Series / Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace

Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace (如懿传; Rú Yì Zhuàn; meaning "Legend of Ruyi") is a 2018 Chinese historical series starring Zhou Xun and Wallace Huo. It's based on the novel Hou Gong Ru Yi Zhuan by Liu Lian Zi and is the sequel to the 2011 series The Legend of Zhen Huan.

Ulanara Ruyi is one of the Qianlong Emperor's many concubines. She gradually moves up the ranks until she becomes empress. But after becoming empress, she finds many people are plotting against her, and her relationship with her husband begins to deteriorate.

The series can be watched on Viki and YouTube with English subtitles.

Has nothing to do with the 2020 series The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion, which is much more light-hearted.

Contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Langhua forces Yonglian to stand in the cold, leading to his illness and death.
  • Hongli doesn't hesitate to slap his sons for being "unfilial" and rude to him. He even kicks Yonghuang just for not showing enough sadness for Empress Fuca altough at that point it's because he believes he has an ulterior motive for the Crown Prince position. Yongzhang gets it twice for speaking out.
  • While she doesn't slap her, Yanwan pinches her daughter Jingyuan for speaking out against her.
• Adapted Out: Many of the elements of the original novels, character or lore wise, are removed in the series.
  • Strangely, no mention of Chunyuan (the previous empress before Yixiu, her sister) exists, with only Yixiu being related to Ruyi. (Though, this could be chalked up to being historically accurate, as the real Empress Xiaojingxian was Yongzheng’s legitimate wife before he ascended).
  • Imperial Concubine Jin is removed from the show. In the novel, she is a member of the Fuca clan sent in after Langhua’s death, and Ruyi discovers that Hongli gave Jin the same gold-and-jade bracelet that Ruyi wore and caused her to became infertile (probably to prevent her becoming pregnant and giving the Fuca clan more power).
  • Imperial Concubine Xun (Huoshuote Lanxi) is also removed from the show. In the novel, she is a stoic woman, and had a tense relationship with Eyinzhu considering their tribes were on opposite sides of the Dzungarian war. She also has a cold relationship with the Emperor considering he immediately lost interest in her and he didn’t tell her about her father’s death until a year later when visiting the Mongolian tribes. She is caught with her childhood love who takes Yongji hostage, and she rants at Hongli that she never loved him and hated bottling up her feelings for her tribe’s sake. Yongqi takes her hostage and after her lover dies, she is stabbed and she drags herself to die beside her childhood love, saying that even in death she doesn’t want to be near Hongli.
  • A Ruo’s punishment (having her nails removed forcibly and being put in a bag with a bunch of agitated cats and being whipped while inside the bag) is not seen or mentioned.
  • In the novel, Hailan is described as being the size of two people and having a face the size of a plate because of her pre-natal medicine being messed with. In the series, the only change visible in Hailan is her stomach getting bigger and stretch-marks growing on her body.
  • In the novel, Yanwan messing with Yihuan’s pre-natal medicine causes her to become pale with sunken eyes, and she suffers from severe alopecia to the point that she starts wearing wigs to hide her bald head. This change is not present in the series, and Yihuan only gets a few liver spots on her face and loses them after giving birth.
• Adaptational Nationality: Xiangjian's historical counterpart Consort Rong was an Uyghur. The Uyghurs are currently being treated horrifically by the CCP, so to be politically correct the series-makers made Xiangjian a member of a fictional ethnicity.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: In the novel Hongli rapes Hailan then forces her to marry him. The series doesn't mention this, leaving it unclear why Hailan is so terrified of Hongli.
  • Yonglian's death. Jia caused Luyun to become fearful that Langhua was plotting against Yongrong. Hailan made a doll stuffed with reeds for Yongrong and they brought it with them when the three went to visit Yonglian. Yonglian liked the doll and wanted to keep it. Hailan 'warned' Lianxin that the doll had reeds inside so she ought to be careful with it. Then Hailan incited Lianxin's past trauma of being sold off to an abusive eunuch to ensure Yonglian's future. In the midst of a psychotic breakdown, Lianxin tore open the doll and Yonglian was exposed to the reed pollen.
• Adoption Angst: Yuyan discovers that she was adopted and so had no chance of ever marrying the man she really loved. For added drama she learns this right after her son was injured, she lost her title, and she was imprisoned.
• Age-Gap Romance: Well, they're "romances" only in the loosest possible sense of the word, but many of Hongli's wives are considerably younger than him. Yanwan is 16 years younger than Hongli.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Oooh boy... All of Hongli's concubines love him (or at least compete for his favour since they have no other options), while Hongli loves no one but himself. Yunche loves Yanwan, who leaves him to become one of Hongli's concubines. Li Yu loves Suoxin, who loves Jiang Yubin.
• Altar Diplomacy:
  • Yuyan is Korean and was married to Hongli for diplomatic reasons.
  • Hengchuo goes through this twice. First she's married to Khan Dorza of the Dzungar Khanate. Then her husband is murdered by Khan Dawachi, who seizes his throne and makes Hongli agree to make Hengchuo marry him.
  • Jingse is married off to the Khorchin Khanate. She is deeply unhappy with her marriage and returns home as soon as she has a son.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Yanwan's mother makes a spectacle of herself everywhere she goes, including by calling Hongli, the emperor, "my precious son-in-law". To his face.
• Arranged Marriage: Hongli's marriage in the first episode. He's presented with a group of women chosen by his adopted mother and is told to choose an official wife and a concubine from among them.
• As You Know: Early in episode one Hongli helpfully reminds Ruyi that she's the empress's niece and his half-brother is the empress's adopted son.
• Attempted Rape: Yanwan drugs and tries to rape Yunche.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning:
  • Hongli's enthronement ceremony in episode three.
  • Ruyi's coronation as empress in episode forty-seven.
• Awful Wedded Life:
  • Hongli and all of his concubines. Their relationships are dysfunctional to say the least.
  • Yunche and Miaoqian. You know a marriage is a disaster when the wife frames her husband for adultery with the Empress. Something that would have gotten him executed had Hongli not decided that making him an eunuch was a more suitable punishment. It is implied that Miaoqian looks down on Yunche for being Han when she herself is Manchu.
• Babysitter from Hell: Yonghuang’s nursemaids often starved him, physically injured him, never gave him enough medicine and gave him thin clothes when it was winter. This was instructed by a misguided Sulian (Langhua’s maid) without Langhua’s knowledge. She thought that if Yonghuang was abused enough, he would die and Langhua’s son would become the eldest and thus gain favor. The same nursemaids also neglected Yongrong's education, but did not dare abusing him overtly since Yongrong actually had a living mother.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Hailan's loyalty to Ruyi comes from how Ruyi always treated her well and did everything she could to protect Hailan when Hailan was being abused by Xiyue.
  • Ling Yunche and Li Yu have always been treated with graciousness and respect by Hailan and Ruyi. When they find evidence that the Eight Prince's saddle was tampered with they keep quiet even from the emperor to avoid implicating the two women.
  • Rong Pei is rescued from an abusive eunuch by Ruyi and given employment. Rong Pei stays utterly loyal and devoted to Ruyi as a result.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Ruyi's second child is born right after Yihuan's death.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Boy oh boy is the harem full of them
  • Langhua pretends to be kind while secretly plotting against the other women in the harem.
  • Yanwan oftentimes acts pitiful and subservient in order to incite sympathy from Hongli and maintain his favour.
• Bittersweet Ending: Ruyi dies, Yongji is left with no one but his father, maybe Zhen Huan, and Hailan. Everyone who knew her mourns her than more than when they pretended for Langhua's funeral. Hongli finds out she died before he could reconcile with her. However, she reveals Wei Yanwan’s crimes and avenges everyone who died in the latter’s pursuit to become Empress and have power, and Yanwan spends the next 9 years being constantly fed poison and its antidote, before finally consuming one last poison dose so she doesn't see her son Yongyan becomes the Jiaqing Emperor. Hongli spends the rest of his life mourning Ruyi, after realizing his actions brought immense pain to her and seeing how she was true to him towards the end, leading him to becoming a melancholic, regretful semi-recluse in a palace honoring Ruyi and her favorite flowers. He does die in peace in his old age holding a container that has his hair, Ruyi's hair, and a pouch of Ruyi's as the dead flowers Ruyi kept begins to blossom again.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: The YouTube subtitles, although coherent, occasionally sound stilted and unnatural. Example: "I want to spectate with you...".
• Blood from the Mouth: Shows up when Yixiu is dying of poison.
• Break the Cutie: Hailan undergoes a gradual version of this. She is raped by Hongli, abused by Xiyue, Ruyi is placed in the cold palace and then abused again by Langhua, Xiyue and A'Ruo.
  • Yonghuang spends most of his childhood being abused by his nursemaids. He has a good turn when he is adopted by Ruyi. Then Ruyi is sent to the Cold Palace and he gets adopted by Luyun, who is nowhere as kind as Ruyi, even if she does not overtly abuse him.
• Break the Haughty: Yuyan ends up publicly humiliated and demoted after she tries to frame Ruyi.
• Call-Back / Internal Homage:
  • In episode five Ruyi and Hongli, who at this point are young and in love, sit close together and smile as they watch a play. In episode seventy-eight, after their marriage has broken down, they watch the same play, but they're sitting apart and neither is smiling.
  • The music that plays as Ruyi is imprisoned in the Cold Palace gets a reprise many episodes later when Ruyi is made empress, foreshadowing that her new title is another kind of imprisonment.
• Calling the Young Man Out: Zhen Huan calls Hongli out for slapping Ruyi.
  Zhen Huan: You're the emperor and you lay a hand on your own empress? Emperor, I think you've gone mad.
• Cassandra Truth: Hongli multiple times tries to get A-Ruo to confess who truly was behind the poisonings. When she does finally confess that it was Langhua, the Empress. He does not believe her.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Noble Consort Chun's hairpin falls off at one point and is picked up by Yuyan and placed next to Sulian's corpse to frame her. It later gets brought up twice. In both times, Qianlong suspects Luyun is complicit in Langhua and Sulian's deaths.
  • Ling Yunche’s promise ring that he gave to Yanwan before she becomes part of Hongli’s harem. It becomes the final piece of evidence in Yanwan’s trial that not only proves that she and Yunche had a past, but also helps expose that Yanwan nearly raped him in a bid to sire a child and gain favor.
• The Chessmaster: Yuyan is behind most of the schemes in the palace. She stirs up trouble and turns people against each other in an effort to weaken the Qing dynasty and help her homeland, Joseon.
• Childhood Friend Romance:
  • Ruyi and Hongli are a deconstruction. They meet as children, fall in love, get married... and their marriage is a disaster.
  • Played straight with Suoxin and Jiang Yubin.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Suoxin is tortured on Hongli's orders in episode forty-four.
• Contraception Deception: Inverted. Instead of someone lying about being on contraception when they're not, Hongli has some of his concubines given contraception without their knowledge.
• Convenient Miscarriage:
  • In between Ruyi marrying Hongli and Emperor Yongzheng’s death, Langhua miscarried the first Princess and Zhuying died while giving birth to the second Princess, who also died.
  • Qiying’s baby dies in-utero and the doctors have to induce labor to extract the fetus before it kills her.
  • Meiruo loses her daughter from too much stress after Fu Gu’er suddenly attacks Jingsi.
  • Ruyi’s third child Yongjing doesn’t survive his birth.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment:
  • Qin Li (the head eunuch from the House Affairs Department) attempts to give Ruyi food that's cold at best and spoiled at worst. A Ruo orders him to eat the food as punishment.
  • In the novel, A Ruo is punished for framing Ruyi by having her nails removed, throwing her into a bag filled with agitated cats and then being whipped while inside the bag until it turns red from the cats scratching her while trying to find a way out.
  • Zhen Huan is furious when she learns about Yanwan’s possible involvement with Yihuan’s death (due to Yihuan being one of her valuable allies), so she tells Rong Pei to slap Yanwan ten times a day for a hundred days.
• Crippling Castration: Yunche is falsely accused of having an affair with Ruyi and is castrated as punishment.
• Death by Childbirth: Consort Zhe died giving birth to her second child. Subverted since childbirth wasn't the only thing that killed her; Yuyan had her poisoned and framed Langhua.
• Death by Despair: Yuyan's fate after being demoted to commoner.
• Death of a Child:
  • Ruiji's son dies shortly after being born.
  • Yonglian dies after catching a cold.
  • Qiying's baby is born dead.
  • Jingsi dies as a toddler.
• Decadent Court: It's a palace drama set in Imperial China, so this is inevitable.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • Polygamy is normal and the characters express incredulity at the idea of a man having only one wife.
  • Hongli rapes Hailan then marries her and no one, not even Ruyi, bats an eyelid.
  • Muping is sixteen when Zhen Huan chooses her as a concubine for Hongli, who's at least twenty years older than her.
  • Cutting your hair is a very serious matter. So serious, in fact, that Ruyi loses her title over it.
• Did Not Think This Through: Zhen Huan raises Yihuan to be an ideal partner for Hongli. She fails to consider that Hongli is also an ideal partner for Yihuan, causing Yihuan to be so utterly besotted that she forgets that her mission is to advance Zhen Huan's agenda.
• Dies Different In Adaptation: In the novel Ruyi commits suicide to make Hongli suspicious of Yanwan. In the series Ruyi is terminally ill, but she lives long enough to see Yanwan's downfall.
  • In the novel, 9th Prince is born weak due to the stress Yuyan went under and due to his weak body, he dies due to being startled by a rat knocking a jade vase over combined with his nursemaids refusing to consume the bitter medicine they had to breastfeed him. In the show, Yuyan gives birth to him early due to even more stress and he dies from stillbirth.
• Distant Finale: The epilogue takes place many years after Ruyi's death and shows Hongli as an old man.
• Domestic Abuse:
  • Hongli emotionally abuses all of his wives and physically abuses some of them when they get him mad enough.
  • Wang Qin physically abuses Lianxin.
  • In the novel, Maoqian hits Yunche and scratches him so hard that he has to go to work with more clothes to cover up the wounds.
• Downer Ending: Ruyi dies in the end.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Early in the series Hongli promises Ruyi he'll protect her and won't let her suffer. The audience know from the start that Hongli and Ruyi's relationship is doomed, and sure enough he spends the rest of the series breaking that promise.
  • Yuyan's downfall comes after she's blamed for causing Jingsi's death. She's guilty of causing many deaths, but this is the one time she has nothing to do with it.
• Dress Hits Floor: Shows up when Yanwan undresses before getting into the bath with Hongli.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • Ruiji attempts suicide when nobody will tell her why her baby was dead and she sinks deep into depression.
  • A Ruo hangs herself in the Cold Palace.
  • Lianxin drowns herself after Langhua's death as atonement.
  • Yihuan kills herself by setting her palace on fire.
  • Subverted with Rong. She tries many times to end her life with many methods including taking out a secret knife hidden in her necklace, stealing a sword from one of the guards holding her back, and starving herself to death. But she continues living on anyway for her family and tribe with some convincing from Ruyi.
• Eunuchs Are Evil: Played straight with Wang Qin, who forces Lianxin to marry him then abuses her, driving her to attempt suicide. Also with Jin Zhong, who acts creepy towards Yanwan when she was still a maid and even when she becomes a high ranking concubine, and convinces her into doing evil actions as part of her agenda to get more power. Averted with most of the other eunuchs, especially Li Yu, Sanbao, Jinbao and Yunche.
• Exact Eavesdropping:
  • Hailan happens to be right outside the door when Xiyue admits she framed Ruyi and poisoned Ruiji and Qiying to get them to miscarry.
  • Ruyi inadvertently hears Hongli's conversation with an imperial physician about the contraceptives given to Yihuan disguised as fertility drugs.
  • Hailan and Ruyi happen to be right in front of the room Yonghuang is in when he starts talking to his wife about how he thinks he should use Ruyi’s love for him to become the crown prince.
  • Miaoqian listens to Yunche and Jiuxiao discussing what to do about the saddle that was tampered with.
• Face Death with Dignity: When she's dying, Xiyue puts on her finest clothes to see Hongli and confesses her crimes to him.
• False Friend:
  • A Ruo pretends to be Ruyi's friend while secretly plotting against her.
  • Langhua acts as if she likes Xiyue while poisoning her so she can't have a child and finally abandoning her at her lowest mental health so she won’t reveal Langhua's crimes.
  • Yuyan pretended to be Ruiji's friend but killed her child. She played her part so well that years later Ruiji still believes Langhua is responsible. She doesn't react well when she learns the truth.
• Flyaway Shot: When Ruyi stands at the top of a building in episode twenty-seven the camera pans back to show most of the Forbidden City.
• Footnote Fever: The YouTube subtitles include translator's notes explaining things non-Chinese viewers are unfamiliar with, like the difference between difujin (official wife) and cefujin (second wife or concubine).
• Forced Miscarriage: Xiyue causes two miscarriages by tricking pregnant women into drinking, eating and inhaling cinnabar.
• Foreshadowing: Ruyi's conversation with Zhen Huan before her coronation. Ruyi says she wants to be Hongli's wife as well as his empress. Zhen Huan warns her that an emperor can't be trusted and no woman can ever truly be his wife. The second half of the series proves her right.
• Frame-Up:
  • Xiyue, Yuyan and A Ruo conspire to have Ruyi framed for poisoning Ruiji and Qiying.
  • Yuyan frames Ruyi for having an affair with a priest.
  • Later, Yuyan frames Yunche for stealing her underwear.
  • On Yanwan's orders Jiuxiao tampers with Yongxuan's saddle to make his horse throw him. Yongqi is nearby when the accident happens, leading to him getting the blame for it.
  • Yanwan frames Yuyan for setting her dog on Jingsi.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Yanwan starts out as a maid abused by Yuyan. Then she becomes a concubine, uses her new position to harm her rivals, and eventually takes Ruyi's place.
• Gilded Cage: The palace is beautiful and the women living there have all the material things they could ask for... but none of them can leave and they're constantly plotting against each other.
• Go Out with a Smile: Ruiji smiles as she's dying.
• Gorgeous Period Dress: All over the place, even on the minor characters.
• Hate Sink:
  • Hongli/Qianlong is abusive, selfish, and generally devoid of any positive traits.
  • A Ruo. Most of the other concubines are at least slightly pitiable because they ended up in this situation through no fault of their own, but A Ruo is an Ungrateful Bastard and False Friend who betrays Ruyi for the chance to become a concubine.
  • Yanwan. She acts entitled to be loved and given everything by the two men she loves, is extremely jealous of Ruyi and blames her for everything even when Ruyi had nothing to do with it, and kills multiple people in her pursuit to become the Empress. She gets a fitting end, but it takes such a long time that the hate for her festers with every episode.
• Historical Domain Character: Almost every named character was a real person, most notably Ruyi and Hongli.
• History Repeats: Essentially what happens to Ruyi. Just like her aunt, she loses the Emperor's favor and is confined to her palace.
  • The Emperor finds a beautiful woman and forces her to be one of his wives when she is in love with another man, and she willingly drinks a bowl of soup that causes her to become infertile just so she can avoid bringing a child into the mess that is her life. (Yongzheng and Lanyi vs Qianlong and Xiangjian).
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Wang Qin takes drugs before abusing Lianxin. While under the influence of the drugs he mistakes Xiyue for Lianxin and attacks her, leading to his treatment of Lianxin being revealed and his execution.
• Hypocrite: Hongli is disgusted when he hears Prince Yu drove his wife to suicide and says a man who can't treat his wife well is heartless and dishonourable. At this point Hongli has emotionally and physically abused all of his wives, several of whom are already dead because of him. He remains completely oblivious to his hypocrisy.
• Ignored Expert: Zhen Huan has been through all of the palace scheming before, and warns Ruyi before her coronation of what's ahead of her. Ruyi still believes she and Hongli can be happy together so she doesn't listen.
• I Have Many Names: Most of the characters, especially the women in the harem, have their personal name and at least one title. And their titles change depending on their rank, so one woman can easily go throw five or more titles.
• I Have No Son!:
  • The Yongzheng Emperor removes Hongshi from the imperial genealogy and proclaims that he no longer has a son named Hongshi.
  • Hongli disinherits Yonghuang and Yongzhang for not showing enough grief at Langhua's funeral leading them to never inherit the Crown Prince position. Although this was because he became suspicious when he heard that Luyun and her sons are planning to aim for the throne.
  • Hongli removes Yongcheng from the imperial genealogy after the latter faked an attempt on the former’s life so he will pretend to save him and gain favor, and also as a slap in the face to Yuyan who has spent most of her life scheming to put Yongcheng on the throne and even planned to have him gain legitimacy by being adopted posthumously by Langhua.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy:
  • When Qiying is pregnant someone lures a poisonous snake into her house.
  • Yuyan by proxy of Xiyue tricks Ruiji and Qiying into consuming food and coal contaminated with cinnabar so they will have a miscarriage and lose their fetuses.
• Important Haircut: Ruyi cuts her own hair in episode eighty-one. This is a huge deal and is enough to get her deposed as empress.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Luyun develops dysentery and starts coughing more and more, and she ends up dying after kneeling too long in the rain begging for forgiveness.
  • Ruyi develops one after catching tuberculosis.
• Interrupted Suicide: Lianxin attempts suicide by drowning. Ruyi and her servants arrive in time to rescue her.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Li Yu loves Suoxin, but he knows they could never be happy together because he's a eunuch and Suoxin wants children. When she marries Jiang Yubin instead, Li Yu gifts them a land he was probably going to use for his future family as a wedding present so they can live away from the palace.
• Jerkass:
  • Xiyue. Among other things, she couldn't care less about Yonghuang himself and wants to adopt him solely so she can raise the emperor's oldest son.
  • Yuyan takes an instant dislike to Yanwan and torments her at every chance she gets. Made worse when Yanwan becomes her servant and Yuyan suspects she's trying to seduce Hongli, so she deprives Yanwan of food and good clothes.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Yanwan literally gets away with murder several times. But Ruyi and Hailan gather evidence on her crimes and finally Hailan reveals them all to Hongli.
• Kick the Dog: Yuyan slaps A Ruo. A Ruo has done plenty of things to deserve a slap, but Yuyan either doesn't know or doesn't care about them and slapped her only for walking in front of her.
  • Yuyan gets literally kicked by Hongli after she can’t bear to swear that she didn’t do anything and begins attacking Hailan when she dares her to swear on her mother clan’s glory and her children’s lives.
• Last Disrespects: When Yuyan dies after being utterly disgraced, Qianlong has to acknowledge her life somehow to avoid diplomatic discord with Joseon. Therefore he grants her the posthumous title of Imperial Noble Consort Shujia. Shujia is a homophone for loser in Chinese, allowing him to get one last dig at his treacherous concubine.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: Xiyue and Ruyi both want children but can't have them, Hailan doesn't want a child but has one, while Yuyan and Langhua both want children and have them. Then it's revealed that Langhua was poisoning Xiyue and Ruyi so they couldn't have children. Ruyi is able to have children after the effects of the poison wear off.
• Lonely at the Top: Hongli is a self-inflicted example. He abuses and drives away everyone around him then complains that he's lonely.
• The Lost Lenore: Xiangjian's fiancé Han Qi died before she's brought to the Forbidden City. Although they were never able to marry she describes herself as "Han Qi's widow".
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Hongli has Qi Ru killed but makes the death look like an accidental drowning.
  • It’s implied that Lord Gao had Naerbu (Ruyi’s father) pushed into the river he was fixing and made it look like Naerbu fell in by accident.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: The historical Qianlong Emperor had over twenty-five children (though many died young). The series includes more than fifteen of them.
• Maternity Crisis:
  • Ruyi goes into labour as the servants fight to extinguish the fire at Yihuan's palace.
  • Yanwan goes into labour after her mother is arrested. Yexin brings her the news of her mother's death while she's still in labour.
• Missing Mum:
  • Hongli's mother Li Jingui died before the series starts.
  • Yonghuang's mother Consort Zhe died when he was eight.
• Named by the Adaptation: Almost all of the female characters, since the personal names of many women in the harem have been lost to history.
• Never My Fault: Yanwan blames Ruyi for everything, including having her children taken from her (which is Hongli's fault) and Yunche's punishment (which is Yanwan's fault).
• Never Trust a Title: An English-only example. Based on the official English title you might expect this to be a cute, romantic series. It isn't.
• Not Me This Time: Yuyan does many horrible things over the course of the series, but Jingsi's death is one of the few deaths she isn't responsible for. By this point no one believes her claims of innocence.
• Obnoxious In-Laws:
  • Zhen Huan starts out as this for Ruyi because she is related to Empress Yixiu. She becomes less obnoxious over the course of the series.
  • Most of Hongli's wives are this for each other. They don't stop at being merely obnoxious and go as far as being murderous.
  • Yanwan's mother for Hongli.
• One-Steve Limit: A transliteration-only example. Hailan and Eyinzhu both have the titles "Concubine/Consort Yu", but in Chinese Hailan's title uses the character 愉/yú and Eyinzhu's uses the character 豫/yù.
• Ordered to Die:
  • Ruiji is ordered to drink poison after she nearly kills Muping.
  • After her crimes are revealed Yanwan is ordered to drink poison. She refuses, so she's forced to drink it. Then she's given an antidote and kept alive for years until she's tricked into drinking arsenic.
• Outliving One's Offspring:
  • Ruiji, Yihuan, Qiying and Yuyan outlive their babies.
  • Langhua outlives three of her four children.
  • Ruyi outlives two of her children.
  • Hailan outlives her only son.
• Parental Marriage Veto: Hongli chooses Ruyi as his official wife. His father the Yongzheng Emperor tells him he can't marry her because she's related to Yixiu, who is now in disgrace.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Shows up regularly when the concubines argue. For example, Meiruo and Yuyan's exchange of insults in episode sixty-one.
  Meiruo: If you have the spare time, you should manage your son more so he doesn't worry His Majesty.
  Yuyan: You think His Majesty values your Barin tribe because of the war with Dzungar, but our Yu clan has assissted Great Qing for a long time. We are much more loyal than you Barin.
  Meiruo: So loyal but His Majesty still doesn't seem to care for you or 4th Prince. I can see then it's not the fault of the Yu clan. It's yours and your son's error.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Everything that happens to A Ruo after she framed Ruyi. Hongli knows what she did, so every time he sends for A Ruo he forces her to kneel beside his bed all night. Eventually he reveals her crime in front of all the other concubines, has her poisoned so she'll never be able to speak again, and sends her to the Cold Palace.
• Princeling Rivalry: Played with. Most of the rivalries and political schemes in the palace aren't between the princes, but between their mothers on their behalf.
• Rags to Royalty:
  • A Ruo is a deconstruction. She goes from being a maid to being one of Hongli's concubines, but she got there by framing Ruyi for murder. When her crimes are revealed she loses everything and ends up worse off than she was as a servant.
  • Yanwan also starts out as a maid then becomes a concubine. She climbs much higher than A Ruo, briefly gains control of the harem, and becomes the mother of the next emperor.
• Really Gets Around: Hongli. Justified, though, because polygamy is normal in the time period and especially for the emperor.
• Retcon:
  • Yixiu's crime from the preceding series is whitewashed and reduced to only just meddling in the court's affairs to help her adopted son gain supporters.
  • Ruyi or rather Qingying from the previous series is rather brash and has a poor relationship with Yixiu but here she is demure and has a much better relationship with her aunt.
• Riches to Rags: Yuyan goes from being Noble Consort Jia to being stripped of her title and made a commoner.
• Royally Screwed Up: In the first episode alone the Yongzheng Emperor disinherits his oldest son and orders Yixiu to be locked up for the rest of her life. It all goes downhill from there.
  • Zhen Huan forces Ruyi to choose between killing herself or letting Yixiu die, which drives Yixiu to suicide.
  • Hongli rapes Hailan, who's then forced to marry him. No one except Hailan sees anything wrong with this.
  • Langhua almost dies in childbirth. Instead of being concerned for her health, her mother's immediate concern is whether or not she'll be able to have more children.
  • Zhen Huan appoints at least three of her spies in Hongli's harem in order to spy on her own son and manipulate him according to her interests.
  • Xiyue and Yuyan poison pregnant women and force them to miscarry so their own children will have fewer rivals.
  • Hongli disinherits two of his sons for not showing enough grief at a funeral and becomes suspicious of another son for being too competent.
• Sadistic Choice: Zhen Huan gives Ruyi one: either she commits suicide, or her aunt will die. Yixiu commits suicide to save Ruyi.
• Snow Means Death: It's snowing when Xiyue dies.
• Suck Out the Poison: Yunche does this to Ruyi after she gets bitten by a snake.
• Tantrum Throwing: A Ruo loves doing this. First, she throws stuff around in her living room after Hongli yells at her for telling Li Yu to not send a physician to Ruyi after she becomes poisoned. Then, she throws things around her bedroom after Hongli makes her kneel beside his bed all night, and she has a breakdown over the fact that even after she became an Imperial Concubine, everyone in the palace still treats her as a treacherous slave who betrayed her mistress for power.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Xiangjian tells Hongli what she thinks of him after he believes the rumours about Ruyi and has Yunche castrated.
  • Ruyi gives one to A Ruo after she’s stripped of her title and rendered mute, confessing that even though Ruyi treated A Ruo so well, A Ruo still betrayed her to gain more power and to be pampered. Ruyi remarks that even though she was prepared to take on the treachery and lies from the other women in the harem, she never expected that the person who would stab her in the back, stroke after stroke, would be A Ruo herself. By the end of her speech, A Ruo is unable to handle the stress and is sent to the ground, crying.
  • Ruyi finally has enough of Hongli and calls him out for his behaviour in episode eighty-one.
• The Speechless: Invoked. Hongli orders for A Ruo to be fed a special medicine that will render her mute, so that she will not be able to curse anyone after the revoking of her title. This is just for show, though. He just doesn’t want her to confess that Langhua had something to do with poisoning the two concubines and framing Ruyi, because he refuses to believe that his first wife, the Empress, would stoop so low as to do something like that.
• Took a Level in Badass: In her first appearances Hailan is timid and nervous (with good reason). After Ruyi's imprisonment she gains courage and goes as far as to poison herself to prove Ruyi's innocence.
• Tragic Stillbirth:
  • Ruiji's and Qiying's babies. Ruiji's baby survived for a few minutes after birth but had severe physical deformities that killed him, while Qiying's baby died before birth.
  • Ruyi's second son dies shortly after birth. The midwife caused his death by attempting to delay his birth.
• Ungrateful Bastard: A Ruo starts out as Ruyi's servant. She's never mistreated, but she becomes increasingly jealous of Ruyi and conspires with Xiyue to frame her.
  • Hongli is a big one, taking Ruyi's sincerity and love for granted over the series despite making a promise to protect her.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: An odd example. In the series Hongli is Zhen Huan's adopted son, and the fact he isn't her biological son is specifically mentioned as the reason for tensions between them. Historically, though, he was her biological son.
• Unwanted Spouse: Yunche and Miaoqian are this for each other. Yunche is in love with Ruyi but can’t act on it and Miaoqian looks down on him for being only a guard.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Ruyi is based on a real person, but very little is known about the historical figure's life.
• Villainous Breakdown: Ruiji goes from being composed to crying in despair after learning Yuyan killed her baby and she killed an innocent baby, his mother and nearly killed an innocent woman in her quest for revenge.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Ruyi and Suoxin vomit on-screen after being poisoned.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Xiyue deliberately causes the death of other concubines' children.
  • Yanwan arranges for Yongxuan to have a riding accident.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit:
  • Ruiji deliberately injures her own face to frame Ruyi.
  • Hailan poisons herself to prove Ruyi isn't guilty of the other poisonings.
  • Ruyi takes arsenic in order to get out of the Cold Palace faster.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Usually, Hongli never calls Zhen Huan anything beyond “Royal Mother” (huang e’niang), signifying the tense relationship between them as foster mother and son. So when he calls her the more closer “Mother” (e’niang) after she says that Ruyi was too merciful when punishing the escorts, she notices and says that it must mean that there’s no more arguing with him about deposing Ruyi as empress.

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