there's only ep 9 today and probably the only place is mangotv if ur region has it.
YES, DONT MENTION k now that cool already vanished..... or as Madeline wrote, put spoiler tags, but better delete those comments altogether now you got your answer, since the hunt is ongoing to take those useful sites down.
Peonies - the care for peonies in this drama is definitely not to be followed. As a peony lover, I would be ecstatic…
true: don't think the one you'd carry on your back on a long trek would just go flower at will in a small pot. They need a place they like in a garden and indeed you don't plant them in flowering season, but better in autumn or at the very beginning of springtime.
Looking at your list, perhaps you now could swap the older drama into completed or on hold or dropped - yes, I don't like to drop either. That's why my on hold list is getting long : dramas that unfortunately I had no time for any longer for a variety of reasons not necessarily having been bored or disliking them. I try not to enter titles before I saw a handful episodes and decided I'd go on or not, so if they get languishing "in purgatory" it's because I got sidetracked with other things, other dramas, or writing sometimes Companion pieces with info like above. But I write those pieces whimsically, when I have time, and they do not necessarily reflect my all time preferred dramas. Just those I felt it was useful to share some info about.
The latest I did had me mobilized for the better part of November-December: The Story of Pearl Girl, and Brocade Odyssey with lots of historical details for these dramas set in Tang Dynasty. (If you'd like to have a look at them, click on the list included on my member page). I was toying with doing another for Riverside Code at Qingming Festival which was a nice one set in Song dynasty. But was too tired and busy then.
I like those dramas that are not just "palace ones", but about more or less ordinary people in ancient times, like "A Dream of Splendor" (Song Dynasty) and "The Sword and the Brocade" (Ming Dynasty), although I also liked very much "Love Like The Galaxy "(Eastern Han dynasty, imperial family modeled on that of Guangwu) and the very tragic "One and Only" which is set in a fictional Beizhen kingdom modeled on Three kingdoms period following the Han dynasty one as indicated by the use of the Shanglin Fu poem and the Jiangnan poems.
I love that drama. It is beautiful, well paced and brings food for thought.I love peonies too ; as it happens…
Adding the Chinese names for those interested : 马齿苋 mǎ chǐ xiàn (purslane) 牡丹 Mǔdān (peony/peonies) yes, the name that the FL character used for herself instead of Hé Wéifāng (何惟芳) her original name, changed cheekily by "Floral Envoy"(花鸟使huāniǎo shǐ means in fact "flower and birds envoy") 蒋长扬 Jiǎng Chǎngyáng to : 蒋小花 Jiǎng Xiǎohuā (the Jiǎng little flower!) on the needed fake household registry (ep.7)
Actually, the position of Jiǎng Chǎngyáng was that of a 少卿 (shàoqīnɡ) : an official in auxiliary departments, here that of the 光禄寺 Guānglù sì which was the official office in charge of catering in ancient China (it was in charge of royal meals. and more, so the translation there is often "Court of Imperial Entertainments" : no wonder Jiǎng Chǎngyáng looked for strange things like monkeys to amuse the king, and went to test entertainment in apparently disreputable places where new and foreign shows might be held...) That particular position held power as a close minister of the monarch, who acted in accordance with the monarch's orders, hence his taking part in the royal hunt. Above the少卿 were ministers, but the 少卿 had under their jurisdiction people like chief registrars and other official positions, hence Jiǎng Chǎngyáng's role in the country court of Luòyáng, when Mǔdān sought divorce from 刘畅 Liú Chàng.
I love that drama. It is beautiful, well paced and brings food for thought.
I love peonies too ; as it happens I have a dozen varieties in my mountain garden, herbaceous and "tree" type, big and small flowered, fragrant or just eye catching. The season to enjoy their flowering is too short : in Luoyang (from which some of my peonies come from), "each year from mid-April to mid-May, the peonies are in full bloom, generally reaching their peak during the period April 15th-25th, which is the date set for the annual festival." There are many types of peonies, some natural, some cultivars or even hybrid such as big flowers "intersectional" Itoh peonies (more about those here : https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/peony/intersectional). "Stretching the peony season has made these flowers available the world over. They can be found in Morocco and Alaska!"
I have also got purslane (end of ep.9), that landed as Heavens gift, surprising me with sunny yellow small flowers one day on a distant apartment terrace, taking possession of a neglected flower pot, so I brought them over, although they have to be kept in check, because they can be quite invasive. Nice addition to the salads and soups, though!
A garden is often full of fun hide and seek places like the vegetable patch in the Beatrix Potter tales about Peter Rabbit (one adorable song is that one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUyxCP5Rvco) Although the English garden is known to be "wilder" than the too strict French designed garden, it is less planned than the Chinese "landscape" gardens that create vistas such as the famous Suzhou ones in big or tiny spaces (Master of the Nets garden (Wǎngshī yuán 网师园) : "The inner garden is a charming courtyard grown with beautiful herbaceous peonies. There also stands the notable Peony Study (殿春簃), which enjoys a high prestige among the architects." https://www.flickr.com/photos/56846531@N04/5543988574/in/photostream/)
A Garden is a Paradise, with surprises and fun, as long as the toil to keep it going is physically possible. Well-maintained it is both nourishing and a feast for the eyes, comfort for the soul!
Those who give some attention to plants could never go hungry. Check those videos, found happenstance as I was looking for one about purslane to illustrate : https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lI-pVpwDCyU and found it again among "wild plants" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRylBLWhB6s Some of the plants on this video, are not common outside the USA, but many can be found around the world. Just be careful not to believe you could go totally hermit living on wild plants if you don't know them, as the cautionary tale (from real story) of the 2007 movie Into The Wild proved. Some "demonic" poisonous plants could disguise as the "heavenly gift manna" edible and beneficial ones. Therefore, adding this video to make the difference between "summertime" purslane and a toxic close looking weed called spurge : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T9wnQMFm-M which also adds some other possible use: purslane sauce and purslane wine!!
So can peonies be edible or are they toxic? The flowers can be consumed to bring color and and a "lovely fresh taste of clove, they're good in flavoured sugars, oils and vinegars." Still, be careful, peonies can be toxic (although not deadly) to curious cats and dogs. The roots are used in TCM. A tincture or tea can be made from them and its benefits are thus described "Peony might block chemicals that can cause pain and swelling. It might also prevent blood clotting, kill cancer cells, and act as an antioxidant."
2 
5 
1 
1 
1 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MThyTy2Wx1w
I saw you already posted :
Yang Zi "不逢不若 (Do Not Conform)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obDo3jVey_Q
Guo Keyu "豫章行 " (Yuzhang Trip)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk-bfWPHWm8
Terry Lin "青鸟归" (Blue Bird Returns)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaU91QcQwPg
Xiao Jingteng - "萧敬腾" (Like Frost)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP_lYS9WsT0
Tan Weiwei "流芳" (Spread Good Reputation)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lSnDSrGux8
辛苦你 💞
Here's one song for you then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK3SSoaaMLo
Looking at your list, perhaps you now could swap the older drama into completed or on hold or dropped - yes, I don't like to drop either. That's why my on hold list is getting long : dramas that unfortunately I had no time for any longer for a variety of reasons not necessarily having been bored or disliking them. I try not to enter titles before I saw a handful episodes and decided I'd go on or not, so if they get languishing "in purgatory" it's because I got sidetracked with other things, other dramas, or writing sometimes Companion pieces with info like above. But I write those pieces whimsically, when I have time, and they do not necessarily reflect my all time preferred dramas. Just those I felt it was useful to share some info about.
The latest I did had me mobilized for the better part of November-December: The Story of Pearl Girl, and Brocade Odyssey with lots of historical details for these dramas set in Tang Dynasty. (If you'd like to have a look at them, click on the list included on my member page). I was toying with doing another for Riverside Code at Qingming Festival which was a nice one set in Song dynasty. But was too tired and busy then.
I like those dramas that are not just "palace ones", but about more or less ordinary people in ancient times, like "A Dream of Splendor" (Song Dynasty) and "The Sword and the Brocade" (Ming Dynasty), although I also liked very much "Love Like The Galaxy "(Eastern Han dynasty, imperial family modeled on that of Guangwu) and the very tragic "One and Only" which is set in a fictional Beizhen kingdom modeled on Three kingdoms period following the Han dynasty one as indicated by the use of the Shanglin Fu poem and the Jiangnan poems.
马齿苋 mǎ chǐ xiàn (purslane)
牡丹 Mǔdān (peony/peonies) yes, the name that the FL character used for herself instead of Hé Wéifāng (何惟芳) her original name, changed cheekily by "Floral Envoy"(花鸟使huāniǎo shǐ means in fact "flower and birds envoy") 蒋长扬 Jiǎng Chǎngyáng to : 蒋小花 Jiǎng Xiǎohuā (the Jiǎng little flower!) on the needed fake household registry (ep.7)
Actually, the position of Jiǎng Chǎngyáng was that of a 少卿 (shàoqīnɡ) : an official in auxiliary departments, here that of the 光禄寺 Guānglù sì which was the official office in charge of catering in ancient China (it was in charge of royal meals. and more, so the translation there is often "Court of Imperial Entertainments" : no wonder Jiǎng Chǎngyáng looked for strange things like monkeys to amuse the king, and went to test entertainment in apparently disreputable places where new and foreign shows might be held...)
That particular position held power as a close minister of the monarch, who acted in accordance with the monarch's orders, hence his taking part in the royal hunt.
Above the少卿 were ministers, but the 少卿 had under their jurisdiction people like chief registrars and other official positions, hence Jiǎng Chǎngyáng's role in the country court of Luòyáng, when Mǔdān sought divorce from 刘畅 Liú Chàng.
I love peonies too ; as it happens I have a dozen varieties in my mountain garden, herbaceous and "tree" type, big and small flowered, fragrant or just eye catching. The season to enjoy their flowering is too short : in Luoyang (from which some of my peonies come from), "each year from mid-April to mid-May, the peonies are in full bloom, generally reaching their peak during the period April 15th-25th, which is the date set for the annual festival." There are many types of peonies, some natural, some cultivars or even hybrid such as big flowers "intersectional" Itoh peonies (more about those here : https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/peony/intersectional). "Stretching the peony season has made these flowers available the world over. They can be found in Morocco and Alaska!"
I have also got purslane (end of ep.9), that landed as Heavens gift, surprising me with sunny yellow small flowers one day on a distant apartment terrace, taking possession of a neglected flower pot, so I brought them over, although they have to be kept in check, because they can be quite invasive. Nice addition to the salads and soups, though!
A garden is often full of fun hide and seek places like the vegetable patch in the Beatrix Potter tales about Peter Rabbit (one adorable song is that one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUyxCP5Rvco) Although the English garden is known to be "wilder" than the too strict French designed garden, it is less planned than the Chinese "landscape" gardens that create vistas such as the famous Suzhou ones in big or tiny spaces (Master of the Nets garden (Wǎngshī yuán 网师园) : "The inner garden is a charming courtyard grown with beautiful herbaceous peonies. There also stands the notable Peony Study (殿春簃), which enjoys a high prestige among the architects." https://www.flickr.com/photos/56846531@N04/5543988574/in/photostream/)
A Garden is a Paradise, with surprises and fun, as long as the toil to keep it going is physically possible. Well-maintained it is both nourishing and a feast for the eyes, comfort for the soul!
Those who give some attention to plants could never go hungry. Check those videos, found happenstance as I was looking for one about purslane to illustrate : https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lI-pVpwDCyU and found it again among "wild plants" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRylBLWhB6s Some of the plants on this video, are not common outside the USA, but many can be found around the world. Just be careful not to believe you could go totally hermit living on wild plants if you don't know them, as the cautionary tale (from real story) of the 2007 movie Into The Wild proved. Some "demonic" poisonous plants could disguise as the "heavenly gift manna" edible and beneficial ones. Therefore, adding this video to make the difference between "summertime" purslane and a toxic close looking weed called spurge : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T9wnQMFm-M which also adds some other possible use: purslane sauce and purslane wine!!
So can peonies be edible or are they toxic? The flowers can be consumed to bring color and and a "lovely fresh taste of clove, they're good in flavoured sugars, oils and vinegars." Still, be careful, peonies can be toxic (although not deadly) to curious cats and dogs. The roots are used in TCM. A tincture or tea can be made from them and its benefits are thus described "Peony might block chemicals that can cause pain and swelling. It might also prevent blood clotting, kill cancer cells, and act as an antioxidant."
Looking forward to next episodes 😍
congratulations to LSIW and cast there!