Saorin

Two of the most beloved Chinese historical dramas — *Empresses in the Palace* (*The Legend of Zhen Huan*) and *The Legend of Mi Yue* — open and close each episode with songs that are far more than background music. In Chinese drama, the theme is a distilled statement of the whole story, and these are some of the finest ever written. Below is a short guide to each: what the song means, and the centuries-old poetry hidden inside it. *(Each…

> Part of the C-drama song cluster.  it explains the song’s meaning rather than reproducing the lyrics. The older poems quoted (the Sixth Dalai Lama’s couplets and a Japanese court poem) are centuries old and freely quotable. — The 2011 Chinese time-travel romance *Scarlet Heart* (步步惊心, *Bù Bù Jīng Xīn*; based on Tong Hua’s novel, and known in Japan as *Kyūtei Jokan Jakukei*) is carried by a duet that aches from its first note: **”Yi Nian Zhi Zhuo”** (一念执着, “one…

> A note before we begin. The doomed love between Zhen Huan and Prince Guo, which this song carries, is the **drama’s fiction**. The historical Prince Guo (Yunli) was a scholarly prince loyal to the Yongzheng Emperor; there was no romance with Zhen Huan. This piece is about the beauty of that *story* — and it explains the song’s meaning rather than reproducing its copyrighted lyrics. — The Chinese palace drama *Empresses in the Palace* (Chinese title *The Legend of…

> A companion piece to the Late-Qing series. Where the Chinese essays celebrate “being summoned by the Son of Heaven” as the supreme honor, this Japanese poem turns that same summons inside out. — ## A crab in hiding receives the sovereign’s call Book 16 of the *Man’yōshū* (Japan’s oldest poetry anthology, eighth century) holds an unforgettable poem, number 3886. Its annotation calls it **”a song composed to voice the pain of a crab.”** It was performed by **hokaibito**—the lowest…

If you’ve watched Empresses in the Palace (the 2011 Chinese palace drama also known as The Legend of Zhen Huan), you’ve heard “Feng Huang Yu Fei” (凤凰于飞) — the haunting closing theme sung by Liu Huan. To me, it isn’t a song about the throne at all. It’s the secret love song of Prince Guo and Zhen Huan. A note for first-time viewers Empresses in the Palace follows Zhen Huan, a young woman who enters the harem of the Yongzheng…

> *Late Qing Dynasty Series｜Emperors*　The Xianfeng Emperor > Reigned 1851–1861 (10 years) · Born 1831 · Died 1861, age 31 > > ※ This article focuses on the **financial and structural** collapse of the Qing under the Xianfeng Emperor. For the emperor as a man — the rigged succession, his dependence on the future Cixi — see the companion piece **[The Rise of Cixi: How a 25-Year-Old Concubine Came to Rule the Qing]**. — **”Income could no longer cover expenditure”…

“Full Moon” (Mǎn Yuè): The Meaning Behind *The Legend of Mi Yue*’s Theme Song When the Chinese historical drama *The Legend of Mi Yue* (芈月传) begins, the first thing you hear is this song — “Full Moon” (满月, *Mǎn Yuè*). Over the sound of the *guzheng* (a Chinese zither) and the breathy *paixiao* (panpipes), a melody unfolds that holds sorrow and warmth at the same time. Even before the story starts, the music already tells you what kind of tale…

If you found your way here from the C-drama Legend of Mi Yue, you may already know the line “so-called the one I long for, on the far side of the water.” It comes from a poem some 2,500 years old — “Jianjia” (蒹葭, “The Reeds”), from the Shijing, or Book of Songs, China’s oldest collection of poetry. Its most famous opening lines are: 所謂伊人，在水一方 Suǒ wèi yīrén, zài shuǐ yī fāng “The one I long for is somewhere across…

If you’ve watched the Chinese historical drama Legend of Mi Yue (芈月传), you’ll remember the quiet, aching melody that closes each episode. That song is “Yiren Rumeng” (伊人如梦) — roughly, “the beloved, like a dream.” Sung by Huo Zun, composed by A Kun, with lyrics by He Qiling, it gently carries the turbulent life of Mi Yue, the woman who rose to become Queen Dowager Xuan of the state of Qin. But behind this modern song lies something far older.…

## Prologue — A 25-Year-Old at Chengde In the summer of 1861, the Xianfeng Emperor died at the imperial Mountain Resort at Chengde — the hunting retreat beyond the Great Wall, then called Rehe (Jehol), where the court had fled. He was thirty. He left behind a five-year-old heir and a single Noble Consort, twenty-five years old: the woman remembered as Cixi. Within a few months she had helped engineer a palace coup, swept aside the regents her dying husband…

Wanrong — The Last Empress of China, Part II *From the Flower of Tianjin to the Deposed Empress of Manchukuo — The Cage Called “Empress”* by Satoe | 還暦散歩 (Kanreki Sanpo) — Late Qing Dynasty Series *This article is a continuation of “Wanrong — The Last Empress of China, Part I: From the Glory of the Gūwalgiya Clan to the Forbidden City.”* I. Wandering — From the Royal Mansion to the German Legation, and On to Japan After Leaving the…

A Bodhisattva from the Northern Qi Dynasty Visiting the Tokyo National Museum — Oriental Gallery, Room 1 I recently visited the Oriental Gallery at the Tokyo National Museum — and it was wonderful! The moment I stepped into Room 1 on the first floor, a single statue caught my eye: a Standing Bodhisattva, created in Shanxi Province, China, in 552 CE during the Northern Qi dynasty. That predates even the beginning of Japan’s Asuka period. It is a piece from…