Princess Wei Yang
At the Prime Minister’s estate, the concubine’s daughter is transmigrated in a younger self and is now a she-devil.
An evil stepmother? I will ensure you go to hell!
A two-faced, hypocritical older stepsister? I will tear apart your beautiful disguise!
A scheming younger stepsister? I will send you to your grave!
To everyone who has lied to me, used me, abused me: prepare for my revenge!
You still want to hurt me? I will hurt you more!
The man who once abandoned her cruelly is now obsessed with her. An enemy from her past, now an ally, has fallen in love with her. Meanwhile, a handsome man with a mysterious past vows to protect her and never let her go. Three different men, three different passions. But love is a weakness she cannot afford.
1- The Deposed Empress
2- The Unwanted Daughter
3- Slave no more
4- First revenge
5- The Pigs Have Escaped!
6- Seventh Prince, Tuo Ba Yu
7- Returning to the Li’s Estate
8- Benevolent Mother, Filial Daughter
9- Surrendered by Xiaojies
10- Li Zhang Le
11- Prime Minister, Li Xiao Ran
12- Tea Brewing Skills
13- Tit for Tat
14- Battle of Wits
15- Da Furen
I have a strong preference for female characters who are introduced early in the story. I find slow-burning revenge plots annoying. I enjoy cunning female leads and strong narratives. As a result, I searched for another story similar to The Legend of Chu Qiao featuring a powerful female protagonist and a decent English translation. One click led to another, and I discovered *Princess Wei Yang*.
In this case, the translation was quite good for the first 29 chapters (thank you, Solstar24!). However, it eventually fell into the usual pitfalls, becoming painful to read. I continued because the story was engaging, but I ultimately decided to edit and proofread all the chapters myself. While the fans did their best—some chapters were quite good—too many lacked proper editing and proofreading, leaving the narrative feeling unfinished.
When I googled the novel, I came across a TV drama with a very similar name, *Princess Weiyoung*. I remembered watching the drama and didn’t enjoy it much due to its bittersweet ending, which made me hesitant to read the novel. But I have a bad habit: 99% of the time, I read the last 2-3 pages of the epilogue to determine whether the story is complete and not ongoing (many Chinese authors are paid by word count, leading to long, drawn-out plots) and mostly to check if it has a happy ending. Since I’m posting about this story on my blog, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
The TV drama’s ending is significantly different from that of the novel. The plots are not the same at all; as usual, novels serve as inspiration with some elements borrowed here and there, but in this particular case, I found them to be vastly different.
Before you read this story, I have a few warnings to share. First, the romance develops very (very) slowly. The heroine is driven by vengeance, and she sees love as a weakness she cannot afford to trust or accept. She is a very cold-hearted character, and what’s interesting is her schemes and the way one man ultimately cracks her icy heart. This realization comes slowly; it takes her years to understand and accept it. So again, expect a very slow love story. On the other hand, Many men develop a profound love for her, creating a complex love/hate obsession that is quite satisfying.
Secondly, the plot is rich, mixing her own family intrigues with the struggles of other families and royalty. Finally, she is extremely intelligent; in today’s terms, we would consider her a genius strategist with a high IQ.
It is important to understand that Chinese stories are influenced by their authors' cultural backgrounds. In Ancient China, it was common for families to marry off their daughters at 15, primarily to enhance their family's power, wealth, and prestige. These girls were often regarded as pawns, raised specifically for this purpose and expected to bear children. In contrast, men typically married later—often around the age of 30 or older—since they needed to establish themselves as officials before taking a wife. This frequently resulted in men being much older than their brides.
The practice of maintaining harems and marrying young brides originated partly from the desire for prestige and as a means to replenish armies after emperors suffered significant losses in wars. In this context, women who could not bear male children were often disregarded. Similarly, the tradition of older men marrying young girls has existed in Western cultures for centuries. The key difference is that only kings could have official mistresses; however, this ultimately resembled the concept of harems.
The novel has faced significant controversy, including a high-profile lawsuit, due to extensive plagiarism allegations from readers who claimed its plot and wording were copied from over 200 other works. The legal process resulted in fines against the author. Despite the controversy surrounding the source material, it was adapted into the popular 2016 Chinese television series The Princess Weiyoung. -FD
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Genre: Slice of Life, Romance, Female Lead, Ancient Times, Palace/Emperor, |
Author: Qin Jian 秦简 2013 | Country: China |
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3 volumes (290 chapters) |
Name of the novel: The Princess Wei Yang (also known as Jinxiu Weiyang and The Concubine's Daughter is Poisonous) Name of the C-Drama: Princess Weiyoung (2016) Name of the comic: Princess Wei Yang |