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.
Guo Rong needed to be away to do and build stuff, to work on his grief and being involved in rediscovering his meaning to live again…he came back a better ruler. Guo Wei is such a resilience and strong character…the amount of baggage he carries and yet able to do his part as a ruler…I have tremendous admiration for this character. Feng Dao is another level of a wise smart character that can survived for century.
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 ❤️
Guo Wei is such a resilience and strong character…the amount of baggage he carries and yet able to do his part as a ruler…I have tremendous admiration for this character.
Feng Dao is another level of a wise smart character that can survived for century.