hvnlyangel

Yes I interpreted it him waiting to paint a goddess, who is unattainable anyways.
I like this depictions of his feelings for her better. In the drama it’s her kindness and belief in his innocence that moved him.

In the book he just lusted after her beauty.

The grand princess was a flawed mother. She indulged her daughter’s every whim and cleaned up her messes. She never had Ming Yue face the consequences for her actions until the end. She spoiled Ming Yue and made her feel like she was superior to others and other people’s lives didn’t matter. Ming Yue probably learned by example and followed her mother’s lead to take things that didn’t belong to her or force someone to marry her just because she can.
So even though she “loved” her daughter but she didn’t teach her daughter well. And being spoiled Ming Yue wasn’t the best either. She was very entitled and used her position to threaten people and she learned this from her mother’s over indulgence. So sadly I feel that the grand princess’ love wasn’t the right type of love. It is hard so hard to be a parent and at times parents needs to show their kids tough love and tell their parents no and not to indulge them in everything thus not raising them to be spoiled brats. It’s important to teach kids to be grateful and how to be kind. Sadly no one probably showed the grand princess that kind of love so she didn’t know how to love her daughter correctly.

Wang Xinyue has a gravities about him that belittles his age. He can act older if he wants too and his voice is really great, especially in the Double. It is surprising that he is so young.

In the Double which was also kind of set in during the Song dynasty the girls go through a hair pinning ceremony. So once a girl reaches marital age they get their hair pinned up. I didn’t really see it shown in other dramas or I don’t remember seeing it, so maybe it was just a Song dynasty thing or for that particular drama. So maybe if that hair pinning ceremony is accurate than that is why the third lady pinned her hair up .

Maybe when she first went into the city she hasn’t had her ceremony yet, and she pinned her hair up when her mother was trying to find a husband for her.

During the Ming dynasty unmarried girls had their hair down but once they were married their hair was pinned up.

Oh another comment I want to add. I used to think that the mom in Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet was annoying. Well her portrayal in the 1995 miniseries with Colin Firth was annoying. But being a mother myself and understanding the pressure she was under to marry off her daughters I have a better understanding of her. The Li matriarch was the same way. At least Mrs. Bennet had a husband still and no one was coming to steal their property in a yearly basis.

She also had to change and become more aggressive in order for her and her daughters to survive. You can see in the episode where the 2nd son in law told the ML the Li family back story how the Li male relatives would come during the holidays and take things from them. She had to become stronger for her daughters. And maybe she had always had the traits that you found annoying but they were amplified because of her circumstances. She had to become the business lady. She couldn’t send her unmarried daughters out into the forefront to get customers she had to do it herself.


And like the FL said the Li daughters never stole, cheat, or did anything truly underhanded to get where they are. They had to survive in a society that wasn’t easy for them. The mom also encouraged and gave the 2nd son in law some advice and encouraged her daughters to be good wives, etc. She wasn’t perfect but she did raise 5 +1 daughters that were all great so that it really saying something.

Honestly, I agree with you. But SYR is a good friend and he could see that Shouhua still loved DYX, so he did the noble thing and let her go.

SYR did let her go at the end. He was like he will be coming soon. I believe SYR wanted Shouhua to send him on his way. I felt that he would’ve been a good match for her too. But they are both so serious so DYX probably is better for her to balance their personalities out.

Actually during the Song dynasty women did run businesses.

Found this article that states this. https://www.oerproject.com/OER-Materials/OER-Media/HTML-Articles/Origins/Unit5/Women-in-the-Song-Dynasty-of-China/790L
I also remember watching a YouTube video when I watched A Dream of Splendor, which was also set during the Song dynasty, that women were involved in businesses during that dynasty.

Wealthy men probably had concubines as status symbols, but usually men can’t have an official concubine before having an official wife first. The official wife had to welcome or agree to the husband having a concubine and the concubine had to serve
the serve the official wife tea first. The man can have maids but they weren’t given status.

This drama was set during the Song dynasty and operates within that time period realistically.

Would a wealthy man have married a lady from such a family? Perhaps not, but Mr. darcy didn’t have to marry Elizabeth either. The ML wanted to marry the FL because he likes her just like Mr. Darcy proposed to Elizabeth because he likes her.

I didn’t like the ML in Story of kunnng palace. He was much too aggressive , violent and toxic for me. I did like the drama though but he wasn’t my cup of tea.

I see this drama as a slice of life drama were the mom tries really hard to make a living and to marry off her many daughters. So far I am enjoying it.

And to give dowries away to her 5 daughters. It’s very much like Pride and prejudice with the girls’ situations.

I had read somewhere that Pope Clement was sympathetic towards Henry , but ultimately didn’t grant him one. I could be wrong about the Pope’s sympathies , as I can’t remember the source. Ultimately Henry 8 treated all of his wives horribly.

I know that annulment is not Catholic divorce and that Henry requested a dispensation from the Pope to marry her in the first place.

Polygamy is wrong and the Catholic Church does not allow it. Polygamy was not legal as it was in China . Many kings of Europe had mistresses, though. Henry VIII had Henry Fitzroy made his illegitimate son Duke of Richmond. Henry 8 didn’t chop off the heads of all of his wives. His wives fates were as follows, divorced(demoted to Princess of wales), beheaded, died after childbirth , divorced and demoted to Princess, beheaded, survived his death.

I doubt Henry’s dead queens would have preferred to let Henry have concubines. Catherine of Aragon, was a devote Catholic and Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr were devote Protestants. He made wives of his mistresses so I would have doubted that his wives wanted to lose their position. Anne Boleyn was called a concubine by the Spanish ambassador.

The polygamy system in China was horrible to woman. Concubines were considered glorified slaves who had to serve the legitimate wife, can have their children taken away to be raised by others, their children cannot call them mothers. They can be sold off and beaten, etc. also, concubines are only prominent in wealthier families as a status symbol and tools to add heirs to the family. It was better for the woman to be a poor man’s wife than a rich man’s concubine.

The Pope at the time could’ve have granted Henry VIII an annulment from Catherine of Aragon but he was besieged by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who was Catherine’s nephew. Henry had Thomas Cromwell come up with reasons to get rid of Anne Boleyn and others. Ironically Cromwell lost his head when Henry married Katherine Howard.

It gets better. The ML stands up for her in the later episodes. The ML in episode 18 tells off a bunch of stuck up rich ladies and it is quite satisfying. The SML , though I understand his predicament just stood there.

Well the problem with the princes is she doesn’t value other’s lives. She is willing to let a slave or servant be punished severally, I can’t remember if she was saying to kill the slave or not. The princess is no longer the girl she was before her first marriage. I am not sure if Mudan can be true friends with someone like that. Mudan will work for her or with her in business probably but they won’t be best friends.

I really enjoy the novel too. I wish that they can adapt the novel one day. It shows a different perspective too of a loving merchant family who supports their own. Even though they aren’t an official ( family who has someone in office
) or a noble family they have their pride and don’t let anyone look down on them. I ended up reading this novel alongside watching the movie, I read the translated version , whose link is posted in one of the discussions above.

Oftentimes we see a lot of the FL being abused, looked down upon, or betrayed. It’s refreshing because in the novel Mudan, is smart but she realizes that she can’t do everything on her own, especially in that kind of society but she can rely on her family , friends and connections. She even turned down being a nameless concubine of one of the princes , but ironically one of the “noble” girls were willing. Or forced by their family to be his concubine.

I believe that both the drama and novel can be great standalone. But it feels like to me that the drama just use her name, nickname, love of peonies and the ML’s name , and the name of the novel, and that was it. The drama left out all of the charming parts of the novel.
I am glad that someone else agrees and I am not saying that the drama is less than. I am enjoying it too., but I wish that the novel can one day be adapted faithfully, and not just the spirit of the novel.

The baby younger sister was given to the ML’s father’s servant. He said that she was weak and died. In the book Song Han’s mom’s brother took care of her and she was married young. her husband let her be “kidnapped” luckily Chen Jin saved her. In the novel she married Chen Jia.

In the show they probably didn’t have time to fill her role so it was easier to for them to say that she died as a baby.

I believe that it is the Marquis of Jing.

She said that she could change him, I was like no…. Poor naive girl.