Turbulent Times of the Five Dynasties: The Pear Blossom's Lament

"I look back and see the capital gate, while snow falls in flurries like pear blossoms. Time races by like an illusion. From this day on, Bianjing is a city of the past." A tale of history, chaos, and tragic, beautiful love. Between the sudden collapse of the Tang Empire and the flourishing literary age of the Northern Song lay the brief fifty or sixty years of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Amid that turbulent era of ceaseless warfare, when the people had no means of livelihood, this story tells how Chai Rong, later hailed as the "Greatest Enlightened Ruler of the Five Dynasties," governed with dedication and ambition. It follows his life, the lives of his two Empress Fu consorts, and that of Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Northern Song who appears in our textbooks. It recounts the friendship, familial love, romantic love, devotion to home and country, and tangled love stories between them. Every relationship is so sincere and full of twists and turns. This is the helplessness of living in a chaotic age, and also a longing for a peaceful and prosperous time. This story will take you back more than a thousand years, into the storm-tossed history of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, where you can experience that age of war and turmoil and discover a different side of Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin, Emperor Shizong of Zhou Chai Rong, Empress Fu, and Pan Renmei, who has been vilified in later popular tales. Pan Mei, the historical figure behind the character in this story, was in fact no villain. Let us enter the great river of history and see the tragic, beautiful love story that unfolded between them.

Theme: Where is the one I love most in this life? My heart belongs only to you.