AleksandraSucur

In the case of Baekje gold smuggling, the imperial envoy mentioned they are remnants of the previous (Sui) dynasty who were supposed to be wiped out in "14th year of Zhenguan reign" thanks to a "great contribution" of Di Renjie's father. Zhenguan is the emperor Taizong (Li Shimin), father of the emperor in this drama. He also said they went in hiding all over the nation.
Heiyan is the major antisystemic force in Tang, that's the reason why they entangle with local gangs using them to undermine the system and the rule of Li family. Di Renjie wants to know why his father committed suicide, was he threatened by Heiyan etc.

He hasn't died.

yeah, but women were more or less patronized by almost all other religions, doctrines and philosophies.
Confucianism has its merits, too, it created a uniformed stable mandarin class employed in administration and bureaucracy. That class created the most powerful system of the world for 800 years. Empires need a strong thought of what is "order" to keep its different parts together and not to undergo fragmentations, especially on its periphery. That class, spread in all imperial provinces and counties, embodied the order and the system. We see that aspect in the drama, forces which rule in Lan Ward are local gangs.

In those which aired till this moment, no.
Besides, this drama is not about Wu Zetian, RvG made occasional references to her rule (she was in charge because her husband was disinterested and sick) and is interesting only because some cases are connected with "high politics". For some reason, screenwriters and directors (see Tsui Hark's blockbusters) love to put her everywhere in every movie or drama which adapts or is inspired by Di Renjie.

the divinity depicted with bird features is Leigong (well, rain and thunder go together) "Leigong is depicted as a fearsome creature with claws, bat wings, and a blue face with a bird's beak". Yu Shi instead is announced by a shangyang bird which predicts rain. He should have a monkey face but in folk tales & arts animal features of mythological creatures can easily switch, eg. Egyptian Toth is presented sometimes with a head of ibis, sometimes with a head of baboon. The mask in this drama actually reminded me of Toth, even the wooden statue has a beak of ibis or similar water birds.

I am not an expert, but there is a rain master in Taoist mythology: Yu Shi. He accompanies Leigong, the god of thunder and they are both supposed to have birdlike features. Can't tell anything on that specific "love story", whether it was made up or not.

Here, the emperor is still alive. Wu Zetian's real power comes later, as empress dowager and regent, and after that period, when she proclaimed herself as emperor.
In this early stage, everyone looked on her as on a shameful social climber: she entered the palace as a concubine of the former emperor, technically her father-in-law, and although she was still a child (who never saw the old emperor) when he died, she was supposed never to marry again. She was a nun for a certain period of time, then re-entered to the harem, obviously not as an empress (her family background was too modest) and climbed through the ranks of concubines, gradually becoming the favourite. The gossip of the time tells us that the empress (that one was from a powerful family) was deposed due to her schemes, she accused the empress of murdering her daughter, while she was the one who killed baby daugther with purpose to frame the empress. The truth about all these will never be known, but the rumor was real and highly probably most of the people hated her, especially among Confucian scholars. Historical (and van Gulik's) Di Renjie was a Confucianist, too, the clashes of pov-s between them (she appointed and removed Di as a chancellor twice) are due to a clash of confessional-philosophical currents of the time.

The Rain Master Legend is adapted from van Gulik's short story He Came with the Rain, not from a novel. There was a folk tale about the Rain Master which Dee found in pwanbroker's library, not in the puppet play. Puppet plays appear in other stories, but I think they've introduced this detail here because of the romance with Ms. Cao, it looked like they were going to "a cinema" together, it's ok. I've searched for the collection of short stories in English (because I didn't read them in English and every country's publisher choses both the title and stories to include/exclude): Judge Dee At Work

I instead don't remember the case of smuggled gold on that island.

You've expressed exactly my thoughts.
Givin' us one more epilogue wouldn't kill them.
And putting the veil down was sexier then puttin' down the underwear 😍

😂😂😂👍

It's the same genre (modernized gong'an), the ML in SToTD is supposed to be a student of judge Di and conveys the very same vibe and some of the cases reminds you of some of van Gulik's stories.
Acting is great in both of them and being similar it's difficult to judge which one is better. This one is better as a production quality, music, visuals, but it's slower in pacing. Such a pacing is intentional because this is an adaptation of van Gulik's stories-cases and the "mystic" element is not that emphasized as in SToTD.
So, our judgment will be influenced by the preferences we have for the stories. But generally, if you liked SToTD, you will like this one, too, no matter if you are acquainted with van Gulik's stories or not

yup, I remember very well all three Tsui Hark's movies (the one with Andy Lau as well), I've seen them on the big screen with my son who was a kid then. Both Lin Gengxin and Feng Shaofeng made a great impression on me, but I've liked that rigid and solemn Mark Chao's Dee, too. Later they were all broadcasted on public and private tv-s accross Europe, Sea Dragon was nominated at Venice film festival and 4 heavenly kings won at Bruxelles fantasy film festival, Tsui Hark is generally well known here as a blockbuster director. Lin played a role of a young medical apprentice - his character is not originally van Gulik's and none of the three stories is from his series of novels. Many writers, from every continent, wrote stories on Di Renjie - thing that van Gulik actually wanted, he wanted other authors to get the inspiration from his hero.
Comparisons are inevitable, but I like this drama very much, the visuals are stunning, ML is great and although re-written, we get the same overall vibe from the original van Gulik's stories, for some reason (probably because these stories were my childhood readings and I feel "familiar" with them) I prefer this drama to Tsui Hark's movies. Maybe because of this subjective preference, I enjoy the story without thinking too much.

maybe, but - quoting a famous Chinese politician from a worldwide known anectode told by Kissinger - "it's too early to judge". 😁The drama still has a looong time to go, we have no clue of the reasons for this switch ("more women required" was my guess, the reason can be something else, eg.: the production didn't want the relationship between Ma Rong and Di to be misunderstood by the Chinese censorship, the original male Ma Rong is possessively distrustful towards anyone approaching Di), therefore, I propose: let's be patient. female Ma Rong still has a time to prove her usefulness as a "shark" (this is the term for a "useful sidekick" used in European languages).
I've duly taken into account what PeachBlossomGoddess pointed out as a problem: this actress's delivery of the "shark" and I think PeachBlossom has a point here.
I was too glad the drama rendered the overall vibe of the stories I've read as a kid. If PeachBlossom didn't pay much attention to the original Ma Rong, I didn't pay enough attention to this female one. Now, I also think they've casted the wrong actress for the role of "shark" of Di Renjie. There's something off with her voice, when she screams, the sound is too girlish and overtoned, her physical appearence is also wrong, not because she is a bad actress, but she is just not fit for this character.

You've said she is "causing problems", "huge pimple", Teens804 said "she gives her a headache", I've just pointed out these things are referred to a character, who is supposed to be a brawler, a constant source of trouble and embarassment for Di in the original, too. Maybe some other actress would shine in that role - I don't argue that - but that one also ought to act as a nuisance and make people irritated, because it's such a character.
Maybe we are less willing to tolerate such characters if they are females in dramas (it's my case, too), but overally, they've adapted this male character well, btw. among Di's assistants he was the only transformable into a woman and if we get upset with her, it means the acting isn't bad, it just hit the point. She also conveys a sense of deep loyalty to Di, a trait which original character had, too

glad to be of some help 😊

I don't think it's actress's fault. Original Ma Rong was a giant male braggart. I somehow understand they've decided to change his gender while re-writing the story, today's audience requires more women in plots (more inclusiveness in general), so it's inevitable for the productions to adapt. It's a worldwide trend, even the USA ought to stop such a successful and record-long series (more than 40 years) as Lieutenant Columbo in early 2000' because his wife was regularly mentioned in every episode but never showed up physically.
This female Ma Rong is not completely bad, she was useful and convincing (for this new adaptation, which skips the arc of old magistrate's murder) to show to the local gang "new boss arrived in town/county, you better behave!"

The difference is in the transcription-transliteration system from Mandarin you prefer to use. "Dee" would be the transcription method into English, although, even English speakers should use Wade-Giles phonetical method for transcription (and use "i" instead of "ee"), thing they rarely do.

It's not a big mistake, other languages also often transcribe according to their own writing systems, in French he was transcribed as "Ti Jentsié" (EFEO transcription system based on French phonetics).

Pinyin system of transcribing Chinese characters into Latin alphabet is recognized as international standard and should and actually is the one mostly used in majority of languages that use Latin alphabet when they want to transcribe Mandarin correctly. Because in pinyin it is: Dí Rénjié, the original tones are conserved, but like in Cyrillic alphabet, today is mostly in use the simplified version of pinyin without diacritics. The simplified verson is used in ICU international unicodes for Chinese transliteration, too.

So, in theory, both Dee and Di are not correct, because the correct form would be "Dí", but in practice, they are both correct, because we all communicate here in English and know the phonetical sound of "ee" (IPA: "iː"), as well as we know that "i" in "Di" isn't pronounced as "ai", but "i".

Yup, he found him in some later moment, after asking her many times about her bro. We don't know exactly when it happened, flashbacks are not shown in chronological order. When I saw the scene I was thinking she became useless for Seuk,at that point, he could have killed her in any moment, especially if her death could have been presented as suicide: his family would probably even get a Chastity Gate and his wife, whom he treats as a beloved pet, would be very happy. Maybe he didn't want his wife to be too lonely, he could have killed YH if necessary in any moment later.
I agree with you about the lenght of this drama, it was a long time we haven't seen such an enjoyable drama, it's normal we want more. So many things in it are made wonderfully, starting from dialogues, choice of cuts and assembling in pp, cast, acting, music... It's a rarity for a pastiche genre to combine its elements so smoothly and to deliver desired effects of each one. Such stories are a great risk, they usually fail, but when they succede. then they are better than single-genre dramas.

Her brother is dead: Lord Seok's flashback in ep. 8 shows him speaking to a dying Cho: "if you had given the royal edict and tablet earlier, your sister would have had a better fate. Rest in peace, then"
He turs his back, we see Pil Jik's face and sword and hear the sound of stabbing. Cho's hand stops to shake.
Actually, it doesn't matter if Cho survived that mortal stab or not, the point is that one we agree upon: once Yeo-hwa learn about this thing, Seok, the mastermind behind all those connected crimes will be unredeemable and unsalvageable in her eyes

I agree this way is more romantic. But I'd bet there will be a kiss, too, in ep 11, those two on the same bed together... "my lady who is another man's wife", "wrong ideas" & so on will just be an empty talk. She may be another's man's wife thousand times, but that lady is on your bed the first night she was supposed to spend in her husband's bed. The husband who woke up meanwhile after she knocked him down, by the way and is no stupid. I also think he won't make problems, may even help in smth., like getting "the secret royal edict" from his father's case.

As for the death of evil people here, I trust our FL more than I trust the king threatened by Lord Seouk for so many years, while he was searching the truth about a "secret royal edict" (which is already in Lord Seouk's hands, while the king and Park senior still miscalculate because they don't consider this possibility, they think Seok is still in search of it). But they also rely on FL's capability to obtain a testimony from Lady Oh - we saw Lady Oh was ready to write something when a letter was delivered to her. Lady Oh is also an interesting character: she worked for Seok (in order to keep her mother's secret), killed the former king and her abusive husband, but she is one of the greatest victims of such a society at the same time... She will tell the truth about her brother's death to our FL. Nobody will stop Yeo Hwa at that point, she endured so much for so many years only in hope to get her bro back. She'll dismantle the evil herself, the others (ML, his bro, the king, etc.) may and will help her, but the title "Breaker of Chains" is hers in this story, imo.