Perfecting all the drama

Huang Yingxiang, who co-directed the series with Chen Dan, says the script made a similar impression on her. What drew her to the project was the heroine's legendary life path and her ability to remain hopeful even after enduring pain that ordinary people can hardly put into words.

That resilience is reflected in the challenges Xu overcomes throughout the story. She uncovers a scheme in which poisoning is disguised as an epidemic, raises enough money to buy her adoptive parents' freedom from slavery, and even detects signs of a prince's plot to overthrow the emperor.

A Peking University graduate who later earned a master's degree in the United States, Huang was reminded of Shi Jing, or the Classic of Poetry, China's oldest surviving poetry collection, comprising 305 works dating from the 11th to the sixth centuries BC, when she read the script.

Huang says the drama has a "distinctive temperament", as it finds beauty in the details of ancient China's everyday life. Its world takes shape through small, revealing moments — from noblemen wearing flowers as they compete in an impromptu poetry contest to traditional wedding ceremonies and even the design of the servants' residence.