Welcome back to Chasing Dramas. This is the podcast that discusses Chinese history and culture through historical Chinese dramas. We are your hosts for today, Karen and Cathy.

 

Today we are discussing episodes 32 of The Story of Yanxi Palace. This podcast is in english with proper nouns and certain phrases spoken in Mandarin Chinese.  In this podcast episode, we’ll do an episode recap and then move onto history. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to us!

–

 

[Karen]

Today we are only focusing on one episode as there’s a lot of history to unpack and we also want to give a proper farewell to someone special.

 

It all starts in episode 32 with the Emperor arriving with Consort Xian or Xian Fei to meet Noble Consort Gao or Gao Gui Fei who is currently watching the preparations for a performance for the Empress Dowager. The performance itself is called 万紫千红 or in the drama they call it A Blaze of Colors. The direct translation is ten thousand purple one thousand red which ultimately reflects the burst of colors where molten iron is blasted out into sky into a burst of sparks that light up the night sky. It is quite stunning and I am impressed with how the drama filmed it. As we will discuss later, it’s also called the iron flower show

 

However, don’t you think the first moment you see this that wow that’s dangerous. Molten iron just being splashed around and no safety measures whatsoever!

 

Gao Gui Fei does not care though does she. She even steps forward to look more closely at the show and begins devising how better to put on a show. But just as she steps forward by herself with her maid, one of the performers direct a burst of sparks right at Gao Gui Fei and it hits her full on in the back. The Emperor wants to protect her but is held back by Xian Fei. In the chaos, the offending performer slips away while other performers create a diversion. The imperial guards immediately tell the performers to stop and then spread out to seek the perpetrator but it’s too late for Gao Gui Fei. She has been severely injured.

 

[Cathy]

The imperial guards search high and low for the perpetrator and even head to Xin Zhe Ku where Ying Luo and Yuan Chun Wang are working to see if the culprit hid there. They are not able to find anyone but Yuan Chun Wang knows what happened. He confronts YIng Luo and surmises that she must have planned to help the attacker a long time ago. She even purposefully shouted that she had no more connection to the Empress in order to prevent the Empress from being connected to anything that Ying Luo does. This does seem to be the plan that Ying Luo worked with one of the craftsmen for the performance in the last episode to carry out. 

 

Poor Gao Gui Fei. Her entire back is bloodied by burns from the scorching molten iron. She screams that she doesn’t want medical attention either if it means that it will leave scars on her back. You do have to feel bad for this type of injury of hers. What’s worse is that, as the doctors find out, the injury isn’t just from molten iron. But it’s actually gold water. The drama explains that gold water is where feces water has been added to the mix which causes any burns be unable to heal fully due to repeated infections from the feces. This is a rather low blow if you ask me.

 

[Karen]

 

The Emperor goes to visit Xian Fei and explains all of this to her while also checking up on her injuries. The thing is, even though she herself is injured, you look at her smile. This was all an act on her part to showcase how much she cares for the Emperor and for him to see that she cares a lot about him. Once again in Xian Fei’s eyes, you can see her calculating gaze.

 

BUT it ‘s not like I’m not thoroughly enjoying this hardened Xian Fei. We find out that Gao Gui Fei has not been a good patient and therefore has made recovery pretty much impossible. The infections on her back cannot be healed. Even the imperial doctors are at a loss at what to do. It seems like Gao Gui Fei only has but a few days left.

 

It is at this opportunity that Xian Fei comes in to gloat her success. Gao Gui Fei is shocked to hear that it is Xian Fei who mixed in the feces water to the molten iron mixture. Though I do find it interesting that Xian Fei said that she just helped “HER” aka Xian Fei knows it was Ying Luo who was involved in retribution against Gao Gui Fei but just added the final blow. This is Xian Fei’s revenge against Gao Gui Fei for how she treated her. Not only did Gao Gui Fei humiliate Xian Fei but she also had a direct hand in destroying Xian Fei’s family. This in Xian Fei’s eyes is fully justified.

 

[Cathy]

How did Xian Fei know about this though? Might I remind you that in the last episode Jin Xiu, the maid who dislikes Ying Luo oversaw Ying Luo speaking with one of the blacksmith performers and ran off. I’m assuming Jin Xiu went and told Xian Fei who then devised her own plan. She leveraged Ying Luo for this little revenge attack against Gao Gui Fei.

 

I do commend Gao Gui Fei though. After hearing what befalls her even if she does get better, she decides that nope. I’d rather 10000 people hate me than one person pity me. She cannot stand the thought that even if she’s healed, the Emperor will always pity her. She decides to end things on her own terms.

 

[Karen]

In front of the Emperor, she forces herself to dance one last dance. You can tell that this was an excruciating experience as her dress soon becomes soaked with blood from her back during her dance. As she falls to the ground, the Emperor and she finally have a heart to heart. She’s not blind to the fact that her favoritism from him is just that. Favoritism. Not love. He is wary of her family’s power and connections and so everything given to her always came with a hint of suspicion. Her last request is to have her mother be buried in the family shrine so that her spirit will have a place to rest. Say what you will about Gao Gui Fei, she is a good daughter to her mother.

 

Soon after, Gao Gui Fei adorns a lavish outfit. She does one last performance in her extravagant outfit before throwing out that white cloth. She decided to end her life on her own terms.

 

The Emperor fell silent upon hearing the news. He ordered that Gao Gui Fei be promoted to Imperial Noble Consort or Huang Gui Fei and her funeral be a joint effort of different ministries. He reflected upon her last words before remaining somber for the night.

–

 

[Cathy]

Behind the scenes!

 

There’s some juicy behind the scenes that I want to share here regarding 高贵妃 because this is the last time we’ll see of her!

 

Ok, when the drama aired back in 2018, there were official photos that were posted of 高贵妃 and 魏璎珞’s sister 魏璎宁 together that raised a few eyebrows from people. In them, 高贵妃 was dressed up as a male opera singer who is seen comforting the crying 魏璎宁. The scene is set in the day time and 魏璎宁 is seen crying in 高贵妃’s embrace. The whole drama aired and we didn’t get any actual scenes between the two of them so what happened? Of course, it was cut for the final airing.

 

Rumors were RAMPANT and I mean RAMPANT on what this all meant. Were we finally going to get an actual lesbian relationship? Fans were trying to guess what was cut. Some theories included 高贵妃 actually thought very highly of 魏璎宁. They perhaps encountered each other when 魏璎宁 sent clothes to 高贵妃 and 魏璎宁 caught 高贵妃’s eye. When 魏璎宁 was defiled by 弘昼, she went to seek some solace with with 高贵妃 which is where fans believed led to these photos. They also thought that this must have been the reason why 高贵妃 was able to so quickly gather the evidence for 魏璎珞. 高贵妃 must have believed that it was the 富察 family who committed the crime and one of the reasons why she kept on targeting the Empress. 

 

Alas, this was all conjecture. In an interview, the actress for 魏璎宁, 邓莎, dispelled the rumors and told us what was REALLY supposed to happen. Basically 高贵妃 was the bad guy in the photos.

 

So, 魏璎宁 was  upset and was wandering around in the palace. I don’t know if this was after her incident or just another instance when she was sad. 高贵妃 caught wind of this and then decided to dress up as a male opera singer to “pretend” to cheer her up and console her. 魏璎宁 finally cried in her arms. 高贵妃’s goal though was not to actually be nice to the poor girl. It was so that other maids would see this scene in broad daylight, mistaken 魏璎宁 as cavorting with another man, and be punished and kicked out. 魏璎宁 didn’t get kicked out then but was beaten up by a few other palace maids, sooooo…this didn’t turn out to be a good story for 魏璎宁.

 

——

 

[Karen]

Alright, next up! In this episode, before she dies, 高贵妃 makes a brief mention her 2 younger sisters. We don’t get any real indication of their fate until the next episode when in a voiceover, it is mentioned that her two younger sisters also died. Well, I can’t remember if it was a cut scene or not but basically, 高贵妃 ordered her two younger sisters to be poisoned so that they could not enter the palace to garner favor with the Emperor. As we saw in the show, she loved her mother and her brother. She did not want her younger sisters to enter the palace and ruin the gift that she requested from the Emperor, which is a proper burial for her mother. Say what you will about the woman and killing her sisters, but at least she really loved her mother. Her father – yea, a pretty scum of a human.

 

Next! Let’s talk about costumes! In this drama, 高贵妃 has roughly around 10+11 costumes, depending on how you count it. That’s actually not that much compared to the other women in this drama. I was doing some research on her clothing and it’s difficult to say what’s the truth. There’s a lot of creative licenses that the drama took for the show but they also tried in many places to stay true to history. That is the same for 高贵妃. The most iconic of hers is either the pearl shawl outfit which we see her wear in this episode or else her golden opera outfit.

 

[Cathy]

高贵妃 was a han woman so that meant that her costumes in this drama are slightly different. If you’ll notice with her clothing, they’re less form fitting that the other consorts in the drama, especially with regards to the sleeves as compared to the Empress and 纯妃 who are Manchu women. That was the case for early 清 dynasty women in which Han women and Manchu women dressed differently.

 

As for her hairstyle – she is one of the few in Chinese Qing dynasty dramas to not have a two pronged headpiece. This is more of a one piece headpiece or 旗头座. That style was much more popular during the late Qing dynasty, so the late 19th and early 20th century. We do have a photo right now of 婉容 who was the wife and empress consort of the last emperor of China with something similar to the hairstyle that 高贵妃 has.

 

Side note, there are many MANY posts of people pointing out the historical inaccuracies to this drama, especially with regards to costumes. We might focus on a couple if there isn’t much history

 

–

[Karen]

First up is the poem that 娴妃 recites when she first witnesses the 万紫千红show. It is the 14th of a collection of poems called 秋浦歌 or the 秋浦 ballads

 

Theses poems were written by the famous Tang dynasty poet 李白 in the mid 8th century when he was traveling to the area of 秋浦 which is now modern day 安徽 province. The one that is recited in the drama is the 14th out of 17 poems. It’s a standard Chinese quatrain or 五言诗 with 4 lines and 5 words.

 

The poem goes as such

 

炉火照天地

红星乱紫烟

赧Nǎn郎明月夜

歌曲动寒川

 

The fire from the furnace illuminates the earth and they sky

Red sparks shine amidst the purple smoke

In the moonlit night, the hard-working smelterers

Song reverberate throughout the cold mountain valley

 

The poet 李白 wrote these poems during his exile from the capital city of Chang An. He traveled the empire to explore and write poems. The village of 秋浦 was known for its silver and copper mines. He actually traveled to 秋浦 3 times in his lifetime. He most likely wrote these poems around 753. During this time though, he was pretty disappointed with the ways of the Empire as he saw the writing on the wall of 安禄山’s rise and future rebellion.

 

[Cathy]

 

Next, let’s talk about 万紫千红. It is more commonly known as 打铁花 or the iron flower show.

 

The history of this skill is quite long in China. There are some places who write that the skill dates back to the warring states period in China some 2500 years ago. Basically when China entered into the iron age. However, on 百科 it says that this tradition started probably in the Northern Song Dynasty. That is to say, this still has at least 1000 years of history. Please do NOT try any of this yourselves because it is an extremely dangerous skill.

 

Nowadays there are 2 ways to perform the show. The first one is the one we see in the drama, which is to say, the melting iron is poured onto a willow block and then struck to make the iron flowers or in our drama 万紫千红. I mean it absolutely looks gorgeous. I kind of wish that in the drama they gave us a proper depiction of the art instead of one in the night with scaffolding around because I’m watching some performances on youtube and chinese media and the shows are absolutely breathtaking.

 

There’s another way to create the effect and that is more of a spraying motion and “paints” the iron flowers onto a city wall.  Basically you have a large wooden spoon made of willow which has been soaked in water for 3 days and nights and coated with fire proof material. Then the performer sprays the wall with the melting iron in a circular motion. This method is more recent, having a history of around 500 years and originated in the 河北 province during the 明 dynasty. There are still remnants of city walls that have the residue of iron flowers on the walls. 

 

As of now, there’s only a handful of people who know how to perform this skill. I mean I don’t blame them, this is an extremely dangerous performance. The performers still basically wear the same clothes as their ancestors for the performance, goat skin and a wet straw hat. It’s still common to get injured or sprayed by the melting iron. For reference, the melting iron can get up to 1600 degrees celsius! 

 

In some of the more modern performances, I do see people wearing much better fire protection but I’ve also seen people wear pretty scrappy protection. As much as it is a beautiful sight, I really do hope people protect themselves when a) performing this show and b) when watching the show. As we see in the drama, getting injured with this is no joke.

 

[Karen]

At the end of the episode, right before 高贵妃 commits suicide, she sings the last lines that Noble Consort Yang sings in the opera 长生殿 – Palace of Eternal Youth. We talked about it in episode 27 so this is a slight refresher. 

 

长生殿 – Palace of Eternal Youth was written in 1688. The first half again recounts the love story between the Emperor 唐玄宗 and the concubine 杨贵妃 but it is also a criticism on the lavishness of the palace and the Emperor’s dismissal of his Empire, leading to the An Shi Rebellion. So this scene right now is aT the end of the first half of the opera.

 

The story of 唐玄宗 and 杨贵妃 is a constant motif that runs throughout the scenes we have with 高贵妃. She views herself as the tragic character of 杨贵妃 but unfortunately Emperor 乾隆 in this drama definitely does not see himself as the Emperor 唐玄宗.

 

Another point of comparison for Gao Gui Fei is actually with Li Fu Ren who was a concubine for Han Wu Di. We talked about her during our podcast series before but Li Fu Ren was ill and did not let Han Wu Di see her on her deathbed because she wanted him to always remember her beauty and be filled with regret for not being able to see her. I’m reminded of Li Fu Ren with Gao Gui Fei who wanted to die beautifully and be remembered as such than to die a painful death and wallow away with age.

 

Which leads us to finally talking about the historical counterpart of 高贵妃.

 

Posthumously granted the title of 慧贤皇贵妃 or Imperial Noble consort 慧贤. She came from the 高佳 clan and was a member of the bordered yellow banner. However, as we discussed before, her family previously was of han descent in the 包衣 class. Due to her favor with the Emperor 乾隆, her entire family was lifted to the status of manchu people. She was the first Noble Consort or 贵妃 and Imperial Noble Consort or 皇贵妃 of 乾隆’s reign. 

 

It isn’t really clear when was born, probably around 1711 or right around then. She died on Feb 25th 1745. 高贵妃 first entered the palace as concubine to serve the then 4th prince 弘历. She was then promoted to 侧福晋 in 1734, basically the second rank under the main wife. When Emperor 乾隆 ascended the throne in 1735, her whole family was lifted to the status of manchu people and she was granted the status of 贵妃 with the title of 慧 which means intelligent. 

 

She fell ill in 1745. 2 days before her death, the emperor granted her the title of Imperial Noble Consort or 皇贵妃 but she didn’t survive for the actual ceremony. 

 

[Cathy]

 

There unfortunately isn’t really much on her apart from the praises of her during her promotion ceremonies. However, the Emperor must have really liked her because he wrote many poems about her and reminisced about her lifetime. Her funeral was extravagant with many more prayers performed by the monks and lamas than was required for an imperial noble consort.

 

She did not have any children. There are official portraits of her in the proper gold gown and black hat. I do wish we saw a shot of this during the show but alas, all we got was the black formalwear.

 

In the drama, 高贵妃 dies of suicide. This would have been an absolute no no because the family of women who commit suicide in the palace were severely punished. Which is why it was a pretty good incentive to NOT commit suicide. I know this was for drama purposes but let’s just keep that in mind.

 

In the 1730s, her father 高斌 was also appointed an official post to manage the rivers in the southern parts of China or 河道总督. This is true to history as we see in the show. 高斌 also served as the Minister of Personnel or 吏部尚书 and Grand Secretary of Pavilion of the Imperial Library 文渊阁大学士 in the 1740s before falling into disgrace in the 1750s and ultimately dying in 1755 on the job. 

 

Last piece on 高贵妃 – the drama needed a bad guy so they chose her to be the first “bad” guy that we meet in the drama. I highly doubt she would have been evil if the Emperor cared this deeply about her especially years after her death. So listeners, please don’t let this drama color your perception of the true to life version of her.

–

[Karen]

With that – let’s give a round of applause to her actress 谭卓! Born in 1983, she started acting in 2009 with a film called Spring Fever 春风沉醉的夜晚. Since then, she has been in various films, dramas, and stage productions, focusing more on films rather than dramas. I would say her breakout role was probably this one in The Story of Yan Xi palace. She certainly turned a lot of eyes with this role. She doesn’t really follow the typical “pop” idol route and prefers to vary it up with modern and period pieces. I thought she did admirably here in 延禧攻略 and is probably one of the top 3 actresses in my book for this drama. Her gravitas really did shine throughout the drama and it was obvious that she put the work in for this role especially during her opera scenes.

 

高贵妃 – you were a pretty annoying character but in the end, you knew exactly who you were and I commend you for it. 

 

[Cathy]

Turning of the Tides

 

Welcome back to Chasing Dramas. This is the podcast that discusses Chinese history and culture through historical Chinese dramas. We are your hosts for today, Karen and Cathy.

 

Today we are discussing episodes 30+31 of The Story of Yanxi Palace. This podcast is in english with proper nouns and certain phrases spoken in Mandarin Chinese. If you have any questions, please reach out to us!

 

In this podcast episode, we’ll do an episode recap and then move onto history. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to us!

 

—-

 

[Karen]

In the last 2 episodes, we followed Ying Luo work hard labor at Xin Zhe Ku, the department of hard labor. This creates an opening for those wanting to harm the Empress as she now doesn’t have such a protective servant helping her. What’s more problematic is that the Empress is pregnant as well which makes the women of the palace even more eager to strike.

 

We return to the family feast the Empress Dowager organized for the Double Ninth Festival. It’s quite dark out and one of the maids brought over a plate of deer blood for the Empress’s hot pot. But she didn’t want to eat it so the maid retreated. But as she stepped back, she dropped the plate of blood. Immediately a swarm of bats appear out of no where, apparently attracted by the fallen plate of blood which looks so fake it’s rather disturbing. Anyways, the bats attack the ladies indiscriminately and it’s absolute chaos. The result is that Gao Gui Fei takes this opportunity to push the Empress down a railing so that she falls unconscious. Gao Gui Fei herself slams her arm into a pillar to pretend that she injured herself while trying to save the Empress. 

 

But it was too late to prevent harm to the Empress. She is brought back to her palace and tended to by a number of doctors. She has a large bruised forehead and is now unconscious. The Emperor is absolutely distraught at hearing what happened and stays at her bedside but the Empress is now left in precarious health. It’s unclear when she’ll be healthy again or even wake up.

 

[Cathy]

Elsewhere, Xian Fei impresses the Empress Dowager as she took charge of the situation with quick thinking and leadership poise while the bats were attacking. Xian Fei managed to keep some semblance of order until the imperial guards arrived. After the chaos subsided, the Empress Dowager was so impressed with Xian Fei that she decides to give more power to Xian Fei. With a power vacuum now present in the palace given the Empress’s state, Xian Fei will now easily fill that role.

 

Ming Yu who feels terrible about not having been able to protect the Empress from such an unfortunate attack and goes to find Ying Luo for help at Xin Zhe Ku. I do feel bad for Ming Yu who was not equipped to handle a million bats attacking the group. Ying Luo already has a gut feeling after hearing it was Gao Gui Fei that first found the Empress that it was probably she who orchestrated this whole thing.

 

[Karen[

And yep – it was her that planned the attacking bats. She injured herself in order to steer any and all suspicion away from her. She is absolutely relishing in her victory against the Empress despite the pain she placed upon herself.

 

What is surprising is that when Ying Luo is dragged by Ming Yu to go check on the Empress, Ying Luo suddenly turns extremely cold towards the entire staff of Chang Chun Palace. In front of all of her old colleagues, she states that what happens to the Empress is none of her business any more. They are no longer connected after the Empress banished her so she, Ying Luo should not have to bother thinking about the Empress whatsoever. This angers all of the other maids at Chang Chun palace. Fu Heng, who is impatiently waiting for news about his sister, is also similarly rebuffed when he tries to talk to Ying Luo. She wants nothing to do with them because her current life is indeed extremely harsh.

 

Shortly after, Ying Luo is goaded into sending milk over to Chu Xiu Gong where Gao Gui Fei lives by Jin Xiu which she accepts. Gao Gui Fei is of course still ecstatic at the fact that the Empress has met her downfall and even more pleased to see the likes of Ying Luo act as her lowly servant. Despite Gao Gui Fei’s injuries, she humiliates and even steps on Ying Luo’s hands as Ying Luo prepares a bath for Gao Gui Fei using the milk she brought.  Luckily for Ying Luo, it is at this point that the Emperor arrives to visit Gao Gui Fei. He happens upon a disheveled looking Ying Luo with clear injuries on her hand. She is dismissed by Gao Gui Fei but then is followed by the Emperor because he could tell something was amiss. He followed Ying Luo in the pouring rain to see her hunched in a corner of the garden next to some rocks looking dazed. 

 

[Cathy]

The Emperor is furious at Ying Luo’s respectful greeting to him, looking pitiful in the rain and angrily throws her his umbrella but not before telling her to get out of his sight. This is an interesting scene to me because it shows that the Emperor cares about Ying Luo though even he might not know why he cares about her. He returned to his study but paced for a hot second before turning around and stomping back to where Ying Luo hid in the garden. He remembered just how injured she looked. But by the time he went back to her hiding place, she had gone, leaving the umbrella behind.  He’s annoyed that she didn’t accept his kindness which is fair but he also forbids anyone to use milk for bathing ever in the future. It’s an expensive and lavish habit to keep. This is implicitly punishing Gao Gui Fei for what she did to Ying Luo even if he wasn’t blatant about it. 

 

Meanwhile, Ying Luo, having been out in the rain and suffering numerous injuries, passes out along side one of the corridors of the palace. It is at that moment that Xian Fei’s procession happens by and she, in an off handed comment, asks for a doctor to tend to Ying Luo. I don’t think Xian Fei even knew who this maid was but was kind enough to call for a doctor to check up on her. As one of the eunuchs who helped drag Ying Luo off the main road noted, Ying Luo must thank Xian Fei for her kindness. No other person in the palace would help the likes of Ying Luo in her current state. This is an extremely important fact to remember.

 

Both Ying Luo and the Empress are sick which gives Xian Fei the opportunity to fully showcase her skills.

 

[Karen]

At the end of episode 30 and onto 31, we turn to Xian Fei’s management abilities. After being given authority to manage the palace in the Empress’s stead by the Empress Dowager, Xian Fei has come up with a number of new ideas to help reduce waste in the palace and garner more funds. Her management style is starkly different from the Empress’s who focused on cutting costs whereas Xian Fei is identifying new ideas for growth. 

 

She does also suggest to the Empress Dowager with Gao Gui Fei sitting to the side that she plans to set up a porridge tent or equivalent to a soup kitchen for recent flood victims that have escaped to the Capital. Xian Fei enjoys the full support of the capital, much to the chagrin of Gao Gui Fei and sets off to do her task. Though I do greatly appreciate Gao GUi Fei seeing through Xian Fei’s act. Her line that Gao Gui Fei can see through actors very easily was quite on the nose. As we know, Xian Fei is not the innocent and uncompetitive lamb we’ve met at the beginning of the drama.

 

–

[Cathy]

 

The day of charity arrives and Xian Fei oversees the hungry crowd. The palace staff that help out in giving food come from none other than Xin Zhe Ku. Ying Luo is too ill to join but Yuan Chun Wang watches with his beady eyes as flood victims at first orderly get food but then shortly after turn into a mob.

 

A number of disgruntled refugees start making a scene, arguing that the amount of food is not nearly enough to feed the crowd and they start getting violent. As Xian Fei and company are about to get overwhelmed, Yuan Chun Wang forcefully steps in and slays one of the troublemaking refugees. I think this is a little overboard to be honest. Like a eunuch can just kill someone out right on the streets? Ok? His reasoning is that he can tell these people causing a scene are not actually refugees. Their shoes are in too good condition for them to be refugees traveling from far away. 

 

Hong Zhou, the Emperor’s brother, arrives at the knick of time with a number of soldiers/guards to create order in the crowd.. Hong Zhou originally wanted to skip town and watch over his mother’s grave for 3 years but was pushed back by the Emperor. The Emperor knows that Hong Zhou pretended to play dumb for years but is furious that even after the Emperor ascended the throne, Hong Zhou never focused on giving back to the Empire. After these harsh words, he accepts Xian Fei’s invitation to help out at the charity event and thus, arrived like a knight in shining armor. 

 

[Karen]

This entire scene gave both Yuan Chun Wang, Xian Fei and Hong Zhou an opportunity to shine. Yuan Chun Wang, in front of both royals, clearly pointed out the individuals inciting a riot which Hong Zhou then promptly had captured. Yuan Chun Wang also pointed out that there are many people in the crowd pretending to be refugees hoping to get free food. That’s why the crowd is so big. Xian Fei immediately understands the predicament and orders that in order to receive food for the day, the receiver must work. This immediately thins out the crowd because only those that are truly hungry with no where else to go, aka refugees and flood victims, would want to make such an exchange. Everyone else who doesn’t want to do labor will naturally fade away.

 

And so, a successful day of charity is concluded. We see that Xian Fei is extremely capable at management and she has the unparalleled skill of understanding human nature. 

 

As for Yuan Chun Wang, he is given the post as head of Xin Zhe Ku by Xian Fei. A substantial promotion from his original role.

 

In the next episode, we will turn to Xian Fei guiding the Emperor, who heard of Xian Fei’s successful exploits today to check out the birthday gift that Gao Gui Fei had been putting together for the Empress Dowager to disastrous results. But that will be for next episode.

 

The only other main point to bring up today is that Fu Heng has directly rejected Er Qing’s affections. She mentioned that the Emperor wanted to pair them together for marriage which Fu Heng promptly refused. Er Qing is dazed by this response but the person who is equally distraught at this news is none other than Chun Fei. She has been tending to the Empress’s bedside during her illness and is shocked to hear that Fu Heng is interested in marrying Ying Luo. We will see more of that storying line later as well.

 

 

–

 

Now onto history!

 

[Cathy]

We’re gonna dig a little bit more deeply into the banquet and the little creatures involved that led to the Empress’s unconscious state. These were also flashed at the end of episode 29, but because episode 30 is the main focus of the banquet, I’ll talk about it here.

 

First up – let’s talk about the hot pot or 火锅 that is specially prepared for the Empress! Unfortunately in this scene, we don’t really see the Empress eat anything but we do see a beautiful display of mushrooms and of course venison blood.

 

What is hotpot! It basically is a cooking method where you have a large pot with soup or broth as a base and let the broth come to a boil. Then you add a variety of sides into the soup until it’s cooked to your heart’s desire. Then you pick out the food from the pot, dip it into whatever sauce you’d like and voila! That’s hotpot!

 

The Chinese have had records of hot pot dating back over 2000 years ago. More concretely, historians believe hot pot became more popularized during the Three Kingdoms period between 220-280AD with the advent of copper hot pots.

 

Hotpot flourished throughout millenia and by the time of the 清 dynasty, it became very popular not only with normal people but also with the royal elites as well. Indeed, our Emperor 乾隆 REALLY enjoyed hot pot. There are records that during one year, Emperor 乾隆 had some form of hot pot as a meal for over 200 meals! That’s a LOT of hot pot!

 

Let’s see what he had – in the spring, there was pickled cabbage hot pot and venison tendon and duck hot pot. In the summer, he had yam and duck hot pot and even swallow’s nest hot pot! There are records that in 1783, Emperor Qian Long held a hot pot banquet that had 530 tables! Emperor Qian Long also loved traveling to the Southern parts of his Empire. Wherever he went, he also brought hot pot with him and added different flavors to his hot pot meals. This is what happened with the addition of swallow’s nest to his hot pot rotation. 

 

In the Palace Museum in Beijing, they still have some of the silver pots that were used by the Emperor. What’s fascinating is that hot pot was also available to the palace maids. There are records during the qing dynasty of palace maids saying that they basically ate 3 months of hot pot

 

The one that we see in the drama is a pretty traditional Beijing copper hot pot. Typically it would be a red copper pot with a clear water base on a charcoal flame. In the north, it’s more called a 涮锅 and more meat heavy, specially with lamb. 

 

Different regions have different styles for hot pot. Perhaps the most famous from china is the 四川 or Chongqing hot pot – famed for it’s spiciness and mala flavors. If you’ve never had hot pot, please try it out! You can try all different types of flavors with all different sides from vegetables to meats to noodles! It’s always a good time.  Karen and I just went to haidilao in NY earlier this month, and it was great!

 

[Karen]

Let’s also talk about the food in question – venison or deer blood. In chinese culture, deer blood has medicinal and nutritional properties. It was typically reserved for the royal family. Now, typically blood for eating is coagulated, which is why in the drama you see the deer blood in blocks or cube shaped forms. In certain areas of china, coagulated blood is commonly eaten with hot pot but it’s mainly pig blood 

 

 

Next up – I’m going to talk briefly about the bats. The whole plotline of bats  is just a convenient little interlude conjured by the screenwriter. In China, there are no bat species that feed solely on blood. There are 3 species but they all reside in South America. Those are of course the vampire bats. So unless 舒贵人 was able to have her family take a boat or trade with the modern day Central Americans and South Americans, the whole bat being attracted to and attacking people is just here for plot purposes. There are indigenous bat populations in China, namely the Rickett’s big-footed bat, but they surprisingly eat fish and bugs. The Rickett’s big-footed bat actually did live in buildings in Beijing but they are more commonly found in the southeastern and southern parts of China. Beijing is quite north comparatively.

 

[Cathy]

Lastly – let’s briefly talk about 北京护城河 or the Moat of the Forbidden City. For the drama, we don’t actually see the moat but basically this is where Consort Xian has to set up the soup kitchen. 

 

Construction of a canal into the city that would become beijing began in the late 12th century. The actual moat or what is known as 筒子河 Tongzihe formally began construction during the Ming Dynasty under the reign of emperor Yongle in 1420. The moat encircles the Forbidden City and is only 20m away from the palace wall. The moat was built mainly for military defense, fire prevention and drainage of rainwater.  The moat system in Beijing was pretty complicated as it had outer, inner, imperial and palatial sections. Unfortunately today, there isn’t much left of the moats but the city of Beijing is trying to preserve and rebuild parts of the moat in efforts to preserve its history. What’s crazy is, Beijing is such a massive city right now, that on a map the current remnants of the moat seems pretty small. But when you go to the Forbidden City or the Palace, that in it of itself is huge. So it’s kind of a different perspective on the size of the moat and of the Palace itself. 

Welcome back to Chasing Dramas. 

 

[Cathy]

Welcome back to Chasing Dramas – this is the podcast that discusses Chinese culture and history through historical chinese dramas. We are your hosts, Karen and Cathy.

 

Today we are discussing episodes 24 +25  of The Story of Yanxi Palace or 延禧攻略. This podcast is in english with proper nouns and certain phrases spoken in Mandarin Chinese. 

 

Do check us out on instagram or twitter at Chasing dramas and also visit us on our website at Chasingdramas.com. We’ve posted some more drama reviews so take a look and let us know your thoughts!

 

For these episodes, we do a drama episode recap and then go into history and culture discussed in the drama.

 

 

In the last episodes we finally found out who was the person that harmed Ying Luo’s beloved sister and killed her. He is the Emperor’s brother, The Prince of He, or 弘昼。弘昼 is an arrogant man who loved playing pranks on people and played with women. Despite Ying Luo’s anger at 弘昼 though, there is not much she can do in terms of revenge because he publicly states in front of the Empress herself and Fu Heng as well as Ying Luo that not only will he consider her deceased sister as his concubine, thus giving her status in his household, he will also help her father gain a post in the Imperial Household Department. This will provide the Wei family with much needed prestige as well. 

 

Faced with these pressures, Ying Luo has no option but to back down and let this main get off scott free. Though, we know YIng Luo. She’s not going to take things so easily. 

 

However, an issue with Fu Heng so publicly helping Ying Luo resolve her matter of her sister is that his actions are very blatant in his attention towards her. Observant individuals, aka everyone, can see that he behaves unusually towards Ying Luo which starts garnering jealousy of at least one person in the palace. We will see more of this in future episodes. 

 

The absurd and unruly behavior from Hong Zhou travels all the way up to the ears of the Empress Dowager who discusses this unruly son with her mother, 裕太妃, a new character in the drama. She is shown to be extremely kind and a devoted follower of buddhist teachings. She has her work cut out for her because her son causes so much drama. 

 

And indeed she does because just after 弘昼 settled his affairs over Ying Luo’s sister, he turns his untowards gaze towards 璎珞. Ugh. What a creep. He doesn’t care that her sister is dead because of him at all or the fact that he raped her and now he wants Ying Luo. The fundamental issue is that 弘昼 thinks he’s above all retribution because he has so much power and authority. After seeing Ying Luo walk around the palace, he thinks that she’s rather pretty, prettier than even her sister so why not. He wants to see what he can get.

 

That night, he sees Ying Luo walk off with a basket filled to the brim and he decides to stalk her. He swaps clothes with his eunuch and that’s how he’s able to remain in the palace at night when technically he should have left the palace as per palace rules. He follows Ying Luo in the dark to the gardens where she brings out candles that she says she’s using to pray for her deceased sister. They play a rather flrtatious game where Hong Zhou states he has to turn her in because such acts are not allowed in the palace while Ying Luo is rather cozy with her pleas to not do that. 

 

But, this was all a ruse on Ying Luo’s part. She pretended to be flirty with Hong Zhou only to take out a candle with sleep inducing powers. Her goal is to personally enact revenge and kill Hong Zhou for what he did to her sister. Problem is that her actions were too rash this time and Hong Zhou was able to escape into the trees while Ying Luo tried to attack him. He runs off screaming for help and shortly after catches the attention of the Emperor who orders his guards to figure out where the screaming came from. Seeing that she won’t be able to kill him that night, Ying Luo swiftly changes tactics and tears open her clothes. She drowns out his screams for help with screams of her own and runs over to where guards and the Emperor are. In front of the Emperor, she yells that it was 弘昼 that sneaked behind her and wanted to kill her. 

 

Why do I feel like Ying Luo’s intelligence fell for half a second when she was trying to kill Hong Zhou and then instantly came back? I feel like she could have killed him if she wanted to or if the plot allowed. Haha but that’s just me.

 

Hong Zhou tries to deny Ying Luo’s claims and instead turn it back on her but Ying Luo cries that the palace doors are locked already. Why is he in eunuch’s clothes in the palace this late at night? He must want to do something untoward which is why he’s here. And i mean, yea it looks bad for Hong Zhou because she’s not wrong. The Emperor even turns his suspicious gaze onto Hong Zhou and tells him to shut up when Hong Zhou tries to argue back. 

 

In a surprising move, the Emperor slaps Hong Zhou across the face when he gets up to try to attack Ying Luo. He is dragged off for the Emperor to question them back in his palace. I feel like the drama is moving at a lightning pace because just as Ying Luo is being questioned by the Emperor, the Empress arrives to cover for Ying Luo. The Empress knows just how close of a relationship Hong Zhou and the Emperor have together and steps in to protect YIng Luo. Awwww their relationship is absolutely the best in the palace.

 

The other person that arrives to protect her charge is 裕太妃, 弘昼‘s mother. She is told about what Hong Zhou did tonight and is appalled. She takes out a whip which she just so happens to have on hand and in front of the Emperor, the Empress and YIng Luo,beats the living daylight out of him. She hit him so hard that he passes out. Mwahahaha. This is fantastic. Even if Ying Luo didn’t kill him, you could tell she was quite pleased with the fact that this guy was beaten to a pulp. To make matters better or worse, depending on your perspective, Hong Zhou is paid a visit by Fu Heng who also threatens him to stay away from Ying Luo. What a bad ass Fu Heng. Hahaah. Yay!!!!

 

Often times, not always, when there are individuals that behave the way Hong Zhou does, it’s because he’s been spoiled his entire life. In his case, it’s not only by his brother, but it seems also by his mother. After the debacle with Ying Luo, 裕太妃 actually goes to 长春宫 to apologize to 璎珞 for her son’s actions. She doesn’t just apologize, she actually kneels in front of Ying Luo. That’s a huge sign of respect and quite a step for 裕太妃 to take. Yu Tai Fei begs Ying Luo to forgive Hong Zhou but…Ying Luo point blank refuses. I feel like that’s certainly something Ying Luo could have been a little less adamant on at least to Yu Tai Fei’s face. 

 

Trouble finds her immediately as Ying Luo goes to return some medicine to the doctor Ye Tian Shi but finds him bound and gagged on the side. Immediately a eunuch attacks Ying Luo and tries to kill her. She manages to escape and does an impressive dash out of the yard, staving off a number of assassin eunuchs. Luckily, her knight in shining armor, Fu Heng arrives and helps protect her. None of the killers stay alive though so they are left without evidence of who sent them. Except, out of all of the people in the palace who would want to kill Ying Luo, there’s only one person who would want to do it this way. It’s not Hong Zhou who’s currently bedridden due to his injuries and it’s not the Emperor who would not use such tactics to kill Ying Luo. 

 

Instead, we see the Emperor being given a lotus flower pastries that Yu Tai Fei made herself. While very delicate, the Emperor knew immediately that this was a reminder from Yu Tai Fei about Hong Zhou. It turns out that when the Emperor was young and not named crowned prince yet, he was given a plate of lotus flower pastries from his brother the 3rd prince. Before he could take a bite, the 5th prince, Hong Zhou, ran off with the pastry. It’s implied that the pastry was poisoned and caused the 5th prince to subsequently have ill health. This pastry is a reminder that the Emperor owes Hong Zhou his life. Now I guess we get another reason for why the Emperor has turned a blind eye to so many of the atrocities Hong Zhou has done. 

 

We get a brief and funny interlude however as we’re now in summer time. Everyone in the palace is sweltering in the summer heat and looking for ways to cool down. The imperial household department sends over blocks of ice to the respective palaces to help keep the masters cool. Ying Luo, comes up with an interesting tactic. She pretty much creates a refrigerator that uses lead? I think, and allows the cabinet to keep drinks and fruit cold which will help with the heat. 

 

Ummm Ying LUo is most definitely a modern woman who went back in time. Hahaha. It’s just hilarious how many things she’s invented or done that are way ahead of her time. 

 

The Emperor arrives and is quite impressed with the cabinet and instructs a few more be created for the Empress Dowager and others. He does take this opportunity to inform the Empress and also Ying Luo who’s on the side that Hong Zhou is extremely ill. You see that smirk on Ying Luo’s face? But the Emperor sternly states that he will make judgement after Hong Zhou is fully recovered and will not allow anyone overstep their authority before that.  Clearly, this was said for Ying Luo to hear him.

 

Ying Luo, though, immediately gets an opportunity to get back at the Emperor. After learning that the Emperor loves eating cold grapes in the summer, she immediately gifts an extra refrigerator ice cabinet thing to the Emperor. This allows the Emperor to eat tons of grapes while working. But just as he’s wolfing down large quantities of grapes, he starts getting a stomach ache and rushes to the bathroom. Poor eunuchs that have to tend to the Emperor when he’s dealing with an upset stomach. Turns out, this was all Ying Luo’s doing. Well partly. We find out that you’re not supposed to eat too much frozen grapes paired with tea because that will cause diarrhea. And who’s been eating tons of grapes and also drinking tons of tea? The Emperor. So this is Ying Luo’s little trick to get back at him. Hahahaha. 

 

After that interlude, let’s get back to the main conflict. Yu Tai Fei is not as kind as she seems. She is extremely angry at Ying Luo for what she’s done to her precious son. Highly displeased with Ying Luo, she calls Ying Luo to her palace under the guise of helping her create an ice cabinet. At her palace, her guise comes off and she turns lethal. It makes sense since Ying Luo actually placed a bloody hand of one of the assassins in the ice box given to Yu Tai Fei that scared her. Ying Luo is not blind and could tell that it was Yu Tai Fei that ultimately killed her sister and order the attack on her. Behind the facade of being a devoted believer of Buddha, she is as lethal as they come in the palace.

 

Yu Tai Fei doesn’t deny any of Ying Luo’s claims. She says she did it because she cannot stand these filthy women seducing her son. She then threatens Ying Luo that if she does anything against her or her son again, she will bring down the entire Wei family as well. 

 

This deeply impacts Ying Luo as she now realizes that she cannot enact her true revenge. Back at the Chang Chun Palace, Ying Luo is persuaded to join the other maids in a game. Ying Luo is in no mood for games but joins in, determined to succeed. The game is rather simple. In a bowl of clear water, try to drop a needle into the bowl so that it floats rather than sink. Ying Luo fails repeatedly but continues to try deep into the evening and even after all of the other maids have left.

 

THe Empress arrives and seeing Ying Luo in her troubled state, tries to console her. She understands that Ying Luo is upset at what befell her sister and also what she’s endured. She urges Ying Luo to learn to be patient. Only until she has the inner strength and when the fates align, should she retaliate. Aww… The Empress is so good. Don’t you wish you had a mentor like her???

 

The episode ends with Ying Luo taking those words to heart and we transition to the matter between Ying Luo and Fu Heng which we will explore in episode 26. 

 

 

–

叶天士

 

Let’s actually discuss 叶天士, the physician. He played an important part in saving the 5th Prince so he uh is stuck as an Imperial Doctor.

 

But, this is a real guy in history! 

 

Ye Tianshi (1667–1747) was a medical scholar and physician who was the major proponent of the “school of warm diseases”. In this drama, he seems to be in his 40s or so but he’s actually supposed to be in his 70s in history.

 

叶天士 comes from a family of physicians and grew up in present day 苏州 China. He started his apprenticeship under his father at the age of 12 and was lucky enough to study under over a dozen physicians.

 

Over the course of his career, he was a major proponent of the school of warm diseases that developed during the Ming and Qing dynasties. He was one of the first to diagnose scarlet fever in China and specialized in smallpox. He had many pupils during his lifetime and his teachings were the basis of the Ye School of Medicine. His sons were also physicians but their skill was overshadowed by their father. 

 

He didn’t write much during his lifetime because of his busy schedule so his 3 major works were compiled by his pupils in his later years. 

 

His major work, Wen-re Lun (Discussion of Warm Diseases) was published in 1746. The main takeaway of that work was the manifestations of diseases into four stages: wei (defensive phase), qi (qi-phase), ying (nutrient-phase), and xue (blood-phase). 卫、气、营、血

 

He is looked upon very favorably by historians. He was an excellent physician in many medical fields including pediatrics, gynecology, internal medicine, and surgery. He sought continued study and was a model for his pupils. 

 

In my research, it doesn’t seem like 叶天士 was an imperial doctor, even for a while. But let’s just say that he was indeed a very influential physician during his time. Oh, in his portraits, he looks to be a much skinnier man with a skinny beard and mustache – so not like this drama portrayal at all.

 

冰鉴

 

Next up is ice! We talked about ice in episode 11 of Empresses of the Palace so here’s a refresher and also some additional information. 

 

The usage of ice dates back thousands of years in China. There are records of buying and selling ice all the way back to the 唐dynasty some 1400 years ago. The main clientele for ice was of course, the rich and powerful. Ice vaults were built underground some 4-5 meters deep and straw would be placed on the ground. Depending on where you are, ice would be transported from the north to these vaults. During the winter, ice was mainly cut from frozen lakes. It was important to also have thick blocks of ice as they wouldn’t melt as easily. They then are lowered into the vault and sealed with dirt and more straw. When summer came, people would open the vault for consumption. Because ice was such a luxury item, the rich pre-ordered their ice and came to pick it up once the vault was opened. In the palace, there were special lead and tin containers that could keep the ice frozen for a longer period of time which is what we see in the drama. 

 

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the storage and usage of ice became more ubiquitous. In the capital city, there were several vaults dedicated to ice storage. The Ministry of Works was in charge of distribution of ice from the government vaults to government officials. There was essentially a food stamp system. 

 

Now the name 冰鉴 or essentially the ice box was first named way back in the Zhou Dynasty over 2500 years ago. The name can be found in 诗经 or the book of song. They were typically made with wood and lined with tin or lead. The wood used could be rosewood, Cupressus funebris. Sometimes the containers were made with porcelain enamel. There were various styles of ice boxes and the type shown in the drama is one kind. Well – typically it was the ice was placed on top, then there was a second layer on the bottom to keep the fruit and vegetables fresh. 

 

 

乞巧

 

The game the ladies are playing, as discussed in the drama, is called 乞巧. On the 7th day of the 7th month of the lunar new year, all of the women pray to the 织女 star or Vega star for for nimble fingers and luck. Women pray to 织女 because she is the weaver girl star. The phrase is called 乞求智巧 which is shorted to 乞巧. The 7th day of the 7th month of the lunar new year is also known as valentine’s day in China. The women pray to 织女 to have nimble and crafty fingers or 巧手 so that they can marry a nice man. 

 

The festival dates back to the Han Dynasty, some 2000 years ago and has continued till today. During the festival, girls make a display of their domestic skills, in hopes being blessed with good luck. Different regions have different traditions but several staples include attempting to thread needles in different conditions, baking, and crafting various items. 

 

There are records of the festival dating back to the Han Dynasty with women threading seven needles in the moonlight as a symbol of good luck. 

 

In  东京梦华录 The Eastern Capital: A Dream of Splendor, is a memoir written by 孟元老in 1127, it recounts the various pastries and desserts that were made for the QiXi festival. Typical ingredients included oil, flour, honey, and sugar. 

 

During the Song and Yuan Dynasties – the 七夕 or 乞巧 festival was a big festival. There are records stating that it was difficult to travel by carriage during the festival. 

 

The game that the maids play in The Story of Yan Xi Palace is true to history. It was called 丢针儿 or dropping the needle. This was popular during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The purpose was of course to see if the woman was “skillful” or 巧 enough to have the needle float on the water.  

 

In conducting my research – it seems like there was a lot of prep that went into this game, especially the water. The water must be gathered at night and left outside for the duration of the next day. The sunshine will create a small layer at the top of the water that will allow the needle to float. Now I’ve never tried this so I don’t know if that’s true or not. Maybe there’s some mysterious oils that people put in the water to cheat. 

 

Nowadays, there’s a resurgence in the celebration of 七夕 in China although it’s turned mainly into a shopping holiday. Places in china are bringing back traditions though to celebrate this day and they can be quite extravagant.