Episode 28

 

[Karen]

Welcome to Chasing dramas! The podcast that discusses Chinese history and culture through Chinese TV shows. This is Karen and this is Cathy! Today we are going to discuss episode 28 of 后宫甄嬛传 Empresses in the Palace! 

 

This episode will be a little different. We’ll do all of analysis during the plot summary.

 

Let’s get started!

 

[Cathy]

One evening, 皇上 comes to visit 华妃 and shares that her brother and nephew have helped win battles on the front lines. He is extremely pleased and as a reward, her brother, 年羹尧 and her family will be promoted with extravagant titles. He even says that she, 华妃 has been a 妃, or Consort, for a couple of years and it’s time to promote her to the next rank. That’s generous of him. She is of course extremely pleased with this information. 

 

The next day, all of the ladies are at the empress, 皇后’s palace, for the customary greeting. The ladies curtsey to 皇后 but then also curtsey 华妃. 华妃 is surprised and people explain to her that it’s to congratulate her on her pending promotion. Of course, it wouldn’t be a fun court greeting if there wasn’t some type of verbal spat. 

 

华妃 asks 皇后 what type of promotion she thinks she’ll receive. 皇后 responds that above a 妃, is 贵妃, or Noble Consort. Above that is 皇贵妃 or Imperial Noble Consort. 华妃 explains that no, above the Imperial Noble Consort is 皇后，the Empress. The empress is of course like, oh, you’re interested in my royal throne?

 

华妃 says that well I’ve just heard that the Imperial Noble Consort, or 皇贵妃, is essentially equivalent to a Vice Empress. [Karen – Kind of like a Vice President] She then recounts how earlier in the Qing Dynasty, there was an Imperial Noble Consort who was so favored by the emperor at that time, that the Empress basically had no power or position. Basically the Imperial Noble Consort usurped the love, attention and position of the Empress. Clearly, 华妃 is trying to parallel the situation and suggest to the current Empress that maybe she should be worried. 

 

[Karen]

Let’s discuss this anecdote a little bit as it’s quite important for the rest of the episode and an interesting story overall.

 

Who is 华妃 referencing? This tragic love story is famous and there have been many TV dramas made about this story. One of my favorites is 孝庄秘史，for those who have extra time now and want to learn about the origins of the Qing dynasty. Another one is 少年天子 (The Young Emperor) that describes this story more beautifully. Both are older dramas that came out in 2003 but quite classic.  We were actually thinking that it might be good to discuss the events of 孝庄秘史 (The Epic of XiaoZhuang) as a drama for this podcast because it’s full of history and just very good.

 

(Cathy – I loved watching xiaozhuangmishi as a kid. I was obsessed with that show)

 

Let’s set the stage. The three characters are: Emperor 顺治, his favored concubine, 董鄂妃 (Consort 董) and the Empress, 博尔济吉特皇后 (Borjigin)。Emperor 顺治 is the first Qing dynasty emperor who ruled from Beijing as its capital. There was a ton of drama surrounding his upbringing, which is also the subject of many dramas, but he came to the throne at a very young age – at age 6. He was a puppet under his regent which he fought hard to rid of. He, as the emperor, has his arranged marriage with 博尔济吉特. They’re married very young – in their mid teens. This is very much a political marriage and things are probably fine between the two as arranged marriages can be. This woman gets promoted to become the Empress as she also comes from a very powerful family. But, not too long after, 董鄂妃 comes into the picture and is selected to be a concubine. At this point, these players are still in their mid to late teens. The emperor, 顺治 falls head over heels in love with 董鄂妃. It’s documented that she’s really sweet and kind. Given a lot of drama that the emperor suffered growing up and being from an imperial family, he probably appreciated that. In any case, 顺治 quickly promotes this woman through the ranks to become the Imperial Noble Consort, or 皇贵妃。 She was the Qing Dynasty’s first Imperial Noble Consort. As you can see, Emperor 顺治 really loved her. So much so that he was willing to get rid of the existing Empress and make her the Empress but that never happened.

 

The two lived in bliss for a few years and 董鄂妃 even birthed a child. The 4th prince of the emperor. The Emperor was so ecstatic, he wanted to make the newborn the heir apparent immediately. This didn’t go over too well with court but it didn’t really matter. The child, the 4th prince, only lived for a couple of months before passing away. This was a huge blow to 董鄂妃 who in her despair also passed away not too long after. She was only 21 when she died. The Emperor 顺治, could not handle the death of his beloved concubine. He fell into heavy depression and died not too long after. He was 24 when he died. There is a lot of mystery surrounding his death. In some books, they say he didn’t actually die but went to become a monk and lived the remainder of his life in a monastery. Regardless of what happened, it’s clear that he dearly loved 董鄂妃. 

 

This is definitely an oversimplification of the drama that happened. The key points to remember are that the Emperor loved this concubine and even wanted her to supplant the existing Empress. Indeed, after her death, the concubine was memorialized as an Empress tho she was never one in life.

 

Back to our current drama, you can see why bringing this story up is actually a threat to the current Empress. 华妃 is goading 皇后。皇后 retorts with a long explanation that even if the position of the imperial noble consort is that of vice empress, she will never be the formal empress. 

 

Hopefully that makes sense.

 

[Cathy]

it’s clear though that 华妃 and her family don’t know how to balance all of this power and has let their arrogance get to their head. This is clearly exhibited in this next example.

 

There’s a whole reason why the Emperor doesn’t want 隆科多 to meet the Empress!

 

One late evening, the concubines in the palace are told that the Empress is suffering from terrible migraines and the ladies must come help tend to her illness. 甄嬛 along with a few others head over to the Empress’s palace. Once there, they see the Empress in a lot of pain but there is no imperial doctor in sight. It turns out, 年羹尧, 华妃’s brother and mighty general, has asked for the doctors to come see his wife who was ill during the day and were not allowed to return back to the palace. Thus, there is a shortage of doctors in the palace. When asked if anyone told the Emperor of the Empress’s condition, the Empress’s maid says that the Emperor is currently with 华妃 and so she didn’t want to bother them. In the end, the Empress spent a restless night without doctors because 年羹尧 needed them.

 

We’ve recently been focusing on different different concubines. This episode is no different. Our focus this time is 齐妃. She constantly affirms her low IQ and EQ throughout the episode. The first example happens here. 齐妃’s fussing about and orders the servants to wake the Emperor. This is a big deal! The Empress is not feeling well! How can there be no Imperial Doctors on hand? The Empress, hearing this, immediately commands her servants to NOT go. Oh it’s not worth it, this is normal. I don’t want to worry his majesty. Everyone else knows to keep her mouth shut except for 齐妃. Can’t she tell, something is up?

 

[Karen]

The next morning, 华妃 hears this news and quickly tells her servants to tell her brother to send the doctors back as she prepares breakfast for the Emperor. The thing is, you see that even though 华妃 cares a lot about power and money, she really does love 皇上。 She notices what he eats and where to place food because it seems like he didn’t like a certain dish. She prepares his favored tea every night even though he may not visit her. She just doesn’t know how to love in a nicer way…  One that does not involve murder and corruption.

 

While she’s preparing breakfast, servants stop by with new clothes for her upcoming promotion. However, the clothes are for the Imperial Noble Consort (2 steps up), not the Noble Consort (1 step up). 华妃 is extremely pleased by this because she feels like it means that the emperor wants to promote her to Vice Empress. The emperor, who has woken up by now, sees this scene and is most definitely not pleased. 

 

I wonder who sent those clothes though. Is it indeed the emperor?  Or was it someone else.

 

At court later that morning, many court officials report the audacity of 年羹尧 for being so rude and ignoring court etiquette and rules such that the Empress does not have a doctor when she needs it. 年羹尧 is being pummeled by these reports/criticisms. Everyone is looking for punishment by the Emperor but the Emperor, doesn’t get too mad. He instead actually commends 年羹尧 for being so thoughtful of his wife’s illness. That’s perplexing isn’t it?

 

[Cathy]

Later that day, 甄嬛 is able to speak to her childhood friend, the imperial doctor, 温实初 to get a better understanding of what the protocol is in the imperial harem for seeing doctors. It turns out that even if there are not enough doctors in the palace at night, it is still possible to request doctors to come into the palace. Though that process will probably be cumbersome and alert everyone in the palace. Still, it can be done. 甄嬛’s maid says maybe the Empress didn’t want to bother everyone with her illness which is why she didn’t call for the doctors but 甄嬛 makes a good point by saying if the Empress really didn’t want to bother anyone, why did she tell all of the concubines to come tend to her. That’s begging for everyone to be talking about this and cause drama. 甄嬛 is guessing that this act was on purpose.

 

[Karen]

After watching this, i’m wondering if 皇后 even actually had migraines to begin with or if all of this was a show. She found out that the doctors were told to tend to 年羹尧’s wife and decided to fake all of this in order to incite anger at 年羹尧 and 华妃 for their arrogance. 

 

Later on, 甄嬛 is enjoying some quiet one-on-one time with the Emperor in his study. He asks what she’s reading and she says she’s reading a story from the Spring and Autumn Period. She thinks the story is very relevant to the politics of today. Let’s dive a little deeper into this tale.

 

[Cathy]

The story of 郑伯克段于鄢 which translates to Duke Zhuang of Zheng Defeats his Brother Duan at Yan comes from 左传 or the Commentary of Zuo. The book originates from the Spring and Autumn Period, published in the 4th century BC. This book is a historical chronicle of the Spring and Autumn Period from 722BC to 468BC. It is considered one of the classics in Chinese culture and a primary work for later generations to learn Chinese history. The book recounts battles, assassinations, royal intrigue, amongst many other stories. As such, it was not particularly suitable for women to read. This is again highlights 甄嬛’s uniqueness.

 

I tried reading the story. It’s surprisingly short but incredibly dense. This was apparently the style back then. Even reading the baidu notations of this, there’s over 70 annotations for this barely 700 character story. Random characters appear in the story which makes it extremely hard to follow.

 

The story goes like this.When the Duke Zhuang of Zheng was born, his mother had a difficult birth with him so the Duke was not favored. So much so that his name even means “difficult birth”. Instead his mother favored his younger brother Duan. As such, his mother continuously plotted for her younger son Duan to seize the throne over this older brother. Talk about favoritism Nevertheless the Duke ascended the dukedom after the death of his father. 

 

His mother requested a fiefdom for Duan, the younger brother, to which the Duke reluctantly agreed. All of his courtiers were skeptical of this request but the Duke waves away their concerns. The Duke continues to indulge his younger brother with his heart’s desire. After arriving at his fiefdom, Duan immediately began stockpiling weapons and fortifying his fortress. News of this reached the Duke and his courtiers. They all begged him to take precautions and actions against Duan. The Duke does not, stating that there’s no proof of a planned rebellion. He then says this famous phrase. 

 

多行不义必自毙

The wages of sin is death (Bible)

Translation: He who is unjust is doomed to destruction. This phrase is incredibly famous.

[Karen] – I did not know this phrase came from this story and has its roots back to the 4th century. That’s fascinating. 

 

子姑待之

Just wait and see

 

After a short while, the Duke is called away for business to another state. Seizing this opportunity, his mother quickly dispatches a message to Duan ordering him to invade the capital city of Zheng. She’ll open the gates for him. Duan successfully invades the city but the Duke was prepared for him. He orders his courtier 吕 to attack the city with 200 carriages. The people of the capital city also revolt against Duan. With nowhere to go, Duan retreats to the city of Yan. The Duke has a final confrontation with Duan at the city of Yan. Defeated and humiliated, Duan flees to the nearby state of Gong 共. Hence why he’s called 公叔段。

 

I’ll quickly gloss over the rest of the story. The Duke banishes his mother and declares he’ll see her in the next world. After a while, he regrets the declaration. He orders a tunnel to be dug so that he can see her and they mend their relationship. That part to me is a bit wild.

 

[Karen]

The main lesson 甄嬛 points out here is that the Duke just let his brother and his mother continue on with their schemes and indulge them in order to lure them into a false sense of security. The Duke, however, was always aware of their plots. He indulged his brother until everything erupted and it was easy to destroy them in one fell swoop. If his brother Duan and his mother were content with their lives, nothing would have happened to them. But they weren’t and plotted the rebellion. Which is why, back to 甄嬛, both she and the Emperor write the same phrase. 

 

多行不义必自毙 子姑待之 – He who is unjust is doomed to destruction. Just wait and see. 

 

The Emperor is very much in tuned to Imperial Court and the arrogance of 年羹尧. He won’t act yet because it’s not the right time. He’s waiting for a fatal mistake to take him down. In order to do that, they need to continue to indulge this arrogance. Only until then, is it possible to remove all  remaining supporters. 

 

This story will be referenced again later in the series but for a different purpose.

 

[Karen]

Moving on, 华妃 receives her promotion edict. Contrary to the previous signals, she’s only promoted to 贵妃 or Noble Consort not 皇贵妃 or Imperial Noble Consort. She’s hugely disappointed and the eunuchs say that the previous outfit was sent in error.. She barely waits one second before she lashes out at her servants.

 

Don’t think we need this.

Upon hearing the news, 沈眉庄 storms into 甄嬛’s palace to discuss the news. I love how 沈眉庄 refuses to refer to 华妃 as 华贵妃. She’s like not on my watch. 甄嬛, after her discussion with the Emperor, is much more relaxed. She even brings up another anecdote from the previous reign. A concubines father was only the subordinate of the famous 鳌拜. He was still sentenced to death. What do you think will happen to 年羹尧? She’s giving 沈眉庄 hints of what most likely will happen to 华贵妃.

 

[Cathy] 

Another 请安 or greeting! Another example of how foolish 齐妃 is! I’ll quickly highlight 华贵妃’s coiffure and hair accessories have all been upgraded to reflect her new rank. So have 甄嬛 and 敬妃’s who were all recently promoted.

 

齐妃 literally throws herself out there to be chewed out. She’s like – oh even if someone gets pregnant, if it’s only a daughter, that doesn’t mean much. 华贵妃 immediately retorts – even if someone has a son, if the son is intelligent but dull, it doesn’t matter because if you recall, her son, the 3rd prince is not well liked.

 

甄嬛makes the mistake of responding to the Empress and says it doesn’t matter if her child is a boy or girl. If it’s a girl, I’d like for her to be as cute and charming as 曹贵人’s daughter. 华贵妃 immediately seizes this opportunity to deride 齐妃 even more. ”Even 莞嫔 wants a daughter over your dunce of a son”. 

 

齐妃 without even a pause turns to 甄嬛. She says – How is it that you become pregnant but then immediately 富察贵人 has the miscarriage? Did your child kill her child?

 

The words she use is “克死“. I don’t think there’s a direct translation but it’s extremely superstitious and has a very negative connotation. She’s saying the arrival of your child killed the other child. This must be a demon child. The Empress quickly stops her from continuing to make a fool of herself. 齐妃 is a hot headed person. She didn’t even pause to let these slights pass. She had to get the last word. She made a laughing stock of herself.

 

[Karen]

Later, the Empress and 齐妃 have tea together where the Empress chastises 齐妃 for her behavior.  Pay attention here to a masterful performance by the Empress. She’s casting her net and will claim her prize in the next episode. 齐妃 is just too dumb to realize this. The Empress first consoles her into saying don’t worry about 甄嬛’s unborn child. Your son is the eldest, there’s no way her child can usurp her. 齐妃 seems mollified by this but then the Empress throws a wrench into this. Well – 甄嬛 is very much in favor. She’s also from the Han Banners with a similar background to you. You never know, she might be able to rise to the same rank as you. 

 

Then the Empress brings up the story of Emperor 顺治 and his beloved Consort 董鄂妃 that we discussed earlier. Her punchline though is – the Emperor immediately wanted to make him the crown prince. Unfortunately the baby died in infancy. I wouldn’t want that on anyone but it would have been better if he was not born. She’s all repentant – I shouldn’t be talking about such a sad story! Forgive me! What a performer!

 

The wheels begin to turn in 齐妃’s mind. She cannot have 甄嬛 successfully have the baby. Well what is she to do? 安陵容 comes to give the solution! 安陵容 bumps into 齐妃 admiring some Nerium Oleander flowers. 安陵容 “helpfully” tells 齐妃 to not stand too close as they are poisonous. She then drops this useful bit of information – thankfully there aren’t any of these flowers near 甄嬛’s palace. This is very poisonous to her unborn baby. 安陵容 takes her leave and the wheels start turning a bit more in 齐妃’s mind. 

 

安陵容 comes to visit 甄嬛 at her palace. They exchange some pleasantries. One of 齐妃’s maids arrive with water chestnut pastries for 甄嬛. I love that the camera pans quickly to 安陵容. She knows exactly what will happen. 

 

[Cathy]

 

There are two options right now. 安陵容 can either not say anything or warn 甄嬛. For my first viewing, I honestly thought 安陵容 wouldn’t say anything, but she’s on team 皇后 or the Empress. There’s a bigger prize the Empress wants. 

 

安陵容 makes a big show of it. Don’t eat it! Something’s not right! She then miraculously deduces that the pastries contain Nerium Oleander. She then explains the poisonous properties to 甄嬛. 甄嬛 is stunned – why would 齐妃 do this? 安陵容 responds – she’s jealous! Your child could usurp her son’s position! 甄嬛 wants to immediately tell the Emperor but 安陵容 persuades her with a different option – first confirm the poison before the next step.

 

The episode ends with 齐妃 still anxiously waiting for news of 甄嬛’s “death” or “miscarriage”. She doesn’t receive this news, instead, she is summoned by the Empress for a “chat”.

 

Again – how dumb can you be? You send a poisonous plate of pastries and don’t even conceal the fact that you were the one to send those pastries. Even if 甄嬛 ate it, literally everyone can trace this back to you and you will be punished for it. Do you not think people will realize that the miscarriage happened because of you? What will happen to your son in this case? It’s been a while since we’ve had to deal with such an idiotic plot. 

 

[Cathy]

Welcome back to Chasing dramas! Here, we talk about Chinese culture and history through Chinese Dramas. I’m Cathy and Karen !  Today, we are going to discuss episode 27 of 后宫甄嬛传 or Empresses in the Palace. If you are new to the podcast and the drama, we recommend listening to the Intro To The Drama episode to get your bearings and what this drama is about. You can always watch this drama on Youtube, just search Empresses in the Palace and it’ll pop up. I don’t know if there are English subtitles moving forward so we’ll do our best to recap.

 

Let’s get started! This episode is a doozy!

 

The Emperor 皇上 visits 沈眉庄. She was previously very favored by the emperor. But she fell victim to a fake pregnancy scandal and was demoted. With some help from 甄嬛, the truth came out and she was reinstated to her rank of Noble Lady. The emperor is willing to mend their relationship but she very much is opposed to this. She backs away at his attempts to even touch her. She’s not rude, but she’s not welcoming.

 

Is it me or is her clothing even darker now? She wore purple before but this is a darker shade of purple. She seems more subdued.

 

[Karen]

You’ll recall that we talked about chrysanthemums in episode 4 of the drama. 沈眉庄 loves chrysanthemums because of the 气节 or integrity of the flower. The chrysanthemum would rather wilt on its stem that blow into the north wind. This attitude is fully being reflected by 沈眉庄。 She’s basically saying that you don’t trust me anymore, you have discarded me. I will not bend back to be your lover. She holds her ground against the emperor.

 

Which honestly – is really quite an action. In the imperial harem, without the emperor’s attention, you really can’t survive. She is totally ok with that. It seems like she’s resigned to being stuck/left in the palace without attention. I’m impressed. She’s really commendable for doing so. If there is anything to be said about 沈眉庄 is that she is like her favorite flower. She has that level of integrity, which may be seen as stubbornness. 

 

[Cathy]

Spurned by 沈眉庄, the Emperor visits his favorite concubine 甄嬛. Remember, she’s pregnant now. He has a gift for her. A pear blossom that plucked himself. He’s in a happy mood, praises her to high heaven. No one can compare to your beauty. Another flower for us! Pear blossoms represent the purity of love. 甄嬛 laments that no one has done a pear blossom makeup. There’s the famous plum blossom makeup but white isn’t very conducive for makeup. The Emperor disagrees – it’s not hard to do so. 

 

He then paints a pink pear blossom on her forehead, using rouge with white to make the pink. 甄嬛 remarks, this is beautiful but it doesn’t look real. To which, the Emperor responds, “it doesn’t have to be real, as long as it’s beautiful.“ Let’s bookmark this for later. He names the style “姣梨妆”, Beautiful Pear Makeup.

 

The topic then shifts to 沈眉庄 and the plague. There’s still remnants of the plague within the palace. Rumor has it, the two doctors 江诚 and 江慎 are taking bribes from the servants. Whoever can pay will get the antidote. This is a sticky situation for the Emperor. He doesn’t want doctors like them in his employ but they are the only ones with the cure. Finally, 甄嬛 reveals that the imperial doctor 温实处, her childhood friend, was actually the one who wrote the original cure. These two other doctors merely stole it.

 

甄嬛 wants to dispatch these two but doesn’t have a solution. They are a part of 华妃’s posse. It wouldn’t look good to have two doctors suddenly sentenced to death. The Emperor waves that worry away with his response. There’s plenty of ways to eliminate them.

 

The conversation then shifts to 甄嬛’s birthday. The Emperor wants to make a big hullabaloo about it for her and the baby. Now pay attention to this next line. 甄嬛 naively asks – you love children and you’re always at 华妃’s place. Why is she not pregnant? The Emperor, without missing a beat, kind of like nonchalantly responds – she will never have children. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? This is shocking news to 甄嬛. She presses a little bit but the Emperor doesn’t respond. You also realize that this was a brain fart on his end. He shouldn’t have said it but he let it slip.

 

That night , there’s some ominous music and The Emperor orders his corp of assasins 血滴子 to murder the two 江 doctors. He says that it has to be discrete. No one can find out about this. He tells 夏刈, the leader, to keep a close eye on the Imperial Court, especially for anyone with rebellious tendencies. The two 江 doctors are quickly dispatched. 华妃 is stunned at the news – she quickly reports this to the Emperor. He, of course, acts all somber and tells her that he’ll get to the bottom of this.

 

Let’s rewind. 华妃 and these two doctors were accused by the doctor 刘畚 for the pregnancy scandal with 沈眉庄, but the Emperor could not punish them because they found the cure for the plague. With the news that 温实处 was the original author of the cure, the Emperor was free to eliminate these two doctors, dealing a blow to 华妃. This is the first time we see the Emperor taking action against 华妃. 

 

[Karen]

Now….

 

The Emperor is making a big deal of 甄嬛’s birthday! So much so that he invited the handsome 17th Prince 果郡王 to help plan it. We haven’t seen him in a while. They are enjoying the 虢国夫人游春图 – The Lady Guo Guo Spring Outing. We’ll discuss this painting later.

 

It’s April 17th – Everyone is at the Peony Pavilion in the Summer Palace 圆明园 for 甄嬛’s birthday. 华妃 is extremely jealous that 甄嬛 got this honor. The camera pans to the wives of the princes in attendance. They all have the Beauty Pear Blossom makeup on their forehead! 曹贵人 loudly describes that this is very much in vogue throughout the capital city and it’s all thanks to 甄嬛. 

 

The rest of the concubines get very salty. 

 

甄嬛 checks in on 沈眉庄. She reminds 沈眉庄 that  even if you don’t care, you still need the Emperor’s favor. That’s how you survive. 沈眉庄 is apathetic to this remark – she’s over it. 

 

甄嬛 then talks to the wife of a prince sitting nearby. The Beauty Pear Blossom Makeup is all the rage in Beijing. 甄嬛 is the trendsetter. The socialites also want to show that they have happy marriages. If your husband has time to draw this for you, then it’s a sign of a tranquil and harmonious marriage.

 

The conversation is interrupted by the 17th Prince 果郡王 because… it’s time for her present! They head out to the lake to watch what surprise he has. And what a sight to behold! A sky full of kites greet them. The Emperor then brings 甄嬛 closer to the lake and they see that the  lotus flowers are in full bloom. It’s capped off with 果郡王 walking up to them, performing a piece called 凤凰于飞 Phoenices in the Sky on his bamboo flute. 

 

This truly is a special birthday gift. It’s April on the lunar calendar, most likely May in the Gregorian calendar. In Beijing it’s still relatively chilly and not the season for lotus flowers to bloom. The 17th Prince 果郡王 planted the lotus roots and diverted warm water from the nearby hot springs into this lake to make the flowers bloom during this season! Now that’s dedication.

 

We’ll analyze this a bit more later. 

 

[Cathy]

The celebration ends with 甄嬛’s mother also receiving an honorary title of the 3rd rank – 诰命夫人. Back at her palace, 华妃 looks as though she can murder someone because this is quite a high honor for a woman. 华妃 doesn’t like that 甄嬛‘s family is getting so much attention. This is very much a threat to her own position. Unfortunately 曹贵人 bears the brunt of 华妃’s anger, receiving vicious insults. 华妃 openly declares her desire to eliminate 甄嬛. It’s not easy being 曹贵人。 

 

Unfortunately, the rest of the episode isn’t as um rosy. Remember the cute and bubbly 淳常在？ She’s the adorable foodie that’s really young but loves hanging out with 甄嬛. She’s no threat and is genuinely a cute person. She has no nefarious thoughts and just likes spending time with 甄嬛 and eating food. She’s hanging out with 甄嬛 and they decide to go out to fly kite. Or at least, 淳常在 flies the kite while 甄嬛 watches. 

 

Problem is, 淳常在’s kite breaks and she goes to grab it by herself but in the process overhears 华妃 discussing some shady business. 

 

(side note – there’s a quicky costume continuity error. When 淳儿 is flying the kite, she’s still wearing her flower-pot bottom shoes. When she climbs up the rocks to grab her kite, she’s wearing flat shoes)

 

[Karen]

Basically, 华妃 is enacting her corrupt plans which of course she wants to keep quiet. 淳常在 hears this but isn’t sneaky. 华妃 discovers 淳常在 overhearing the conversation. And….the result is that 淳常在…the adorable girl is eliminated by a eunuch. 

 

Nooooooo. It really doesn’t pay to be a foodie! She was only around for a few episodes! She was so cute! Why did she have to die!

 

During this whole scene, 曹贵人, who is the concubine on team 华妃 sees everything that happens. She actually goes to intercept 甄嬛 as she’s waiting out in the garden and prevent 甄嬛 from discovering anything was amiss. They have a conversation which we’ll discuss in more detail but ultimately, 曹贵人 tips off 甄嬛 that something is wrong.

 

甄嬛 frantically asks her servants to find 淳常在。 Later that evening, the servants report that 淳常在 was discovered… She drowned…

 

甄嬛 is heartbroken as are we. I’m sooo sad!!!

 

The episode ends with 甄嬛 hearing from a servant that there’s no way 淳常在 could have drowned because she is actually a good swimmer. So 甄嬛 can only surmise that 淳常在 was murdered but as they have no evidence, there’s nothing they can do….

 

Ugh. So far, the death of 淳常在 has been the saddest. She didn’t do anything except for be friends with 甄嬛 and be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Cathy]

It’s now time for our analysis! There’s a lot to discuss here!

 

The first will be the specific painting `12122国夫人游春图 – The Lady Guo Guo Spring Outing on display for the Emperor and the 17th Prince. This specific painting has a very storied history!

 

The original painting was commissioned and completed during the Tang Dynasty in 752 by the artist 张萱。The main subject of the painting is Lady Guo. She is the third sister of the famous 杨贵妃. We talked about 杨贵妃 before in previous episodes. It is one of the prime examples of court life during the reign of 唐玄宗. Lady Guo was known for her opulence. She is the lady in the center behind the male guard in white. She’s traveling with her other sister and has a cadre of guards and servants in the painting. It is peculiar that the focus of this painting is a woman. Before this time, females were rarely the focus of art. The painter 张萱 led some of that change with this piece. 

 

The original painting is lost. Unfortunately, none of the original pieces by 张萱 survive. Only replicas of his paintings from the Song Dynasty survive. This replica was in private collections during the Ming and early Qing dynasties. Emperor 乾隆 acquired it for his collection during his reign, so this here is another bug. We are currently in the reign of 雍正. With the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the last Qing Emperor 溥仪 smuggled this piece along with other treasures out of the Forbidden Palace. In 1945, 溥仪 wanted to smuggle these to Japan but was caught. The Lady Guo Guo Spring Outing has been in the collection of the 辽宁省博物馆 museum since 1948.

 

[Karen]

The next topic to discuss is the birthday presents from the 17th Prince 果郡王！We haven’t seen him in a while and he definitely knocked this one out of the park.

 

The kites were cool but the big wow factor were the lotus flowers. He explained how he was able to get the lotus flowers to bloom. I also think there’s another hidden meaning as to why he picked lotus flowers. Back in episode 19, 甄嬛 snuck onto 果郡王’s boat after visiting 沈眉庄 who was under house arrest. They had this whole conversation about Lotus Flower and the purity of the flower. Maybe he’s trying to evoke some of those memories?

 

He also performs a piece 凤凰于飞 Phoenices in the Sky on his flute.  This story originally comes from the Book of Songs which was compiled during the Zhou Dynasty back in the 11th to the 7th centuries BC. Phoenices in the sky represent a harmonious marriage and is commonly used as a phrase of good fortune for newlyweds. I don’t know if this specifically is very apt for the occasion though…甄嬛 is not the Empress. The Phoenix is the symbol of the Empress and this could very much be misconstrued in a negative manner. 

 

Phoenices in the Sky is the end credit song of this drama. Sung by 刘欢. It describes a very moving love story but not between 甄嬛 and the Emperor. The lyrics at the end 凤凰于飞，梧桐是依。噰噰喈喈 (yong1 yong1 jie1 jie) ，福禄攸归 actually comes from a work written in the Tang dynasty describing the Phoenices in the sky, leaning together in the Parasol tree, harmonious and content. Pretty cool right?

曹贵人

[Cathy]

We’ve discussed her at length before. In this episode we get some more examples of how calculating she is. We have a quick scene that reveals 曹贵人’s own shaky predicament. She can only do 华妃’s bidding. On the surface, she’s firmly on team 华妃, but there are several times where she tries to play the game to protect herself even from 华妃.  华妃 is overbearing and abusive in many ways. She used the daughter of 曹贵人 as a tool to gain favoritism and destroy others which 曹贵人 cannot forgive. So she’s trying to figure out the best way to protect her daughter. 曹贵人 is constantly analyzing each situation in the imperial harem to see what’s the best move.

 

The first example – during 甄嬛’s birthday celebration, she snarkily informs the rest of the concubines about the 姣梨妆 – the Beauty Pear Makeup. I can’t tell if 华妃 knows about the origins but 华妃 becomes extremely upset at this news. I think 曹贵人 is purposefully stirring the pot to make the other concubines jealous but why doesn’t she insult 甄嬛? She wants to draw more attention to 甄嬛? Her words just make 华妃 more pissed off. I guess this is to also make the other concubines jealous as well.

 

Here’s the second example – 曹贵人 and her maid are actually the ones who first spot 淳常在 overhearing 华妃’s bribery scheme. 曹贵人’s maid wants to verbally warn 华妃 but 曹贵人 quickly prevents her from doing so because she says it’ll draw too much attention, instead she throws a rock into the pond to draw 华妃’s attention. 

 

Throwing the rock is a very shrewd choice – by throwing the rock, she doesn’t draw attention to herself. It’s not clear if 曹贵人 knows about 华妃’s bribery scheme. She could put herself in danger if it’s known she’s also privy to this information. 曹贵人 knows exactly what fate might befall 淳贵人 but warns 华妃 anyways but she doesn’t make it known she was the one who warned her. You could also construe it as yelling would draw attention away from 淳儿 so it’s open for interpretation.

 

Finally – let’s break down this conversation between 曹贵人 and 甄嬛。曹贵人 accosts 甄嬛 in an attempt to divert her attention away from discovering 淳常在. 甄嬛, none the wiser of what’s going on, has a pretty frank conversation with 曹贵人. And basically says she suggests that 曹贵人defect to help someone, such as herself, instead of being on 华妃’s team. 曹贵人 in this conversation is considering her options. She hear’s 甄嬛 and certainly feels that she may be right. That’s why at the end of the conversation, 曹贵人 tells 甄嬛 to look “over there” which is basically a hint that something is wrong. Otherwise, 甄嬛 may still be in the dark about what happened to 淳常在。

 

[Karen]

In summary – for 曹贵人， we have to pity her and also admire her. Everything she’s done has been for her daughter. We know that having children in the imperial harem is very difficult with so many miscarriages so the fact that she was able to come to term was impressive. We learn in this episode that she had a difficult birth so she was not completely free from the nefarious deeds but ultimately, she was smart enough to birth a child. Fortunately it’s a princess. Who knows what other people would have done if it was a prince.

 

[Karen]

That’s it for this episode – episode 27. Thank you all so much for joining us and we look forward to having you with us in the next one. If you have comments or questions, please let us know and reach out to us at chasingdramaspodcast@gmail.com!

 

On a completely different tangent that’s been bothering me a while. The actress for 浣碧 is dubbed.  Everything seems fine but I can’t for the life of me figure out what she’s actually saying when she says “小主”。 The mouth shape doesn’t look the same – I don’t know. Just wanted to point that out, haha

 

 

[Karen]

Welcome back to Chasing dramas! Here, we talk about Chinese dramas and also the history behind the drama. I’m Karen and Cathy!  We are currently discussing episode 26 of 后宫甄嬛传 or Empresses in the Palace. If you are new to the podcast and the drama, we recommend listening to the Intro To The Drama episode to get your bearings and what this drama is about. You can always watch this drama on Youtube, just search Empresses in the Palace and it’ll pop up. There are english subtitles available

 

This episode to me was REALLY confusing the first few times I watched it. It’s funny to a degree and heartbreaking as well.

 

Last episode, we had a lot of chaos where there was a miscarriage but surprisingly discovered that our main character 甄嬛 is two months pregnant. This pregnancy is quite the surprise and is causing a lot of anxiety and stress in the imperial harem. People who were happy about the miscarriage are now upset to hear there is another pregnancy. 

 

Continuing on the conversation from the last episode, the empress dowager and the empress are still discussing the miscarriage. 太后, the empress dowager, basically says, nothing more can be done about the miscarriage but nothing can happen to this pregnancy because it’s 菀贵人。It’s clear that 太后 cares more about 菀贵人，甄嬛 than the other concubine 富察贵人。I guess that’s generally a lesson on being a good person because 富察贵人 was really quite the snooty and pretentious person. Now this tragedy has befallen her, and no one really cares.

 

[cathy to interject] – I don’t think so…I think it’s more like there can’t be two miscarriages. That would be too obvious, no?

 

[Karen]

 

I am highlighting here that 太后 is essentially threatening 皇后 and saying that nothing better happen to 甄嬛’s kid. But of course, this is the Imperial Harem, they can’t say such direct things but the message was abundantly clear.

 

皇后 agrees but we shall see what happens. The acting here is great because 皇后 is not being aggressive or defensive. Instead, she’s being really passive and agreeing to everything the dowager says. 

 

She closes the conversation by pointing out that our lovely 华妃 has requested to see a doctor from outside the imperial palace. Clearly this is a reputation issue for the imperial family. The empress dowager ultimately says it’s fine but at the end, requests that if this external doctor is a good one, she would like her own head maid to get a chance to see the doctor as well. Pretty innocent and simple right? She’s being a good master and wants her maid to get a check up. No big deal.

 

—

 

[Cathy]

With the news of 2 pregnancies so close together, the person that is most upset in the imperial harem is none other than 华妃。 She is sitting in her palace and utterly heartbroken that it seems like everyone in the palace can become pregnant except for her. She stuffs her face with as many pickles as possible and when she starts throwing up, she exclaims! Look, I’m pregnant. It’s really quite sad because you know she really wants to have a child. 蒋欣 – the actress does such a good job here.

 

In her fit of rage, 华妃 storms into the palace of none other than the sickly 端妃。 It’s 26 episodes in and we finally understand what happened to 端妃 and why she is so sick. 端妃 is one of the oldest serving concubines in the harem. Since we were first introduced to her, she has been very frail – even if you look back in episode 2 when the new ladies were being introduced to the palace.

 

The reason she is so frail is because 4 years ago, it would seem that 华妃’s miscarriage was caused by 端妃. 华妃 drank a bowl of medicine that 端妃 gave her. Her pregnancy was 6 months along and it was clear she was going to have a baby boy but right after drinking this medicine from 端妃, she had a miscarriage and lost her child. 华妃 was devastated and in her hatred, turned around and forced 端妃 to drink saffron (藏红花). In TV magic, the amount of saffron she drank meant that she would never be able to have children.

 

[Karen] – we talked about 麝香 or musk pods as one of the most commonly used ways to induce a miscarriage. Saffron or 藏红花 is another. Saffron does have some harmful properties for pregnant women but there’s little evidence that it’ll make a female infertile.

 

[Cathy]

From that point on, 端妃 has been frail and bedridden. Because of this action, 端妃 absolutely hates 华妃. In her mind, she never actually did anything to hurt 华妃. She didn’t know how or why 华妃 had the miscarriage, it wasn’t by her hand but 华妃 won’t believe it. 华妃 firmly believes that 端妃 caused her miscarriage because she was the one who brought her the bowl of medicine whihc was actualy supposed to help her pregnancy. 华妃’s revenge was that 端妃 unfortunately will never be able to have children, which in 端妃”s eyes, is worse than death. She will never have any type of support in the palace and basically her value as a woman is gone. The whole point of being a woman in the palace is to produce children and 华妃 took that ability from her.

 

[Karen] 

The two women hate each other. The reason why 端妃 has been helping 甄嬛， our main character, is clear now after so many episodes. 端妃 hopes 甄嬛 will help defeat 华妃 because she cannot do it herself.

 

Because 华妃 is so powerful, she has been able to restrict pretty much everything for 端妃。 端妃 can’t have fresh food, can’t have lots of servants, can’t get laundry done externally, has limited access to medicine – pretty much everything that should be given to her as a consort of her rank, has been stripped because 华妃 hates her. That’s honestly terrible. And as we found out in the conversation, every time there’s a pregnancy announcement, or whenever 华妃 is upset, she’ll come over and verbally and physically abuse 端妃。

 

The interesting piece here is that 皇上 believes that 端妃 didn’t do anything wrong. The ultimate reason why 端妃 is still alive is because 华妃 cannot outright kill 端妃 or else 皇上 will be mad. The emperor and empress dowager seem to have made it clear that 端妃 is not to be touched. Otherwise, 华妃 most definitely would have killed 端妃 long ago. Why is this? That’s odd. But I also can’t imagine that 皇上 doesn’t know that 端妃 is suffering but he seems to be fine with it. There’s just a lot of oddities going on here. The acting of the two ladies in the scene here is phenomenal. Especially 蒋欣，the actress for 华妃, you see how much she hates 端妃 but is also so sad that she lost a child. You end up kind of pitying her because yes, she does scary stuff, but a lot of it originates from her sadness of having lost a child she desperately wants.

 

—

[Cathy]

To try to fix this situation, 华妃 has asked her brother to invite a doctor he knows (so outside of the imperial harem) to see if there’s any way to help her become pregnant. 

 

Well the old doctor comes to the imperial palace and is being escorted by the Empress’s main eunuch. NOW HERE it is quite confusing. On the face of it, nothing seems to really be happening so let’s take a look at how things are progressing.

 

Before they go to see 华妃, the doctor makes a stop at the Department of Imperial Doctors. The director of the doctors meets with this new dude and is really nice and even gives this doctor all of 华妃’s medical notes. That’s pretty nice of him no? The director says that 华妃 is of course adored by the Emperor so their department always pays careful attention to her and has had at least 20 top tier doctors take a look at 华妃 so she’s in good hands. Well the new guy is like “great!” and goes off to see 华妃。

 

[karen]

华妃, being 华妃, of course gives the doctor money and then threatens him with his life if he does a bad job of looking after her. But the doctor says that she is fine. There are so many doctors who have attended to her and they all say she’s fine. She’s not terribly impacted by her previous miscarriage and therefore, as long as she tries not to be over eager, should still be able to bear children. 华妃 is ecstatic to hear this and offers the doctor more money. 

 

As the doctor is being escorted out by a eunuch, he is sweating profusely. That’s odd right? The eunuch then asks whether or not the doctor can take a look at the Empress Dowager’s maid since he’s in town. He, of course acquiesces and goes to see this woman. 

 

This interaction is EXTREMELY important. The doctor checks the maid’s pulse and says there is nothing wrong with her. She is completely healthy. But the maid insists that other doctors in the imperial palace said she is very sick and needs to spend quite a bit of time to recover. She then goes on to say that if someone is not sick but everyone else says she is sick and only you, say she’s healthy, what will ppl think of you? On the flip side, what if someone IS sick and everyone keeps on saying she’s healthy but you are the only one to truthfully say she’s sick, what will people think of you? He jokes and says that people will think I’m crazy! The maid then responds, exactly. Your entire reputation will be ruined if you tell the truth. He then asks, what happens if another doctor tells the truth. The maid says that that will never happen. The imperial doctors will all have the same response. This doctor thinks for a bit and says, ok, I will also have the same response.

 

Ummmm ok so what just happened? This scene and a scene from the previous episode require spoilers to discuss. We’ll talk about it at the end of the episode if it’s confusing. Again on the face of it, it’s like ok fine, but as with all things in the palace, the true motives are much more nefarious.

 

[cathy]

The rest of the episode is rather simple. The emperor who has been absent for all of this drama, finally returns to the imperial palace and immediately checks in on 甄嬛。 He’s super worried about her and excited about their first child together. He wants to spend all his time with 甄嬛 and is even willing to neglect 皇后 on the day that is dedicated to her. I think we’ve mentioned before but every 1st and 15th of the month is when the emperor is supposed to see the empress. This day is the 15th but he decides to blow 皇后 off for 甄嬛。 皇后 is really saddened by this and cries alone at night. 甄嬛 at least urges 皇上, the emperor, to go see the empress for food the next day if he won’t go spend the night.

 

The next big event on the docket is the 册封 and 晋封 ceremonies. These are the promotion ceremonies for both 甄嬛 and 敬嫔. 甄嬛 is currently a 贵人 or Noble Lady. 敬嫔 with the rank of 嫔 is a Concubine. They each are promoted up one level. 甄嬛 to 莞嫔 and 敬嫔 to 敬妃. Concubine and Consort respectively. 

 

In preparation for the ceremony, 太后, the Empress Dowager, gifts a familiar hairpin to 甄嬛. It’s the same one she gifted 沈眉庄 all the way back. It’s the same one that got damaged when the Emperor learned of 沈眉庄’s fake pregnancy. 

 

[discuss]

 

 [Karen] 

甄嬛 is back at her palace marveling at all of the medicinal ointments and creams that have been gifted to help with her recovery. 安陵容 arrives with another gift. She has her own family cream made with very valuable ingredients to help with the scar from the cat. There’s powdered pearl, peach flowers, honey, fish bone collagen and even white otter marrow? Dang – that’s extremely valuable. We’ll discuss more about this in the spoiler section.

 

It also doesn’t look as though 淳儿, the young bubbly girl, will last too long. 华妃 is extremely annoyed at her.

 

The episode ends with 甄嬛 and 敬嫔 at the ceremony. I think it’s quite a simple ceremony – they left a lot of things out. There are documents, seals, and rituals that need to be adhered to. We’ll dive deeper into the 册封 ceremonies in later episodes.

[Cathy]

Let’s start with our analysis!

 

The first is the promotion of our ladies 甄嬛 and 敬嫔。 This is actually quite an honor for both of these ladies. There are only 4妃 or Consorts designations and 6 嫔 or Concubine designations. There’s a reason why 华妃 was so pissed off in the last episode. We now have 4 Consorts – 华妃, the sickly 端妃, 齐妃 who is the 3rd prince’s mother, and now 敬妃。I don’t think we have any other 嫔’s or Concubines now. As a Concubine, you now run your own palace. You can refer to yourself as 本宫 – in third person. It basically means – owner of a palace. Servants will no longer call you a 小主 or little master. They will refer to you with the proper name of 娘娘, basically the equivalent of your ladyship/your highness depending on your rank.

 

Next I want to talk about our bedridden 端妃. She is this mysterious character that keeps popping up at random times. Let’s add some things together. Yes, it was a very sad scene between her and 华妃. She is a tragic character BUT we see subtle glimpses of her intelligence in this episode and the previous episode. In this episode – 端妃 is able to even threaten 华妃 with 富察贵人’s miscarriage and 甄嬛’s injuries. She points out – you’re scared. You need the emperor’s favor. If he suspects you, you’re done. That’s true. 端妃 knows though, that 华妃 didn’t do it! She went to 甄嬛’s quarters just now to relay her suspicions of foul play but NOT from 华妃. I don’t 甄嬛 thought to this point just as yet but it looks like 端妃 knows. 华妃 straight up denies she did anything and we as the audience knows she didn’t do it. The fact that 端妃 knows this though, makes a very compelling case for how she’s able to survive in the Imperial Harem despite her illnesses.

人彘就是把四肢剁掉，挖出眼睛，用铜注入耳朵，使其失聪（熏聋），用喑药灌进喉咙，割去舌头，破坏声带，使其不能言语，然后扔到厕所里，有的还要割去鼻子，剃光头发，剃尽眉发（不只是把眉毛和头发剃光，还包括眼睫毛），然后抹一种药，破坏毛囊，使毛囊脱落后不再生长，永不再长毛发，然后一根根拔掉，有的嫌累，就一起拔掉。如果有皮掉下来，或者在行刑中就死了，刽子手就会被人嗤之以鼻，甚至丢掉饭碗。也有在行刑过程中就死了的，没死的就被放在厕所里做成了人彘。最出名的是汉朝的吕太后将戚夫人做成了人彘，还安排了专人“照顾”，然后丢弃在茅厕中任其痛苦死去，割掉耳朵，甚至把脸划花。这是吕后发明用来对付戚夫人的一种非常残忍酷刑之一。

 

皇后

 

That’s it for this episode – episode 26. Thank you all so much for joining us and we look forward to having you with us in the next one. If you have comments or questions, please let us know and reach out to us at chasingdramaspodcast@gmail.com!

 

Spoiler Section

 

 

[Karen]

Welcome back to Chasing Dramas! This is the podcast that explores Chinese history and culture through historical chinese dramas. This is Karen, and this is Cathy. In this episode, we’re going to be discussing Episode 21 of 后宫甄嬛传。 This time it’s one episode only because there’s quite a bit to discuss and combining episodes would have been a bit too long. Let’s get started.

 

[Cathy]

This episode starts off with 华妃 summoning our main character, 甄嬛 and her friend 安陵容 to come sing for her and the emperor, 皇上。It’s a little awkward and of course intimidating. 安陵容, who is known for her singing abilities, tries her best and sings a wonderful song with 甄嬛 accompanying her on the 古琴，the string instrument we’ve talked about. 华妃 is not particularly impressed and humiliates 安陵容 before asking her to continue singing but because 安陵容 is not feeling well, she is unable to sing any more. At this point, 甄嬛 steps in and instead of singing, recites a poem with the 古琴 accompaniment. We’ll discuss the two poems/songs that are performed later on in the episode. 皇上 is more or less appeased and, recognizing that 华妃 is just asking these two ladies to perform as a means of humiliation, says it’s getting late and that they should retire. 

 

Well actually, 华妃 spots all the eye flirting between 皇上 and 甄嬛 and immediately kicks them out. 

 

甄嬛 and 安陵容 return back to 甄嬛’s place. 安陵容 is in tears because 华妃 is treating them like common street artists. Remember how we said that actresses, singers and performers are generally seen as lower class similar to prostitutes? 安陵容 is upset because they’re concubines, not street artists and shouldn’t be treated as such. But 华妃 doesn’t care, she loves humiliating others.

 

The story of this night’s events reach the ears of 皇后, the Empress, and she is actually quite impressed at how composed the quiet 安陵容 is throughout the process and decides to pay more attention to her…

 

[Karen]

It’s winter time and it’s snowing heavily at the Forbidden Palace. 皇上 is sitting with 甄嬛 enjoying a lovely winter day and the cute 淳常在 comes to visit. 淳常在hasn’t been around much in previous episodes so let me remind everyone of who she is. She is a cute girl that was selected to be a concubine and entered the palace when 甄嬛 also entered the palace. 淳常在 was living with 甄嬛 in 碎玉轩 but had to move because of 甄嬛’s fake illness. It’s been a while and she’s back hanging out with 甄嬛 and is cute as a button. She’s a little foodie and in general very naive. She doesn’t plot against people and just wants to be happy in the palace. She even brought 甄嬛 a few branches of red plum blossoms to add color to her palace. She was too young to ahem serve the emperor when she first entered the palace but it’s been 2 years. 

 

Well what does the Emperor do? He selects 淳常在 to spend the night and is now a proper concubine. Ugh, the mentality of men back then! The Emperor is saying all this romantic stuff to 甄嬛 and immediately that night beds another woman.

 

淳常在 starts to receive more and more favor by the emperor and she asks 皇后, the empress, if she can move back in with 甄嬛。 皇后 agrees and she moves in, which slightly upsets 安陵容 because they were living together. Another concubine asks why, if 安陵容 and 甄嬛 were such good friends, didn’t 甄嬛 ask 安陵容 to move in together as well…to which 安陵容 has no answer. The cracks are getting bigger and bigger between 安陵容 and 甄嬛 but 甄嬛 doesn’t know any of this is happening.

 

[Cathy]

Since the evening that she was humiliated by 华妃, 安陵容 has generally been staying in her palace. She has requested that her maid, 宝娟, not make her bed and we find out the reason is because 安陵容 has decided to make a voodoo doll to try to curse 华妃. She is hiding this voodoo doll under her pillow. We’ve talked about voodoo dolls before. You make a doll in the shape of the person, or in this case, decorated with an item from that person, you are trying to curse and then stab it with needles to try to curse that person. It’s strictly taboo in the palace. 余莺儿 that maid from earlier episodes, got caught with a voodoo doll and was sentenced to death for it. 

 

A few days later, the empress comes to visit 安陵容 and check in on her because she’s been sick. Guess what, she just so happens to find this voodoo doll. 皇后 reprimands 安陵容 for being foolish enough to believe that this would even work and that if anyone other than herself found this doll, 安陵容 would be dead by now. She lets it go and 安陵容 is grateful for being forgiven. However, she is upset and wants to know who told 皇后 that this doll exists. 皇后is  VERY sly and says “of course, it is one of your closest sisters”. We’ll discuss this a bit more later since this interaction is rather contentious.

 

I think 皇后 says some really useful stuff in this scene. She very bluntly points out that fortunes are made by taking action, seizing the opportunity. If voodoo actually worked, everybody would be dead by now. I don’t think this thought ever crossed 安陵容’s mind? Does she really think 甄嬛 just so happened to get favor because she’s pretty? No, 甄嬛 seizes each opportunity. This is a pretty rude wake up call for 安陵容.

 

[Karen]

Later on, we see 皇上 meeting with his trusted advisor, 张廷玉, who describes the arrogance of 年羹尧, 华妃’s brother, when he returned from the battlefield. The details that are provided by 张廷玉 give further evidence that 年羹尧 does not respect the authority of the emperor and sees himself as the ruler instead of the emperor. 华妃 is also fretting about her monthly allowance. What she receives from the palace is nowhere near enough and she needs more money to pay, bribe, whatever she does to keep her lavish lifestyle. Her maid suggests this brilliant idea that 华妃 should accept “donations” for her to put in a word with her brother 年羹尧. What a wonderful idea! She’s not discussing anything related to court, all she’s doing is telling her brother to meet them. Easy enough!

 

[Cathy]

The episode ends with a feast where everyone in the palace is in attendance as the 17th prince returns from a trip to central China. Even the empress dowager is at the meal. There is an exchange about how expensive and nice 华妃’s clothes and hair decorations. When it gets to be too much, the empress dowager excuses herself

 

Analysis

[Karen]

菩萨蛮

Let’s go back to the beginning of episode 21 where 安陵容 and 甄嬛 are performing for 华妃 and the emperor.

 

安陵容sings a song called 菩萨蛮 (man2)。菩萨蛮 is actually a style of song and originated in the Tang dynasty, A Tang emperor, 唐宣宗 (around 840 AD era) really like this style of song and the lyrics were updated by scholars and poets of that time. This particular song describes a young woman who is waking up from slumber, getting up and fixing her hair, makeup and getting dressed in new clothes. In this process, the song expresses her longing for love. The lyrics are quite exquisite and more difficult to explain compared to some of the other poems we’ve looked at. 

 

This song isn’t, as 华妃 notes, as um, “lovey dovey” as she would like and is instead reflective of a more somber tone, one of longing. 华妃 is a total mean girl in this scene because she’s saying, why can’t you sing with love. Is it because I’m here with the emperor? Which…She knows the answer to that. It’s humiliating for 安陵容。

 

So 甄嬛steps in and recite another poem with her 古琴 accompaniment when 安陵容 is incapable of singing.

 

Again, this drama uses poetry and song to convey feeling. The first was with 安陵容， and now 甄嬛。 甄嬛 recites a poem called 鹊桥仙·纤云弄巧 by a Song dynasty poet – 秦观。This poem is referencing the famous valentine‘s day story of 牛郎织女。I don’t think we will be discussing this story in this drama so let me give a brief overview – this is one of the most famous love stories in China. Essentially there’s a fairy named 织女， which directly translates to seamstress or weaver, who lives up in the heavens. She secretly comes down to earth where mortals lives and marries 牛郎, or a cow herd.

 

Their marriage angers the heavenly father and they are punished, separated forever. But, their love is so moving that magpie birds build them a bridge such that the two lovers may meet on the magpie bridge every year 7th day of the 7th Month – or valentines day. The title of the poem that 甄嬛 recites, is named after this magpie bridge. Given this context, this poem describes the annual meeting of the two lovers but the last two lines are the most important. The last two lines are: 两情若是久长时，又岂在朝朝暮暮, which translates to, if love is meant to be long lasting, one does not need to be together every day. 

 

These two lines are definitely famous for describing long distance relationships and pops up a lot in dramas where there’s hardships along the way. 甄嬛 is reciting this poem while looking DIRECTLY at 皇上, which I take to hint that, you may be spending time with 华妃 now but it’s alright because of our love will last. We do not have to be together every day.  You should see the look on 华妃’s face. I don’t think she really understands this poem but when 甄嬛 says these last 2 lines, 华妃is looking between 甄嬛 and 皇上 and doesn’t necessarily like what she’s hearing/or seeing so she hurriedly ends the evening. Clearly, 华妃 feels that spending all day and all night with the emperor is the only reflection of love. That was fun wasn’t it? I’ve heard those two lines everywhere but didn’t realize it was from this poem. You learn something new all the time with this drama!

 

[Cathy]

Finally, I want to discuss 皇后 and 安陵容 In this episode, 皇后 has decided to use 安陵容 as her pawn or more accurately, 皇后 has decided that 安陵容 is worthy of being her pawn. This is one of the first times we start seeing just how manipulative 皇后 is. She knows that 安陵容 has a voodoo doll and could have punished her for it but decides instead to pretty much blackmail her into being part of her team. Now, 皇后 never states who told her about the voodoo doll and we the viewers are never told this either. 宝娟，安陵容 ‘s main maid cries indignantly that it wasn’t her when 安陵容 accuses her of telling 皇后。 Instead, 宝娟 suggests that it was another maid, 菊青。 The problem with 菊青 is that she was given to 安陵容 by 甄嬛 literally in the first couple of episodes. So the seeds of doubt and distrust are sown. It’s unclear who ultimately betrayed 安陵容。 I still think it’s 宝娟。 There are a lot of theories about the fact that 宝娟 was probably given to 安陵容 by 皇后 the moment she entered the palace. Regardless, 安陵容 now starts to resent 甄嬛, much in part due to 皇后. 皇后 is a master manipulator and we start seeing that now.

 

Thank you so much for listening. Hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we enjoyed discussing it! As always, if you have any questions/comments, please email us at chasingdramaspodcast@gmail.com. We look forward to having you with us in the next episode.