Under the Power: A Ming-Dynasty Secret Police Officer, a Constable and 55 Episodes of Cases

Why this one

Costume dramas often make the secret police the menace a heroine must survive. Under the Power (锦衣之下, Jin Yi Zhi Xia) puts one of its officers next to a partner who is not afraid of him. Lu Yi (陆绎), played by Ren Jialun (任嘉伦), is an officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Ming dynasty's imperial secret police, and the series presents him as ruthless. Yuan Jinxia (袁今夏), played by Tan Songyun (谭松韵), is a constable. r/CDrama viewers describe her as openly a woman, cheerful, short of money and not intimidated by him. When government silver goes missing, the two are ordered to investigate together, and neither welcomes the arrangement.

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The drama premiered on December 28, 2019, and runs 55 episodes of about 45 minutes each. It finished years ago, yet r/CDrama threads about it keep appearing: a first-time viewer's post in December 2025 and a thirteenth-rewatch review in April 2026. Plot points here stay at the level of the opening episodes.

The setup

Lu Yi and Yuan Jinxia are thrown together after the government loses a large amount of silver. Netflix's listing describes a shrewd detective who teams up with an imperial guard she hates. English Wikipedia's synopsis adds that they work through cases involving murder, betrayal, conspiracy, piracy and rebellion, and that the investigations widen into the politics of the court. One r/CDrama reviewer calls it a "Sherlock Holmes-light style story," with Lu Yi as a cut-throat Holmes and Yuan Jinxia as his Watson.

Two institutions need a gloss. Jinyiwei (锦衣卫, "Embroidered Uniform Guard") was founded under the Hongwu Emperor in the fourteenth century as his bodyguard. It took orders directly from the emperor, could arrest, interrogate and punish people including nobles, and was disbanded in 1644 when the Ming fell. Liushanmen (六扇门, "Six Doors") is a popular name for government law-enforcement offices; the term is used loosely in Chinese fiction, and its exact historical scope is debated. A constable like Yuan Jinxia works for the civil authorities, not for the throne's own police.

Cast and crew

• Ren Jialun (任嘉伦), also billed as Allen Ren, as Lu Yi (陆绎)

• Tan Songyun (谭松韵), also billed as Seven Tan, as Yuan Jinxia (袁今夏)

• Han Dong (韩栋) as Yan Shifan (严世蕃)

• Ye Qing (叶青), billed as Julia Ye, as Shangguan Xi (上官曦)

• Yao Yichen (姚奕辰) as Xie Xiao (谢霄)

• Lu Hong (路宏) as Yang Yue (杨岳)

Yin Tao (尹涛) directs. The source is the novel Jin Yi Zhi Xia (锦衣之下) by Lan Seshi (蓝色狮), and the series was produced by Impact Media (艺能传媒) and H&R Century Pictures (欢瑞世纪). Filming ran from September 2017 to January 2018 at Hengdian World Studios and in Suzhou. The English title is the one used by TMDB, iQIYI's international service and Netflix.

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The Ming court behind the cases

The story is set under the Jiajing Emperor (嘉靖), who reigned from 1521 to 1567. Yan Song (严嵩) served as grand secretary from 1542 until the emperor dismissed him in June 1562, and he held the leading position in the Grand Secretariat for most of the 1550s. His son Yan Shifan, who handled petitioners and bribes, was widely accused of corruption. Yan Shifan was exiled in 1562 and executed in 1564 or 1565 after an accusation that he had plotted with pirates and Mongols. In the series, Yan Shifan is the central villain, played by Han Dong, and Yan Song and the Jiajing Emperor appear as characters. The show's court faction is called yandang (严党, "the Yan faction").

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Piracy gives the cases a second historical anchor. Wokou (倭寇, "Japanese pirates," the Chinese term for the coastal raiders of the era) attacks on the southeast coast escalated through the 1540s and peaked in the 1550s, according to English Wikipedia's account of the reign. Piracy is one of the case types in the series, though as an adaptation of a novel it should be read as fiction set against a real court. A commenter in the December 2025 thread described the show as "loosely based on real history about Jinyiwei." The poster of that thread was struck by how courtiers in it stage indirect appeals instead of confronting the emperor with facts, which the poster found unlike other historical dramas.

Cases that feed one plot

The structure is the main reason viewers recommend it to people who have found long costume dramas slack. Early episodes work as self-contained investigations: a missing shipment, a murder, a suspect to be found. The 2021 reviewer wrote that each case feeds into the overarching plot and explains what is happening behind the scenes, and described the series as starting out "story-of-the-day" and growing into a war story at the same pace as the romance. Threads set up early return later; the reviewer notes that a pirate-ship episode from the opening stretch matters to the plot roughly thirty episodes on.

A commenter in the same thread called the CGI on that pirate ship "absolutely horrendous."

Lu Yi and Yuan Jinxia

The pairing is the reason the show kept an audience. English-language viewers return to Ren Jialun's eye acting: a 2021 reviewer who came to the show without knowing him called him the actor with "the most expressive eyes in existence," and the April 2026 rewatch review returns repeatedly to his micro-expressions. His Lu Yi starts as a cold, scowling officer. One commenter who disliked the scowl at first wrote that the character "really did turned things around half way through."

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Tan Songyun's Yuan Jinxia draws a more mixed response at first. The 2021 reviewer found that the character ranges between a whining stereotype and a martial artist who can hold her own, and settled on the second. Viewers praise her as capable and cheerful, and the 2025 poster thought her unusual for a female lead in not being conventionally gorgeous. Opinion on the romance itself divides: some praise a development that is logical and unhurried, while one viewer found it dry and wished for more romance scenes. A 2026 commenter calls it one of Tan Songyun's best dramas, and one 2021 commenter says the rewatch value is in the couple.

The supporting cast earns its own praise. Han Dong's Yan Shifan is the most cited: one commenter wrote it had "one of the best villains in all of C drama." The second male lead is cited, repeatedly, as the weak point, and one reviewer called him "really quite insufferable." Some viewers also object to storylines involving sexual violence against the female villains, and one reviewer lowered her rating for that reason.

Fifty-five episodes

Length is the show's most debated feature. A 2021 reviewer wrote that the length made sense for the story, and a commenter in the same thread was never frustrated waiting for the leads to get together. Another commenter skipped many of the secondary-couple scenes when they dragged. A commenter in the 2025 thread, partway through, wrote that they had forgotten the series runs 55 episodes but were "in it for the long haul."

The back half divides viewers. A 2021 commenter who admired the first stretch wrote that the plot "started falling apart around ep. 40" after the characters return to the capital, and that the ending was "very rushed and anti-climatic." A commenter in April 2026 liked the couple until the final arc, when things "went crazy."

Where to watch

iQIYI's international service lists the series, and Netflix carries a listing for it in Taiwan with Mandarin audio and Traditional Chinese subtitles. English Wikipedia and TMDB name Mango TV and iQIYI as the original platforms. A commenter in April 2026 pointed to Viki, which we could not confirm. Availability varies by region, so check iQIYI's international app in your country first.

What overseas viewers are saying

At least twenty r/CDrama posts carry the English title, from a first-watch chat in March 2020 to the April 2026 rewatch review. They are written by viewers who chose to post, not a poll. The common ground: the leads, the villain and the case structure. The common objections: the second male lead, a late-run drop in pace, effects and the sexual-violence storylines. Several commenters say they have rewatched it, one of them thirteen times.