A Dream of Splendor

Zhao Pan'er (赵盼儿, played by Liu Yifei 刘亦菲) runs a tea shop in Qiantang (钱塘). She learns that her fiancé, Ouyang Xu (欧阳旭), newly placed third in the imperial examination, plans to marry the daughter of a senior official. Unwilling to accept it, she sets out for the capital, Bianjing (汴京), to demand an answer.

On the road she meets Gu Qianfan (顾千帆, Chen Xiao 陈晓), an upright commander of the Imperial Guard Office (皇城司), and is drawn into a major case in the south. They begin on bad terms and grow closer. She also rescues two women: Song Yinzhang (宋引章, Lin Yun 林允), a leading pipa player who was tricked into marriage and mistreated, and Sun Sanniang (孙三娘, Liu Yan 柳岩), a cook driven out of her home by harsh relatives. The three travel to Bianjing together and begin to build a life there.

The setting is the Northern Song dynasty, and the story is adapted from the Yuan-dynasty play Zhao Pan'er Feng Yue Jiu Feng Chen (赵盼儿风月救风尘) by Guan Hanqing (关汉卿). In the play, as Beijing Youth Daily summarized it, Song Yinzhang marries Zhou She (周舍) against advice, is beaten, and writes to Zhao Pan'er, who tricks him into signing a divorce letter. The series covered that plot in its first six episodes and then turned to the women's business in the capital, with Gu Qianfan's help.

It premiered on Tencent Video on June 2, 2022. On June 5 it opened on Douban at 8.3, the highest opening score of any 2022 mainland drama at that point, and by June 7 it had risen to 8.8, Jiemian reported. Beijing Youth Daily reported 450 million plays over its first three days and 12 episodes.

The reception was not all praise. Jiemian also noted a criticism: in the series, Zhao and Song stress that they have left their registered status as entertainers behind, which some read as ranking oppressed women into tiers, a departure from the play.