace”
Ooh…another palace drama. Imagine if Sun Li reprised her role as the Empress Dowager, the mother of Emperor Qian Long. But then she’ll steal the spotlight from the Emperor’s wives. :p
14 thoughts on “Zhou Xun to headline Ru Yi’s Royal Love In The Palace”
With all the big names, I shall just sit back and enjoy the drama hahaha! Quite a huge fan of palace drama here heh~