Based on Emperor Renzong of Song's real life and historical events, the storyline describes imperial court and harem, political issues and emperor's personnal feelings, values and dilemmas.
The emperor's philosophy is to rule its empire, the court and his personal life following the path of virtue (understanding what is right and what is wrong and acting accordingly) : virtue is supposed to bring prosperity.
This emperor is an intellectual who really cares for his Nation and his people. He tries to promote skilled scholars in order to reform the country. But ancestor rules and taboos are to be considered in politics. Reforming a country is a hard task and any move you make has to follow long term strategies and compromises in order to avoid rebellions and ministers censurship. The Emperor's aim is to bring people peace and serenity. He struggles against poverty and natural disasters. What the emperor will achieve is quite well described in this drama but, to me, it's not the interesting part of it.
What makes this drama a really very good one is how Emperor's Renzong's of Song's is portrayed as a man (Zhao Zhen), as a lover and as a father. In here you get the addictive part of the drama ! Mainly because of Wang Kay's acting ? We really get in understanding Zhao Zhen, his feelings, love interactions and sufferings which are all related to the fact that he became Emperor at 12 years old and had to submit to his mother who ruled the country on his behalf (that was last emperor edict).
At a very young age Zhao Zhen had to act as an emperor following court rules, rites and studying hardly. His teacher was a high scholar with modern political points of view but he was also a Confusius adept. As a child, the Emperor didn't get much love. When, teenager, he was told that the Empress Dowager was not his biological mother, his inner world became a mess but still he had to act as if he was not hurt showing filial pity to the one who was untrue and never show any affection to him. The Emperess never allowed Zhao Zhen to meet his biological mother and this is certainly a key point to his interactions with women.
As a man, Zhao Zhen neglected the only woman, Emperess Cao (Maggie Wang) whith whom he could have had a long lasting happiness... To appoint an Empress is a state matter : she rules the harem and is the Nation's Mother. The best candidate was chosen for him by his Ministers... The Emperor was said that Emperess Cao was ugly, so on the wedding nigth he didn't show up to accomplish his royal husband's duty ! When he first saw Empress Cao, he was very much impressed with her beauty, wisdom and intellectual skills. But she was cold and showed him no affection (she was hurt because of the wedding night...). For 15 years, they had so many misunderstandings and couldn't meet as husband and wife but only as Empror and Empress, hidind their true selves and feelings behind their status. She was so straight and so perfect as an Empress that Zhao Zhen couldn't consider her as his wife, somehow she reminded him of Empress Dowager so much. Finally, events made them speak true to each other and they would become real wife and husband sharing deep love, respect and admiration. The Emperor used to think that she was a much better ruler for the harem than he was for the Empire.
The emperor will get many concubines and a royal consort (his favourite who was quite the Empress opposite, knowing nothing about rules, showing openly her love and acting childishly).
This emperor was really ill-fated as a father. He loved his children, unfortunately most of them died at a very young age. He had many daughters and 2 sons who both died. The emperor thought that her dead biological mother was taking his children to her as a revenge because he didn't show her any filial pity. This culpability of being unfilial made him think that Heavens were punishing him bringing to his country natural disasters, diseases and taking his children away from him. Giving the Nation a Prince became a state affaire.
His oldest and beloved daughter Princess Fukang (Huirou) gives this drama an amazing storyline. This character is not related to historical events but she definitely gives this drama a terrific scheme. Her relationship with the eunuque Hauiji is so beautiful when she is a child and just thrilling afterwards. The last 10 episodes of this drama focuses on these two characters and are among the best parts of this drama. Hauiji is a rare and valuable character and the actor (Bian Cheng) is just perfect.
You may learn a lot while watching this drama as long as you are interested in chinese history and Renzong of Song's achievements. Photogrophy is really nice and scenes are filmed in a very acurate way. But aesthetic can't replace action, nor good actors can replace the slow pace and dragging progression of the whole story. You may find this drama is kind of intellectual with too many political moves reviewed and argued... I admit that I felt like sleeping on some episodes ! But after episode 6, you really want to know more about this Emperor and how he deals with women. Wang Kai and Maggie Yang are terrific actors and honestly I kept on watching this drama mainly because of them and later because of Hauiji character. Finally, this drama is very good. I bet that if you watch it you will also shed a tear before the very last episode. I highly recommand this drama.