Symbolism in the Chinese Title and Other Themes

I would like to talk about the symbolism behind the Chinese title, 墨雨云间.
I’m interpreting the phrase as “Inky Rain Amidst Clouds.” The words signify a tarnished reputation or image, literally a black rain in her world. It is interesting that the word ink is used since her murderous husband was a scholar; his ink tarnished her.
It is also significant that there were so many images of her using umbrellas, as if in her new incarnation, she is protecting herself from that inky rain.
If you listened to one of the OST, the one with the duet, the girl sings about being lost in the inky cloud, and the boy sings about being the thread to pull her out!

Cool, huh?

So now we can extrapolate that into all those scenes of the Duke slowly giving her his clothes to wear ha ha until she wore the whole get up at the barbecue. She had his full protection by then. 😍

Ah, this drama…..

Thank you so much for writing this!!

I don't understand chinese so such depth is lost on me. I even feel the urge to ask your opinions on similar things for other dramas that I like!

I'm very happy that the drama took the effort to make light colored clothes for Fang Fei, to visualise the lyrics as you described and to portray everything you mentioned. It adds a whole new layer to everything.

As for your question, here is my opinion:

- Shen Yu Rong has studied hard to reach his position, he is known to be impartial to political parties (ex in the exam between Li Jin and Ye Shi Jie he prefers Ye Shi Jie's answer) and is generally known to have the good of the people as his compass.  He even lead his wife's funeral, even though she had supposedly cheated on him. So, in the public eyes he has a good reputation (white) almost until the end of the drama.

- Xiao Heng is known to be arrogant, he does what he likes, sometimes not even reporting to the Emperor about his actions, he tortures not only criminals but also suspects (who could be innocent), and if you catch his eye you're done for. It's no wonder then that everyone views him as a person that they want to avoid, even evil (black).

In the clothes scene Shen Yu Rong's cloak was white but it made her want to vomit, while Xiao Heng's clothes were black but she felt comfortable, warm and protected.

Considering everything I wrote above, my understanding is that not everything is as it seems.

What seems to be an excellent reputation and a hard working impartial scholar (white) is actually someone who killed his wife and was so cowardly that he refused to accept the implications of his actions up to the end, while the overbearing, arrogant noble (black) is actually a warm hearted person.

But this is not visible to outsiders who don't know about any of these things, hence the confusing colors of the clothes. Xue Fang Fei's clothes reflect her actual personality, but for Shen Yu Rong and Xiao Heng their clothes reflect how they're perceived by others.

Shen Yu Rong always wears light colored clothes, except for the red official's robe which also signifies the blood on his hands.
Xiao Heng always wears black, sometimes combined with red which signifies
- his vow to find out the truth behind his parents' death (his mom wore red when she fell off the cliff and he saw her)
- the blood on his hands (which is different from Shen Yu Rong's because Xiao Heng has killed criminals for the sake of the people)
- his thirst for life (in contrast to Shen Yu Rong's washed out white clothes and his pale appearance, resembling a dead man, Xiao Heng is a vibrant and active person).

Therefore, the seemingly clean and innocent white is a harbringer of death, while the deep abyss of black is a warm hearth for his wife and a pillar of strength for his people.

Here is the post (copy and pasted) about song (show title) first appearing in the drama. Rewatching the show and tracing the songs, I had a new "thought" about the lyrics  :-D 

https://mydramalist.com/736749-di-jia-qian-jin#comment-18404963

Episode 1: XFF's and SYR's song at the scene after he whacked her in the head and buried her

It is the title of The Double in Chinese: Inky Rain Amidst the Clouds

The song is their story, sung with male and female voices, and in the song, the woman sang of her love and being lost in an inky (SYR is a scholar) rain and clouds while the man sang of the end of things, of decay, and how it was her fate that he cut them apart.
In the ending part, he sang of his regret that he would never see her again.

The two sentences they sang together at the end of refrain 1 and refrain 2:
1) So too does hate linger
2) How fickle fate can be

These two lines signified of things to come. (1) He sang of regret remaining, NOT THINKING that hate would linger (because she didn't die) and (2) He thought the fate of his wife was how he wanted it to be (her dead) but fate was FICKLE and could change in an instant. The scene and song ended with her hand shooting out of the dirt, grasping the flute at exactly that line (how fickle fate can be).