PeachBlossomGoddess

Thank you for asking all the right questions that open up the discussion. I think the ending is known bc its history after all - if that is your concern with continuing.

What dumb f*ck executes the entire family of the most powerful general in the military as he is ready to besiege the capital? Maybe holding them hostage could be smart. Kill one or two to show you mean business. But killing them all just gives him zero reason to not attack and kill you dead. OMG the guy has total shit for brains. I can't even decide who is dumb and who is dumber - Liu Chengyou or his advisor Li Ye???

Welp - Qian Hongzong is no longer the dumbest shit in the 5 dynasties and 10 kingdoms...

Yes as I have mentioned I don't think Hongzong's character in the latest episodes is consistently written and "shortcuts" history. It is probably for expedience bc he only ruled for 7 months and in the grand scheme of things, just wasn't that important. Tbh I am more upset that Hu Jinsi is whitewashed as a loyal general who only considered rebelling bc he wasn't properly appreciated by the younger generation for his long service.

I would add Dai Yun is Sun Taizhen's and Sun Ben/Third Brother's maternal uncle. He was also Commander of the Inner Cavalry Guards and the 7th prince was Deputy Commander of the Inner Cavalry Guards under him. This may explain his deep hatred for Hu Jinsi.

In the drama they put everything on Hongzong - he acted so irrationally and unreasonably that it would be hard for the court to accept such a king.

Hu Jinsi is a high court official and the Grand Marshal of the Wuyue military. He is openly signaling his refusal to ratify the ascension of the 7th prince from regent to Wuyue King. I believe the reason the successor is initially just named Regent is that he needs to be ratified by the Wuyue court AND the Central Plains rulers bc Wuyue is a vassal state. The Central Plains rulers are unlikely to recognize a Wuyue king that does not have the support of the military/Wuyue court officials. Notice that once the 9th prince took over, all of the court officials almost immediately called him 大王/dawang or king, a title they had so far withheld from Hongzong. That said in history, Hongzong is recorded as King so this is only according to the drama that he was only a regent.

Heheh - that's hilarious but I don't think it is true - Hongzong lived for a long time and had 3 sons. I am skeptical this was funded directly by Qian descendants - it is an expensive production and they are more known to be intellectuals/scientists rather than billionaires. I believe the Zheijiang/Hangzhou elite did help finance this to highlight that they also a quietly glorious role in history.

Yes he has warmed to the role in latest episodes but I also feel its easier to stand out when he is not sharing scenes with veteran actors.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3333087/mathematician-qian-hong-son-chinas-leading-scientific-clan-reverses-us-brain-drain

Its behind a paywall:
A renowned mathematician who is also part of China’s Qian clan – a surname linked in the annals of Chinese scientific history to national pioneers in science and engineering – has become the latest US-based scientist to return to China.
After more than 40 years in the United States, Qian Hong has left his endowed professorship at the University of Washington to join the prestigious and private Westlake University in eastern China.

Qian’s appointment last month as a full-time chair professor with the university’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, reversed a long-standing family tradition of moving to the US and drew more attention than usual in China’s scientific community.

Generations of Qians have shaped the country’s pursuit of modernity and few names carry as much weight.

Qian’s grandfather, Qian Baojun, was a pioneer who studied in 1930s Britain before building China’s first chemical fibre programmes. Qian Xuesen is renowned as the father of its rocket programme, while Qian Sanqiang was a founder in atomic research.
However, for decades, many of the clan’s brightest scientific minds have left for the United States where they became stars in American universities, often never to return. Among them was the Nobel-winning physicist Roger Y. Tsien, a nephew of Qian Xuesen.

Qian Hong, who was born in Shanghai in 1960, earned his bachelor’s degree in astrophysics from Peking University in 1982 before pursuing his doctoral studies in biochemistry and biophysics at Washington University in St Louis.

From 1990 to 1994, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oregon and the California Institute of Technology, mainly conducting studies on the thermodynamics and kinetics of protein folding.

In 1997, Qian joined the applied mathematics department as assistant professor at the University of Washington in Seattle – where he also held an adjunct bioengineering appointment at its school of medicine – rising to the Olga Jung Wan endowment.

Qian’s main research interest lies in the mathematical modelling of biological systems, particularly in terms of stochastic mathematics – a branch of the discipline that deals with random variables – and nonequilibrium statistical thermodynamics.

He has introduced several mathematically supported concepts, “laying a solid applied mathematics foundation for a unified theoretical biology framework”, according to his page on the Westlake University website.

These research results were published in 2021 by Springer as the monograph “Stochastic Chemical Reaction Systems in Biology”, co-authored by Qian and Ge Hao, a professor at Peking University.

Qian was associate editor of several journals published in the US by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, the world’s largest scientific society devoted to applied mathematics.

He also served on the editorial committees of multiple journals in the fields of biophysical chemistry, systems biology and quantitative biology and was elected as a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2010.

The following year, Qian co-founded the Gordon Research Conference on Stochastic Physics in Biology, a series of international scientific meetings focusing on the intersection of statistical physics and biology.

In 2019, Qian paid tribute to his grandfather, writing in a memorial article that although Qian Baojun came from a background in chemistry and chemical engineering, he placed great emphasis on mathematics and physics.

The senior Qian, who earned his master’s degree in textile chemistry in Britain, established China’s first specialised chemical fibres programme at the Shanghai-based Donghua University – formerly the China Textile University – in 1954.

After the Cultural Revolution, Qian Baojun would find any possible chance to invite his father and aunt – both specialists in abstract mathematics – to work on stochastic models of polymers, his grandson recalled in the article.

“Looking back now, I realise that all of this had a profound underlying influence on me,” he wrote.

Qian is one of a growing number of prominent researchers to return to China, many after establishing themselves in the US over many years, against the backdrop of a political climate that is becoming increasingly hostile towards Chinese scientists.

In November, Lin Wenbin – one of the founders and leading figures in the cutting-edge field of metal-organic frameworks – left the University of Chicago to join Westlake University.

May be hard to prove - I would never admit to being related to such a villain in history! I know descendants of the Qian kings still exist today and many of them are literally rocket scientists.

Yeah I found it completely unfathomable and unexplained why he refused to bring back the Eldest Prince to take control of the inner guard and rein in Hu Jinsi - both Hongzuo and Hongchu advised him to do so. The director is very harsh on anyone who failed in history - he goes to an extra length to make them seem stupid - Shi Chonggui, Qian Hongzong and I am going to guess Liu Chengyou is also going to get the hatchet job.

They made Hu Jinsi seem less evil and more like he was just protecting himself - to the point I wonder if his later generations helped fund this drama!🙄 As a result Hongzong was completely throw under the bus and came out looking very dumb and naive. They also made it seem he was only Regent and never formally invested as Wuyue King when in truth he ruled for 7 months.

While I took some satisfaction at He Chengxun’s end I am kind of upset that Hongchu knew he was instructed by Hu Jinsi to kill Shuiqiu but could do nothing about it.

He advised Hongzong to demote/limit Hu Jinsi’s power.

I do think Qian Hongzong was truly a historical idiot but at the same time, the drama whitewashes Hu Jinsi and made Hongzong dumber than he really was. In history Qiushui was complicit but the drama just makes him collateral damage.

It was forced land seizure. The local authorities fraudulently asserted autumn taxes when the king had waived them bc of hard times and demanded payment in spring, before they were due. The farmers borrowed money from the noble families to pay their taxes using their land as collateral. Cheng Zhaoyue was the key architect of this scheme.

I think its interesting that one thing that the 5 dynasties and 10 kingdoms have in common is that their leaders tend to die before their heirs are ready to take over, explaining some of the chaos. Even in Wuyue, a politically stable vassal state saw the second king succeeded by a 13 year old who didn't even make it to 20. When Hongzuo died, both Hongzong and Hongchu were also under 20. How can we expect that much of them?

Yeah he was impatient - he should have just waited him out. The dude was too powerful but time was not on his side. This is called squandering a sure victory and turning it into defeat.

He means well but sadly he has tofu for brains and has never left the palace/capital. The three brothers are only about a year apart in age. They must all have different mothers.