40 episodes of bureaucrats screaming about wheat while the empire crumbles — prestige TV has peaked.
Season 1 • Episode 1
LatestIn the eight years of Qianlong's reign, a golden chamber bird inspection led to a catastrophic earthquake that caused disasters. It exposed the crisis of the shrinking of grain fields in Daqing.
Acting
Wang Huichun's minister radiates delicious corruption.
Production
Period detail so obsessive you'll smell the rice warehouses.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 'golden chamber bird inspection' refers to a real Qianlong-era agricultural survey that historians consider a turning point in Qing land management policy.
Director Kan Wei-ping spent three years consulting Qing archival records; the grain measurement props were recreated from 18th-century diagrams in the First Historical Archives of China.
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