Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace

Us Chinese-speaking kids were first exposed to the character of Empress Ulanara (Qianlong Emperor's second Empress) in the 1998 classic My Fair Princess. 

The original Empress Ulanara was a cruel and merciless Empress who wanted to protect her status above all else. Rivalled only by her legendary Nanny Rong, Empress Ulanara (Hoifa-nara? Records can't seem to agree on her clan name) went out of the way to destroy the titular Princess Huanzhu. From then, Empress Ulanara was successfully made to be the face of a jealous, intolerant and unvirtuous Empress, in contrast to the kind and gentle 令贵妃 Consort Ling.

A quick look at her Wikipedia page seems to provide some context to this. She was the only Qing Dynasty Empress who was not given an honorary title upon her death. Emperor Qianlong even gave her a funeral that was said to be more befitting of a commoner than of an Empress. It was believed that Empress Ulanara committed a grave act of disrespect by cutting her hair, an act that alluded to the fall of an empire or the death of her husband. 

[I don't think many know this but in the third instalment (which I believed nobody watched cos they couldn't get past the cast change) of My Fair Princess, Empress Ulanara finally fell from grace after cutting her hair to protest the Emperor's marriage to a Jiangnan prostitute. It was but one of many acts of defiance she had committed throughout the series, and it was as violent and angry as you would expect like in the previous two instalments, but it was considered a heroic act by Xiaoyanzi and the main cast and they went on to respect her greatly till her death. She lived a villainous Empress, but died a heroic commoner. Back then, this was Qiong Yao's double-edged interpretation of her.]

With that in mind, I was curious as to what Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace had to offer. After all, it was a sequel to The Legend of Zhen Huan, which spoke of a lowly concubine's blood-soaked battle up the ranks to triumph as the Empress Dowager. But this was clearly going to be different because historically, Empress Ulanara was a known loser.

Synopsis

Ruyi (originally known as Qingying) and Emperor Qianlong (then Prince Hongli) were childhood sweethearts. Ruyi was originally intended as a wife to the Third-Prince Hongshi, and Lady Fucha to Hongli as their respective rivalling mothers wanted to consolidate power within their families. While Hongli was eventually pressured into taking Lady Fucha as his primary consort, he defied his parents to fight for Ruyi's hand-in-marriage. Eventually, Ruyi married him as his secondary consort, and was made Consort Xian (娴妃) upon Hongli's coronotion as Emperor Qianlong.

Little did she know that what lay ahead of her was a battle to win her mother-in-law's trust, the malice from other concubines, her husband's priorities changing as the ruler of the Qing Empire, and finally, the irreparable cracks that will eventually form in their marriage as their paths diverged.

The imperial environment drastically changed Emperor Qianlong's and his expectations of Ruyi as a spouse. He expected Ruyi to be understanding when he needed to sacrifice her for the stability of the court, even if he ultimately brought justice for her when she was wronged. He felt lonely after years of ruling, and made Ruyi his Empress so she could be by his side. Then increasingly pressured to uphold his image as an Emperor, he forced Ruyi and their son into moulds of what an ideal Empress and Prince ought to be. The last straw came after Emperor Qianlong succumbed to his vices, expecting her support in his obsession over Consort Rong, and demanded her silence when she stood up to him frolicking with prostitutes (an act which would not only bring massive humiliation to him as an Emperor, but bring into question his values and ability to rule).

The imperial marriage also changed Ruyi, not in terms of her worldview or her character, but her love for the Emperor. Being the main idea of this series, her love was pretty much unwavering throughout most of the series till she decided to effectively call it quits. We see Ruyi go from disappointed in her husband but still choosing to trust that he had the court's (and her) best interests at heart, to crossing swords with her husband for the sake of the inner harem's well-being. She was eventually left alone to fight for the image of the imperial family, before finally leaving it all behind.

Let's take a moment to admire the prowess of Zhou Xun's acting. The long-awaited hair-cutting scene. No explosive violence, no crying and screaming, just nothing but disappointment and loss of hope delivered in the standard classy Ru Yi demeanor, which she always had been and always would be:

"I'm cutting my hair today to pay condolences to the Qingying and Hongli who no longer are."

I thought what was more remarkable was that while its predecessor Legend of Zhen Huan changed a lady from Zhen Huan, as in who she fundamentally was in terms of core character, to Consort Xi, a lady defined by her power and title, it was the other way round for Ruyi. Whether she was Consort Xian or Empress Ulanara, she was the same Ruyi inside from start to end. She schemed to right wrongs done to her and her loved ones, not to ascend the harem ladder. She acted out of love and protection for her husband and children, not because she wanted to gain favour or portray herself favourably to the court. She walked out, not because she was casted out, but because she would rather lose everything when the role of Empress started to mean she needed to betray her integrity. She would rather lose the title of Empress if the love between her husband and her had turned sour.

This is eeriely similar to how real-life marriages break. People change, priorities change, sometimes you question if you even know the person anymore. It was a full-blown abusive marriage towards the end and I think it is a rude reality check for an audience used to seeing an Emperor devoted to the female lead, aka his favourite concubine. Throw in the severe power imbalance between Emperor and Empress, public image, the multiple princes and princess who end of the day still need a family that respects each other to grow up in... let's be real here. Our dear Merdeka generation likes criticise young couples these days who have way too high expectations, refuse to settle down, give up on relationships too easily, when many a time not even getting married or divorce is the right decision. 

The supporting characters did not disappoint either; they were complex yet relatable. I must say I really liked Consort Jia (嘉贵妃), the Korean concubine, as portrayed by Xin Zhilei here!

She started out lying low, secretly poisoning pregnant concubines' food with mercury and successfully managing to hide under the radar. Then when she slowly rose the ranks, complacency and ambition got the better of her and she went full-blown Hua Fei from here. She only had one wish- to make it to the top in the inner harem and bring glory to Korea, because it was what the Korean Prince, the only man she truly loved, cared about.

Empress Fucha was known to others as a virtuous Empress but was revealed to be a thorough hypocrite. However, at least we could see she was trying to protect her family and from power being reinstated in the hands of the Ulanara family.

If you enjoyed Yanxi palace's Wei Yingluo (Consort Ling), you will detest her counterpart Wei Yanwan, a ordinary palace maid with extraordinary ambitions. She rose to power through destroying her opponents, using her family as scapegoat for her own crimes, and paving the way for her son Yongyan to become Crown Prince by killing off her opponents' children. It must have been so chilling for Qianlong when towards the end, as Wei Yanwan confessed to all her crimes, she mentioned that everything she was, she became because of his influence and guidance, alluding to the fact that she was really a reflection of his worst side.

It is worth noting that there are many like Empress Fucha and Wei Yanwan in real-life. They consolidate power either by painting a false image of themselves to garner support, or are sufficiently sociopathic, sacrificing anything and everything to move ahead.

I hated Zhen Huan at the start- she was painted as a power hungry woman determined to destroy Ruyi and her aunt at all costs, but Ruyi's character slowly won over her trust and we gradually saw Zhen Huan take her side in difficult times.

I loved Ru Yi's sister squad, who brought her warmth till the end even after the palace became a cold and loveless place. It was delightful seeing Consort Yu, Consort Rong and Consort Ying stand up to the Emperor and Consort Ling again and again and Ru Yi herself was too kind/classy to do so. It just goes to show it is possible to have true friends in any environment if you treat people with respect and kindness.

Finally, Wallace Huo did a fantastic job making me hate him. The series didn't even pretend we were supposed to pity him. While the reasons behind his face-heel-turn into an abusive tyrant were clinically laid out for us, the series made it clear (in fact in the clip I linked above) at the end of the day that it wasn't an excuse. After Ru Yi's death we are cut to scenes of him wasting away after single-handedly wrecking his own marriage and family, and you'll never think anyone deserved it more than he did. Kudos to Wallace Huo for taking on this role, heard he had to deactivate his Weibo from all the hate.

I particularly loved how all of this related to Ruyi in that she didn't see the other concubines as enemies to defeat, but individuals with their own stories that were masked by ambition, corruption and desires. It was particularly enlightening during her last scene when she referred to all of her rival concubines by their birth names, who they really are beyond their imperial titles. Xi Yue (Consort Gao) was but a naive little girl who was used by Empress Fucha, whom she thought was her pillar of support. Yuyan (Consort Jia) was a poor lovelorn woman who lived for the Korean prince whom she loved before being ultimately cast aside by him. Yanwan (Consort Ling) was but a fortunate palace maid who could have lived happily ever after with Ling Yunche, but chose to go down a dark path.

In contrast, I felt that a strong supporting cast was lacking in the counterpart show Yanxi Palace. Consort Gao and Consort Jia in there were arrogant and bitchy for no apparent reason. I thought it was a waste not to develop Consort Jia beyond a being a childish troublemaker in Yanxi. Consort Jia was one of the most powerful concubines during Emperor Qianlong's time; how she eventually lost to Consort Ling could have been a very good discussion point. And women are perfectly capable of being driven by things other than jealousy or a man, so I wasn't a fan of how everybody who was against Yingluo was so because of Fuheng or the Emperor.

Final thoughts

It is easy to why Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace was overlooked in favour The Story of Yanxi Palace. Yanxi Palace is a feel-good story about a girl who took no shit from anyone and rose from rags to riches through her wit and bravery. Not by being constantly saved by a man, but by her own effort. We tend see ourselves in fictional characters and we all like a positive story about overcoming adversity to going down in history as a great and famous person. 

But sometimes I think we try too hard to make heroes of "great and famous" historical figures. We glorify people who have attained great power by selling the narrative that they were once nothing, but worked hard to become something. Sometimes, even to the extent of whitewashing well-known scandalous figures like Zhao Ji and creating supporting characters that effectively make no sense and exist only to pave the way for the lead character. 

Even mentioning the Legend of Hao Lan is IMO a waste of bandwidth. I'm not even going to bother glancing at this one.

We trod over people who fell from power, preferring to paint them as villians in our narratives since they MUST have been bad people, forgetting the fact that a person's critics were heavily influenced by society's narrative at that time.

A story like Ruyi represents the stories of real-life people, who may not have ruled over a nation, but triumphed in their own struggles and were heroes in their own right. It represents the people who lost everything because they dared to stand up to a powerful person's nonsense, people who had the courage to abandon something they didn't think was right, and importantly, women in a patriarchal society who dared to walk from an abusive marriage.

This is courage. But we don't talk about these because we don't see losing power and prestige as something worth celebrating, because we don't find it entertaining when the character we project ourselves onto on screen chooses to sit out of all the drama.

Empress Ulanara looks like she was a loser in contrast to Consort Ling who bore the next Emperor and was posthumously made an Empress. But I guess this interpretation of Empress Ulanara teaches us that sometimes, having lived and died by your own terms is a far bigger form of winning. Sometimes, the love of your life will fail you, life will fail you, and likewise you will be considered a failure in the role society has placed you in, but what's important at the end of the day is you do not fail yourself.

"你知道兰因絮果这句话吗？我少时读过只觉得惋惜，如今却懂得，花开花落自有时。"

"I always thought a lost love was something to feel pity over, but today I realise that there's a time for happy moments and there's a time when we have to lose them."