It's been a really long time since I have seen a historical epic like this one. I have learned so much. Thank you to @PeachBlossomGoddess, @Salwa Nice and those who provided the information along the way. The cast was amazing, especially the veteran actors and the mains once they didn't have to pretend to be teenagers anymore.
came across this post randomly on feed one day and i got to know about this drama from this article. Didn't know anything about history but the plot interested me, after i started i had some confusions & started reading and watching Videos explaining history and after 5 episodes, started loving this drama so much.i just finished it today and i have to say i didn’t watch anything better than this in the past few years.the characters grew on me,i cried multiple times and got engaged to tbe storyline to unhealthy extent, had to rewatch some episodes to understand better and read comments here sometimes to get the broader aspects. 48 episodes could be longer and i can say i wouldn’t even skip one moment to watch them.
about the article, i was curious how it was received in china, what i got is it got a very good rating on douban and soon to surpass 1 billion cumulative views already (900million+ now) So i think the makers got what they wanted to achieve, the core message of peace was well conveyed, i hope more historical dramas like this are made for mature audiences. My favourite characters are too much here that It's hard to select only one. I'll be Rewatching in random Sunday Nights & the feels will still stay longer.
Replying tobadgersupremo•Feb 13, 2026•Liked Feb 14, 2026
Historically, This Cao Bin is very interesting to read. He was a nephew-in-law of Guo wei. The maternal aunt of his, who was married to Guo wei was killed by Liu Chengyou in Guo family massacre. He was a successful & Competent Military Commander, known for "taking careful measures to prevent unnecessary killing". His granddaughter was Empress Cao, married to Zhao kuangyi's Grandson, Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty. Both Emperor Renzong & Empress Cao were competent Rulers of the dynasty, i think there is a drama about them which i wanted to watch a long time ago but didn’t eventually, now i want to watch it again. probably after i finish this one.
I'm a crying mess. This series made me research more on this period that's no. 1. 2. This was such a beautiful watch. I was immersed from ep 1 till 48, I grew attached to the characters at some point and there was no skip. The entire production team from A to B deserves a huge round of applause for this drama. I'm truly going to miss it and I hope I get to see something this good again in the nearest future.
Replying toSalwa Nice•Feb 13, 2026•Liked Feb 14, 2026
I'm at the last ep. and already rewatched certain parts 4 times and will probably rewatch it again in the the future, bc of the superb dialogues and intricated meaning behind it. Although this drama didn't keep me on the edge of my seat, by rating standards on MDL, imho, it is impossible to rate it below 9,5. The direction was superb all the time and nothing was chopped during editing as it normally happens in other hystorical epics, during time skips. It is 10/10. The stellar cast delivered credible characters. If we want to be brutal and blind to the number of people employed, we can downrate their performance to max 9/10, bc. we can be picky on this or that (some "adult" characters were introduced "too early" or things like that)... but realistically, we've never seen, I mean, none of us, so many characters in a drama performing at this level.... It is simply amazing what they've collectively delivered. The music is 10/10, both intro and outro totally appealling and fit for the story, as well as the descrete bgm. Rewatching is simply phisiological. And now the story No drama can follow the historical records at the letter. Actually, no historical record can follow the real history, what counts is if the Story makes sense or not. This one makes a lot of sense and explains a lot of things, and keeps to focus on one Leitmotive common to the four main leads: their yearning for peace and striving to achieve that peace. For how it may not blindly follow the historical records, it respected that era all the time, including the dialogues which really occurred, helped us, the audience, to understand this complicated time, conveying a powerful message the nude history cannot convey, but a creative art (and the imagination behind) can. It can't be rated below 9. So, overall, this is 9,5 min, imo.
came across this post randomly on feed one day and i got to know about this drama from this article. Didn't know anything about history but the plot interested me, after i started i had some confusions & started reading and watching Videos explaining history and after 5 episodes, started loving this drama so much.i just finished it today and i have to say i didn’t watch anything better than this in the past few years.the characters grew on me,i cried multiple times and got engaged to tbe storyline to unhealthy extent, had to rewatch some episodes to understand better and read comments here sometimes to get the broader aspects. 48 episodes could be longer and i can say i wouldn’t even skip one moment to watch them.
about the article, i was curious how it was received in china, what i got is it got a very good rating on douban and soon to surpass 1 billion cumulative views already (900million+ now) So i think the makers got what they wanted to achieve, the core message of peace was well conveyed, i hope more historical dramas like this are made for mature audiences. My favourite characters are too much here that It's hard to select only one. I'll be Rewatching in random Sunday Nights & the feels will still stay longer.
77K + raters!
2. This was such a beautiful watch. I was immersed from ep 1 till 48, I grew attached to the characters at some point and there was no skip. The entire production team from A to B deserves a huge round of applause for this drama. I'm truly going to miss it and I hope I get to see something this good again in the nearest future.
Although this drama didn't keep me on the edge of my seat, by rating standards on MDL, imho, it is impossible to rate it below 9,5.
The direction was superb all the time and nothing was chopped during editing as it normally happens in other hystorical epics, during time skips. It is 10/10.
The stellar cast delivered credible characters. If we want to be brutal and blind to the number of people employed, we can downrate their performance to max 9/10, bc. we can be picky on this or that (some "adult" characters were introduced "too early" or things like that)... but realistically, we've never seen, I mean, none of us, so many characters in a drama performing at this level.... It is simply amazing what they've collectively delivered.
The music is 10/10, both intro and outro totally appealling and fit for the story, as well as the descrete bgm.
Rewatching is simply phisiological.
And now the story
No drama can follow the historical records at the letter. Actually, no historical record can follow the real history, what counts is if the Story makes sense or not. This one makes a lot of sense and explains a lot of things, and keeps to focus on one Leitmotive common to the four main leads: their yearning for peace and striving to achieve that peace. For how it may not blindly follow the historical records, it respected that era all the time, including the dialogues which really occurred, helped us, the audience, to understand this complicated time, conveying a powerful message the nude history cannot convey, but a creative art (and the imagination behind) can. It can't be rated below 9.
So, overall, this is 9,5 min, imo.
Thank you everyone for the insight that brings us to the other shore.
Great writing and great cast.
Dramas like this are not common but they always hit the feel good spot ❤️