What is the pearl tribute and the power dynamics of this story?

 MinnieCooper:

Let’s keep living well and being happy!

???

 AleksandraSucur:

1. Zhang JR knows what is in those caskets, of course he've checked and registered everything they've contained but he is still bound to obtain the highest price, that's why he proposed a blind auction.
2. It's irrelevant, Zhang JR is aware YZJ was cornering Cuis, he is not after YZJ but after Cuis and Xu officer, because he is prince Ying's party while Cuis and Xu are in prince Tan's party, He doesn't know in detail how is YZJ's scheme but knows perfectly YZJ uses his official status to deal with them, so he is just playing his part. He checked what's inside the caskets and sell them closed
3. We don't know who is the dead person, it isn't shown bc it's probably irrelevant as well.

1. How can you assume Zhang Jin Ran know what is in the casket and registered everything? Zhang Jin Ran and everybody else probably just assume what is in the caskets.

2. It's relevant. In auction, the bidder demand to know what items will be in the auction. Government presented by Zhang Jin Ran declared it as blind auction in D-Day when the event is held. Before auction is held, there should be a declaration of stuff will be auctioned.

Another things is, since the casket will be stored in government facility (it never tell or shown how many days), the casket and what is inside it will be the responsibility of government. Assuming Yan Zi Jing proven innocent from murder case, and he reclaim the caskets. If they didn't cross check it with Yan's list and there is missing item, Yan's Merchant Convoy can sue the government for missing item(s).

Zhang Jin Ran actually investigate about pearl tribute of Cui's, but based on your explanation it's like Zhang Jin Ran suddenly cooperate with Yan Zi Jing to corner Cui.

3. The question still remain. Who is dead actually? Since there are many peoples  on the shore and some police or government check the presumed dead body.
3a. Are those people can't tell a dead body with someone pretend dead?
Its relevant if there is actual murder victim, whoever it is. Since the witness at night probably didn't see the victim's face, he just see the killer and recognize the killer. The things that irrelevant is accountant Wei Yan present at the auction.
3b. Since they never declare who is the dead body is, why Wei Yan present at auction can prove Yan Zi Jing is innocent from murder case?

If there is actual dead body, there can be another murder case, and the witness at night probably mistakenly accuse Yan Ji Zing. 

Tbh it easier for Yan Ji Zing to throw accountant Wei Yan off the ship that night. If Zhang Jin Ran presence on the ship aren't strong enough to count as witness, Yan Ji Zing just need to scheme for mass people to witness him throw somebody off the ship. Those mass people don't have to be on the ship, they can be outside near the ship.

Thank you for your explanation about the Yan Zi Jing scenario, which i already understand. Yes i like Yan Zi Jing scheme, all his move since Hepu to sweep pearls on the market lead to the auction is a really well scheme to push Cuis make desperate attempt, but many detailed things bothering me.

The auction is held to raise money for the victims (murder victims), if there is no victim, or even no murder case, the auction probably declared illegal later. Sure, Cuis transaction will still to be processed at that time since the father have made a sign of purchase. But Cui family can sue the government later, and probably sue to cancel the transaction or return money that they've been paid for the auction.

Not to mention the fire arrows at the pearl farms. Okay the arrow probably burned down, but how about the tip of the arrows? It made of metal?

Okay let say Yan Zi Jing use wooden material as the tip of his arrows, but how come nobody witnessing those mass fire arrows flying in the sky at night?

The grand scheme of Yan Zi Jing itself very interisting, but the details is lazy writing.

1. Now I've rewatched the confiscation scene, and actually he (ZJR) could have sealed the caskets after they were filled with any kind of goods "as preventive measure" (he used this expression while talking with Xu) without an inventory. But now I must ask:  how could he have not seen what kind of goods were put in those caskets? So, he simply knows, he knows the things are not valuable.
Later, he is the first to propose a blind auction. I think you and PeachBlossom see his character as too pure and impartial. He is a fine gentleman, true, but he has his own agenda, it is clear from the conversation he had with YZJ on the boat (ep 8), when he asks him why he's so eager to eliminate Cuis and YZJ asks him in return why he investigates the pearl matter "are you not in this in order to gain more power?". And it's true, his investigation aims to gain credits as he can take the post offered by prince Ying with merits. They are "on the same boat" (both literally and symbolically), when he asked YZJ to accept him on the boat, he told him "the cunning rabbit is not dead yet, don't drop a good bow too soon", meaning he is a bow, a tool YZJ can use to eliminate "a cunning rabbit". Besides, ZJR already knows Xu is in collusion with Cuis (he lured Xu to send killers to murder him as to confirm his suspicion)
2. not knowing what caskets contain is a deterrent for all other bidders (and they are all "insiders") to take part. Even Cui SJ is reluctant, she tries to warn her father YZJ is cunning, it isn't easy to deal with his stuff... "The responsibility of government" in case smth is missing... well, when arrested, YZJ clearly said ZJR has his full trust in dealing with the Convoy's goods. Yes, YZJ and ZJR indeed have this strange sort of cooperation, because they would never admit it, but it is a cooperation.
3. The witness of the murder-act reported it to the local official, so they went to search an area and found a dead body with Ms Wei's token on the shore, so they reasonably assumed it was Ms Wei. How YZJ got that body is not known, it's irrelevant for the plot and if that person was murdered, it is an another investigation case which has nothing to do with YZJ. If they ask about the token, Ms Wei can always reply she lost it before. But most probably YZJ used someone who died for other reasons, who wasn't murdered at all. They have just found the body when they've seized YZJ, no obductions were made.

I understand you, details bother me, too. Eg., I am bothered with the shape of gems (YZJ showed to Duanwu) which do not exist in nature. In particular, there are no spheric emeralds, they are crystal beryls formed in shist matrix (I've seen how they are mined in Austrian Habachtal, National Park of Hohe Tauern), stone quarry presented as a mine - every time I see this representation  I think "the authors watched too many C-dramas", although I've seen a few dramas where quarries were quarries, in the open (in all of them they served as penal colonies). If they needed a mine, they could have  represented it as a mine of gold or gems (it's within their jewlery business after all) and yesterday, after reading a long discussion post  of Frost Edelweiss and discovering that Wuling mountain was exploited in Tang for its inkstone, why not just make it Duān Inkstone mine which indeed existed and was famous or a gold mine which indeed existed in Zhàoqìng-Duānzhōu?

But I won't call it "a lazy writing", they've just missed opportunities to  enrich the story with truthful hystorical facts and educational value. The plot is already rich and thick, who knows how many scenes were deleted for reasons of time...During the confiscation, we were also distracted by Duanwu's subplot of revenging her little brother,  but this subplot was more important than the details of confiscation and false murder

 PeachBlossomGoddess:

It’s cool we can just agree to disagree disagree but that is just not my impression of the character. It’s always interesting to read others impressions of a drama it’s interesting how they can differ. I do think a well written drama however will not give rise to such polar opposite impressions. 

I disagree we disagree :) that much in our impressions of ZJR character, certainly they are not "polar opposites". Imo, you've assessed him correctly: he is righteous and "supposed to be objective" but he is not impartial, he is prince Ying's party, that makes him partial by default and you know it, too. In your opening comment, you've wrote:
"He (YZJ)  is inciting Zhang Jinran who is Prince Ying's sworn brother to investigate the Cui family and take them down ".
I also agree with you he is a truth-seeker, he is investigating a complicated tribute-evasion matter, so it's perfectly normal he investigates the truth and makes objective assessments of the situation and people involved. But how he deals with the truth is up to him. He is wary of YZJ because he knows YZJ wants to take Cuis down but doesn't know the reason why YZJ wants to take them down. Knowing the truth YZJ uses him, or better, guide him (providing hints and pieces of evidence) to deal with Cuis, what's his reaction, did he opposed or refused this "guidance" because he doesn't know YZJ's motives? ZJR is not an opportunist, but he covertly accepted to be YZJ's "bow" as he said himself. Ofc he can't make this "cooperation" overt, he is an upright official who knows the rules but he isn't naive or a fool.

Maybe, for some viewers, this "partiality" is not sufficiently emphasised in the storyline, I don't know, for me it was sufficient to see he was exchanging letters with prince Ying and that he repeatedly accepted to be "guided" by YZJ in his investigation. There are holes and open points in the drama, ofc but we can't complain for the lack of plot here, there's smth going on all the time, with twists and turns, entangling subplots, only in today's eps we've had some (although sad) relax when Duanwuwas remembering people, that took half of an ep.
I prefer plots with many things going on than the absence of action and dragging...

 PeachBlossomGoddess:

it  is totally the same lazy writing I have seen in way too many dramas

This is the only thing we can agree I disagree with you.
Because, I agree with everything you've said about ZJR. He is not in Prince Ying's camp to the point of being corruptible. He isn't Ying's blind follower. As for Cuis, he strongly suspects they've killed the Yans (he still doesn't know JZY is the descendant of that family) taking over their properties for illegal purposes and - I hope you are updated with today's eps, I know you hate spoilers  but today's twist filled one important open issue - what he really investigates is that massacre. The reason why he investigates this thing is distant from JZY's reasons, JZY (who deeply distrusts politics, when ZJR came to him with sophisticated words to get on the boat, he just said: "cut the crap, tell me what you want") wants to revenge his family, while upright ZJR doesn't only want to repair the injustice, but as knowledgeable person, doesn't want The Silk Road trade to be interrupted or ruled by some bandits and their political backers. Therefore, you are right he would not frame anybody, and although he doesn't know the details of the JZY's scheming, he goes along with it. It isn't a great plot in your opinion, but I think you're wrong.

You know I'm not after idol dramas, I'm a political scientist, history, linguistics and literature lover, I've dropped Destined and so many other dramas, because of my personal preferences and I can even agree with what danny_ang pointed out that this drama gave too much space to Zhao Lusi, I'm definitely not interested in her acting skills, all actresses should and do display those skills when they are asked for. All I ask from a drama is an engaging plot, and this one (till this point) satisfies me, I truly do not care who are the performers. Why is so?

We don't see  princesses, the main character is a pearl diver (!=). an underdog who doesn't entangle with powerful. The story setting is a real historical setting, when Tang defeated two Göktürk khaganates and still didn't subcontracted their enormous land to Uyghurs. To this point, the drama fairly deals with issues that are within my interests and preferences,  feudal relations included

I just reached episodes 20, and there will be more question. The showmaker know the target audiences for this show, they will not write it deeper on plot. However this is still good show, definetly not among the bad. While im watching it, i google some reference based on history they mentioned.

If there is another version of this show that emphasis more on political turbulence. Another show with understandable characters motives, deeper research and plot writing. I will definetely watch it. 

 PeachBlossomGoddess:

And she still cries all the time she’s  just not a crying princess anymore but it’s still enough crying it’s giving  me PTSD

latest eps and previews for the next prove you two were right, I've formed high expectations too early, I've expected more of political intrigue, but the show turned towards usual clichè, nonsensical misunderstanding, beauty contests etc., bleah. As danny_ang  said, they are targeting idol dramas audience. Agree with you about CSJ, I'm also curious what will happen to her, she is interesting and the actress is convincing in performing the character.
Btw, what is TLB, I must have missed that one...