Aside from the subject matter, the other thing both dramas have in common is horrible English names.
Joe Chen (Destined to Love You) and Hu Bingqing (The Legend of Qin) have been tapped to play the lead role in separate dramas that both taking inspiration from the life of Dugu Qieluo, wife to Emperor Wen of Sui.
Dugu Qieluo was the seventh daughter of Dugu Xin, a general serving under Western Wei. She was married to Yang Jian, the future Emperor Wen of Sui at the age of thirteen, and their love story will form the core of the story in both dramas. Her half-sister Lady Dugu was married to Yuwen Yu, second Emperor of Northern Zhou, while another older sister married Li Bing – she would later give birth to Li Yuan, who went on to found the Tang Dynasty.
Western Wei (535-557) was followed by Northern Zhou (557-581), and Yang Jian would later unify the Northern and Southern Dynasties to from the short-lived Sui Dynasty (581-618). The powerful Li family then seized power to form the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
Huace Media’s version is titled The Unique China Queen 独孤皇后, and Joe Chen is the only confirmed cast member so far.
Zhang Danfeng (So Young) will star as Yang Jian opposite Hu Bingqing’s Empress Dugu in the other adaption, titled World of Dogu 独孤天下. The drama has secured Ady An (Epiphyllum Dream) as Dugu Banruo and wife of Yuwen Yu, while Li Yixiao (The Shaw Eleven Lang) is confirmed for the role of Dugu Mantuo, mother of Li Yuan. Other cast members include Xu Zhengxi (The Virtuous Queen of Han) and Ying Haoming (Ba Ye in The Mystic Nine). Filming commenced at Hengdian on August 26th.
Though it hasn’t started filming, at least Huace Media has a winning poster.
Sources: (1)
Oh, it’s about time they made a drama about her! Her husband promised her that he wouldn’t have kids with any other woman when she was 13 and he was 15/16 – and she held him to that promise for the rest of her life (even though there were times when he wanted to). He never actually had another concubine or consort while she was alive.
…Gotta love all the imperial Chinese family trees.
speaking of imperial family trees, I wonder if there are any surviving descendants of ancient royalty, not counting the Manchu family line of the Qing Dynasty.
Exactly why I would want to map my family tree!
I do recall a descendant of Ming royalty appearing on some antique show, and her claim was proven to be correct.
I don’t think there’s any reliable information about survivors from earlier dynasties though.
Farthest I’ve been able to trace with the major dynasties was the Song Dynasty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Zhao
I know the families of Confucius and the four sages (Zisi was the grandson of Confucius) have kept their family trees and are among the longest kept. Confucius holds the record I believe. In fact, I believe they tested some the male descendants with genetic tests since the tree was usually kept through the male line and they all have the same Y chromosome so that lends evidence that the record has been kept faithfully.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius#Descendants
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Hui#Descendants
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mencius#Descendants
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zengzi#Descendants
Other than that, here are some resources to help with the ruling family trees of ancient China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree_of_ancient_Chinese_emperors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_emperors_family_tree_(early)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_emperors_family_tree_(middle)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_emperors_family_tree_(late)
It’s a pity that there aren’t that many family genealogy books around anymore or we might even be able to trace further.
Exactly! As long as they do her story justice, it’ll be a wonderful watch.