While watching the meteor shower, the University Taekwondo Club’s expert Guan Li Hua time travelled back to two thousand years ago to the period when Wang Mang usurped power. She possessed the soul of the daughter of a wealthy family in Han dynasty called Yin Li Hua. She has a straightforward personality, wise and farsighted thinking which is entirely different from herself. After the outbreak of civil war to overthrow the Xin Dynasty and restore the Han Dynasty, the Han army and the Lu Lin force formed an alliance. In the midst of this tangled and complicated situation, Yin Li Hua and Liu Xiu fought side by side each other. Her tenacious personality, extraordinary courage and talent gradually occupied Liu Xiu’s heart. Since then, both of them began a deeply touching love story which has been passed down throughout all ages.
During an era of turmoil and chaos of war, how did an ordinary peasant ascend the throne? What kind of power struggle and love tussle await in the imposing Han Palace? What will be the outcome of the once in a millennium deep love story of the Empress? The interweaving of conspiracy, politics, romance and family love depict a beautiful scenery of a beautiful country as well as a truly beautiful historical love story.
This country is so rich in beauty. Drawing countless heroes to bow in homage!
[Ebook] [Radiodrama] [Tú Lệ Giang Sơn][Audiobook][Drama with Eng Subs]
We are having ancient book famine in the bar so I’ve to come to the rescue, lol. Any volunteer will be greatly appreciated:) No, no, I am not going out of my mind to read this book, in fact 4 books !!!! Any volunteer is also greatly appreciated, haha….
This book will be filmed into a drama with Ruby & Yuan Hong as the leads. You can take a look at the photos that have been released as well as updates on mookie’s blog, who is Yuan Hong’s superfan:P
http://mookiehyun.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/upcoming-very-ridiculously-pretty-must-see-gimme-now-2014-c-dramas/
http://mookiehyun.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/our-princes-kings-and-queens/
The book has pretty good review but I’ll wait for the drama to come out next year to support YH:) The author is the same author who wrote An Unrivaled World posted in the bar. The drama will be kind of different from the book bcos there will be no time travelling element in it since it is banned. Instead Ruby will focus on history. Okay, being true to the fact is commendable but please don’t put me to sleep, lol.
Hello! 😀
4 books is pretty long … I think I’ll be doing the same thing as you and just wait for Ruby and Yuan Hong’s drama version 😀
I’m so glad they took out the time traveling part because it’ll make the story better without it. Personal opinion, but I’m kinda getting sick of all these “modern people time traveling to historical times and then kickstarting/changing the events of history blah blah blah” – it’s such an overused plot device and takes away from the historical significance of the story…
You ladies have an amazing site for bookworms here! ^^
Sad I’m so short on time and I have so many many many stuff I want to read/reread and watch. Like dear queenanon, I’m also happy they wiped the whole time traveling heroine part out. It shed light at an angle as if heroines can not function and be amazing unless they have a super advantage of knowing how everything plays out.
The history itself is dense with a lot of battles of hot generals and clashing of wits and juicy human drama. Ruby’s productions have never impressed me with authenticity to the history but this emperor and empress are two fine, most lauded king and queen in CN history. I guess there should be no need of too much fanciful embellishments.
I am allergic to time-travelling:( I think more than 50% of ancient novels have time-travelling elements in them & I am being conservative here. No matter how good that book really is, once I read the female lead time travel, I immediately think this is a turkey & don’t want to read it, lol. Most of the time, it serves no purpose at all except at the beginning of the novel on adaptation to the ancient way of life. Some novels even forgot they’ve time travelled:( The remainder of the novels use it as a short-cut plot device to end the story.
I think Li Hua forgot her deep love for Liu Xiu after she time travel so Liu Xiu has to woo her all over again.
These are EXACTLY the reasons why I don’t like time-traveling novels. It’s the biggest deus ex machina and just such a cop-out in terms of storytelling because where are the high stakes? The time-traveler has the advantage of already knowing what will happen (and what to do), so there is no suspense of the “unknown” factor which can drastically affect the story outcome. Where’s the mystery? Where’s the journey of our protagonist(s) finding their way out of the story problem? If the time-traveler dies – no big deal, because her soul will just travel back to her own time/body.
Another thing that annoys me about the “time-travel” plot device in historical novels is the way it instantly trivializes the historical context, culture, and events. If I wanted to read about modern characters in modern settings, I wouldn’t be reading a historical novel. Don’t get me wrong – I love historical characters with pioneering ideas or personalities, but pioneers are NOT the same as modern people who’ve just plonked themselves into the past and instantly become God-like in their advanced knowledge/skills.
I didn’t watch QSHF bcos too long and complicated/convoluted? The year is ending soon so all the dramas with trailers will be released sometime next year:)
I’ve downloaded 60 chapters of HQG audio book and will start listening this Sat in the plane, haha…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQIUtyMrsE4
Freshly baked from the oven in China, the 1st official trailer. Looks pretty good. Not as colourful or fanciful as YMM’s drama so it looks more authentic & serious. Both YH & Ruby look good individually but I am not sure abt them as a pair. I need to see more b4 making my judgement. I don’t like palace drama where everyone fight for the king’s affection. Thus, I’ll probably watch the beginning until YH becomes king then I might stop.
AWESOME 😀
Thanks for posting this! Wow! Great costumes, great fight scenes, lots of drama! I’ve always liked Ruby’s productions and this one looks terrific. It reminds me a lot of Qingshi Huangfei but that’s cool cuz QSHF was awesome. I love how kickass Ruby’s character is 😀
Can’t wait to see this! When’s it coming out?
Yeah I normally don’t watch palace dramas but QSHF was an exception because the story and characters were great, the acting was great, and the whole production just looked awesome. It’s a pretty long series with 42 episodes but it’s worth a look if you like that sort of thing…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI-94aWKtqM
Super new long trailer for ruby & Yuan Hong’s fans:)
I’m probably the first one here to touch this book.
It’s actually quite good. I am not regretting starting on it although it has a horrific length of 4 volumes of 6 chapters each. Except that after 2 days of slogging on and off, I’m somewhere in the second part of chapter 2 or early chapter 3. So good luck to me, yah.
I can see why a lot of us are turned off by the time travelling aspect. Except this is closer to A Step into the Past (Xun Qin Ji) (remember that TVB drama back in the early 2000s?) where I figure she is given clues as to how she can go back to the 21st century. Oh – and she only knows that the Xin Dynasty is ending, the Eastern Han Dynasty will take over and that someone surnamed Liu will become the Guangwu Emperor.
I think the TV adaptation is going to be very different once they take out all the time-travelling references. It’s more of a historical drama than a novel adaptation at that point, I think.
I’m think i’m going to give up. After struggling for half a week, i’m still stuck in Book 1. Its so slow – the biggest problem for Long Ballad is it is so loooonnng….
Not that it is a bad book. Quite intelligently written. It is not really pure romance, it is almost as if part of the time travelling trope is that the author wants the reader to “experience” how difficult it is to unify a country. x____x
*mulls* I’m taking a break from it. I guess because I know she becomes empress in the end, I’m in no hurry to finish.
Is there an audiobook for this?
Haha seems like I’m the one who’s gotten the furthest with this novel so far! (I’ll admit that it was only through a lot of skipping, but still.)
My thoughts:
This is one of the craziest Chinese novels I’ve ever read, because of both the insane length, the author’s flowery language (even netizens on TieBa complained about this!), all the politics involved (I was never really interested in the Han dynasty for some reason so I understood only about 10%, hence the constant skipping) and her habit of not spelling out everything to you. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking when I decided to pick up this novel after years of not touching Chinese novels already. -.- (actually I know that I was just seduced by the gorgeous trailer for drama but it’s Yuan Hong!! Who can resist him)
But honestly it’s really, really worth it. From the first time they met, to their mutual reliance and concern for each other as fought on the battlefield side by side, to their complicated marriage, and finally their complete trust in each other, this OTP’s very nuanced relationship and personalities is really fleshed out very well. From all of their little actions, you can see how much they love each other, how each other makes up the other’s whole world.
As a 21st century women, we are able to deeply empathise and understand her Li Hua’s standpoint and views, despite at times knowing that she is making a mistake. I also love, love, love strong female characters, both in the physical and emotional sense of the word, which Li Hua fulfils completely, and as a netizen on TieBa said, what’s so amazing about Li Hua is that you can really see her grow from the playful and brash girl who constantly viewed the world around her as a removed fantasy, to a woman who knows how to rein in her anger, consider other’s positions and let go of all the petty things to simply enjoy being able to be by the side of the one she loves and loves her back so much. Li Hua isn’t a perfect character, there are times where you just feel like knocking sense into her but at the end, you’ll just want her to be happy.
And honestly Liu Xiu’s love for Li Hua is so freaking perfect. It’s the kind of quiet love that envelops you like a warm breeze. You can’t see it, but you can feel surrounding you completely. No matter what she does, right or wrong, he accepts, and a lot of times just quietly cleans up her mess for her. For her, he went to war against the unfair and unjust regime. For her, he marries a woman that he does not love against his will. For her, he accepts her betrayal and unreasonable actions.
But as the book is in Li Hua’s perspective, and as mentioned the author loves to make us read between the lines, you sometimes may not be able to detect the depth of Liu Xiu’s love for her.
Also, I know a lot of people are sick of the time travelling plot device, but honestly I think it works to help us relate and empathise with Li Hua, because honestly I don’t think any of us 21st century girls can actually understand the thinking and action of women then. Even in 华胥引, where the main character is supposedly a princess of ancient times, her thought process and mannerisms are exceedingly modernised, which, let’s be honest peaking, isn’t exactly realistic either (don’t get me wrong though, I love 华胥引 to bits!).
What makes me accept the plot-device in this case, is because the time-travelling thing is also not used as a silly excuse to turn the female lead into a powerful know-it-all who fiddles with history and all the crap (urgh Ouke no Monshou). I would say that it’s more like Bu Bu Jing Xin but with her being waaay less knowledge and interfering with history. For Li Hua, her identity as a time-traveller more of influences her own inner conflicts and how she survives in this foreign time and space. Initially, as always, she strongly rejects the idea of being stuck in the past and becoming a member of this history. Thus, constantly views herself as a third party/observer and refuses to get permanently tied down to anyone or anything in the past. Slowly, however, she realises that she has unconsciously become a part of this world and is unable to remove herself from the family, friends and love that she has found in the past.
Be warned, there’s lots of politics, plotting and scheming in this novel, which makes it both confusing and a bit melo-heavy at times, but you also see a lot of Li Hua’s lively and mischievous personality as well as her comical reactions to the things around her. Of course, there is also the overwhelming love that the OTP have for each other, and the many lengths Li Hua goes to to protect the one she loves.
All in all, this a novel that is very intelligently written (too intelligently sometimes, or maybe it’s just my language sucks 文笔差，悟性不够 boohoo), with very real and well-fleshed out characters who make you cry and laugh with them (while also using analyse their actions, motives and feelings -.- for those who read Chinese, netizens have very kindly explained all the points of confusion on TieBa).
Plus there’s a bunch of cute kids that appear in the third novel onwards XP So I definitely, definitely strongly encourage you to persist and plough through this insanely thick novel (or just skip like me and catch up on Tieba lol)! And not just once, because with every read, you’ll realise different feelings and details that you missed.
As for the audiobook, I only managed to find this radio drama http://www.ximalaya.com/1357020/album/17170
But if you want to read the e-book, you can always download a copy from duoduomi.
Hopefully when the drama is out people will make an audiobook for this….. I suck at chinese but desperately want to read this book….