[cathy]

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

Today we are discussing episode 54 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. 

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to reach out to us on instagram or twitter or else email us at karenandcathy@chasingdramas.com.

This podcast episode consists of a drama episode recap and we’ll move on to discuss the history portrayed in this episode.

[Karen]

We are finally at one of THE most satisfying episodes in the entire drama. Wooo. So excited. 

In the last episode, the Empress Nala successfully got her way in having the silkworm ceremony take place which will allow her to preside over it. This was crucial for her to retain her power and status as Empress, or so she thinks. This, however, pisses off the Empress Dowager who was not so eager for this ceremony to take place.

As we described last episode, the silkworm ceremony is rather extravagant and ladies of the aristocracy and of court officials are all included in the ceremony. But before we get to the actual event, let’s turn back to what’s happening in palace. 

Ying Luo’s maids 明玉 and 珍珠 happen upon their old colleague 琥珀 who had been sentenced to kneel for several hours after upsetting 舒嫔 in the earlier episode. 琥珀 used to all work with 明玉 and 珍珠 under the late Empress Fu Ca but has since been demoted to Xin Zhe Ku.  琥珀 passes out in front of these two ladies and they bring her back to 延禧宫 to recover. 璎珞 is not pleased to see 琥珀 who had disrespected her in the past which is why she was banished but 琥珀 pleads for forgiveness and trades valuable information to ensure it.

That is when, 琥珀 reveals that on the night the late Empress fuca died, 琥珀 overheard 尔晴 having a conversation with the late Empress. It was that day that 尔晴, with fake tears, reveals that the Emperor kept her over the night of the 2nd princes memorial.  What’s worse is that at this critical juncture, Er Qing also reveals that she is pregnant with the Emperor’s child. Honestly I’m just pissed watching this scene because we all know Er Qing orchestrated all of this, even ate medicine to make it easier to get pregnant. And for her to tell the Empress right now in her weakened state? It’s utterly despicable. The despair on the Empress’s face when she saw this as two people closest to her betrayed her. It’s telling that the Empress’s last words to Er Qing was that she is to never step foot in the palace again. Does she listen? No. Not at all.

[Cathy]

Thank god we have Ying Luo. She is shaking with anger at hearing 琥珀 recount this story. She now recognizes that it was ultimately 尔晴 who pushed the late Empress to utter despair and take that final step to end her life. There is no way Ying Luo is going to let this go easily. Her anger though is not only towards Er Qing, but the Emperor as well. She smashes all of the food that 李玉 brought for Ying Luo from the Emperor because she cannot stand the hurt that he inflicted upon her beloved late Empress.

The day of the silkworm ceremony arrives. 尔晴 takes this as her opportunity to plead to the Emperor of her treatment in the 富察household by 傅恒. She thinks her tears will at least put some pressure on the Emperor to help her given that they share a child. He hears her comments, a little frustrated, and allows her to leave.  She is then immediately led, well technically abducted, to meet Ying Luo who is patiently waiting for her in the late Empress’s palace.

Er Qing recognizes this is not in her best interest to stay and tries to leave but her exit is blocked.  In front of a memorial for the late Empress Fu Ca, Ming Yu exchanges barbs with her and questioning how she could do this to her old master. Finally, Er Qing lets out her frustration. She could not stand suddenly losing her favor after Ying Luo arrived. She could not stand that the Empress did not help her secure a marriage with Fu Heng. And so she has to retaliate. She has to take her revenge. What better blow would it be to tell the Empress she is pregnant with the Emperor’s child immediately after the death of her son? Man, this woman is absolutely despicable and essentially maniacal. I do appreciate Ying Luo’s words of don’t try to find excuses for your despicable deeds. 尔晴 is trying to play the victim after “suffering’ in the palace when in reality, it was she who made all of these choices time and again. 

[Karen]

Without further ado, Ying Luo like a total boss, presents Er Qing with a few options of how she wants to die. Er Qing is shocked that Ying Luo would dare to kill her given her status as Fu Heng’s wife but Ying Luo does not care one iota. Next thing we know, the Emperor who had heard that Ying Luo and Er Qing had not been present for the silkworm ceremony hurriedly arrives on the scene only to see Er Qing’s body slumped on the ground. 

He is absolutely furious to see Ying Luo act so rashly without thought of consequence. She calmly tells him that it was Er Qing who told the late Empress of her liaison with the Emperor the night the late Empress died. That’s why Er Qing must die. In that moment, the Emperor’s expression shifts immediately and understands in an instant why Ying Luo did what she did. 

He isn’t given much time to explain what happened before the Empress Nala bursts in. She is “shocked“ to see Er Qing’s body and gives a quizzacle look to the room. The Emperor steps in and just says that Er Qing was overcome with grief and decided to follow her late master, evidently trying to protect Ying Luo. The Empress isn’t fully convinced but instantly helps put together a plan to make Er Qing’s death more plausible. The Emperor also claims that Ying Luo is sick before storming off.

[Cathy]

With just the two main ladies left, the Empress praises Ying Luo for her swift and decisive action against Er Qing. But, Ying Luo is recognizing what a formidable foe the Empress is because she was not at all surprised to hear that Er Qing was another woman of the Emperor’s. Given that, it would seem that Hu Po’s presence in front of Ying Luo was all orchestrated by the Empress so that Ying luo would act the way she does. The ultimate goal? Removing Ying Luo from the Emperor’s favor. 

And it seems to have worked for now. But does Ying Luo care? No. She finally enacted revenge against everyone who caused the late Empress Fu Cha’s death. That was her whole purpose in coming to the palace. Now that she has completed her goal, she is not worried about the consequences.

–

Behind the scenes

Cut – ming yu was the one who actually killed 尔晴.

One important scene here that was cut was Er Qing’s actual death. Ming Yu was the one who forced Er Qing to drink the poison which is why the dialogue in the espide is all about Ming Yu killing Er Qing. The drama cut that out and all we see is Er Qing already dead on the ground. 

Next up, there’s also some rumors that scenes were cut between Er Qing and Fu Heng’s brother who seemingly had a crush on Er Qingk. There’s a couple of rumors that the two of them had an affair based on preliminary cuts of the drama but that storyline was ultimately cut out. This is why in some scenes Fu Heng’s brother was quick to come to Er Qing’s aid but nothing came of it. 

–

Fu heng wife

We finally say goodbye to the despicable, selfish, and crazy 尔晴. I remember when I first watched the show, I was like – was that how bad she really was in history? So down the rabbit hole I went and let’s just say the show dramatizes everything about 傅恒’s wife. 

First up, born in 1722年－1793, fu heng’s wife did not come from the 喜塔拉 or Hitara clan but from the Yehenara or 叶赫那拉 clan. So, I’ll call her Lady Yehenara. Unfortunately, we do not have a full name found in the records. Quite frankly, there’s little in the official records about Lady Yehanara. Her family was not from the baoyi class, but rather the exact opposite. Lady Yehenara’s father was the grandson of a very famous minister 纳兰明珠, who served three reigns. Her mother came from the 瓜尔佳 clan.These two clans both comprise of the big 8 manchu families so we can see Lady Yuhenara’s lineage and pedigree was top notch. 

[Karen]

The Yehenara clan was able to boast having several women in the imperial harem throughout the dynasty including Empresses, so Lady Yehenara grew up trained as a proper lady, learning the arts of zither, go, calligraphy, and drawing. She also was a beauty. There were rumors or folk sayings that she was the most beautiful manchu woman for a time. Think probably of 沈眉庄 from Empresses in the Palace. It probably wasn’t a stretch to say that the Yehenara clan probably wanted her to also enter into the palace. 

However, Emperor Qian Long showed no interest in growing the power of the Yehenara clan and honestly the power of other notable manchu families so he stopped the selection for a time. Even though there was one yehanara woman who entered the palace during qian long’s reign, namely 舒fei, who we don’t really see much in the drama. The Yehenara clan then turned their attention towards making a good match with other prominent families in the capital and that’s how they selected 富察傅恒. 

[Cathy]

Lady Yehenara was a lucky woman, much luckier than 尔晴 in this drama. 富察傅恒 only married her and there’s no record of him taking any other concubine after their marriage. That was extremely rare for men in Imperial china. So there must be something going right in the marriage. 

The two had 6, yes 6 children! 4 sons and 2 daughters. 

福灵安（？－1767） 多罗额驸，正白旗满洲副都统，署云南永北镇总兵

福隆安（1743－1784）兵部、工部尚书、步军统领，尚高宗女和嘉公主，谥勤恪

福康安（1754－1796）官至武英殿大学士，封忠锐嘉勇贝子，赠郡王，谥文襄。

福长安（1760－1817）

Ok – I’m also reading that 傅恒 did have one concubine, who was the birth mother of 福长安 but that also doesn’t see corroborated. Anyways – let’s just say he didn’t have many women in his life. 

We don’t know the names of his daughters but we do know that one married the 10th prince of Qian Long 永瑆 and the other, married 睿恭亲王淳颖 a descendent of 多铎.

Lady Yehenara was granted the title of Duchess of the First Rank or 一品夫人 due to the accomplishments of her husband. 

All seems fine and square right?

So then what about the story of sleeping with the Emperor and having a son by the Emperor, who we have as 福康安 in this drama?

Well – over the centuries, there has been plenty and I mean plenty of rumors of 福康安 parentage. 

A lot of these rumors, stories, folk tales began flourishing after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912. Books were printed during this time that include rather pointed stories in their accusations or suspicions that 福康安 might be the illegitimate child of the Emperor and Fu Heng’s wife. 

In a novel compiled by 吴士鉴 Wu Shijiàn所撰的《清宫词》。书中有诗云[参3]：

“ 家人燕见重椒房，龙种无端降下方。丹阐几曾封贝子，千秋疑案福文襄。 ”

This basically means – when Fu HEng’s wife went to visit Empress Fu Cha, she slept with the Emperor and gave birth to Fu Kang An. Multiple stories published in 1916, 1919 and beyond all printed various versions of this story. Some wrote that the date happened during the Empress’s birthday. Another said, the Empress got into an argument with the Emperor on this matter, hence why she died in 1748. That one I can’t get behind because well, 福康安 was born in 1754. THe Empress died in 1748 so don’t know how to square that timeline away. 

[Karen]

What’s also hilarious is that in a lot of these stories, Fu Heng’s wife’s last name also changes. It goes from Nara to 孙佳 to 佟佳 or 董额 which are pretty random. This storyline was picked up as plot points for various writers well into the later part of the 20th century. Including the famed Wuxia writer, 金庸 who made 福康安 a major character several of his books set in the Qing Dynasty and went with the rumor that he was the Emperor’s illegitimate son. I remember reading those books when I was younger so I was well versed with this rumor. 

Most historians view this as simply speculation. Why the speculation, well because, in life, the favor that 福康安 received from Emperor 乾隆 was well beyond that of any normal official. From a relations perspective, Emperor 乾隆 is 福康安’s uncle. So let’s remind everyone of this. 

福康安 in history was a well respected general and court official. He is one of the few men during the Qing Dynasty to be granted the title of 王 or Prince who was not a royal. In life, he was gifted the title of 贝子 or Prince of the Fourth Rank and after he died, was given the title of 嘉勇郡王 or Prince of the Second Rank

[Cathy]

What’s also curious is that Fu heng’s other sons were able to marry 乾隆’s daughters or marry royal princesses so why not 福康安? These two points above led storytellers to go wild with speculation.  

Honestly though, these can be easily explained. 福康安 basically grew up in the Imperial Palace with 乾隆’s own sons. Emperor qian long, still remember is late wife, favored Fu heng and his sons. Thankfully, they all lived up to his expectations. 福康安 also looked shocking like the Emperor’s second son 永琏. The boy of course died young and was the first son of the Empress. So, the Emperor, naturally favored 福康安. Another point, Emperor qianlong wanted to confer the prince title to 傅恒 but he adamantly refused, so the Emperor decided to confer it to 福康安. 福康安, by himself rightly earned his prince title because he contributed greatly on the battlefield and for the Empire.

As to him not marrying a princess, there wasn’t any princess available of eligible age when he came of age so who was he to marry? 

In dramas, the most famous is perhaps 福尔康 from 还珠格格 or Pearl Princess

–

The portrait of the Empress is a well known piece that was painted by court painters when the Empress turned 24 and became Empress. She is in her formal court attire. I believe it was painted by Giuseppe Castiglione, one of his many works of the ladies of imperial harem. The painting is currently housed in the palace museum in beijing.

[Cathy]

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

Today we are discussing episode 53 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. 

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to reach out to us on instagram or twitter or else email us at karenandcathy@chasingdramas.com.

This podcast episode consists of a drama episode recap and we’ll move on to discuss the history portrayed in this episode.

–

[Karen]

In the last episode, well and also the beginning of episode 53, we said goodbye to two women, the evil 纯贵妃 and the maternal 愉妃。 璎珞 now has the 5th prince 永琪 under her care but also was able to see the late Empress Fu Cha receive some justice for the death of her son with 纯贵妃’s death. The thing is, 纯贵妃 was killed using a string from a kite by the Empress Na La. No one knows the truth but because Ying Luo has created kites in the past, the evident connection is that she was the one to kill Chun Gui Fei.

The Emperor visits Ying Luo at Yan Xi gong and what is she doing? Making a kite. They get into a little argument because he wants her to stop making the kite because it just looks bad for her. Instead, he wants to teach her how to play the gu qin and even gifts her a beautiful new qin.  Does she listen? Nope? She doesn’t think anything of his suggestion and is adamant in continuing her kite making. This annoys the Emperor who storms off. He’s more annoyed that Ying Luo doesn’t even try to explain because it shows she doesn’t care what he thinks of her. 

[Cathy]

This little tiff between the two is immediately spread throughout the palace and 舒嫔 whom we haven’t seen in a while takes her opportunity. One night, she stops the Emperor in the garden with an excuse to observe a beautiful flower. This hella fake 昙花 or Queen of the night flow blooms in front of them and 舒嫔 uses everything she’s got to try to capture the Emperor’s attention, showering him with many praises. The Emperor plays along and says that on such a night, the should be music! What does he do? Order that the qin he gave to ying luo be extracted. 

Ying Luo doesn’t give a second thought and just gives it back which causes the Emperor to be annoyed again because he wanted her to make a fuss. When by the twilight hours she doesn’t show up, he ditched 舒嫔 and shows up at YanXi Gong. That’s where they have a frank discussion about why he’s so frustrated. He knows she didn’t kill 纯贵妃 but she doesn’t care for how he thinks of her. The two make up or more like the Emperor lets go of his annoyance and that’s that! Poor 舒嫔。

[Karen]

The more interesting matter at hand is the silkworm ceremony. The Empress Nala is presenting this event to the Empress Dowager. However, the Empress Dowager states that given there’s been drought in the Empire and that the cost of the ceremony is high, it’s not a good look to do this ceremony this year. They can look to do it next year instead. But, the Empress Nala pushes back saying that all of the women at court have already been informed of the ceremony and the operations are already in place. If they cancel the ceremony now, it would cause gossip.

This angers the Empress Dowager and rightly so. The Empress came to ask her for her thoughts but she doesn’t actually care because she is adamant for this ceremony to take place. In front of all the servants in the palace, the Empress Dowager tells the Empress off for usurping too much power. The Empress Dowager then promptly leaves, leaving the Empress rather humiliated. She rushes out of the palace with tears in her eyes and gives only a half hearted acknowledgement of Prince He who happened to be outside.

[Cathy]

Prince He who has had a soft spot for the Empress Nala, decides that he will step in to help her ensure that the silkworm ceremony continues as planned. After all, why was it possible for the late Empress Fu Cha to hold the ceremony and not the new Emrpess Nala? Clearly, there’s favoritism here. 

Sure enough, next we see, the Empress and 舒嫔 are overlooking the materials required for the silk ceremony. While the Empress is secretly gloating that she got her way, she is immediately met with a blow as they find that Ying Luo will be using materials befitting a higher station than her current title of consort. Apparently, this was okayed by both the Emperor and Empress Dowager. Clearly, this is the Empress Dowager’s way of expressing her displeasure by purposefully elevating Ying Luo’s position to combat the Empress’s. Right now, this silkworm ceremony is the Empress and Empress Dowager’s battleground. The Empress needs this ceremony to happen in order to maintain her position of power given what happened to her father while the Empress Dowager does not want it to happen BECAUSE of what happened to the Empress’s father. The Empress Dowager wants to send out a warning of her displeasure with the nala clan. 

[Karen]

There is someone else who is very eager for this ceremony to occur and that is none other than 尔晴. She’s been in confinement for quite some time with Fu Heng out at war but she has not exercised any restraint at all in her hateful tendencies. She wants to use this ceremony as a way to speak to the Emperor about her poor condition because if anyone will help, it’s going to be him. We will see what happens with her presence in the next episode.

But before we close out the episode, there is a quick scene we want to highlight with two implications. Xiao Quan Zi secretly follows Yuan Chun Wang to the Imperial Doctor 叶天士‘s place and picks up some medicine from 叶天士. There, 袁春望 says he’ll help 叶天士 dispose of some of the medicine that isn’t fresh anymore in the market so that the funds can be used for other medical purposes. Additionally, 叶天士 gives 袁春望 a secret pouch of medicine for Ying Luo. 小全子 observes 袁春望 secretly putting this powder in a pot of medicine for ying luo and when presenting her with this medicine, 小全子 tries to stop her from drinking it, thinking 袁春望 is trying to poison Ying Luo. But instead, Ying Luo drinks the medicine without another thought. She punishes 小全子 for insubordination yet still insists she will keep drinking this medicine. This little scene is quite interesting and will be important in the next few episodes.

And with that! We will see what happens with Er Qing in the next episode!

–

[Cathy]

月露知音琴 – Sound of Moon Dew Zither

This zither comes into play as the gift that the Emperor intends to give Ying Luo but she doesn’t want learn how to play. Later, Consort Shu wishes to play it. Ladies and gentleman, Ying Luo REALLY doesn’t understand the favor she has from the Emperor does she. I started researching this zither and even I was shocked at it’s history.

This 月露知音 is in the 仲尼 style with a paulownia body and painted with black laquer. There are 7 strings on the zither so it’s more of the 古琴 style instead of the 古筝 style that you hear in our intro music. This zither was created during the Ming Dynasty. 

Emperor Qian Long, along with his many other hobbies, loved collecting zithers. Once he collected a bunch, he had his officials such as 梁诗正、唐侃 go through all the zithers in the royal collection and rank them. This 月露知音 was in the top 16, which reflects its quality. The 头等十六号 is engraved on the zither box to show its rank. This zither is one of only 4 that are still in its original palace lacquer box from Qian Long’s era. 2 are held in private collections and one is held in a museum in Liao Ning. 

For this 月露知音, on the box, we can see the words 明制月露知音 大清乾隆辛酉年(1741)装 or Ming Dynasty Sound of Moon Dew Zither, boxed in 1741. There’s another poem that Emperor Qian Long had carved on the box. 

On the back of the zither itself are some beautiful carvings. At the top, there’s a gorgeous carving of the name of the zither 月露知音. There’s also at least 2 other imperial seals from Qian Long that denote its ownership.

On the baseboard, there’s a carving of a poem that Qian Long wrote for this zither. 

月露与琴，是一非三，

灭分别相，成无底篮

元酒既淡，尺帛浑素，

谁知音者，唯问月露。

Here’s my translation

The moon dew and zither are one and not thre

Destroy the separation to form a bottomless basket

The ritual wine is light, the silk is pure

Who is my soulmate? Only ask the moon dew

It is one of the rarest zithers of the same quality. At auction in 2014, this Zither sold for 33M Yuan, which, depending on conversion rate, is between $4.7M to $5.5M. So Ying Luo – value what you have!

It was stored at the National Palace Museum in Beijing but I’m not sure where it is after the auction. 

–

[Karen]

In this episode, 和亲王 recites a poem as he’s trying to figure a way to aid the current Empress. He recites two lines 

岂必新琴终不及，究输旧剑久相投。

This comes from a poem that was written by Emperor Qian Long himself. He wrote it on the 3rd anniversary of Empress Fu Cha’s death in 1751 and is pondering why he doesn’t love the current Empress or Empress nala as much. 

Here’s the full poem

独旦歌来三忌周，心怀岁月信如流。

岂必新琴终不及，究输旧剑久相投。

My translation is as such

The songs have come for your three year memorial, the time has flown by.

Is it that the new zither isn’t as good, no it’s because the relationship is not the same as with the old sword. 

Hidden in the poem, there’s another idiom 故剑情深. This is very much a tragic love story and the subject of a few Chinese dramas. The Han Emperor 刘  ascended the throne after a rough childhood. He already had a wife 许平君 and logically she would become Empress. The Grand General 霍光 though, wanted to have his young daughter 霍成君 become Empress.  

The newly installed Emperor wrote an edict basically stating – when I was poor, I really liked a sword. I miss this sword dearly, can you, my subjects, help me find it? This sword represents 许平君. With this edict,  许平君 became Empress for a time. This story then became the idiom 故剑情深. Or the Long Love of the Sword. 

Fun fact – 苏青, our actress for 尔晴, in this drama portrays 许平君 in the drama Yunge from the Desert that also portrays this relationship. 许平君 was the beautiful and loving wife in that drama. Many viewers really liked her in that drama. Hence why it was SUCH a shock to see 苏青 in this drama be such an evil woman as 尔晴. 

Anyways, back to this poem.

In the poem written by Emperor QIan Long, 究输旧剑久相投 – the sword here represents his first wife, Empress fucha.

The poem essentially means – It isn’t that the new zither or the new Empress is bad, but she’s just not the same as the original sword or the original Empress. 

One – this is a touching poem from the Emperor missing his wife. Two – how would the new Empress feel if she saw this? That’s somewhat not nice? 

–

[Cathy]

亲蚕礼 – Silkworm ceremony

In this episode, there was tension between the Empress Dowager and the Empress regarding who will preside over the Silkworm festival or 亲蚕礼. 

The history of the 亲蚕礼 is very long, dating all the way back to the Zhou Dynasty, some 2500 years ago. To learn more about the Silkworm festival, we of course have to talk about the history of sericulture.

Agriculture and sericulture or silk farming were the pillars of Chinese society dating back to the thousands of years. There were various gods and goddesses that the ancient Chinese prayed to for good harvests for the year. Legend has it, Leizu (Chinese: 嫘祖; pinyin: Léi Zǔ) discovered sericulture, and invented the silk loom. She also known as Xi Ling-shi (Chinese: 西陵氏), who was a legendary Chinese empress and wife of the Yellow Emperor. 

Historically, the silkworm festival was always led by the empress. She would lead the women in the imperial harem to pray to Leizu and feed the silkworms to promote the custom of sericulture. The Emperor, on the other hand, would pray to 先农, the god of farming. In Chinese, there’s the phrase 男耕女织, which means Men Farm Women Weave. With the silkworm festival, it makes a clear delineation of roles between a man and woman. Women will weave and silk is what they used to weave, hence why the silkworm festival is led by women. 

The silkworm ceremony is clearly mentioned in the Rites of Zhou or 周礼. This ceremony was held every year. In the spring, the Empress would lead the women to the north to perform the rituals. 

In the Ming Dynasty, there were alters built in the north parts of Beijing. During the Qing Dynasty, the 先蚕坛 The Xiancantan (Altar to the Goddess of Silkworms) began construction in 1742 and completed in 1744. It is located at the northeast part of the Beihai Park in Beijing so it isn’t located inside the Forbidden City. The first ceremony was held in 1744. It was subsequently renovated in 1748 and 1837. When the Emperor would go pray to the agriculture gods at Tian Tan, which is a much more famous tourist site, the Empress would come here instead. 先蚕坛 is still standing and one can go visit it. There, you’ll see a plaque with Emperor Qian Long’s handwriting.

According to rituals set during the Qian Long’s reign, the ceremony was held during the 3rd month of the year. The Empress and her retinue would fast 2 days in advance. Then, they would head to the 先蚕坛 or Altar to the Goddess of Silkworms wearing official court dress to offer sacrifices to 嫘祖.

If silkworms had already hatched, then the mulberry ceremony would be held the next day. If not, then the mulberry ceremony would be delayed a few days. For the mulberry ceremony, it was necessary to select the candidates to perform the rituals, prepare the fields, and prepare the hook and baskets. 

The Empress used gold hooks, and concubines used yellow baskets with silver hooks; others used red baskets with iron hooks. On the day of bowing to mulberry, the queen holds a hook in her right hand and a basket in her left hand, and picks mulberry leaves first, singing a song about picking mulberry leaves. The other women followed her lead. Then, the silkweavers chopped up the mulberry leaves and fed them to the silkworms. After the silkworms formed cocoons, the silkweavers selected the best ones and presented them to the Empress, who then presented them to the emperor and empress dowager. Then on another auspicious day, the empress and the silkweavers went to the weaving room to reel some silk and dye it into colors such as vermilion, black, yellow that would be used for embroidering sacrificial clothes.

There’s a beautiful series of paintings that were probably painted by Giuseppe Castiglione and others that portray these rites. In the paintings,we can clearly see the Empress, who resembled Empress Xiao Xian or Empress Chu Cha, performing her duties. The paintings were presented in 1749 but the Empress had already died so they probably were commissioned by the Emperor more as remembrance of his beloved late wife. These paintings are currently housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

In the drama, the previous Empress did talk about the 亲蚕礼 in past episodes but it really wasn’t a highlight so we didn’t talk about it. 

[Karen]

Lastly – Er qing says these two stanzas as she’s basically torturing a maid. Ugh, what else is new.

The poem was written by the Tang Dynasty poet 白居易 and comes from the Poem 后宫词. Or the Imperial Harem Ci.

雨露由来一点恩，争能遍布及千门？

三千宫女胭脂面，几个春来无泪痕！

This basically translates to – The favor comes in drops, can it spread across a thousand doors? The three thousand women in the palace have rouged faces, how many will not have tears come spring?

So this poem is really a critique on the promiscuous nature of the Emperor and the sad and desolate lives of women in the palace. These women in the palace constantly show their most beautiful self in hopes of gaining favor with the Emperor and becoming a favored concubine. But this is mostly futile.

This is an apt critique but um, I don’t think it works here for 尔晴 because you never had favor and also 傅恒 is not a promiscuous guy! He’s not sleeping around with many women. He has no eyes for anyone at this point, so like who is dressing up for him and who’s he discarding? I think this is a miss from the screenwriter as this poem doesn’t really fit this scene.

 [karen] 

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

Today we are discussing the last few minutes of episode 51, all of episode 52 and the first couple minutes of episode 53 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. 

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to reach out to us on instagram or twitter or else email us at karenandcathy@chasingdramas.com.

This podcast episode consists of a drama episode recap and we’ll move on to discuss the history portrayed in this episode.

–

At the end of episode 51, Ying Luo has been summoned to Yong Shou Gong because the 5th prince, Yong Qi is sick. The Emperor, Empress, Chun Gui Fei and Yu Fei are all gathered around Yong Qi. And the group accuses Ying Luo of having poisoned 永琪 which is why he is currently so ill.

Ying Luo is at a little bit of a loss because on one hand, Yu Fei says all manner of nasty things about how she can’t believe that Ying Luo would harm her son while on the other hand, 纯贵妃 urges the Emperor to severely punish Ying Luo.

Can I say – the background music here is on point! It’s very suspenseful and added a lot to the atmosphere.

Fortunately, the Emperor and Empress are both rather hesitant to immediately punish Ying Luo. At that moment, Yuan Chun Wang was also able to run over with the Imperial Doctor Ye Tian Shi. With some pointed questioning by Ying Luo, Ye Tian Shi suggests having the 5th prince throw up everything he ate today in order to better ease his symptoms and investigate what caused his illness. 

Despite pushback from 纯贵妃 and 愉妃, the Emperor agrees. 叶天士 comes forth and states that he found several pieces of undigested ginseng. This perplexes him because a child as young as the 5th prince does not need so much ginseng even if it were to cure a cough. By ingesting it, it would actually cause him further illness. The fact that the 5th prince is currently unconscious is most likely due to over consumption of this ginseng rather than bein  g poisoned by anything Ying Luo may or may not have given him.

At this point, the imperial doctor tending to the 5th prince before Ye Tian Shi arrived spilled the beans that it was Yu Fei who insisted on giving her son ginseng to consume. This made Yu Fei’s accusation unravel because now it’s been revealed that she was the one to harm her own son in order to wrongly accuse Ying Luo. 

Yu Fei pleads for forgiveness that it was her fault for not knowing ginseng was wrong but under questioning and actually it wasn’t much of a questioning, she tells everyone that she was pressured by 纯贵妃 to put on this little show. The ginseng was given by her as well. Which is true. We saw her give Yu Fei the ginseng in episode 49. Yu Fei reiterates multiple times that the mastermind behind today’s events is none other than 纯贵妃。纯贵妃 is utterly distraught at having been exposed and vehemently denies these claims but it’s no use. The Emperor orders that she be detained in her palace and the truth investigated. The same goes for 愉妃.

The investigation duties falls on the Empress who quickly discovers uncovers disturbing revelations as she threatens 纯贵妃‘s head maid 玉壶. This maid is brought in front of Ying Luo and the Emperor who reveals all of the terrible deeds 纯贵妃 has been involved in. It was she who orchestrated the fire and subsequent events that caused the 7th prince’s death. It was she who planned Ying Luo’s fall from the horse. ANd when that didn’t work, it was she who devised the plan to use the 5th prince’s sickness to bring Ying Luo down once and for all. I think it’s impressive how easily this maid spilled the beans TBH.

Upon hearing these words and the corroboration by Ming Yu, the Emperor was rightly furious. He immediately decrees that 纯贵妃 will be demoted to 答应 or second class attendant and will be banished to the cold palace.

Ying Luo breaks a small smile as she hears that the late Empress finally can receive justice against the person who harmed her.

–

That night, two women have a fantastic conversation. 纯贵妃 now 苏答应 is confined to a lonely room in the cold palace. She is still thinking about 傅恒. But instead of seeing Ying Luo visit her, it’s the Empress that pays her a late night visit. In front of the Empress’s sneers, 苏答应 finally realizes that it was the Empress who manipulated her for so many years to both her and the late Empress’s demise. It was the current Empress that saw through her feelings for Fu Heng, that suggested she have a child to secure her foothold in the palace and then it was the Empress who told her that the late Empress’s child the 7th prince would be the next crown prince thus creating more jealousy on 苏答应’s part. It was the new Empress all along who pushed her, 苏答应 to act and did the Empress’s bidding but then brought her down to her demise. She recognized that the Empress’s hands are entirely clean of everything but it was in fact she who was behind all of these horrific events in the palace.

I absolutely love the Empress’s acting at this point. She has a soft smile on her face that does not reach her eyes as her deeds were exposed. But the smile is most definitely a sneer as she finally breaks loose her anger. She doesn’t hold back in telling 苏答应 that she did this because she thought the late Empress was too fake and hypocritical while she, 苏答应 kept pushing her between the Empress and the late Consort Gao. It was they who pushed her to be who she is today. She is just enacting revenge. 

And at long last, in front of the Empress, 苏答应 also shares her true feelings. She hates Fu Heng, and the late Empress. She did so much for them but in the end, she got nothing back in return. She wanted them to pay for this. That’s why she killed the 7th prince. Which I personally think is really sad. She had nothing in the palace but her anger. If she took a step back and wasn’t so easily manipulated by the Empress, she would have had a much better life. 

With that, knowing that the Empress is here to kill her, 苏答应 accepts her fate. 

–

Behind the scenes

So in this episode, 纯贵妃 dies. In the drama, we only see the Empress give the order. However, a few seconds were cut of the eunuchs actually going up to strangle 纯贵妃. There’s blooper videos of them filming this scene so we know there was a script for it. Anyways – while 纯贵妃 is getting strangled, she also curses the Empress that she will also meet an ugly end. 

The Emperor is notified the next morning that 纯贵妃 or 苏答应 is dead. The weapon? String from a kite was used to strangle her. This immediately forces the Emperor to think that it was Ying Luo who killed 苏答应. News travels to 璎珞 and Ming Yu is worried how this will look against her but she doesn’t mind. There has been something that has been tickling her brain over the last day given the events that happened. Why would Yu Fei’s parting words to her son be to instruct him to turn to Ying Luo? Ying Luo suddenly rushes out.

She and Ming Yu chase after 愉妃 who is currently being escorted out of the palace. She has been ordered by the Empress Dowager to leave the palace to study buddhism. Which essentially means she has been banished from returning to the palace but will remain alive. 

Ying Luo requests a quiet moment to speak with Yu Fei. She raises her suspicion that Yu Fei fell too quickly. It was all too simple. That is when Yu Fei reveals that she was only pretending to ally herself with 纯贵妃 in order to bring her down. All of her actions against Ying Luo were entirely an act. This was her way of repaying the kindness the late Empress and Ying Luo shown her in helping save her son’s life. She then sacrificed her life in the palace to ensure that her son, the 5th prince, will be safe in the future. She recognizes that she is not strong enough to raise her son in the palace and therefore will give this important task to Ying Luo. 

With one last bow from Yu Fei, she leaves, not to return to the palace. Ying Luo and Ming Yu tear up at seeing the bravery of this woman. 

–

History

In these few episodes, we say goodbye to two concubines – Noble Consort Chun and Consort Yu. These two diverged on their paths quite spectacularly in these two episodes with being murdered by the Empress and one being essentially exiled. So what really happened?

Noble Consort Chun was known as Lady Su. In the drama, Lady Su’s name is 苏静好, but that’s only for drama purposes. We’ll simply call her Lady Su. She was born on June 13 1713 in Su Zhou to a Han family. She is, I would say, one of the rare women in Qian Long’s harem who came directly from the commoner class. She  is the daughter of a Mr. 苏召南. Funnily enough, we don’t have much data on him. Historians speculate that he was either a wealthy merchant or a small-time scholar. 

Lady Su most likely entered into the 4th Prince, Hong Li’s harem some time in the late 1720s. She gave birth to the 3rd Prince 永璋 in 1735. We don’t see this prince at all in this drama. 1735 is the same year that Emperor Qian Long ascended the throne after the death of his father. 

Lady Su was promoted to the rank of Imperial Concubine or 嫔 at this time. She was gifted the title of 纯 during this promotion. Lady Su was pretty heavily favored by the Emperor during the early years of his reign. Compared to the other women in Qian Long’s harem, she didn’t have strong connections at court nor a powerful banner family, but she was able to nonetheless reach the status of Consort in 1737. Let’s compare – Empress Fu Cha came from a powerful manchu family. Noble Consort Gao had a father and brother at court. Consort Xian or our future Empress also came from the Hoifa-Nara clan. For Lady Su to reach her status was indeed a feat. In 1739, her family was gifted the status of the Standard White Banner and received the treatment of a Han consort rather than a common woman.

She gave birth to the 6th prince 永瑢 in 1743 and in 1745, she was officially promoted to Noble Consort Chun or 纯贵妃. This promotion was actually due to a mass promotion prompted by the death of Imperial Noble Consort Gao or 高贵妃. We saw this in the drama. 高贵妃 was promoted to 皇贵妃 and here, Lady Su was promoted from 纯妃 to 纯贵妃. 

In 1745, Lady Su gave birth to a daughter, the Emperor’s 4th daughter. She now had 3 children and was very well established in the Imperial Harem. 

In 1748, the Empress Fu Cha died. At that point, there were only 2 women that could feasibly become Empress. It was either Lady Su or else Lady Nala. Lady Su seemed to have the upper hand. She had 2 sons and a daughter while Lady Nala didn’t have any children. Unfortunately, one event turned the tides against her.

During the funeral procession, her son, the 3rd prince 永璋 was roundly criticized by the Emperor for not showing the apt amount of mourning. The Emperor was devastated by the loss of his wife and lashed out at basically everyone who didn’t show a great amount of sorrow during the funeral proceedings. The Emperor went so far as to publicly declare that 永璋 would never have the opportunity to ascend the throne, thus killing all of his future hopes. The Emperor was also very angry at Lady Su for this development and she subsequently lost her claim to the title of Empress. As we see in the drama, that title is given to Lady Nala. I feel like that was kind of an over reaction from the Emperor. The boy was only 13 when the Empress died so if he didn’t show THAT much emotion, I guess I understand. 

This whole incident also dealt a pretty big blow to Lady Su and her children. She gradually lost favor in the subsequent years. Even though Lady Su held the title of Noble Consort, she was always going to play second fiddle to the Empress. Even if she didn’t receive the same treatment from the Emperor, the Emperor still respected her in her later years. She was gifted lavish presents for her 40th birthday and accompanied the Emperor when he traveled south in 1757. 

For their children, to his credit, the Emperor arranged marriages between the 3rd prince and 4th princess to members of the Fu Cha clan, thus giving them powerful relations. The princess married one of Fu Cha Fu Heng’s sons. However, both of Lady Su’s sons lost the right or ability to lay claim to the throne. In 1759, Emperor Qian Long pushed the 6th prince 永瑢 to inherit the line of 允禧, the 21st son of Emperor Kang Xi. This meant that he was no longer of Qian Long’s line. 

It was after this announcement that Lady Su’s health began to decline. Perhaps Qian Long also felt a little guilty for what he did. This is also just my speculation, but he then decided to promote Lady Su to Imperial Noble Consort or 皇贵妃 in 1760. She was the second woman to rise to this title, after of course, Lady Gao. Lady Su was promoted to Imperial Noble Consort on the 24th day of the 3rd month but she wasn’t able to enjoy this privilege for long. Less than a month later, Lady Su died on the 19th day of the 4th month at the age of 48. Her 3rd son, 永璋, also died a few months later at the young age of 26. Now, according to health records, she had been on the decline for months so it wasn’t a sudden death for her. 

Lady Su was buried not in the same mausoleum as her husband but a different mausoleum. I believe it was because there was basically no more space left. The Imperial one already had Empress Fu Cha and 2 other Imperial Noble Consorts. The Emperor however did order for this other mausoleum to be renovated for Lady Su’s burial. 

There is one known painting of her that was sold at auction in 2015 for a whopping 137M HKD or around 170M USD. It was probably painted after her death by the Italian Missionary Giuseppe Castiglione.

All in all – for a woman with no background and of han descent to rise to the rank of Imperial Noble Consort before her death was extremely rare during the Qing Dynasty. She might have been the only one. 

The drama of course fictionalized a lot. She was not killed at the hands of Empress Nala and she didn’t secretly love Fu Heng. But hey, that’s what dramas are all about right?

Next – let’s talk about the other woman that we say goodbye to in this drama. This is of course Consort Yu. 

We know very little of Consort Yu in the drama. She came from the Mongolian 珂里叶特 clan which is shortened to Hai, so we’ll call her Lady Hai. Her clan comes from the Mongolian Bordered Blue banner and also part of the Baoyi class. So she came from a much lower station than Empress Fu Cha. 

She was born June 15 1714 and probably entered into then Prince Hong Li’s harem in the late 1720s. When Qian Long ascended the throne, she was only promoted to the title of 常在 or 1st class female attendant. Compare her to Lady Su who was immediately promoted to Imperial Concubine, two levels above Lady Hai. 

She was only promoted to Noble Lady in 1737. In 1741, she gave birth to the 5th Prince 永琪, which is what we saw in the drama. It was only then that she was promoted to Imperial Concubine Yu or 愉嫔. The manchu phrase is nemgiyen, meaning gentle. 

In 1745, she was promoted to Consort Yu along with all the other women in the Imperial Harem and that’s honestly where she stayed for the rest of her life. In 1748, Consort 嘉, who we talked about previously was promoted to Noble Consort, so then Lady Hai as Consort Yu became the head of the remaining Consorts, of which there were 2 others. Consort Ling and Consort Shu. But by 1755, she was listed behind the other 2 ladies, with Consort Ling at the top of the list. Consort Yu basically lived out her life in the Imperial Harem and lived to the ripe old age of 79, far outliving her only son 永琪. 

永琪 as a character has been made famous by the drama Pearl Princess. Everyone knows who he is. He was an intelligent young man, bright and studious. He could speak Manchurian fluently, mastered all of the gentlemanly arts, and was an upright guy. He was heavily favored by Emperor Qian Long and was a serious contender for the throne. Unfortunately, he contracted what seems like a bone infection and died at the young age of 25. 

Lady Hai essentially lived out her days in the palace after the death of her son for another 26 years. We can see that the Emperor didn’t really favor her because her position didn’t change at all during those years. It was only after her death did he grant her a posthumus title of Noble Consort Yu.

[karen] 

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

Today we are discussing episode 50 + 51 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. 

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to reach out to us on instagram or twitter or else email us at karenandcathy@chasingdramas.com.

This podcast episode consists of a drama episode recap and we’ll move on to discuss the history portrayed in this episode.

–

In the last episode, we saw Ying Luo falling off her horse after a riding lesson with the Emperor. This resulted in both of them becoming seriously injured and the Emperor wondering who caused this to happen. We start episode 50 with Wei Ying Luo recovering in bed after her riding incident and it is sweet to see the Emperor look after her an entire night. Hai Lan Cha gives the Emperor a report of his investigations – there’s nothing he can find. But, the Emperor sets a trap and Hai Lan Cha is able to chase a eunuch to 钟粹宫, the residence of 纯贵妃. 

Shortly after, the Emperor visits 纯贵妃 and gives her a bone chilling sermon. He essentially states out his suspicions in front of her that he thinks it was she who ultimately caused the horse to panic and cause YIng Luo’s injury. 纯贵妃 to her credit – quickly swears on her life that she had nothing to do with it. If she didn’t, I don’t know how the Emperor would have reacted. I mean he basically didn’t even believe her just then and there. He gives her a stern warning to not act out any further before leaving.  Now, do we believe that she’s innocent?

Well of course not! She might not have done the deed, but her it was her loyal ally 愉妃 who ordered the hit. 愉妃 pays 魏璎珞 a visit and at last they have an open discussion. 愉妃 became a pawn for 纯贵妃 in order to survive in the palace and protect her son. In front of Ying Luo she says that she has no choice but to do what she’s doing. She has no status or power in the palace so she has to rely on 纯贵妃。 This angers 璎珞 as she reveals to 愉妃 that 纯贵妃 was the one to cause the late Empress to die and the death of the 7th prince. This conversation was an important one for 愉妃 to clarify her position but also let us know that she’s struggling herself. She returns to her palace where we meet her son the 5th prince. He’s a cute young child who is shown to be quite talented. 愉妃 instructs her son to get the favor of 令妃 aka Ying Luo in order to survive in the palace.

–

Next we turn to the Empress. We haven’t seen her in a while and unfortunately, it’s not good news. Her father has been apprehended for stealing relief funds for disaster victims. The Emperor is furious. The Empress pleads with the Emperor that it is not possible her father would do such a thing and begs him to retry her fathers case. The Emperor ultimately relents but tries to manage her expectations that the result might not change. 

To get some advice, the Emperor goes to speak to his mother, the Empress Dowager. She makes the situation rather plain. Even though, the Empress’s father may be inno cent in corruption and stealing disaster relief funds, it is unfortunately clearly evident that he is incompetent. An official may be loyal but if he is incompetent, then that is almost just as bad as a corrupt official. 

But then the reality as to why the Empress Dowager insists that the Empress’s father be killed is that he has to be the scapegoat for the corruption that happened this time. If he doesn’t die, then the Emperor must investigate all higher levels of government to see where the funds ultimately went. This could mean upsetting his royal relatives and the aristocracy who both of them know are probably not clean in this. But if the Emperor upsets these uncles or princes, this could destabilize his Empire.

And finally, the Empress Dowager coldly informs the Emperor that it is precisely because the man in question is the Empress’s close kin that he must be killed. This way, the world will believe that the Emperor is not forgiving in the eyes of the law. At this, however, the Emperor rejects this notion. He leaves stating that he has much to think about, much to the anguish of his mother.

The next string of events happen rather rapidly. The Empress kneels in front of the Emperor’s residence for an entire evening as she begs him to reconsider killing her father. When he comes out after hiding from her for an entire day, he finally agrees to not kill him. She is overjoyed and requests the help of the Emperor’s brother 和亲王 to bring her father some clothes for his journey to exile. He agrees but once in the prison, we see that the Empress’s father has committed suicide.

When the Empress hears the news, she breaks. In front of the  Emperor, she asks point blank whether it was he or the EMpress Dowager that killed her father. She knows full well that her father didn’t die so someone must have done it. SHe is extremely upset that her father was the scapegoat and accused the Empress Dowager of protecting her own family who were also implicated in the corruption scandal which is why she was so eager to sentence the Empress’s father. All of these words ultimately broached the Emperor’s bottom line and he storms out. 

The Empress is distraught and her maid Zhen Er is left searching for her as she disappears. At night, she is found by Prince He,who had worked tirelessly to help her and her father these last few days, on a palace roof. The same spot where the late Empress jumped off. The Empress gives a crazed speech about how she must amass more power. All of this happened to her because she does not have enough power. 

I love these scenes acted by Charmaine Sheh because she can be so nuanced. Here she acts as a heartbroken woman and in the next we see that her crazed behavior were just shows that she put on in order to garner the sympathy of the Emperor and Prince He. She knows that being upset about her father’s death won’t help her. Instead, she had to play up the roles that would cause the Emperor to remember that he owes her and for Prince He to continue helping her. Once again, she is a master of psychology and mental manipulation. It is a pity that her father was incompetent. At least now, we see that the Empress has been pushed further to wanting to seek power.

We round out this storyline by highlighting that the Emperor reveals to YIng Luo later on, or more like she guesses in front of him that the Emperor had actually no intention of allowing the Empress’s father to live. He was going to be sent to exile but most likely killed along the way. Only this time, the Empress Dowager was one step ahead. 

–

We round out episode 51 with two key takeaways. One is  愉妃 brings her son the 5th prince to see Ying Luo in order to build a relationship between the two. And then second is that 袁春望 has decided to come serve Ying Luo at YanXi Gong. He will be the head eunuch in her palace. 

At the end of Episode 51, Ying Luo is summoned to 愉妃‘s palace. There, the entire palace is present as it looks like the 5th prince is sick and the main culprit causing his illness, is Ying Luo. We’ll find out more about this in the next episode!

–

In episode 50, we are introduced to a very cute young boy. This is of course our 5th prince – 永琪 – born 1741 and we’re currently in a murky timeline in 1750s. He should be between like 12-14. 愉妃 

In the drama, he shows his mother 愉妃 some of his writings. After taking a look, we see that they all come from the Analects of Confucius or (论语) 

The two lines from the Analects all come from the second book 论语·为政 or The practice of government. I like the summary from wikipedia so here’s what it’s about – “political order is best gained through the non-coercive influence of moral self-cultivation rather than through force or excessive government regulation”.

子曰：“为政以德，譬pì如北辰，居其所而众星共之。”

Confucious says: Governing the country with moral principles is similar to the position the North Star holds. All of the other  stars will revolve around it. 

This line lays out Confucious belief in moral governance. If the leader practices moral governance, then the subjects or citizens will automatically follow you. Morality in political life plays a crucial role and moral education is needed for governing the country. Right off the bat, we see Confucious stating the rule of virtue, not harsh punishment or strict law.

The next line is the following

子曰：“诗三百，一言以蔽bì之，曰：‘思无邪。’”

Confucious says: all of the words and meaning in the three hundred chapters of “The Book of Songs” can be summed up in one phrase – which is “pure thought”.

“思无邪”是《诗经·鲁颂·駉》中的一句话。The phrase 思无邪 which translates to pure thought or innocence comes from the Book of Songs 诗经·鲁颂·駉 jiōng

During the time of Confucious – most of the students didn’t have access to that many books or texts. The book of Songs or 诗经 is one that was more readily available and widely known. So, Confucius himself, a student of the book of song, summarized his knowledge of 诗经 and added it to his sayings. 思无邪 is his conclusion. Pure thought or free from corruption. 

I’m not surprised that 永琪 is learning this. 论语 of course is one of the standard texts that men learn and, as a prince, needs to learn how to govern in the future.

—

释义：我的心和竹子是一样的，与众不同不懂谄媚，就只等着拨云见日的那一天。

出处：金朝完颜亮的《咏竹》，全诗：

孤驿潇潇竹一丛，不同凡卉媚春风。

我心真与君相似，只待云梢拂碧空。 

前句释义：孤零零的驿站旁长着一丛竹子，竹子品性高洁，不像百花一到春天就开出鲜艳的花朵，向春风谄媚。

–

Next – we jump to episode 51 where we see a lovely music box that 魏璎珞 has somehow managed to get her hands on and dances the waltz with Ming Yu and the Emperor! I’ll just go ahead and say it that this whole scene is a massive bug and here simply for our enjoyment. 

According to my research, the first music box was invented by Swiss watchmaker Antoine Favre-Salomon (30 November 1734 – 17 August 1820) in 1796. He invented a pocket watch with an embedded musical mechanism and it was recognized as the first music box. In chinese, we call it the 八音盒. 

We’re currently in the 1750s so it’s still a good 40 years before anything resembling a music box is invented. What we see in the show is definitely a more advanced version and those didn’t come along until well into the 19th century. 

As for the waltz! At first I was also going to say that waltzing is an anachronism, in that it wasn’t invented, but a quick search proved me wrong! The waltz was invented in germany and austria way back in the 13th century. By the end of the 18th century, it was accepted by the high class even in the Habsburg court! The reading is quite funny because the religious leaders thought the dance was vulgar and sinful because people had to touch each other and also be in close contact. If that’s what the religious folk thought, I wonder if the french ministers who went to China actually knew this dance. It seems like the French did love the waltz but not sure about those who traveled to the far east. 

I am alo 99% sure that Qian Long’s court didn’t dance the waltz but I also find it funny that Emperor Qian Long in this scene was quite jealous and asked Ying Luo if that’s how the French ministers taught her. 

This scene was just a fun little interlude and lets not think too much of it.

–

Lastly – let’s talk about the man that caused all the strife for these two episodes. 讷尔布 – the father of our current empress.

We know very little about the man – not when he was born, not when he died. His family was originally from the Manchu Bordered Blue Banner, but after the promotion of his daughter to Empress, Emperor 乾隆 promoted the hoifa-nala clan to the Manchu Standard Yellow Banner. He inherited a post of a 4th rank 佐领 or officer. 

According to 清实录 or the Factual Record of Qing, it states that the father of the Empress, 讷尔布, was posthumously granted the title of Duke of the First Rank. Officials were sent to pray. Tombstones were also built. His wife was also given a 诰命 title of the first rank. His grandson 纳苏肯 inherits the title of Marquis of the first rank

This essentially means that when Consort Xian was promoted to the title of Empress, her father and her brother had already passed, otherwise the title of marquis would not have passed down to the Empress’s nephew. 

When the Empress first married the Emperor all the way back in the early 1730s, the information regarding 讷尔布 already stated as Former 佐领. That means he had already retired from this role and was probably of a more senior age, like 60. When Emperor Qian Long ascended the throne and presented gifts to the hoifa-nara clan, 讷尔布 was still alive. However, by the 13th year of Emperor Qian Long’s reign, and a time when the new Empress was about to be promoted, all gifts and titles were bestowed upon the Empress’s nephew, so we can infer that her father had already passed. 讷尔布 did have another daughter who was significantly older than our current Empress. 

So – as we can see with the history above, the drama takes many liberties with the story of the hoifa-nara clan. I think this works for the drama overall though, because here it highlights tensions, loyalty, hatred amongst several groups. The Emperor and the Empress. The Empress and the Empress Dowager. The Empress and Prince He, and finally we’ll see in the next episode, The Empress and 纯贵妃

–

[karen] 

Welcome back to Chasing Dramas! This is the podcast that discusses Chinese culture and history through historical Chinese dramas. I’m your host for today Cathy and Karen! 

Today we are discussing episode 47+48 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. 

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to reach out to us on instagram or twitter or else email us at karenandcathy@chasingdramas.com.

This podcast episode consists of a drama episode recap and we’ll move on to discuss the history portrayed in this episode.

–

[Cathy]

In the last two episodes, YIng Luo had to deal with the rumors swirling around the palace about her and Fu Heng who recently returned from war that impacted her standing in the eyes of the Emperor. The Emperor knew full well that he was the one to stand in between YIng Luo and Fu Heng and though he didn’t say it, was inwardly upset to hear that 璎珞 and 傅恒 might be having an affair. It all came to a head when Ying Luo set a trap for 小嘉嫔 and to some degree 纯贵妃 who were the primary instigators of the rumors which let the Emperor know that it was primarily 小嘉嫔 who was most interested in causing a scene against YIng Luo. But the problem is, the trap set by Ying LUo involved Fu Heng’s presence which then led the Emperor giving YIng Luo the cold shoulder. Because even though Ying Luo was framed by 小嘉嫔, the sight of her and 傅恒 together was enough to cause the Emperor to be upset. 

We turn to episode 47 now. YIng Luo is now feeling the full effects AGAIN if I might add of being “discarded” by the EMperor. She’s not given the food and coal befitting of her station in the palace. 明玉 is upset on her behalf but Ying Luo gives some of her thoughts which I found to be extremely accurate and reflective of what it means to be a woman of the EMperor. She says the Emperor doesn’t care what kind of woman shares his bed as long as she is able to help ease the stress from his work, that’s all that matters. That is why in the palace, all of the individual flowers that were once beautiful will ultimately fade away into forgotten faces. Why would the Emperor want to be with a woman who makes him unhappy? 

[Karen]

And i think this little paragraph reflects the true position of women in the palace. They’re not there to be equals to the Emperor. They’re there to help him relieve stress and act as child bearing entities. Sigh.

See, YIng luo would have been left out in the cold and perhaps forgotten if only the people who want her downtrodden just left her alone. But nope. 纯贵妃 shows up hoping to humiliate Ying Luo but actually gives her a great opportunity to resurface back into the Emperor’s line of sight. 纯贵妃 requests for Ying Luo to embroider a Buddhist Bodhisattva portrait for the Empress Dowager in one month. Ming Yu tries to protest in order to protect YIng Luo’s hands which have been damaged from her time at Xin Zhe Ku but Ying Luo accepts the offer.

We get a montage of Ying Luo working tirelessly day in an day out to embroider the portrait while Fu Heng quietly helps Ying luo by using her new eunuch Xiao Quan Zi to give her much needed coal, food and medicine. After a month, the beautiful embroidery is presented to the Empress Dowager.

[Cathy]

The Empress Dowager is extremely pleased to see such an intricate work and non-stop compliments the creator of this beautiful piece. 纯贵妃 just states that it’s the ladies of the Embroidery Department who finished the piece and totally glosses over Ying Luo’s contribution. However, the Emperor, who was in attendance for this reveal, spotted with his eagle eyes that the hair for the buddha was sewn with actual hair and a small bloodstain was embroidered into a design on the forehead of the buddha. 

The Emperor promptly leaves and his spidey senses tingle as he remembers that “she” was originally from the Embroidery department. No one else in that department would be so meticulous in their work. 

He wanders over the training grounds where 傅恒 and 海兰察 are currently sparring. The Emperor immediately jumps in for a furious battle against 傅恒. The fight and discussion becomes heated as 傅恒 point blank raises the fact that if it weren’t for the Emperor’s refusal back in the day, The Emperor’s 令嫔 would most likely be his, 傅恒’s wife, today. He departs with the words that since the Emperor already has 令嫔, the Emperor should treat her better so that he, 傅恒 doesn’t continue to regret why he didn’t persist more in the past. He walks away while the Emperor remembers the late Empress’s words as to why he tore apart this couple. 

—

[Karen]

We get a little interlude with 和亲王 or Prince He who is the Emperor’s brother that we haven’t seen in a while. He has also returned to the palace and holds a hatred against Ying Luo whom he believes, accurately, that YIng lUo killed his mother. He takes this opportunity to humiliate YIng Luo and Ming Yu but is stopped by Fu Heng. After Prince He leaves, Ying Luo hastily turns to leave but not before Fu Heng tells her that he spoke to the Emperor to treat her better in the future.

At night, the Emperor, after thinking about Fu Heng’s words, makes a surprise and stealthy visit to Yan Xi Gong. He personally sees with his own eyes the destitute living situation that Ying Luo is currently subjected to. She has no servants left and her rooms are extremely cold. She has been tasked to embroider more buddhist texts for the Empress Dowager and is doing so by dim candlelight with only Ming Yu accompanying her.

–[Cathy] -> this scene was SO funny to me because the Emperor and Li Yu are literally sneaking into the palace and like avoiding the light. This reminded of this ABC show Galavant where the King and Galavant are drunkenly trying to sneak around the castle. They’re singing a song that goes something like -> “Secret secret, hush hush hush”. I burst out laughing at the scene

[Karen]

Anyways – the Emperor, upon returning to his rooms, is flustered by what he saw and tells Li Yu to give his coal and one of his lamps to Ying Luo. But make sure that she doesn’t know it’s from her. He’s just being stubborn in his care for her but he’s clearly upset that she’s living in such a poor state. The next day, everything that the Interior Household Department had been neglecting to give Ying Luo suddenly appears. She now has food, clothing and coal to help her get through the winter.

[Cathy]

The completed embroidered buddhist text is presented to 纯贵妃 who is begrudgingly quite impressed with YIng Luo’s skill. She is none the wiser that her attempt to humiliate YIng Luo was the opportunity Ying Luo needed to reconnect with the Emperor. 

And indeed. One night, the Emperor was severely agitated with his work duties and also annoyed that Ying Luo has not come to thank him yet for his gifts. Only for Ying Luo to sneak into his quarters dressed as a eunuch. Her little joke does indeed ease his stress and the two of them are able to move past the rumors and Ying Luo even gets the Emperor to apologize to her for his treatment over the last few months. The Emperor even guarantees that no one will bully YIng Luo again. Ying Luo has now fully recovered the Emperor’s favor.

[Karen]

We now turn to Episode 48 with Fu Heng celebrating in his home with a few drinks. His maid 青莲 asks why he’s so happy and he in turns tells her about how he was helpful in Ying Luo’s plan.  Apparently everything she’s done in the last few episodes including being cold shouldered by the Emperor were all part of her plan to further instigate the Emperor’s feelings for her. Fu Heng guessed that Ying Luo was using him the moment she called him back in Chang Chun Gong for the Emperor to see them together. It’s pretty obvious because Ying Luo could have told him to leave. Why call him back? And now she’s back on top stronger than ever.  Both Fu Heng and 纯贵妃 in episode 47 uttered the lines of 忍常人不可忍才能得常人不可得 which means being able to endure what most people cannot endure to obtain what others cannot obtain. In this case, the Emperor’s heart. Qing Lian leaves and is seen by 尔晴 who instantly becomes jealous once again that even without Ying Luo, 傅恒 has this maid to talk to and not her. 

Back at the palace, the Emperor is thoroughly enjoying time together with Ying Luo. The Emperor teaches YIng Luo to paint and she is entirely a jokester in front of him. I would say she’s very good at 撒娇 which I don’t think there’s a good direct english translation but you could say she’s good at being cute and flirty to grab the Emperor’s attention. She teases the Emperor’s love for stamping paintings with his myriad of stamps and is not afraid to call him uncultured. But instead of being too upset, he is happy with her presence. 

–[Cathy] Please note in this episode, that the Emperor and 魏璎珞 are painting orchids, which we’ve discussed are mainly the flowers that represent 纯贵妃. Here though, 魏璎珞 says – I’m going to be the cricket that teases the orchid leaves. That’s pretty heavy foreshadowing of what will happen to 纯贵妃. 

[Cathy]

The rest of the ladies in the palace are extremely displeased with the full attention that the Emperor has given Ying Luo. None moreso than 纯贵妃. The one night she was able to secure the Emperor’s presence in her palace, the Emperor is distracted by a beautiful sound coming from outside. The Emperor is immediately whisked away by the interesting sound leaving 纯贵妃 alone once again. That is to say, Ying Luo has many tricks up her sleeve to capture the interest of the Emperor.

The person that is most enjoying the turn of events is none other than the new Empress. She knows that 令嫔 is pushing everyone’s buttons but since 令嫔 is not impacting her status as Empress for now, she is happy to watch the show. At one morning’s court greeting, the other ladies are all complaining about YIng Luo. All except for 庆贵人. Surprisingly 纯贵妃 doesn’t let her anger and jealousy show and instead turns to proper imperial harem matters for the Empress to consider. The Empress praises 纯贵妃‘s composure but then smirks at 纯贵妃’s clenched hands as a maid arrives announcing the decree that Ying Luo has been promoted to 令妃 or Consort Ling. 

We’ll leave the episode recap there and head onto discuss history for these episodes and leave the last few minutes of this episode for the next podcast episode. 

–

[Karen]

History

There’s not a lot of history in episode 47, so we’re going to focus most of the discussion to episode 48

We’re gonna briefly talk about 张廷玉. Emperor 乾隆 is very angry with him at the end of episode 47 for daring to request to have is plaque placed in the Imperial Ancestral Temple or 太庙. It is recorded in 1749 that 张廷玉, who was requesting retirement, deeply annoyed the Emperor for requesting the privilege to have his plaque placed in 太庙. It was basically a threat because he said – hey, your father promised this to me. Are you going to honor this? The Emperor begrudgingly agreed but 张廷玉 didn’t personally go to thank the Emperor, which pissed him off even more. The next day, 张廷玉 hurriedly came to personally thank the Emperor but by this point Emperor 乾隆 believed there was a rat who told 张廷玉 of his anger. So then, 张廷玉 basically was striped of his title AND his privilege plaque placed in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

Long story short – 张廷玉 pissed off the the Emperor. It was only after he died in 1755 at the ripe old age of 84 did the Emperor finally agree to have his plaque installed in the ancestral temple.

[Cathy]

浮一大白

Garden of Stories is a collection of stories and anecdotes from the pre-Qin period to the Western Han Dynasty compiled and annotated by the Confucian scholar 刘向 in 17 BCE. There were originally 20 scrolls; we only have 5 surviving. It was recompiled in the Song Dynasty to 20 chapters. 

在古代“浮一大白”，便是罚酒一大杯的意思。

魏文侯与大夫饮酒，使公乘不仁为觞shāng政，曰：‘饮不釂jiào者，浮以大白。

Duke Wen of Wei was drinking with his courtiers. He has one of his ministers 公乘不仁 act as judge. If anyone doesn’t finish drinking his cup, then they need to be punished with another drink. Well, the Duke didn’t finish his drink and 公乘不仁 indeed said – Duke, you need to drink another. So the phrase 浮一大白 is to punished with another drink. 

[Cathy]

章总

In episode 48, 魏璎珞 and the Emperor have finally reconciled and 魏璎珞 makes a big dig at the Emperor for all of his stamps, especially what he stamped on the 鹊华秋色图 Autumn Colors of Que and Hua Mountains. I commented on how there’s like over 100 stamps of seals on the painting and how Emperor Qian Long loved to stamp things and I find it hilarious that 魏璎珞 calls him out on it.

Why? Well because history buffs nowadays call him 章总 or Seal Director because this Emperor just loved to collect 印章 or seals to STAMP things. I’m reading a funny article roasting Emperor 乾隆 on this particular hobby, so much so that they call him the Seal Monster.  It was most likely to show – look, I’m scholarly, I’m an intellectual. 

His main target for his seals? To the despair of many, priceless paintings and writings. As the Emperor, he could and did collect these paintings and writings for the royal collection. Once he had them in his possession, he would stamp his seal on the painting to show ownership. The funniest thing though, is that he loved to put a seal on the most obvious place of the painting. Sometimes, this red seal basically destroys the integrity of the painting. The author of this article was not at all subtle for his dismissal of Emperor 乾隆’s actions with regards to seals and his destruction of the original works.

I mean, look at the 鹊华秋色图 and the sheer number of red seals stamped on the painting that was shown during that scene. When I talked about that painting for episode 44, even I could make out specific stamps from him. 

However, did you notice the number of seals he has on his table? It’s at least like 6. Yep, he loved his seals. There’s a compilation of Emperor Qian Long’s artifacts and just with SEALS, they recorded over 1000. So yea – that’s why they call him 章总 or Seal Director. 

[Karen]

乌金砚 – Inkstone or 砚 is what the Chinese used for calligraphy and painting.  This is a rare inkstone from the He Bei province near Mei Mountain. As Emperor Qian Long said in the drama, this inkstone is extremely rare. I read in a post that people basically have never seen it in modern times. There’s a compendium that was published in 1943 that describes 乌金砚, but the entry basically just stresses that this particular inkstone is extremely rare and has not been seen. So for 魏璎珞 to just be gifted this inkstone means that the Emperor REALLY adores her.

奇葩 – here’s a phrase that Li Yu uses in episode 48 that listeners should really pay attention to.

I always thought that this was an anachronism because 奇葩 is now used a lot and is used colloquially to describe someone or something as outright weird. 

However, that’s not the case! 奇葩 has appeared in the written form since the Han dynasty! Including by the famed Han Dynasty poet 司马相如. In his rhapsody, the Beauty or 美人赋 written in , he has the phrase 奇葩逸丽，淑质艶光 Qípā yì lì, shū zhì yàn guāng or an Exquisite woman who is  elegant and graceful and dazzling. This of course means that 奇葩 typically refers to a woman.

It means a rare and peculiar beautiful flower. It typically describes a very unique piece of art or writing or else an interesting person. It is used to describe a person or item that is unconventional and full of personality. This basically describes 魏璎珞 to a T. 

[Cathy]

水仙子·喻纸鸢 – this is the poem or a folk song that’s found on the kite that Emperor Qian Long picks up. It was written in the Yuan Dynasty – so 13th -> 14th century

丝纶长线寄生涯，纵放由咱手内把，纸糊披就没牵挂，被狂风一任刮，线断在海角天涯。收又收不下，见又不见他，知她流落在家

Here’s my translation. The threads control all of the movements of the kite. Where it moves, I control. There’s nothing to hold this kite back. A strong wind blows it away, breaking the thread. It flies to the end of the earth. I can’t retrieve it and it’s lost to the wind. Who knows where it has landed?

On the surface, the poem is about a kite. But it actually is about longing for someone. The kite itself represents marriage. There’s another saying in chinese 千里姻缘一线牵 or a thousand mile marriage is connected by a thread. So the kite or marriage is connected by a thread. If it breaks, so does the marriage.

I’m reading on baidu and we could interpret the song as such. The kite is a woman, perhaps even a prostitute who no longer is in that line of business. A man falls in love with her and they become betrothed. The man is very confident in the marriage and doesn’t grab onto the relationship. However, the kite or woman, seemingly with no strings attached, instead turns her attention to another man and leaves without a trace. The string is broken. He is heartbroken. Unable to move on, he wonders what happened to her. Well – regardless if the woman was a prostitute or not, the story is indeed about a man who “lost” his marriage.

This is an interesting song or poem to feature in the drama because here, the roles are reversed. 魏璎珞 is the man flying the kite and the Emperor is the kite. She is confessing to the Emperor that she’s uncertain about his feelings towards her. She can also feel lost and heartbroken if the Emperor decides to turn around and abandon her. The Emperor immediately understood this, which is why he was so happy upon seeing the kite. He finally gets some sort of indication of 魏璎珞’s feelings.

安南 – used to be the name of Vietnam

俄国 – of course is Russia

[Cathy]

Finally

令妃 – she was promoted to consort in the 5th month of 1748 and had the official ceremony in the 4th month of the next year. This is roughly 2.5 years after her promotion to Imperial Concubine. We now finally have the 令妃 that every knows!

–

[Karen]

That is it for this podcast episode! Remember to vote on our website chasingdramas.com!

If you’re looking for sites to watch dramas and you’re in the US, head on over to our sponsor JubaoTV, that’s J-u-b-a-o TV. It’s a FREE service that has a selection of Chinese dramas and movies to watch. They just launched on Plex! You can stream it through the website xumo or else access it on tv if you have xfinity or cox contour. Again, all of this is free. 

We will catch you all in the next episode!

[Cathy] 

Welcome back to Chasing Dramas! This is the podcast that discusses Chinese culture and history through historical Chinese dramas. I’m your host for today Cathy and Karen! We’re recording on January 22 which means happy Lunar New Year everyone! It’s the year of the rabbit! 

Today we are discussing episode 45+46 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. 

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to reach out to us on instagram or twitter or else email us at karenandcathy@chasingdramas.com.

This podcast episode consists of a drama episode recap and we’ll move on to discuss the history portrayed in this episode.

–

[Karen]

In Episode 44, we saw Fu Heng return to the palace from war. At first he was excited to be back but then his world shattered when he saw Ying Luo appear before him as a concubine of the Emperor. 

His return presents a sticky situation for both him and Ying Luo. 纯贵妃 who is not pleased at all at the rise of Ying Luo’s status in the palace, immediately takes action. One night when the Emperor visits her, she does not hesitate to casually mention how Ying Luo must be happy to see that Fu Heng is back and highlights their prior relationship back at Chang Chun Gong.  This causes the Emperor’s suspicion to be tested and he deliberately avoids heading into Yan Xi Gon to see Ying Luo. 

[Cathy]

Shortly after, rumors start flying all over the palace about Ying Luo and Fu Heng’s prior relationship. Xiao 嘉嫔 who had been grounded takes this opportunity to stoke the flames of the fire by crying in front of the Emperor, begging for forgiveness and then casually mentioning 傅恒 as well as jealousy of women. The Emperor gets the hint but becomes angry at hearing this. He also heads over to the Empress’s palace who cleverly highlights that ying luo and fu heng’s relationship is bound to be stronger than others because of their relationship with the late Empress but then praises Ying Luo’s behavior in the palace for not having any opportunity to connect with Fu Heng since she arrived. This causes the Emperor to be further agitated because he’s not sure what to think any more while the Empress is mightly pleased that 纯贵妃 has such a foe in the palace.

Just as the rumors are everywhere, Ying Luo runs into Fu Heng in the gardens. But instead of turning back, she agrees to speak with him right then and there with Ming Yu present as well. Fu Heng doesn’t hesitate to bare his heart out and ask why YIng Luo didn’t wait for him and that he has no ability to not think about her. Ying Luo, to her credit, makes it clear to him that since that fateful winter day when Fu Heng and Er Qing came to the palace while she kneeled for hours, she already let her feelings go. And because this conversation was in public, it was overseen by both the Emperor and 纯贵妃 who most certainly guided the Emperor there after her maids saw Ying Luo and Fu Heng speaking in the garden.

[Karen]

With that the tide turns again against YIng Luo. Her maids are bullied in the palace and her favored gardenia flowers were confiscated by the Emperor as potpourri as chambers. Furthermore, a eunuch, 小全子 was captured by YIng Luo and MIng Yu to have been stealing goods from 延禧宫。 Ying Luo lets 小全子 go but notices a peculiar handkerchief that was in the bag of stolen goods. But even though 小全子 was apologetic about stealing the goods, he managed to swipe a hairpin that was then given to an unknown maid outside.

With this overhang that Ying Luo may not be faithful to the Emperor, she manages to seize her opportunity for a turnaround shortly after. Chun Gui Fei escorts the Empress Dowager, the Emperor and several other ladies in the palace to see the Su Zhou market that she set up in front of the palace. It’s a cute little market that 纯贵妃 put together to bring a smile to the Empress Dowager’s face. As the cohort of people walk around to explore the market, they hear a familiar voice and they see none other than 璎珞 at a stall in the market selling different wines. She has taken off her court attire and dressed down to match that of a wine peddling woman to great effect. Both the Emperor and Empress Dowager are pleasantly surprised to see her while 纯贵妃‘s face is hilarious to look at. She is absolutely sour at Ying Luo’s little display which takes the attention off of her. Not only is Ying Luo selling Jiang Nan wines but she also learned a bit of 苏州dialect in order to sell her wares. It’s a fun little scene for Ying Luo and despite the Emperor being rather dismissive of Ying Luo’s little act, he ultimately decides to visit her at yanxi gong that night.

[Cathy]

At Yan xi gong, the Emperor stoically drinks tea while Ying Luo takes her chance. She puts her acting skills on display and pretty much recreates exactly what 小嘉嫔, 纯贵妃 and the EMpress said to the Emperor about Ying Luo and Fu Heng earlier this episode in front of the Emperor. Its hilarious because the Emperor at first did not have any idea what was going on and when YIng Luo starts fake crying the little twitches on his face actually made me chuckle. He was like “wtf is she doing”. BUT this little show works because the Emperor decides to let this go as Ying Luo asks him for some more trust between them and the Emperor openly admits that he likes Ying Luo’s type of “bad” woman.

[Karen]

With this roller coaster seemingly subsided, we head back to the Su Zhou market in episode 46 with the Empress Dowager and the rest of the ladies in the palace. 纯贵妃 has helped set it up so that it can actually function as a market and items from the Imperial Household Department that are unneeded can be sold on specific days. But as the Empress DOwager strolls through the market, they see that stolen goods from the Empress Dowager’s palace are being put up for sale. Not only from her palace, goods from Yan Xi Palace and many others were on sale. This greatly angers the Empress Dowager that such theft has happened and does not hesitate to show her displeasure at 纯贵妃 who put this market together and was not careful in vetting where various goods came from. Evidently, this market became an opportunity for those thieving palace maids and eunuchs to make a quick buck. 

纯贵妃 suffered a heavy blow today and she knows full well that this was orchestrated by Ying Luo. Indeed, we see that she had told 小全子 to move the pilfered goods from the palace to the market and humiliate 纯贵妃 today. This was Ying Luo’s retaliation against the rumors that 纯贵妃 spread about her and 傅恒。

[Cathy]

Speaking of. This poor guy is still being mopey about his non-existent relationship with Ying Luo. Like dude, it’s been years and plus, you were the one to give Ying Luo up! Geez. THere’s melancholy music on the background and he’s fully ignoring Er Qing’s attempts to seduce him which, good for him but he should recognize that there’s absolutely no future between him and YIng Luo. Not only that, I think it needs to be drilled into his head that HE caused this to happen!

[Karen]

Ugh. Anyways, we now turn to the memorial to the late Empress to finally put the whole rumors to rest. Fu Heng arrives at Chang Chun Gon to pay his respects to his late sister. As he’s heading out to meet the Emperor, he is bumped head on by a young eunuch who had a bowl of sacrificial meat in his hands. NOw that his outfit is unclean, he agrees with the nearby maid and the young eunuch who help him clean his outfit before seeing the Emperor. As he is about to leave however, he is called back by Ying Luo who is with Ming Yu at Chang Chun Palace. Ying luo requests him to stay and they have a heartfelt chat. She says that he ought to leave the Capital as he doesn’t fit in the palace while he also acknowledges that it was his mistake for his decisions in the past. But as they’re speaking, 小嘉嫔 arrives with the Emperor and states that the two of them are having a secret amorous rendez vous. The Emperor is furious at the sight while 小嘉嫔 says all manner of nasty things implicating that the two are having an affair. It gets worse when one of YIng Luo’s hairpins fall from Fu Heng’s person evidently planted there by the small eunuch earlier when they cleaned Fu Heng’s outfit. The Emperor at this point is fuming at the scene though he actually doesn’t have too many words to say. But that’s when Ying Luo starts laughing. She laughs that 小嘉嫔‘s acting is too poor and calls for the eunuch 小全子 to come forth. In front of the Emperor, 小全子 reveals that he stole the hairpin by order of 小嘉嫔 in order to create the facade that 璎珞 and 傅恒 were having an affair. This was all a plot by Ying Luo who recognized that because Xiao Quan Zi tried to steal a basic handkerchief, he was most likely trying to creat a fake relationship between her and Fu Heng. Plus, because he was involved in the blackmarket activity at Chun GUi Fei’s Su Zhou market,  Ying Luo basically gave him no choice but to come forth in front of the EMperor and come clean.

小嘉嫔 can only cry denying that she was involved but the Emperor has had enough. She is placed under house arrest in her palace and no longer allowed to leave before he storms off. Problem is, just as 小嘉嫔 states, she might no longer be in favor, but Ying Luo’s position in the palace is now in an even more precarious position. After all, the Emperor did just see her and Fu Heng together. NO matter how innocent this encounter was, it will still have a lasting impact on the Emperor. 

And that’s where we leave episode 46! We will find out next how YIng Luo again turns the Emperor back in her favor. 

–

[Cathy]

和令狐相公咏栀子花

刘禹锡

This poem was written probably between the years of 836 and 837 by the Tang Dynasty poet 刘禹锡. He lived from 772 to 842. He was a philosopher, scholar, court official, and poet. 

蜀国花已尽，越桃今已开。色疑琼树倚，香似玉京来。

且赏同心处，那忧别叶催。佳人如拟咏，何必待寒梅。

Here’s my translation of the full poem

The petals on the flowers in the kingdom of Shu have already fallen but the Gardenias are still blooming

The bright colors are like those of the immortal trees, the fragrance is almost as though it comes from the far Jade Palace

While enjoying these flowers, we needed worry if the branches grow jealous of the petals

If the beauty wants to be praised through song and poems, why wait for the winter plum blossoms to bloom?

越桃:栀子花的别名 – another name for Gardenias

玉京 – represents the palace the Heavenly Emperor lives in. 

琼树:仙树，道教称天帝所居之处。

[Karen]

Next up! Let’s move on to the Su Zhou market that 纯贵妃 so deftly put together and then was promptly overtaken by 魏璎珞. The 苏州 market in the drama took place in the palace. Did you guys catch the one phrase that the Emperor says in the drama? 

在万寿寺前，沿御河两岸，专门为太后建一个苏州街 – in front of the Longevity Temple, along the 2 banks of the royal river, I will build a dedicated Su Zhou street for the Empress Dowager.

Well – he did indeed build it! 

In 1750, Emperor Qian Long began a project that would cost over 4 million taels of silver to build what was called 清漪园 or Gardens of Clear Ripples for his mother as a sign of filial piety and also for her 60th birthday. This became the precursor of what we now know as 颐和园 or the Summer Palace which is in the western part of Beijing. 

The 苏州 Street is situated between 后湖 or the Hou Lake. It’s not really a lake but a river. Along the two banks of the river, a small market that replicates the sound and feel of a Jiang Nan water market that was to be enjoyed for the royal family. The first version of the 苏州 street market was indeed built for the Empress Dowager’s birthday and, according to records, was quite rushed. In the subsequent years, the street market wasn’t really a market to be used by locals but kind of like a tourist attraction for the royal family. There were antique stores, jade stores, silk stores, pastry stores, jewelry stores, you name it. The workers were of course eunuchs and maids who pretended to be the shop owners for the pleasure of the royal family, somewhat similar to what we see in the drama. 

Unfortunately much of it was destroyed in 1860 during the second opium war. In 1986, there was an effort from the Chinese government to restore the su zhou market. Today, a stretch of 300 yards of the su zhou market was restored and rebuilt based on records from the 17th century including 60+ store fronts. 

I feel like we use the word Stunning to describe several things, be it wardrobe, jewelry etc, the Summer Palace or 颐和园 is truly stunning.It is a UNESCO world heritage site. It thankfully mostly survived the pillaging by the western forces during the opium wars and the grandeur that we see today can rival the most famous palaces found elsewhere in the world. The grounds are massive so it’s tough to visit every part of the park and people usually do a quick sprint around the lake. 

I don’t think I’ve ever paid attention to whether or not I’ve been to the Suzhou street market because I typically just climbed up the Longevity Mountain to see the main pagodas. I feel like in recent episodes, we’ve just been calling for all of you to visit China to visit these landmarks. This SUmmer palace is a must see. If you can only visit one, visit this one rather than 圆明园 or the old summer palace. 

[Cathy]

桑落

新丰

菊花

女儿红

竹叶青

杜康

All different types of wine found in china. They’re typically rice based but for example 菊花 is chrysanthemum wine which uses a mix of chrysanthemum flowers and gluttonous rice and qu to make the wine. 

I’ve only had a few of the wines mentioned here including 女儿红 and 竹叶青. I personally prefer lighter wines such as 桂花酒 or Osmanthus Wine and 女儿红. The more famous Chinese wines or liquors such as 白酒 are wayy to intense for me. Let me know if you need any recommendations on Chinese wines or liquors. We’ve actually seen some good varieties in the US.

In the drama, 魏璎珞 speaks in a dialect when she’s selling the wine. It’s supposed to be 苏州话.  苏州dialect – is a variety of 吴 Chinese and spoken by the local population from the city of Su Zhou and its surrounding areas. Su Zhou Hua is one of the oldest dialects in China dating back to more than 3000 years. Thankfully, due to written records, we today can study the linguistic transformations of the language till now. Unfortunately, I am not well versed in the southeastern dialects of China. The dialects found in China range vastly and this is a prime example. The Su Zhou dialect is very different from Mandarin Chinese. For example, in Mandarin, there are only 4 tones, but in Suchounese, there’s 7. What’s interesting, is that the 苏州 dialect is different from the Shanghai Dialect and other cities in the Zhe Jian province. I went down a rabbit hole of finding videos of people reading poems in the su zhou dialect and the shanghai dialect and I kid you not, if it wasn’t for the subtitles, I would not have understood anything the folks said. 

Karen – what did you find out about how our voice actor did for this speaking part?

[Karen] – ad lib

[Cathy]

In episode 46, we also see the downfall of Imperial Concubine Jia. What’s the story with her historical counterpart? Well – apparently, nothing like the drama!

Lady Jin was born in 1713 to the Jin family who were also of the Bao Yi status. There’s conflicting documents but it’s most likely that she was of chosun or korean descent and a member of the 正黄旗 or Standard Yellow Banner. She married Emperor Qian Long when she was pretty young and when he ascended the throne in 1735, was given the title of Noble Lady Jin. She was then promoted to Imperial Concubine Jia in 1737. She gave birth to the 4th prince 永珹 in 1739. Contrary to what we have in the story, she didn’t die and have her family send her younger sister in to replace her. Instead – she went on to have more children with the Emperor. 

Let me give a rough timeline of the main events in her life. In 1741, she was promoted Consort. She gave birth to the 8th Prince 永璇 in 1746. Then 1748, she was promoted to Noble Consort and gave birth to the 9th prince who wasn’t given a name because he died young. In 1752, she gave birth to the 11th prince 永瑆 who went on to become one of the 4 great calligraphers of the Qian Long era . I just the listed 4 sons that she had! That’s ASTONISHING. Unfortunately we don’t see any of these sons mentioned in the drama. She died in 1755 due to illness at the age of 43. A few days later, she was given the posthumus of Imperial Noble Consort 淑嘉皇贵妃

I’m looking at the list of sons the Emperor had and he often had multiple children with the same women. Lady Jin was one of them. So, as we can see, this Lady Jin or in the drama Jia Pin, was definitely favored by Emperor 乾隆 if she was able to have 4 sons. I doubt she would have been as petty in real life if she could garner this much attention from the emperor. Her brother also rose to become Minister of Personnel or 吏部尚书. 

During his lifetime, Emperor qianlong actually ordered that Lady Jin’s family temple in Chosun be repaired. Apparently, it was still visible during the 19th century, but due to its location in present day North Korea, we don’t know of its current state. 

She was gifted a posthumus title of Imperial Noble Consort 淑嘉皇贵妃. Emperor Qian Long had 5 Imperial Noble Consorts, either in life or death and she was one of them. What’s interesting is that it was Emperor Qian Long’s son, Emperor Jia Qing that rose her entire family from the lower banners of the 包衣 class to the upper banners as the manchu 正黄旗 and gifted the manchu name of 金佳. So we now call her as 金佳 but that was not the case when she was alive. 

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[Karen]

That is it for this podcast episode! Remember to vote on our website chasingdramas.com!

If you’re looking for sites to watch dramas and you’re in the US, head on over to our sponsor JubaoTV, that’s J-u-b-a-o TV. It’s a FREE service that has a selection of Chinese dramas and movies to watch. They just launched on Plex! You can stream it through the website xumo or else access it on tv if you have xfinity or cox contour. Again, all of this is free. 

We will catch you all in the next episode!

[Cathy] 

Welcome back to Chasing Dramas! This is the podcast that discusses Chinese culture and history through historical Chinese dramas. I’m your host for today Cathy.

Today we are discussing episode 44 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. 

Friendly reminder to vote on our website for the drama you want us to discuss next!

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to reach out to us on instagram or twitter or else email us at karenandcathy@chasingdramas.com.

This podcast episode consists of a drama episode recap and we’ll move on to discuss the history portrayed in this episode.

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In episode 43, Ying luo and Emperor 乾隆 finally consummated the relationship and she’s gotten quite the favor from the Emperor. Ying Luo continues to play games with the Emperor to solidify her favor with him which he, despite being a little peeved, takes to gladly. 

But, there’s someone who is not pleased at all and that is 小嘉嫔. She is the younger sister of the deceased 嘉嫔 and was one of the most favored women in the palace until Ying Luo came along. To save costs, of course they have the same actress portray the two ladies. 

She forces Ying Luo to kneel for several hours one day because she felt like it and then went off to cry to the Emperor about how rude Ying Luo has been to her. Lies of course, but the EMperor believes her. At least for now. The Emperor, hearing these words and remembering how she used to treat him in Chang Chun Gong, orders that her placard be removed. This signifies that he will no longer see her.

Does Ying Luo care? Nope, not at all. Haha. She’s having a grand old time having a swing put together in her palace. Much to the chagrin of the Emperor who is annoyed that Ying Luo hasn’t come by to explain or beg for forgiveness. It’s really funny because even Li Yu is worried for Ying Luo about how little she cares about the Emperor. Haha. And then…the Emperor hears from the imperial doctor Ye Tian Shi that Ying Luo was forced to kneel and her knees are pretty badly bruised.

Next thing we know, a million gifts are being sent to Ying Luo’s residence from the EMperor. One of them includes a painting by Zhao Meng Fu called the Autumn Colors of Que and Hua Mountains or 鹊华秋色图. Evidently, they’re his apology for his treatment towards Ying Luo but Ying Luo just plays dumb and ignores Li Yu’s explanation of the Emperor’s non-verbal apology. She coughs a few coughs and Ming Yu steps in and says that Ying Luo caught a cold while out on the swings. Ying Luo’s refusal severely pisses off the Emperor who, in his residence, angrily shouts that she’ll never sleep with him again! 

But just as the other women in the palace were snickering at Ying Luo’s rash action, the Emperor gets another surprise. The Emperor, when greeting the Empress Dowager, learns that the painting he had gifted Ying Luo has been then gifted once again to the Empress Dowager. She, not knowing that this was originally in the Emperor’s collection, gifts it back to the Empress Dowager. The Emperor then shortly storms out of the Empress Dowager’s residence, fuming that someone would discard his gift so easily. All of this was witnessed by 纯贵妃 who cannot fathom how Ying Luo could do such a thing.

Yet, it all, turns out, plays right into YIng Luo’s scheme as the Emperor’s next stop is to Yan Xi Gong. He goes there and interrogates Ying Luo as to why she behaves the way she does. He claims he sees right through her little schemes of making him constantly think about her to which she responds – so you know it’s my scheme, then why are you so mad? I thought this scene was hilarious because it took a different turn than I expected. The Emperor drags 魏璎珞 to the bedroom and it looked like he was about to assault her, in which, I was like…no no no, don’t do that. But then as soon as 魏璎珞 starts choking, he’s like ARE YOU OK? I didn’t use any pressure and let’s go! Aw, the Emperor is still a gentleman at heart. 

This little back and forth helps the Emperor reaffirm his affections for Ying Luo and when he leaves Yanxi palace, he decrees that Ying Luo will be promoted from Noble Lady to Imperial Concubine. 贵人 to 嫔 and then given the title of 令。 

Additionally, 小嘉嫔 is grounded for one month in her palace and must copy the Virtues of A Woman 女则 100 times. 

This sudden announcement surprises everyone because this promotion is extremely sudden and in the eyes of many, unwarranted. Being a 嫔 or the rank of Imperial Concubine meant that the woman now runs her own palace. 魏璎珞 will now be able to refer to herself as 本宫 and is no longer a 小主 or a small mistress. The servants and maids in the palace will now refer to her as 娘娘. During the Qing Dynasty, there could be only 6 嫔 and there needed to be a royal decree and proper ceremony to be conferred the title of 嫔. 

It’s no wonder that 纯贵妃 is deeply unhappy at the news. 

The rest of the episode sees the return of 傅恒 after his victory in 金川. He is happy to come home but is quickly reminded of what he comes home to. His wife 尔晴 and her son 福康安. 尔晴 is an absolute piece of work. She blames HIM for locking her up and almost dying during childbirth. Fu Heng rightly retorts with – you made a crazy decision and have to live with the consequences. 尔晴 in retaliation reveals the bombshell that 魏璎珞 is now 令嫔, which stuns 傅恒. He rushes to the Palace to see the truth for himself. Unfortunately, reality really packs a punch when he sees 魏璎珞 carried past him on a palanquin. 

The Emperor promotes him to a duke of the first rank but 傅恒 does not seem overly ecstatic about this honor. Back home, 傅恒 sheds many tears as he reminisces the pull that he felt while on the battlefield to win the war so that he might ask for 魏璎珞’s hand in marriage as a reward. Unfortunately it’s too late for him. 

傅恒 – I feel for you, I really do. It was a touching scene and I think the actor 许凯 does his best work here. It was also a rare scene where a man was able to show heartbreak and tears. We don’t see this too often in dramas. But, as 傅恒’s sister, the Empress, told him years ago, he was going to regret his decision. 魏璎珞 will not turn back to him and she hasn’t. He chose to let go and must face his consequences.  

That was it for the episode recap – let’s move on to history!

In this episode, 魏璎珞 gets promoted from Noble Lady or 贵人 to 嫔 or Imperial Concubine at an astonishing pace. This actually mirrors history! She was first granted the title of Noble Lady on the 23rd day of the first month in 1745. She was then promoted to 令嫔 on the 17th day of the 11th month in the same year. She also had her official promotion ceremony. We’re in like 1750 right now so disregard the year of the events that happen

。

In the drama, both 愉妃 and 纯贵妃 discuss the origins of the title. 令

It comes from the Book of Songs or 诗经, a compilation of songs and poems that date back over 2500 years ago. The poem comes specifically from 《大雅·卷阿 juàn ā》

The full line in the poem goes like this. “颙yóng颙昂昂，如圭如璋，令闻令望，岂弟君子，四方为纲。”

My translation for the lines go as such – courtiers are respectful, with characters as pure as the jade, with a reputation admired by all. A kind and amiable King, is the role model to all. 

In the drama the focus is on these two lines – 如圭如璋，令闻令望. 

令闻：美好的名声 means a great reputation；令望：有美好的威仪，使人景仰 means a prestige that people look up to。Put together, this phrase means one with a respected and prestigious reputation that others want to imitate   

In the historical compilation of 鸿称通用 which recorded the posthumus titles of Qing Dynasty Emperors, Empresses, and ladies of the Imperial harem, it states that 令 also matches with the Manchu word of mergen which means intelligent and wise. 

These are all very positive traits and really reflect a high praise that Emperor 乾隆 had for the historical counterpart of 魏璎珞. I’ll remind listeners that these titles were not to be made lightly. If you recall in Empresses in the Palace, Emperor 雍正 refused to give 安陵容 the title of 丽 because 丽 was used in 伉俪情深 which was reserved for husband and wife. Since 安陵容 wasn’t his wife, she did not deserve that title. Now, I know that Empresses in the Palace is also a drama and 安陵容 is a fictitious character, but this is another example of why the titles for these women were very important. A woman would be bestowed a title once she reached the rank of IMperial Concubine or 嫔 and could run her own palace. 

Alrighty – next! Let’s talk about the painting that was the subject of anger from the Emperor and some subtle jealousy from 纯贵妃！

鹊华秋色图 赵孟頫

Autumn Colors of Que and Hua Mountains

This is a watercolor painting that was completed by 赵孟頫 in 1295 during the 元 dynasty. He painted this particular work for his friend 周密 when he returned to his hometown of 浙江. 

On the left we have 鹊山 and on the right we have the tall 华不注山 -“不”要读作“福”的音 on the right. As is written in the name, it depicts the autumn colors of the mountains and the valley, with small houses shown closer to 鹊山 to represent the tranquility of the moment. It is a favored painting as it showcases deft skill of the brush, usage of vibrant colors, and overall dashing feel of the work. 

The author – 赵孟頫（1254—1322年）was from 浙江 and a descendent of the founding Emperor of the Song Dynasty – note his last name of 赵 which was the royal last name of the Song Dynasty. During the last years of the Song Dynasty, he was in the military. When the Mongols toppled the empire, he became an official in the Ministry of War. He was skilled in music, poetry, painting, and calligraphy.

The painting was gifted to the author’s friend周密. He then in turn gifted it to a man called 君锡. During the Ming Dynasty, it was col    lected by fame  d scholars such as 文徴明、文彭 and the collector 项元汴. By the time of the 清 dynasty – it was owned by the famous poet 纳兰性德. It was subsequently owned by the royal collection by the time of Emperor 乾隆. It remained in the Forbidden Palace for the remainder of the Qing Dynasty. 

In 1949, when Nationalists evacuated Beijing for Taiwan, they moved several treasures from the Forbidden Palace to Taiwan. This includes this specific painting. 鹊华秋色图 is now found in the National Palace Museum in Taipei

Emperor 乾隆 wrote 4 large characters on the painting – 鹊华秋色, which is reflected in the title. We have clues on who owned the painting at different times because these men loved putting stamps on the painting. None moreso than the Emperor and we’ll talk about this hobby of his in future episodes. 

According to Baike – there’s over 100 seals stamped on the painting. I’m looking at pictures of it and oh boy are there a LOT of seals. Which brings me to a fun little bug. The example that the drama showcases is probably the current version of the painting, and one where I can compare. It’s not going to be the one that existed at the time in 1750. Why do I say this? Because in the shot where they showcase the painting, there’s clearly a seal with the words 太上皇帝 to the top right of the painting. The seal 太上皇帝 was added by 乾隆 but it means retired emperor, so this must have been added after 乾隆 abdicat  ed his throne. There’s no way he would have put stamp on a painting while he was still in his prime. So, because of that – this painting is not “contemporary” to the time period but it is a great replica of the current one that we can still see. 

Lastly – let me talk about the timing of 傅恒’s return. We discussed the timeline for episode 41. He left shortly after the Empress died in 1748. The drama says that he was gone for 3 years. So that puts us in like 1751. In history, he made quick work of the battle of Jin Chuan and returned in 1749. He was promoted to Duke of the First Rank 忠勇公 and gifted 四团龙补服 or 4 dragon badge square. This was a crazy high honor because only the Emperor, Princes, and Tribe Princes could wear this. It meant that in the front, back and 2 shoulders, there were dragons displayed for formal court wear. In the 200 plus years of the Qing Dynasty – this honor was granted only 73 times. Of course, there was still a difference between what the Emperor wore vs the rest, but for non royalty to be allowed to wear dragons was nevertheless an extremely high honor. 

Phew – alright! That was a lot of history. 傅恒 now must face the reality of Imperial Concubine Ling. I totally forgot about 尔晴 for a couple of episodes and now whenever she’s on screen, she’s just the worst. I didn’t talk about 纯贵妃 and the constant hints towards the city of 苏州 but we’ll talk about it in the next couple of episodes. 

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That is it for this podcast episode! Remember to vote on our website chasingdramas.com!

If you’re looking for sites to watch dramas and you’re in the US, head on over to our sponsor JubaoTV, that’s J-u-b-a-o TV. It’s a FREE service that has a selection of Chinese dramas and movies to watch. They just launched on Plex! You can stream it through the website xumo or else access it on tv if you have xfinity or cox contour. Again, all of this is free. 

We will catch you all in the next episode!