This drama portrays the life story of Liu E, one of the most prominent empress dowagers in Chinese history (b. 969 – d. 1033). She became the regent of the Song Dynasty for Emperor Zhenzong (reigned 997 – 1022) and later, for Emperor Renzong (reigned 1022 – 1063). Here, Liu E is depicted as intelligent, benevolent, decisive and visionary, far exceeds her male counterpart. Her journey from rags to riches based on historical facts, is interjected with fictional stories and figures.

The production cost for this drama is undoubtedly high with well know veteran actors, Liu Tao and Chou Yu Min, and the quality and acting are good. However, the editing is horrendous, in particular, for the first 10 episodes, making everything feel disjointed. There, events move very fast, from one big event to the next, supposedly unravelling over a span of time in days or weeks, even years, but the way the drama was cut, it feels like multiple events happening within the same day or hour, confusing and frustrating many viewers. The drama is said to have 80 episodes originally but drastically being trimmed down to 61 episodes.

Liu E has been portrayed as an evil woman in some literature which contradicts what historians think. In historical records, she was a very smart and courageous woman and had implemented many impressive projects that benefited the nation; her contributions were undeniable. Liu Tao's portrayal here is elegant and strong, and yet not lacking her feminine charisma. Whether or not this depiction is historically accurate, it is anybody’s guess. For me, compared with “Serenade of Peaceful Joy” where Liu E was portrayed in the first few episodes, I find some of the events in “Palace of Devotion” more plausible while others rather far-fetched with the writer’s imagination running wild. For example, how Liu E loses her biological children here seems over dramatic, but the request of wearing the emperor’s attire to a ritual ceremony seems out of place in “Serenade of Peaceful Joy” where a great deal of time is spent in arguing over the subject, whereas here, it becomes a brilliant idea by the Emperor himself to grant the Empress Dowager the status and privilege without much ado. Also how Cao (Empress Cisheng) comes to the life of Emperor Renzong is more believable in this drama than the previous one. However, I do love the dialogues in the former drama (“Serenade of Peaceful Joy”) which are more poise and humorous and the costume there perhaps more accurately depicted given Emperor Renzong was a very frugal person.

My Verdict
This is a rather well-done drama with decent CGIs despite the disjointed editing in earlier episodes and some inconsistencies in the logic of the fictitious events which are meant to spice up the story. Compared with “Serenade of Peaceful Joy”, “Palace of Devotion” is action packed with epic war scenes, spectacular warriors from Song and Khitan-Liao, and the settings are more opulent. The encounter of another great empress dowager, the Khitan Xiao Yan Yan, gives viewers two historically great women with strong personalities and powerful characters that leave deep marks in Chinese history; their intelligence and wisdom well supersede their contemporaneous male counterparts.

This is not a drama of great romance, and yet, Emperor Zhenzong is devoted to his Empress Liu. If not for the need of having a male heir for the throne, he wouldn’t have agreed to sleep with other women. This is pretty rare for a custom notorious for harems with thousand beauties.

Many viewers are also critical of the age of the main actors and complaint of their chemistry, Perhaps, these viewers are very used to having good looking young actors and fireworks type of romance. If so, this drama may not be their cup of tea.

“Palace of Devotion” comes with great character development and nice OSTs, at the same time, not lacking a sense of humor, tragedies and connivance.

Women have been an important force in shaping up societies and in politics. Seeing the two great empress dowagers of the time, a what-if question runs through my mind - what if women were given equal power, would we have a more peaceful and better world today?

Though not 100% perfect, this is a good historical drama for history buffs. I have enjoyed it. Great watch and recommended!