Before Zhang Linghe sauntered into viewers’ lives, knocking their socks off as Xie Zheng in Pursuit of Jade, he was the good-looking strategist-minister Pei Wenxuan in The Princess Royal, a Chinese drama adapted from The Grand Princess, a web novel by Mo Shu Bai. The 40-episode series was released in 2024, starring Linghe and Zhao Jin Mai (Amidst the Snowstorm of Love), who plays his wife, the intrepid Princess Li Rong.
Linghe playing Wenxuan isn’t as jaw-dropping as portraying Xie Zheng, but The Princess Royal strongly holds a candle to Pursuit of Jade for four reasons. First, it keeps clear of the common romance plot that rebuilding a relationship happens in a smooth, linear fashion. Love is presented for what it is—a volatile and, at times, violent emotion requiring deep maturity if a couple is to survive its chaotic ups and downs. The marriage of Wenxuan and Li Rong is saved in a dramatic fashion, with true feelings confessed and epiphanies realized in the rain in episode 11. Being levelheaded, they establish a relationship more harmonious than in their first lives. This is a time travel drama.
The subplot of unrequited love ushers in an atypical villain in Minister of Justice Su Rongqing (Chen Heyi), who imprisons himself in a one-sided love for Li Rong and fierce devotion to his family. After divorcing Wenxuan in her first life, Li Rong chooses Rongqing as her companion, but their relationship is platonic. He’s mentally and emotionally unsteady, and his state is made more precarious by his physical condition. Emperor Li Chuan, Li Rong’s younger brother, had Rongqing’s male family members castrated as punishment for Rongqing’s older brother’s affair with the empress.
Wenxuan and Li Rong’s reconciliation could’ve ended the series but, mirabile dictu, the excitement is just starting, which brings up the next reason to watch the series. The plot of second-chance-at-love coalesces with the narrative device of time travel, i.e., temporal regression/de-aging. Wenxuan and Li Rong, in their first lives, were manipulated to hate one another. They ended up dying, but woke up, much to their consternation, to the time when they were 18 years old and in an arranged marriage. The time-travel device shifts the focus from the collapse of their marriage to their new situation complicated by their discovery that they aren’t the only ones who time-travelled, holding the viewers’ attention.
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There’s no coup de foudre (love at first sight) between Wenxuan and Li Rong. They married for utilitarian reasons: Li Rong married to avoid disasters, given Wenxuan’s family’s reputation and social background, while he married her for the royal status, to gain leverage in political maneuverings.
But love does bloom the second time around and so the device plot of traveling back in time is apt in remedying their relationship. (Blossom used the same device plot, with lead characters Song Mo and Dou Zhao returning to the past to redo their moribund fates, and to live freely and happily.)
Wenxuan and Li Rong’s discoveries while investigating the mysterious circumstances of their deaths is the third reason to watch the series. Their investigation leads to the unmasking of villains and unearthing of dirty little secrets. Viewers stayed riveted to the end, guessing what the opposing parties would do to achieve their goals.
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Of their discoveries, the most chilling is the revelation of Emperor Li Chuan and Rongqing as their killers, calling to mind the murderous ways of the real-life Cleopatra and her family in retaining political power. Tellingly, the emperor and Ronqing also goaded Li Rong to have Wenxuan assassinated, after making Li Rong think it was Wenxuan who had poisoned her. Ronqging didn’t directly administer the poison to Li Rong, but he’s complicit to the murder, because he knew and just let the Emperor kill her.
The series keeps its hold on the audience as the plot moves forward episode after episode, more so when the spotlight is on Ronqging, who becomes self-destructive as he clings obsessively to Li Rong and power. He has divided the audience. One side argues that Rongqing isn’t wholly to be blamed for becoming evil because his circumstances made him as such. Who wouldn’t become unhinged after being rejected and made a eunuch because of his brother’s indiscretion with the emperor’s wife?
Meanwhile, the other side points out he should have gone after his older brother, not Li Rong. The situation is gripping because of Rongqing’s conflicted feelings for Li Rong and his family, and wanting to preserve the emperor’s reign.
Fascinatingly, Rongqing is less menacing and treacherous than Li Chuan. Without qualms, Li Chuan, suffering from insecurity (he saw the nobles favoring Li Rong more than himself) and paranoia (he believed Li Rong would dethrone him), devised Li Rong’s slow and painful death.
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Another interesting revelation is Rongqing as the other time traveler, whose stalker vibe enhances his villainous charm. His iniquity is simultaneously entrancing and repulsive, and his struggles with his contradictions are compelling to watch. They’re what makes viewers vacillate between hating and pitying him.
The last reason to watch the series is the development of the strong characters. They progress in steady, convincing arcs, leaving their actions and decisions unquestioned. Li Rong begins to trust other people (including her husband) again despite the betrayals in her previous life. She’s changed from an anxious, diffident person to someone demonstrating that ambitious women aren’t necessarily avaricious or narcissistic.
Wenxuan is finally seen in a different light. Granted, he isn’t an intimidating warrior and is often misread as effete. On the contrary, his perceived timidity belies an astuteness and sangfroid that has him and Li Rong outwitting their political enemies, including Rongqing.
The couple’s reconciliation triggers a sea change in the plot, changing the focus from themselves to defeating Rongqing, who stubbornly fights them to preserve the political hierarchy and aristocracy that they’re dismantling through reforms. The protracted battle for power between them spotlights Wenxuan and Li Rong’s rekindled romance—both are now willing to sacrifice themselves so the other can live better compared to their first lives.
Conversely, Rongqing’s second chance in life ends tragically, much like the first. In his second life, seeing no way out for him after losing to the couple, he locks himself in the imperial palace he has set on fire.
The Princess Royal has all the essentials of a Chinese drama, i.e., gorgeous lead stars with screen chemistry, amazing period costumes, and astounding cinematography. But it’s different with a stimulating storyline on mature love and the machinations of politics while plumbing the characters’ motivations. It also introduces an intriguing villain. Given that, how can you not watch it?
