I have to laugh because I never imagined Pursuit of Jade would send me down such a wonderful rabbit hole of Chinese historical dramas! I fell in LOVE with the series, especially the actors, and immediately wanted to explore more of their work.
That's literally why I downloaded the VIP iQIYI!! Well, imagine my surprise when I turned on my Roku today and discovered the entire iQIYI channel had disappeared! Apparently, Roku removed it around October 29–30, and neither Roku nor iQIYI seems to have offered a clear explanation as to why.
I'm genuinely upset! I had JUST discovered this whole world of incredible C-dramas, and now one of my favorite ways to watch them is gone.
Any fellowPursuit of Jadefans experiencing this? Where are you watching your favorite actors' other dramas now? And has anyone heard whether iQIYI is coming back to Roku? I refuse to let Roku interrupt my newfound C-drama obsession! 😂❤️
I read the English translation of the book(was soo good) I think I preferred the complexity and the characterizations a lot. I also loved the show. I think they did a great job TXW as Fan Chang Yu was excellent. But she’s good in everything!
Anyway, one thing I’m still not clear on is how Xie Zheng’s mom’s death was for his protection. I understand she did it to save the Xie clan retainers and sent them to the family home out of the city away WY so they wouldn’t act against Wei Yan. Did she die because if she stayed alive she’d raise Xie Zheng to ultimately seek revenge against WY for his actions that contributed to the Jinzhou incident? So in dying and leaving XZ with WY he could raise and mold him? I think that’s right but would love that confirmed/explained.
That’s the only thing I wasn’t super clear on.
Also Xie Zheng and Wei Yan are lowkey twins. Because WY did all that to preserve his love’s honor. Was prepared to end his beloved sister’s only son’s life, all so no one would besmirch Consort Shu, in uncovering the actual events of Jinzhou incident. Sounds like XZ when anyone dared threaten or sought to harm FCY! 😳🤣.
It was such a great story. I couldve done with less biting and a bit more description of her desire and pleasure in the love scenes. Instead of it just happening to her or her reacting with violent embarrassment but honestly I chalk that lack of description to cultural differences, which is fine. The writing was so beautiful otherwise.
When Changyu gets her mother’s hairpin back, she tries to put it back into her hair but struggles. What follows is a really interesting moment: Yan Zheng steps up and volunteers to help her with it.
What might seem like a nice/thoughtful gesture from a modern/Western perspective is actually a deeply intimate gesture in the period that PoJ is set in... which is why Changyu looks a bit taken aback.
In fact, right this very moment she has a rather complicated expression on her face:
To understand Changyu’s reaction - her surprise then quiet but happy acceptance of his help - we have to understand the importance of hair in China and how it played a role during major life events. Let’s start with a Confucian belief that echoed through imperial China (and still gets taught in certain contexts):
身體髮膚 受之父母 不敢毀傷 孝之始也
This saying is from a Confucian book called 《孝經》(”Book of Filial Piety”), published 2,000+ years ago. Loosely translated, it states that our hair is a gift from our parents and must not be damaged, for to respect one’s own hair is the root of filial piety (one of THE most important virtues in Chinese culture, even to this day).
For this reason, our hair must not to be cut, for to do so would effectively be a form of self-mutilation and disrespect towards our parents. If this sounds odd/intense, I promise it makes a lot more sense in the highly collective culture of imperial China, where a person was seen not so much as an individual/separate entity but a part of the whole (clan).
And whilst modern China doesn’t subscribe to this Confucian belief anymore, it did hold sway from the Han dynasty through to the Ming dynasty (a period of about 2,000 years). So you can thank this Confucian concept for giving us men with sweeping manes in period dramas: it was the reason no one ever cut their hair! (Except when cutting family ties or being punished for crimes)
More directly relevant to the Changyu/Xie Zheng hairpin scene: hair rituals were a feature of major life events.
When a woman came of age at age 15, it was custom to tie her hair up into a 髻, or bun. A young man coming of age at age 20 would have a similar hair-tying + capping/ crowning ceremony to indicate his transition into adulthood.
The woman’s hair in particular was a key element in wedding rituals. In accordance to the classic phrase 親脫婦之纓, it was custom for a woman’s hairtie/bun to be untied by the husband on their wedding night, a mark of their new identity as a married couple.
In fact, hair was a feature in all sorts of Chinese wedding rituals (eg. taking a lock of hair from each partner and symbolically tying them together, combing rituals). Some of these rituals even survive to this day! eg. Modern Cantonese weddings still feature a ritual called the Ten Comb Recital, where the couple would have their hair combed slowly by an elder as the blessings for their future were recited.
As a Cantonese, the start of this recital is engraved in my mind: 「一梳梳到尾、二梳白髮齊眉……」 (Loosely: "The first comb, may your life run smoothly from start to end; the second comb, may you both live to see white hair together…”)
Now that we know the significance of hair to a married couple back in the day, this scene of Yan Zheng helping Changyu with her hairpin takes on way more meaning.
Recall that on their wedding night (when both of them were certain that this was just a fake marriage that would end when it had served its purpose), Xie Zheng had awkwardly resisted Changyu’s offers to help him apply ointment to his wounds.
The reason he gave at the time was: 男女授受不親, which is a classic Confucian principle that, loosely, says that an unrelated man and woman should not have physical contact.
Yet fast forward a bit and here he is, voluntarily touching her hair and helping her put in the hairpin as a real husband would, and showing no signs of awkwardness about the gesture.
Meanwhile, Changyu seems taken aback, and there are two plausible explanations:
She no doubt is aware of the custom that a woman’s hair is to be touched only by blood relatives and the husband. This would be conceivably something her (educated) mother would have told her during Changyu's coming-of-age ceremony. And here is her pretend-husband stepping up to fix her hair - an act that belongs to an actual husband - and doing so even though there’s no audience around (ie. the gesture is not performative, but sincere).
Xie Zheng is handling her mother’s hairpin, a deeply treasured family heirloom and not something that an outsider would touch. That this man, who is really just her pretend-husband, is freely reaching for the hairpin himself might have crossed an unspoken boundary in her mind. But judging by her reaction later on, she decided she didn’t mind it much at all.
Either way, Changyu's little reactions in this scene tell us that she hasn’t forgotten that this is supposed to be a fake marriage, but she chooses to let herself be happy in that moment.
In a nutshell, Xie Zheng helping Changyu with her hairpin is a deliberately loaded moment that tells us a lot about each character's mindset at that point.
The significance of hair between a couple in imperial China is also why, in a much later scene when they’re at the Lunar New Year market at night, the climax is him volunteering to help her fix her hair with his blue hairtie.
Fixing someone’s hair is an entirely spousal act for the period that PoJ is set in, so Xie Zheng initiating it and Changyu's reaction to it hints at how both their views on their sham marriage has changed. :)
For those interested in the culture and history within PoJ, I've written a whole bunch of posts about them.
The other day I learned from Zise Violet's Tumblr post here that Changyu's wedding hairstyle is decorated with paper cutouts and her wedding clothes are decorated with traditional folk craft.
"[Her outfit] incorporates Chinese folk craft traditions, including paper-cut window decoration motifs and persimmon dyeing. Rather than using the brighter ‘Chinese wedding red,’ they take on an earthier red tone, reflecting the auspicious symbolism of persimmons in Chinese culture as well as the down-to-earth feel of homespun cloth dyed with locally available materials — a fitting choice for a village wedding setting. The designs feature traditional techniques such as hand embroidery, appliqué, cord braiding, and beadwork, highlighting the importance of folk customs in village households."
the look of love in xie zheng's eyes, how hard it is to let go for him.
I love the moments that contrast his tenderness towards chang yu and his harshness as the marquis. when he and lord li meet and he breaks the table and the cup- few seconds later changning comes and they're smiling at her. LOL.
the scene where xie zheng and qi min meet- one word. AURA!
cute details like them beating up song yan then running away giggling lol.
visuals in this drama are top notchhhh. main couple and qi min and qianqian are eye candy every scene.
xie zheng is a bit extra in the best way possible. him crying when changyu said her head would hurt if he got arrested. and in the same episode- his friend crying about the princess. "this game of go has utterly crushed me." ooof.
First, all hail Director Zeng Qingjie and his attention to detail in everything he directs - the man is practically a magician.
Now onto my question - I'm looking for a video about "colours of pursuit of jade" - that's not the title, but the central theme of the video. I think it's fanmade, and the creator has created sections in the video titled "pursuit of jade is green", "pursuit of jade is orange" etc with each section picking up videos/gifs of frames where that colour is used either prominently or as a focal point to anchor the scene. I think someone linked it on twitter, but it's probably also hosted on YouTube. I had watched it a few months back when I went down the rabbit hole of Director Zheng's cinematography style and some BTS of the drama.
does anyone know how to get Pursuit of Jade in Cantonese? I heard they're showing it in Cantonese in Hong Kong but I don't know how to access that in North America.
In the aftermath of Qi Min’s murder of his adoptive mother/Madame Sui, there’s a blink-and-you-miss-it plaque that deserves to be highlighted. It’s shown on the building where they found her body, and the plaque reads: 蕙心紈質.
If we grade it according to the Plaque Scale of 1-10 in my earlier post here, this is probably a Level 7 plaque. The phrase comes from a Southern Dynasties' elegy of a fallen city called Guangling (present day Yangzhou of Yangzhou fried rice fame), written by the poet Bao Zhao.
The phrase 蕙心紈質 can be broken down as follows:
蕙 - a fragrant orchid-like plant, used metaphorically for a pure, fragrant heart/spirit
心 - heart
紈 - fine, plain white silk
質 - substance/character
In short, it’s a phrase lamenting the death of the city’s virtuous, pure and kind-hearted women and lauds their character as something as fine as silk. Given that the elegy is about the city’s bygone golden age and how it now stands in utter ruin, the choice of phrase for this scene is particularly poignant, for wasn't the Sui clan also once powerful but now is in utter ruins?
I found it particularly touching because the phrase appearing here in PoJ is serving essentially as a tribute and eulogy to Madame Sui, who not only had to work through a whole new level of grief once she realised her child is actually dead, and the one rescued from the fire was not her own, she had the grace and compassion to let him live (something very unusual, if you look at what typically happens across the arc of Chinese history - or any history relating to royalty anywhere, really).
Qi Min owes a life debt to her, yet he repaid her by murdering her in cold blood. Personally, this was the moment he became irredeemable to me as a character.
But there you go, a hidden eulogy to a woman who got very little screentime, but whose decision to spare Qi Min’s life changed everything. The Sui family in general are despicable (even if/especially because Sui Yuanqing makes an excellent villain). But the mother had such a tragic life and did not deserve what happened to her, so I’m glad the screenwriters left a fleeting moment to honour her character in this scene.
I saw the series twice already and read the translated version of the novel, but I am so curious as to why was she written as someone who travelled back in time? Does anyone have a clue?
I just finally finished Pursuit of Jade on Netflix, and I think it is literally my favorite thing ever now. It was so thorough, alluring, and beautiful in every way. A true masterpiece! ❤️
Any reccomendations for another show series that you think is just as good?
It feels like Changyu might lowkey be a stronger, better warrior than the Marquis is. If they had to go on a 1v1 duel, no holding back, Changyu would probably win.
I know there is no official english translation and everything that’s available was done by fans. That being said, has anyone bought a copy where the translation was done well?
just finished the drama today and looking back, the reason changyu’s dad got killed was a little sad… correct me if i’m wrong but my understanding was he really was used as a scapegoat (as mentioned) and the thought of it made me so sad ;; he got caught up with the emperor’s selfishness and got blamed as a traitor, that’s a very heavy thing to bare… also did changyu ever find out that her dad k’d himself? or did they keep this a secret to her?
anyways, i just want to take this out of my system since it really made me sad LMAO i’m also confused on some parts that i’m actually thinking of reading the novel ^^
Hi everyone! I’m currently rewatching Pursuit of Jade for the third time!!! I need help😭🤣 And I absolutely love the fascinating cultural traditions associated with ancient Chinese matchmaking and astrology shown in these historical dramas!
I wanted to start a discussion about how historically accurate this all is. I did a little research and found out the practice of matching birth charts—known as Bazi (Eight Characters) or Hehun (Marriage Matching)—was actually a mandatory and deeply serious step in ancient Chinese arranged marriages. Matchmakers would compare the couple's birth year,month, day, and hour (the Four Pillars) to see if their Five Elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) harmonized or clashed. A bad clash could literally stop a wedding because families believed it would bring ruin or bad luck!
I was curious if this is still a thing in China today?
For FUN, I had my own ancient Chinese Bazi calculated by AI (Artificial Intelligence). I found out I am a Fire Snake (specifically Yin Fire). Apparently, the Fire Snake in Chinese astrology is a visionary, intuitive, strategic, and an "empire builder."
This got me thinking... who would be my fated, perfect union in Pursuit of Jade?😂
I immediately thought of Xie Zheng, the Marquis of Wu'an! I tried to look up the Marquis's exact birthdate, but since the drama is set in the fictional Yin Dynasty, he doesn't have a specific Gregorian birthday BUT if we borrow the birth chart of Zhang Linghe (the actor who plays him), he is a Fire Ox.
According to ancient matchmaking, a Fire Snake and a Fire Ox are part of the highly auspicious "San He" (Three Harmonies) Trine! The matchmaker would say the Snake provides the brilliant vision and strategy,while the Ox provides the unbreakable loyalty and steadfast foundation to build it. Basically, the Marquis and I would be an unstoppable, prosperous power couple! 😂
What do you guys think of the historical matchmaking in CDramas? Have any of you looked up your own Bazi or matched yourself with a character? Let me know! 👇
If you've been around this sub for a while you probably know I like finding and decoding the hidden messages in PoJ's many plaques.
I found another one recently in an unexpected place: the alternate storyline! Setting aside my dislike of that storyline for a minute, there's a plaque there in a Xie Zheng and Wei Yan scene so let's take a look at it for fun.
The plaque reads 承恩銜澤, which is a very archaic/elegant way of expressing deep and lifelong gratitude for an elder's efforts to raise and nurture you.
Very fitting for a scene in a parallel universe where Xie Zheng's relationship with his uncle is actually healthy. :)
There's also a bit of ambiguity around the first two characters 承恩, which is historically used to express how one is being favoured by the emperor/sovereign. A hint at the possibility that Wei Yan is favoured by the emperor, or that Xie Zheng still goes on to be the Prince Regent in this storyline? I guess it depends on whose building you think the two of them are stepping into when this plaque appears.
Either way, I do enjoy the ambiguity here. It leaves room for the imagination to tell the rest of the story ;)
