Editorials 
This review may contain spoilers
WHAT IS BROKEN CANNOT BE UNBROKEN
Dramas involving temporal shift are a convenient territory for launching theme-digging campaigns. Though the concept is rather unusual, I managed to grasp the structure of this multi-phase journey in time quite early.
FALSIFIED HISTORY
Journey to the past always brings anticipation of a miracle, like a dream of flying (pardon my digression to Lu Yuan’s birdish name – glede or kite). In this drama the time-traveller can operate only on the layer of awareness, not occurrences. His power is not that of a fact improver but fact revealer.
A false accusation leading to a witch process is a frequent theme in C-dramas. There is a resemblance between this series & “Love of the Divine Tree,” issued two years later.
The theme of full contradistinction of written historical record put against facts & intentions is also present in the study of scientific misconduct, “Miss the Dragon” (2021).
ORIGINS OF GOOD & EVIL
There is an immemorial dilemma in psychology: Is a person’s character based more on inborn traits or upbringing & experience?
The hero’s gradual time-travel shows that a person is ethically complete at birth. No matter how many steps we take into the heroine’s youth, she is imbued with determination to follow her conscience & readiness for self-sacrifice. Even as a girl, with no notion of abstract ideas, she presents herself as a future unwavering martyr queen.
By that time, the difference in age & experience between her & the visitor from the future becomes as tangible as an invisible wall. This is the limit of her personality core penetration.
Lu Shi is likewise predestined for sacrifice, which runs in that family.
Yuan Qi remains morally upright even when poison degrades his intellect to an eight-year-old’s.
Li Yong is a perfectionist focused on himself; this type of personality needs but a slight impulse to turn into a traitor. There is painful satisfaction in our waiting to discern that opportunity.
UNBREAKING THE BROKEN
A breakable & unbreakable artefact makes this drama related to “Love and Redemption.” Just like the pieces of the Eternal Mirror helped Chu Xuan Ji regain her lost senses, the drops of blood drive Shen Bu Yan towards awareness.
He finally realises that if the loss of one particular life is required to save thousands, & the person to be saved has already made the decision for herself to go, he lets her go. At that point, he resolves to make this valiant though short life properly commemorated, to render this sacrifice meaningful to the posterity. This is when his mind is finally at ease, though sorrow & longing remain. Lu Yuan dies young & childless, still she can now be seen as stepmother & saviour to one of the most potent emperors, whose lineage reaches modern times (trinket stall lady).
Fortunately, history turns out to be one of the items that, when broken, can still be unbroken. It just takes one sensitive & motivated witness with civil courage to speak against a fallacy that has grown into a best-selling dogma.
OBSCURE RESPONSIBILITY
Another similarity to “Love & Redemption” is an unsettling revelation to the main character that he (Shen Bu Yan) or she (Chu Xuan Ji) is the reason why the lives of the nearest persons & the nation have taken an undesired course, with vanishing hope for retribution. Chu Xuan Ji has an unearned heroic reputation as the Star of Mosha & nine failed consecutive lifetimes behind her. Shen Bu Yan dives five times into the past, each time reformulating his misconceptions about people’s intentions but still failing at redirecting the fate.
The irony is that all actions & artefacts (instruments, the jade pendant itself) prove to be connected to him. He admits not possessing the memories, i.e. the shared emotional asset with his dearest person (e.g. the origin of the pendant). He cannot answer for things he fails to remember. He cannot be sure to what extend he has rescheduled the history. The pages of his own book change in real time.
The story wants Shen Bu Yan gradually growing aware of his entanglement in the past events (including being a passive reason for Li Yong’s turn towards depravity). I was expecting he would soon prove to be the one immediately responsible for the emperor’s mental illness, Lu Shi’s sacrifice (e.g. out of induced over-protectiveness towards his sister), or even Lu Yuan’s death (well – indirectly yes).
CASSANDRA’S COMPLEX
Even rewinding the fate cannot suffice to fix it. Exploring, rethinking, reasoning, warning, using technical knowledge – all in vain. Whenever the hero is about to make a desperate move, he is summoned back to his epoch.
INCLINE VS DECLINE
If we drew the characters’ lives as graphs, with X-axis representing the course of the plot, one would be an incline, the other a decline. If the criteria were age, awareness, certitude or intensity of feelings, Shen Bu Yan’s would be increasing, Lu Yuan’s – decreasing. If the criteria were optimism, faith or vigour, it would be reverse.
These lines meet but we miss the exact point. This makes the story lifelike: in reality we skip that elusive second when the Blakean ‘innocence’ turns into ‘experience.’
The linear non-remembering is a more effective, convincing & ingenuous plot contrivance than the worn-out amnesia motif in other dramas. Add to that Lu Yuan’s tendency to pretend not to remember or judge properly (second meeting).
OBJECTIFICATION OF MEN
Although this C-drama does not apparently objectify any male character, observe a subtle shift in our perception of whether the hero or the heroine is the central character. We set off looking at Shen Bu Yan as an autonomous figure with full agency. Then he is there mainly to be our eyes, through which we are supposed to admire the heroine’s moral steadfastness.
Frequently enough Shen Bu Yan comes to the foreground, yielding a display of his strategic, diplomatic or didactic talents. Owing to his alabaster expression, dignified stance, thwarted suppression of emotion, he remains a well-rounded main character. Thankfully, there is a strong reciprocity & equality in the emotional interaction between the couple.
The second male character is also portrayed in an interesting way, first as a stereotype of an invincible fighter, then as a vulnerable & trustworthy companion, a little awkward, misunderstood, with a rare variety of inferiority complex. The paradox that the Saint of War dies in an ambush, not on the battlefield, does not strip him of his dignity. He manages to save the infant emperor after all. Far less dignified is the end of the Prime Minister, who succumbs to his narcissist ambitions & total lack of affiliative coherence.
FUNCTIONAL OST
A precise translation of the title is “Ballad of Ancient Lovesickness.” It is neither a song, nor a ballad though, but a wordless melody with deliberate false notes & broken strings. The meanings are so deeply hidden in the melodies that they need to be verbalised back for us. Exemplary are the scenes when Lu Yuan forewarns her agents with odd arrangement, or when the emperor gets angry at advice set to music.
At one hearing, the OST consists of only three vocal pieces & 17 instrumental, palatable for international audience. Beautiful, advanced in some compositional aspects, but not as innovative as in some other C-dramas. However, pay attention to the altered version of the “Ancient Love Song.”
For historical background: the traditional Chinese pentatonic scale differs from the Western in that it misses the fourth & seventh degree (fa & si). In general, the value of a particular piece of traditional Chinese music does not lie in intricacy but simplicity & emotional tinge. So was the konghou, an instrument similar to a harp, originating in the Shang dynasty. It had a narrow range and few modulation possibilities, but thanks to frets it could produce glides. Primarily it was reserved for the court: commoners were not allowed to listen.
The basic version of the melody of the “Ancient Love Song” is built on the modern Western scale & fashion but is meant to be relatively simple (except for additional orchestrations). So is Shen Bu Yan’s flute version, which adds only subtle acciaccaturas. However, the altered version, played by Lu Yuan to send out a secret military message, is enriched with notes that sound spatial & innovative: the first measure starts with impact on the second degree, then an element of its major dominant is audible, later a septime, some unexpected half-notes, arpeggios, triolas, making it unlike a traditional Chinese piece, adding echoes of Romanticism, blues & more, which only capable instrumentalists of 20th century onwards can use without the risk of cacophony.
It sounds as if Lu Yuan had virtually travelled to Shen Bu Yan’s times, or drew notes from the memory of his heart.
SOME LESS OBVIOUS MERITS
Rewatch value is high, because this drama is structured in such a way as to make us feel disconcerted for having skipped vital details & thus motivated to follow Shen Bu Yan on his vicious circle course at least once more.
Thankfully, the redundant comic culture clash between the modern visitor & the ancient environment is absent in this drama (except for a subtle mention on modern clothes, made by the junior Lu Yuan).
GLITCHES & FLAWS
A defect of characterisation is the fact that Shen Bu Yan forgets the moment of Lu Yuan’s real death, although this has been his first encounter with her.
A yet more serious flaw is the constatation that since the mob yearns for an emperor’s mother’s death, this death should be granted.
During the Yuan Qi coup, the soldiers who came with Lu Yuan do nothing until she is shot.
As said before, the jade pendant could be easily broken again to facilitate more rescue missions to the past.
APPEAL
Pertaining to all C-dramas, please keep on focusing on the quality of impression, the wit of the plot & the natural, pure countenances, free from plastic surgery & any form of excess. Thank you for the venues for tenderness & thought.
Written by a nationless spirit confined in the decaying Mid-Europe.
FALSIFIED HISTORY
Journey to the past always brings anticipation of a miracle, like a dream of flying (pardon my digression to Lu Yuan’s birdish name – glede or kite). In this drama the time-traveller can operate only on the layer of awareness, not occurrences. His power is not that of a fact improver but fact revealer.
A false accusation leading to a witch process is a frequent theme in C-dramas. There is a resemblance between this series & “Love of the Divine Tree,” issued two years later.
The theme of full contradistinction of written historical record put against facts & intentions is also present in the study of scientific misconduct, “Miss the Dragon” (2021).
ORIGINS OF GOOD & EVIL
There is an immemorial dilemma in psychology: Is a person’s character based more on inborn traits or upbringing & experience?
The hero’s gradual time-travel shows that a person is ethically complete at birth. No matter how many steps we take into the heroine’s youth, she is imbued with determination to follow her conscience & readiness for self-sacrifice. Even as a girl, with no notion of abstract ideas, she presents herself as a future unwavering martyr queen.
By that time, the difference in age & experience between her & the visitor from the future becomes as tangible as an invisible wall. This is the limit of her personality core penetration.
Lu Shi is likewise predestined for sacrifice, which runs in that family.
Yuan Qi remains morally upright even when poison degrades his intellect to an eight-year-old’s.
Li Yong is a perfectionist focused on himself; this type of personality needs but a slight impulse to turn into a traitor. There is painful satisfaction in our waiting to discern that opportunity.
UNBREAKING THE BROKEN
A breakable & unbreakable artefact makes this drama related to “Love and Redemption.” Just like the pieces of the Eternal Mirror helped Chu Xuan Ji regain her lost senses, the drops of blood drive Shen Bu Yan towards awareness.
He finally realises that if the loss of one particular life is required to save thousands, & the person to be saved has already made the decision for herself to go, he lets her go. At that point, he resolves to make this valiant though short life properly commemorated, to render this sacrifice meaningful to the posterity. This is when his mind is finally at ease, though sorrow & longing remain. Lu Yuan dies young & childless, still she can now be seen as stepmother & saviour to one of the most potent emperors, whose lineage reaches modern times (trinket stall lady).
Fortunately, history turns out to be one of the items that, when broken, can still be unbroken. It just takes one sensitive & motivated witness with civil courage to speak against a fallacy that has grown into a best-selling dogma.
OBSCURE RESPONSIBILITY
Another similarity to “Love & Redemption” is an unsettling revelation to the main character that he (Shen Bu Yan) or she (Chu Xuan Ji) is the reason why the lives of the nearest persons & the nation have taken an undesired course, with vanishing hope for retribution. Chu Xuan Ji has an unearned heroic reputation as the Star of Mosha & nine failed consecutive lifetimes behind her. Shen Bu Yan dives five times into the past, each time reformulating his misconceptions about people’s intentions but still failing at redirecting the fate.
The irony is that all actions & artefacts (instruments, the jade pendant itself) prove to be connected to him. He admits not possessing the memories, i.e. the shared emotional asset with his dearest person (e.g. the origin of the pendant). He cannot answer for things he fails to remember. He cannot be sure to what extend he has rescheduled the history. The pages of his own book change in real time.
The story wants Shen Bu Yan gradually growing aware of his entanglement in the past events (including being a passive reason for Li Yong’s turn towards depravity). I was expecting he would soon prove to be the one immediately responsible for the emperor’s mental illness, Lu Shi’s sacrifice (e.g. out of induced over-protectiveness towards his sister), or even Lu Yuan’s death (well – indirectly yes).
CASSANDRA’S COMPLEX
Even rewinding the fate cannot suffice to fix it. Exploring, rethinking, reasoning, warning, using technical knowledge – all in vain. Whenever the hero is about to make a desperate move, he is summoned back to his epoch.
INCLINE VS DECLINE
If we drew the characters’ lives as graphs, with X-axis representing the course of the plot, one would be an incline, the other a decline. If the criteria were age, awareness, certitude or intensity of feelings, Shen Bu Yan’s would be increasing, Lu Yuan’s – decreasing. If the criteria were optimism, faith or vigour, it would be reverse.
These lines meet but we miss the exact point. This makes the story lifelike: in reality we skip that elusive second when the Blakean ‘innocence’ turns into ‘experience.’
The linear non-remembering is a more effective, convincing & ingenuous plot contrivance than the worn-out amnesia motif in other dramas. Add to that Lu Yuan’s tendency to pretend not to remember or judge properly (second meeting).
OBJECTIFICATION OF MEN
Although this C-drama does not apparently objectify any male character, observe a subtle shift in our perception of whether the hero or the heroine is the central character. We set off looking at Shen Bu Yan as an autonomous figure with full agency. Then he is there mainly to be our eyes, through which we are supposed to admire the heroine’s moral steadfastness.
Frequently enough Shen Bu Yan comes to the foreground, yielding a display of his strategic, diplomatic or didactic talents. Owing to his alabaster expression, dignified stance, thwarted suppression of emotion, he remains a well-rounded main character. Thankfully, there is a strong reciprocity & equality in the emotional interaction between the couple.
The second male character is also portrayed in an interesting way, first as a stereotype of an invincible fighter, then as a vulnerable & trustworthy companion, a little awkward, misunderstood, with a rare variety of inferiority complex. The paradox that the Saint of War dies in an ambush, not on the battlefield, does not strip him of his dignity. He manages to save the infant emperor after all. Far less dignified is the end of the Prime Minister, who succumbs to his narcissist ambitions & total lack of affiliative coherence.
FUNCTIONAL OST
A precise translation of the title is “Ballad of Ancient Lovesickness.” It is neither a song, nor a ballad though, but a wordless melody with deliberate false notes & broken strings. The meanings are so deeply hidden in the melodies that they need to be verbalised back for us. Exemplary are the scenes when Lu Yuan forewarns her agents with odd arrangement, or when the emperor gets angry at advice set to music.
At one hearing, the OST consists of only three vocal pieces & 17 instrumental, palatable for international audience. Beautiful, advanced in some compositional aspects, but not as innovative as in some other C-dramas. However, pay attention to the altered version of the “Ancient Love Song.”
For historical background: the traditional Chinese pentatonic scale differs from the Western in that it misses the fourth & seventh degree (fa & si). In general, the value of a particular piece of traditional Chinese music does not lie in intricacy but simplicity & emotional tinge. So was the konghou, an instrument similar to a harp, originating in the Shang dynasty. It had a narrow range and few modulation possibilities, but thanks to frets it could produce glides. Primarily it was reserved for the court: commoners were not allowed to listen.
The basic version of the melody of the “Ancient Love Song” is built on the modern Western scale & fashion but is meant to be relatively simple (except for additional orchestrations). So is Shen Bu Yan’s flute version, which adds only subtle acciaccaturas. However, the altered version, played by Lu Yuan to send out a secret military message, is enriched with notes that sound spatial & innovative: the first measure starts with impact on the second degree, then an element of its major dominant is audible, later a septime, some unexpected half-notes, arpeggios, triolas, making it unlike a traditional Chinese piece, adding echoes of Romanticism, blues & more, which only capable instrumentalists of 20th century onwards can use without the risk of cacophony.
It sounds as if Lu Yuan had virtually travelled to Shen Bu Yan’s times, or drew notes from the memory of his heart.
SOME LESS OBVIOUS MERITS
Rewatch value is high, because this drama is structured in such a way as to make us feel disconcerted for having skipped vital details & thus motivated to follow Shen Bu Yan on his vicious circle course at least once more.
Thankfully, the redundant comic culture clash between the modern visitor & the ancient environment is absent in this drama (except for a subtle mention on modern clothes, made by the junior Lu Yuan).
GLITCHES & FLAWS
A defect of characterisation is the fact that Shen Bu Yan forgets the moment of Lu Yuan’s real death, although this has been his first encounter with her.
A yet more serious flaw is the constatation that since the mob yearns for an emperor’s mother’s death, this death should be granted.
During the Yuan Qi coup, the soldiers who came with Lu Yuan do nothing until she is shot.
As said before, the jade pendant could be easily broken again to facilitate more rescue missions to the past.
APPEAL
Pertaining to all C-dramas, please keep on focusing on the quality of impression, the wit of the plot & the natural, pure countenances, free from plastic surgery & any form of excess. Thank you for the venues for tenderness & thought.
Written by a nationless spirit confined in the decaying Mid-Europe.
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