Character Chart

Wow.  You definitely went all out with this.  Love the graphics.  Looking forward to additions.

 Mich:

Thank you for doing this.  This is great!  I've found charts in Chinese but none in english.

The ENG names defo make it easier to look ppl up as the drama goes on but I found it important to keep the Chinese names as well. Each name has their alliance in it.
For example, Cang Xuan's grandmother, XiLing Xie belonged to XiLing (before marrying or whilst still being married to the emperor of XiYan). XiaoYao's mother, who was Grandmothers pupil is ALSO from XiLing! That is why I started highlighting their 'titles' (that are still part of their name though) in the same colour as to showcase their relations to each other. I can not wait to put up the next Chart with Central Plains bc it's getting huge TTATT My head is exploding (in a good way)<3
I am currently 10EPs behind but we still have another 2 days of waiting, so I should manage. I just worry about EP26 where XinYue explained to XiaoYao on their banquet that everyone in central plains is related to each other haha RIP

Xiaoyao's last name is Haoling. Her mother and Cang Xuan are both Xiyan. Since they are royalties, we kinda just drop their last names. Like the British Windsor family.

 Defiance98:

But isn't XiaoYao's mother's name Xiling Heng, with Xiling being her last name? And the queen of Xiyan is also Xiling Xie. So how does that work out?

It does not work like last names in the west. This author integrates the names of their 'nation'/clan into the characters name. Such as is TuShan Jing from the TuShan Clan, XiLing Heng and XiLing Xie of the XiLing Clan. XiaoYao is the princess of HaoLing and after reclaiming her position, she is called Haoling Jiu Yao.

 Msrenaytoo:

So confusing is right🤣😂 So, there are no blood relations between  Cang Xuan and Xiao Yao's mothers or his dad? If Her mom is not a child of the  king of Xiyan, Why does Xiao Yao call him grandfather?

I think they changed it in the drama to protect viewers' sensibility. Can you imagine the outcry over them being first cousins? But to answer your question, her mother was an adopted daughter of Queen of Xiyan from her native clan Xiling. (Actually, the correlation chart indicates her mother is "the disciple" of Queen of Xiyan. But no one on the show ever mentioned that one.) Regardless, they are still cousins by blood via their Xiling connection.

So the reason Xiling Heng is called the princess general is because she is the disciple and adopted daughter of the Xiyan Queen?

I actually rewatched the 1st episode closely to fully understand and now i finally got it. The only thing that is still confusing is the fact that Xiaoyao's character is still constantly made out to be the granddaughter of the King of Xiyan. In the book where her mother is the princess of Xiyan that makes sense but in the drama she is a student of the late queen. Yet the King treats her like his granddraughter, even making comments like "that is my granddaughter" when Xiaoyao mentions that she would have killed Deyan if the king had announced him as the next King of Xiyan. So i just got very confused because of that.  Also, he is very lenient with Xiaoyao, even though she is not his biological granddaughter. He has so many more grandchildren outside of Xiaoyao and Cang Xuan, but Xiaoyao si the only special one. 

The only theory that makes sense in this case is that the drama was originally based very close to the book, so her mother is the Princess of Xiyan and she is the biological cousin of Cang Xuan and the only maternal granddaughter of the King of Xiyan. But in order to circumvent censorship that might make an issue of biological cousins having romantic feelings, they only changed the fact that Xiaoyao's mother is a disciple rather than the daughter of the Queen of Xiyan, while maintaining all the other aspects of the plot and relationships.  That is probably why the relationships don't make sense in the show.