Story of Yanxi Palace

Story of Yanxi Palace () is a Chinese period drama series created by Yu Zheng. It is an original screenplay written by Zhou Mo, and later developed into a novel by Xiao Lian Mao. Starring Wu Jinyan, Charmaine Sheh, Qin Lan, Nie Yuan, Tan Zhuo and Xu Kai, the series premiered on iQiyi from July 19, 2018 to August 26, 2018. During its run it was streamed more than 15 billion times.
Distributed in more than 70 markets worldwide, "Story of Yanxi Palace" has since become a huge hit, especially in Asia. It was the most Googled TV show in the world in 2018, despite Google being blocked in Mainland China.
A spinoff and sequel to the series, the 6-episode "Yanxi Palace: Princess Adventures", aired on Netflix December 31, 2019.
Synopsis.
In 18th century Beijing (18 March 1741), Wei Yingluo enters the court of the Qianlong Emperor, Aisin Gioro Hongli, as one of the palace embroiderers to secretly investigate her beloved sister's rape and subsequent mysterious death.
¹At first believing the imperial guard Fuca Fuheng to be the prime suspect, Yingluo schemes to approach his sister, the Empress Fuca Rongyin, and succeeds in getting transferred from her embroidery unit to the Empress's Changchun Palace as her maid. Over time, she learns that the Fuca siblings are honest and kindhearted people, innocent of the crime. Yingluo and Fuheng fall for each other. Fuheng, extremely handsome and righteous, was admired by many around the Palace, including Qianlong's Consort Chun who allies herself to Empress Fuca because of her crush on her brother, and by the empress's head handmaid, Erqing.
Yingluo's looks, cunning and ability to talk her way out of any situation catches the attention of Qianlong himself.
Though Yingluo is not noble by birth and is illiterate, the kindhearted Empress Fuca teaches her how to read and write, along with all the proper etiquette and mannerisms for noblewomen at the time. The empress saves her several times from punishment for probing too deeply into her sister's death. In turn, Yingluo helps Empress Fuca survive a series of maneuvers by her chief rivals. The two develop a tight friendship akin to sisterhood. In time, Yingluo discovers that her sister was raped by the son of the late Emperor Yongzheng, half-brother to the current emperor. To cover up the shameful act, the Prince's mother murdered Yingluo's sister. Yingluo hatches a plot to drive the culprit to her untimely death and had successfully murdered the treacherous killer. Empress Fuca, for fear of Qianlong's fury over Yingluo's actions, feigned anger over Yingluo's defiance and thus banishes her to the palace sanitation unit to allow Yingluo to escape a potentially more severe punishment from the Emperor. There, Yingluo befriends a conniving eunuch, Yuan Chunwang, who is subsequently implied to be an illegitimate son of Emperor Yongzheng.
Without Yingluo, Empress Fuca falls victim to the machinations of Noble Consort Gao that puts her in a coma. News reaches Yingluo who secretly visits Empress Fuca's chamber to sit by her mistress's side and care for her. Yingluo's devotion to Empress Fuca touches Qianlong even more. His own feelings towards her made him forbid Fuheng and Yingluo from marrying. Yingluo persists in her love despite various punishments from the emperor, but Fuheng backs down, causing the two to become distant. Meanwhile, Consort Xian purposefully makes a birthday party for the Empress Dowager go wrong, injuring several people and driving Noble Consort Gao to commit suicide. The emperor eventually relents on his tough stance towards Yingluo and allow her to return as maid to the Empress. Empress Fuca eventually awakes from her coma and becomes pregnant again. She goes through an almost life-ending labor to give birth to another son, who is immediately the target of assassination by the duplicitous Consort Chun. Consort Chun had been devastated for having been rejected by Fuheng, now strives to be the Emperor's new favorite and even bears a son, placing her in direct competition and conflict with her former friend, the Empress. One New Year's eve, Consort Chun devises a plan to kill the Empress's new baby. Empress Fuca was left devastated to lose another child, and commits suicide out of grief. After Empress Fuca's death, Yingluo is sent to live and guard over her mistress's grave at the Old Summer Palace. She stays there with Yuan Chunwang until one year (1750), during an imperial visit by Qianlong and his consorts to Fuca's grave, Yingluo learns that Consort Chun was responsible for her late mistress's suicide, and was torturing Mingyu, her friend and fellow maid of the late Empress. She decides once again to enter the Forbidden City and exact retribution on the evildoers.
In order to achieve the goal, Yingluo skillfully charms Qianlong, becoming part of his harem, and is bestowed a title. With meticulous planning, she quickly rises through the ranks, toppling her rivals one after another, including the villainess, now Noble Consort Chun, even insofar as exposing her role in Empress Fuca's death, which leads to her fall in the hands of Yingluo's archrival, the newly named Empress Hoifa-Nara (1751). Yingluo's captivation of Qianlong brings her numerous threats, none greater than that of her former sworn brother Yuan Chunwang. He, at Empress Hoifa-Nara's direction, revealed she was secretly taking birth control, that led to the revelation to her real reason for entering the harem. Qianlong, who had truly fallen for her, was shattered and instantly branded her out of favor. Yingluo in turn, teams up with the Empress Dowager, whose own relationship with Qianlong was put to the test through the Empress's schemes. It was revealed that Qianlong was not the biological son of the Empress Dowager, but the offspring of Madam Qian, a Han Chinese woman whom the late emperor Yongzheng married and had died under mysterious circumstances. Furthermore, it was implied that the Empress Dowager had killed Qian out of jealously over having a son and adopted Qianlong for herself for this reason. (the Empress Dowager claimed that Qian had sacrificed herself to save Yongzheng during a hunting trip where his hunting group was attacked by bandits, Madam Qian changed clothes with Yongzheng and distracted the pursuing bandits who killed her and seized Yongzheng's clothes). The two women once most dear to Qianlong went into self-imposed exile, leading to Qianlong feeling guilty for doubting his adoptive mother, who undeniably was the one who raised him for years since Qian's death. A few years later, another threat in the form newcomer Concubine Shun, a beautiful and cunning woman, called Yingluo back to the Forbidden City. Yingluo had set out to reclaim Qianlong's favor, but found herself befriended by her rival. As this was the Forbidden City, Shun had her own agenda. Framing Yingluo for attempted assassination, Concubine Shun deftly teams up with Empress Hoifa-Nara to put Yingluo under house arrest and pull strings to starve her nearly to death. Nevertheless, Yingluo is able to reverse her situation, reveal Shun's treachery, and reclaim Qianlong's affections for her. Having reached stalemate at this point, Yingluo negotiates for a truce with Hoifa-Nara on the condition that they both not harm any children of the palace in spite of the rivalry.
A decade later (1765), however, the nihilistic Yuan Chunwang, now Hoifa-Nara's trusted servant, betrays his new mistress by causing a series of mishaps in the palace that destabilizes Hoifa-Nara's rule and affects her sanity. Yuan Chunwang gradually used Hongzhou's, the Emperor's half-brother, affection for Hoifa-Nara to instigate a rebellion. They plotted to sabotage Qianlong's Southern river tour in order to seize power and, in Hongzhou's mind, free the Empress from her eroding position. On a chosen night, a band of rebels suddenly storms onto the royal vessel just as a fire engulfs the Empress Dowager's cabin, prompting Qianlong to charge into the flaming cabin to save his mother, seemingly perishing himself in the process.
The next morning, as Hongzhou gallantly appears to restore order from the overnight coup, Qianlong and the Empress Dowager emerge safely from a secret passageway designed by Fuheng and expose Hongzhou's plan of treachery. As it turns out, Hongzhou was betrayed by the Empress, who always loved Qianlong and wanted to use Hongzhou's rebellion to prove her devotion to her husband. Just then, Noble Consort Ling comes out of hiding under the protection of the Emperor's guards, the only consort to receive protection. This clear favorism after all her years of devotion drove Hoifa-Nara mad. In a fit of rage and jealousy, she cuts off her own hair, a taboo in Manchu tradition analogous to an outcry for divorce, effectively cursing the entire Aisin Gioro clan. After Qianlong sentences Hongzhou to confinement and the Empress was dragged away, Yuan Chunwang proclaimed his innocence, only for Yingluo to reveal the real reason Yuan hated Qianlong so much.
Yuan believed he was an illegitimate son of the late Yongzheng Emperor, from the clothes belonging to Yongzheng left behind to his family. The Empress Dowager loudly denies this and claimed that he was an offspring of a bandit who killed Qianlong's birth mother Qian and later raped Yuan Chunwang's mother, and asserted that the clothes belonged to Yongzheng were the same ones Qian exhanged with Yongzheng and wore to distract the bandits from Yongzheng. Her pity for his "wasted life", which she said Yuan Chunwang would have used to spend as a commoner who could marry and have kids, drives Yuan Chunwang, who instead was misled by a lie and thus chose to be castrated and enter the Forbidden City for revenge, into madness. Although the Qianlong Emperor desired to execute the now insane and delirious Yuan Chunwang by lingchi for his crimes, the Empress Dowager, in a rare move of sympathy and mercy, convinced her son to spare the poor man's life. Thus, Yuan Chunwang was banished into the hard labor department, where he would remain for life and never recovered from his insanity.
Back when Wei Yingluo was being punished to work in the hard labor department, the then Noble Consort Xian had saved her life by ordering an Imperial Physician to attend to her after she collapsed from illness. To repay this kindness from long ago, Wei Yingluo plead for leniency for Empress Hoifa-Nara (who had long-forgotten about this past incident), and she is permitted to keep her title, but loses her managerial authority in the imperial harem and all of the Emperor's affections. Hongzhou is given poisoned wine by the emperor, who orders him to go back to his palace after drinking it to make it look like he died of an illness. With Hongzhou being executed for his crimes, Wei Yingluo's revenge for her sister is finally complete. Wei Yingluo is elevated to the most powerful title: 'Imperial Noble Consort" (Second in rank only to the Empress) and given the authority to manage the imperial harem.
Cast.
Supporting.
Female servants.
 Prince He of the First Rank and killed by Imperial Dowager Consort Yu, who tried to cover up the rape incident and make it look like Yingning died of suicide. Her body was cremated and Yingluo kept the ashes among her possessions during her time as a servant before she scattered them down an abandoned well upon killing Imperial Dowager Consort Yu as revenge.
Production.
Many of the film props and costumes use as centerpieces exquisitely made articles from traditional Chinese crafts that are dying out with few master-level experts remaining to pass on their skills to the next generation. The acquisition of these skills requires a lifetime commitment to perfect, since they are unsurprisingly labor-intensive, demanding a sharp eye and tireless hands in order to replicate in painstaking detail the exclusive nature of their beauty.
Velvet flowers (ronghua).
The velvet flower headwear used by the main characters was designed based on historical documents or antiques housed in the Palace Museum. Each adornment is created according to the characteristics of individual palace women. Zhao Shuxian, one of the few craftsmen still making velvet flowers, created all the headwear in the show using the art of making velvet flower (ronghua). This technique dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and refers to the creation of not only floral displays, but also animal shapes made by silk on a twisted wire frame.
Jeweled hairpins (tian-tsui).
Worn by the Empress and Consorts as status symbols of opulence, these are hairpins of a particular vibrant blue hue, made from the preserved feathers of the wings and back of the kingfisher bird. The technique resembles cloisonné, and when inlaid with pearls and other gemstones, are especially eye-catching the way a peacock dazzles fanning its tail.
Soundtrack.
The original soundtrack was released as an extended play on July 23, 2018. "Willows of the Palace" by Li Chunai was released independently from the album.
A 70-track studio album titled "The Story of Yanxi Palace TV soundtrack" (延禧攻略 影视剧配乐) was released July 19, 2018, containing the instrumental music of the series composed by Chen Guoliang. The music was recorded in J Productions House, and features flute player: Tan Baoshuo, Violin player: Leslie Ryang, Pipa player: Liu Tuotong, erhu player: Huang Leting, and Li Junzhu as the female voice. A total of 129 pieces were used in the show.
In the Philippines, "Aahon" sung by JMKO was released under ABS-CBN Star Music and was the show's theme song.
Reception.
The series has generated buzz online for its engaging plot of a "Cinderella" tale with Chinese characteristics. It set the single-day online viewership record in China with a total of 530 million views, and has attracted a cumulative over 13 billion views since August 2018. The drama is the most viewed Chinese language drama of 2018.
It was also the most Googled show on earth in 2018, despite Google being blocked in the mainland.
Many viewers praised the story, because unlike the amicable heroines they were used to seeing, the main character Wei Yingluo fights fire with fire and outmaneuvers her opponents. It also received praise for its well-developed cast of characters and exciting interpretation by the actors; beautiful cinematography and intricate costume design; as well as its accurate portrayal of history and Qing-dynasty settings. Owing to its success, there has been an increased number of visitors to the Palace Museum in Beijing, which is where all the main characters in the show used to live in times gone by.
Controversy.
There was uproar in China after a Vietnamese website managed to acquire episodes not yet shown in China and asked visitors to the website to answer questions confirming their Vietnamese identity before the website loads. "This service is for Vietnamese people only. Please answer the following questions: To which country do the Xisha Islands (Paracel Islands) belong? Vietnam, China, Philippines or Japan?". The only correct answer to the question is Vietnam. Copies of the episodes were later removed from the platform.
Censorship.
On January 25, 2019, the Beijing Daily, an official government newspaper, criticized the program for failing to promote socialist values. Four days later, on January 29, the Chinese government cancelled the program and similar programs such as Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace. CNN and other media outlets quickly reported on this incident, calling it Chinese censorship. A Hong Kong professor stated that the show was censored because it became too popular and defied social norms.
Sequel.
On December 31, 2019, Netflix released a 6-episode season, "Yanxi Palace: Princess Adventures", which covers the marriage of Imperial Consort Ling's daughter, Princess Zhaohua, played by Wang Herun.