TV series "The Legend of Zhen Huan" is adapted from the novel "The Legend of Zhen Huan in the Harem" by writer Liu Lianzi.
Due to the length of the novel, the screenwriter Wang Xiaoping adopted the principle of "simplifying the complexity" when filming and television, and removed some characters and plots.
Some of the deleted characters are irrelevant small characters, but some have a significant impact on the development of the plot.
Deleted role Zhen Yan
The first important supporting role deleted in the TV series "The Legend of Zhen Huan" is Zhen Yan, the brother of Zhen Huan. Zhen Yan, with a handsome appearance, both civil and military, fell in love with him at first sight with Anlingrong who lives in Zhen’s mansion. After entering the palace, in order to use An Lingrong to replace Shen Meizhuang to compete for favor, Zhen Huan deliberately mentioned in front of her that her brother was about to marry a noble daughter from a noble family, hoping to use this to cut off her unfair thoughts about her brother. An Lingrong hated all those who broke up himself and Zhen Yan. has since held a grudge in his heart and embarked on the road of revenge step by step.
In the TV series, An Lingrong's blackening and love have nothing to do with her. It is purely because of her inner inferiority and sensitivity that she eventually turned against Zhen Huan. From this point of view, the disappearance of the character Zhen Yan directly led to the storyline of An Lingrong's blackening and the original work. The change of
now seems to have a deep meaning.
Although the original novel is based on palace fighting, it still does not escape the routine of romance novel , and puts a lot of writing on the love story that portrays several main couples, such as Zhen Huan and the Prince, the Emperor and the Chunyuan , Zhen Yan and An Lingrong, Shen Meizhuang and Wen Shichu .
However, screenwriter Wang Xiaoping focused on criticizing the destruction of women by the feudal system, which raised the idea of the whole drama. Under such a general premise, the emotional lines of the characters in the play must need to be deleted.
As the heroine, Zhen Huan, her emotional transformation is one of the main lines of the plot. If you cannot make big changes, you can only delete the emotional line of the supporting role.
Under this premise, if An Lingrong's name is given to him as "black for love", it will make the audience feel aesthetically tired and boring, and it will not be consistent with the theme of the TV series. Judging from the broadcast effect of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", this bold adaptation of the screenwriter of is undoubtedly very successful.
First of all, An Lingrong in the play retains the main characteristics of the original work, such as gentle, shy, timid and careful, and adds the plot of the characters being humble from their background, being angry everywhere, and the queen taking action to transfer them. In this way, even without Zhen Yan, the character's transformation will be natural and natural.
Secondly, An Lingrong, adapted by , once again sparked the audience's discussion on the hot topic of "original family".
An Lingrong is the daughter of a small county magistrate. Although she was very close to the noble concubines such as Zhen Huan and Shen Meizhuang at the beginning, she eventually drifted apart because of the huge difference between her vision and knowledge from the other two people.
In the TV series, origin is a shackle that An Lingrong can never get rid of. Even though she was ranked high in the position of concubine in the later period and was favored by the emperor, she was still the "poor girl" who had no sense of security and self-confidence in her heart. The harm caused by her family will always be imprinted on her, which is also the reason why the audience hates and pity for this character.
is also due to the love between her father and mother tragedy . An Lingrong did not have any fantasy about love from beginning to end in the play, nor did she experience the tragic pain of emotional destruction like Zhen Huan and Shen Meizhuang. She always put herself in a reasonable position like "the concubine who competes for favor". The characters like are more realistic and profound.
Finally, depicts a good woman who was originally considered simple and kind, step by step in the struggle in the harem. can better reflect the cold and cruelty of the Forbidden City.
In such a huge palace, no one has ever been to An Lingrong sincerity.The queen regarded her as a tool, the emperor regarded her as a plaything, and Hua Fei used her as a geisha for fun. Sister Mei, who was sincerely intersecting, was talking about her viciousness behind her back. The kindness that Zhen Huan gave to her was the only good deeds, and even the maid, Huanbi, dared to openly shook her face.
Even for self-protection, she had to give up the kind and bright side of human nature. An Lingrong's "perverted" path, is the most vivid example of feudal imperial power destroying human nature. From this point of view, the deletion of the character Zhen Yan has actually made the three-dimensional and layered sense of the character An Lingzhong to some extent.
Of course, some fans of the original work are not satisfied with this adaptation. Because deleting Zhen Yan made many of An Lingrong's behaviors look unreasonable.
For example, in the novel, An Lingrong was jealous of Zhen Yan and his wife, and was in love with her husband and wife. She fell behind in the Zhen family and secretly bribed the prison guards and put a sick mouse in the prison. killed Xue Qiantao and her young child.
TV series transfers this plot to Zhen Huan's father. An Lingrong uses a mouse to assassinate Zhen Yuandao , but it fails. This plot is a bit incredible.
An Lingrong and Zhen Yuandao had no hatred. At that time, Zhen Huan had already left the palace to practice, and the Zhen family seemed to be defeated. Even if An hated Zhen Huan, he should have gone to her. assassination of Zhen Yuandao has no benefit, and obviously lacks internal logic.
deleted characters Murong Shishao
The second important supporting role deleted in the TV series is Hua Fei's sister Murong Shishao. The original work is an exaggerated background. Hua Fei is named Murong Shilan. She is born into a general and has a prominent family. She loves her younger sister Shishao the most before entering the palace.
With the destruction of the Murong family, Concubine Hua committed suicide, and the female family members in the family became palace maids. After Murong Shishao became a palace maid, she changed her name to Chishao. She was named Rongpin by the emperor because of her youth and beauty. The emperor had long known that she was the daughter of a criminal, but was willing to treat her as Hua Fei's substitute.
Rong Ping was provoked by the queen, determined that Zhen Huan was the culprit of killing her elder sister, and wanted revenge. At a palace banquet, she poisoned Zhen Huan and the little prince's diet, but accidentally poisoned her to death. After the incident, she was sentenced to death by the emperor, ending her tragic life.
TV series set the background in the Qing Dynasty Yongzheng dynasty, and set Hua Fei as the powerful minister year Gengyao 's sister year Shilan . The existence of the character Hua Fei's sister was completely erased, but the plot of Zhen Hua's poisoning was preserved, , but the murderer was replaced by Shi Shao to Jianqiu . The deletion of the character Shi Shao is a very correct choice. In order to show the emperor's lust and debauchery, there are too many concubines in the later stage. Many readers of often feel that they can't tell who is who when they first read it.
Moreover, Shi Shao's character is not particularly outstanding. She is completely a "low-fit version" of Hua Fei, which has no big impact on the main plot.
TV series is limited by the number of episodes, and most of the "supporters" who do not have many scenes were cut off, and the scenes of these people were concentrated on the two supporting roles of Kang Chang in and Zhenpin. In this way, the plot of seems much more refined and compact.
Secondly, the Qing Dynasty had extremely strict requirements on the family background of concubines, most of whom were noble daughters from Eight Banners . Even the good concubine of Emperor Kangxi, who was born in Xinzheku, was also the daughter of Baoyi, not the daughter of the criminal. Yongzheng in the drama is cold and suspicious, and it is impossible for him to include the Nian family's daughter in the harem again.
Overall, it is reasonable that Concubine Hua did not appear in the play. But this adaptation also has an unsatisfactory aspect, that is, forcibly poisoning the matter on Jian Qiu. The queen is very scheming and is best at sowing discord and taking advantage of others, and reaping the benefits of the fisherman.
Jianqiu is her personal palace maid. Under the influence of her eyes, her behavior and behavior naturally have the style of a master.
According to the character's personality characteristics, even if she hates Zhen Huan, she will not be able to use low-level methods such as poisoning.First, it is easy to find the murderer by poisoning, and second, everyone will determine that she is instructed by the queen, so the queen has no room for a turnaround.
Afterwards, Shenzheng Shi severely tortured everyone in the queen's harem, and finally found out the truth about Chunyuan's death. Jianqiu poisoning can be said to be the trigger for the fall of the queen. However, in the original work, the deposed queen has nothing to do with this matter. Instead, it is the existence of another person who helped Zhen Huan completely defeat the queen.
And that person is the ultimate boss of the whole novel - Hu Yunrong.
deleted character Hu Yunrong
After the TV series "The Legend of Zhen Huan" was broadcast, the most regrettable thing fans of the original is that the character Hu Yunrong was deleted. Hu Yunrong, the emperor's cousin, the granddaughter of Princess Wuyang, and a true royal relative, can be said to be the noblest concubine in the palace.
When creating this character, the author applied the story of Mrs. Gouyi, the wife of Emperor Wu of Han, and arranged for her a legend of "being born with jade".
Hu Yunrong was born with a fist clenched with one hand until she saw the emperor, and she was able to unfold it. She held a jade pendant in her hand with the words "Eternal Eternal Balance" written on it. She was regarded as a good omen by the emperor and was very favored.
And this legendary life experience was finally confirmed to be just a carefully fabricated lie. The character of the character is somewhat similar to that of the Yuying in " Golden Branches ". It is bright and lively, looks unrestrained, arrogant and willful, and is actually black and vicious, and is good at pretending to be a pig and eating tigers.
Because he was assassinated by the queen when he gave birth to his daughter, he lost his fertility. Hu Yunrong hated the queen deeply and joined forces with Zhen Huan to reveal the secret of the queen killing Chunyuan. Since then, she has transformed herself into something, and has become Zhen Huan’s biggest threat in the later stage.
After the queen fell, her position was vacant. The most qualified person in the palace was Hu Yunrong and Zhen Huan.
The reason why Hu Yunrong is the ultimate boss of the novel is because compared with the heroine, she is not inferior in terms of family background, appearance, scheming, etc., and is even more powerful and ambitious than Zhen Huan. In the later plot, she nakedly showed her desire for the position of the rear.
More importantly, she mastered Zhen Huan's fatal weakness - the filthy palace.
In fact, before she broke up with Zhen Huan, Hu Yunrong already knew that she had an affair with King Qinghe (King Guo in the TV series), but at that time the two had a common enemy, the queen, so she endured it and did not show off until the end.
After Hu Yunrong reported the news, the emperor forced Zhen Huan to kill her lover with his own hands. Zhen Huan lost her favor and trust from then on and was banned under Hu Yunrong's design, but in the end she successfully turned around using the forged jade bi to defeat Hu Yunrong. Judging from the original work, the character Hu Yunrong is extremely outstanding.
first, She did not have a time when a girl was in love with her spring and was looking forward to love like Zhen Huan, Shen Meizhuang and others. Hu Yunrong's purpose in entering the palace was very clear, that was, to revive the family and fight for the throne. In her eyes, the emperor was just a stepping stone to the peak of power;
second, concubines in the palace were mostly introverted, dignified and steady, and did not show their emotions. Only Hu Yunrong has an innate arrogance in his bones, showing his sharpness in the center of the harem and living a free and open-minded life.
Such a proud and beautiful woman died in the willow catkins dancing all over the sky next to Taiye Lake. This strong dramatic tension brought great shock to readers. Because of this, many original fans of criticized the screenwriter for deleting Hu Yunrong, which made the TV series lose its luster.
In the novel "The Legend of Zhen Huan", the most exciting part of the plot is actually the content of Zhen Huan killing all directions after returning to the palace, accounting for more than half of the length. The characters such as Hu Yunrong and Xu Yanyi that appeared later are very vivid.
The TV series has a total of 76 episodes, and Zhen Huan returned to the palace for more than 50 episodes. The number of episodes of revenge accounts for only about one-third. In the front, it took a lot of time to restore all the details of the characters in the novel, but in the back, a large number of characters were deleted and the ending was completed hastily, and even the queen forced to "subvert wisdom". paved the way for the victory of the heroine. Settings like
will make the whole drama look "top-heavy" and , and some viewers will think it is too easy for Zhen Huan to become a big winner in the palace battle. has never been able to escape the problem of "uncompromising" when adapting novels into TV series. Even works like "The Legend of Zhen Huan" are no exception.
