Commentary of Legend of Zhen Huan

Introduction Empress Chun Yuan (actual name: Rou Ze) is the deceased first wife of Emperor Yongzheng and the elder sister of Yixiu (the current empress in the drama). She is kindhearted and talented in many areas (singing, dancing, poetry, what does she not know?).  She was Yongzheng's true love and died after giving birth to a stillborn child. Years after she died, Yongzheng still tries to search for a woman who can be as good as Chun Yuan. She is not represented by an actor in the drama but she is frequently mentioned in the drama, affecting the fate of many characters in the drama.  Her personality Chun Yuan is allegedly a kindhearted person as she is nice to her servants. On her deathbed, she asked Yongzheng to take care of her sister as well. But Chun Yuan's role in the following scenes indicates she isn't as nice as she seems.  Punishment of a concubine There was a scene where Consort Hua punished Zhen Huan by getting her to kneel for one hour. This caused Zhen Huan...

Background to the "gown" In episode 42, Zhen Huan was conferred the title of a consort. On the day of the ceremony, her gown was destroyed. She had to wear another gown (from the Empress) as a replacement. When Zhen Huan wore the gown to the ceremony, Emperor Yongzheng was mad and grounded her. It was then revealed that this was the very gown that Empress Chun Yuan wore when they met for the first time. But there are many strange things about this incident, which I will talk about. The "first meeting" Chun Yuan was the Di  sister of Yixiu, then the secondary concubine of Yongzheng, then the fourth prince. When Yixiu was on her eighth month of pregnancy, she was requested that Chun Yuan stay in her residences to care for her. Yongzheng fell in love with Chun Yuan on first sight, and brought her to Emperor Kangxi, insisting that they get married and that she should be the first wife, negating the promise he made to Yixiu that she would be conferred the status of the...