General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

A Portrait Of Jianghu: Bad Guys (画江湖之不良人)

A Portrait Of Jianghu: Bad Guys (画江湖之不良人), known in pinyin as Hua Jianghu Zhi Bu Liang Ren, is a Chinese 3D wuxia (Chinese martial-heroes genre of swordplay and honor) web animation series produced by Beijing Roen Digital Technology (北京若森数字科技有限公司) since 2014. Set at the end of the Tang dynasty, it follows the young swordsman Li Xingyun (李星云), who becomes entangled in the struggles of rival factions after coming into possession of the Longquan sword, and centers on the government-affiliated organization known as the "Bu Liang Ren" (不良人) and the imperial treasure it guards.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Format	3D wuxia animation series, the first work of Roen Digital's Hua Jianghu (Painting Jianghu) franchise¹^•³
First broadcast	Season 1 premiered on Tencent Video on July 30–31, 2014, running 54 episodes to August 27, 2015¹^•⁴
Setting and premise	Late Tang dynasty; the secret organization "Bu Liang Ren" and the Taizong Longquan treasure it guards; Li Xingyun drawn into conflicts with factions such as the Xuanming Cult and Tongwen Guan¹
Viewership	Season 1 cumulative views exceeded 3 billion by July 2016; the first two seasons together surpassed 6.6 billion views⁵^•⁶
Critical reception	Douban ratings range from 5.9 (season 7) to 9.4 (season 6); season 8 is helmed by Shu Yicheng, director of the 9.1-rated fourth season⁷
Live-action adaptations	A web drama (2016) and a television series that began filming in June 2017, both based on the animation's first two seasons⁶^•³
Latest season	Season 8 announced with a concept PV on June 22, 2026, for exclusive streaming on Tencent Video in 2027⁸

Spoilers

Premise and story

The series is set against the fall of the Tang dynasty. Its premise begins with the disappearance of the entire Bu Liang Ren, a secret organization attached to the government, along with a state treasury treasure of enormous value.² The story centers on the young Li Xingyun, who obtains the Longquan sword and is drawn into the power struggles of factions including the Xuanming Cult (玄冥教) and Tongwen Guan (通文馆).¹

The first season's synopsis introduces the core group: the mysterious youth Li Xingyun and his junior fellow disciple Lu Linxuan (陆林轩) enter the jianghu, where they befriend Zhang Zifan (张子凡) of Tongwen Guan and Ji Ruxue (姬如雪) of Huanyin Fang (幻音坊). Each of the four carries a secret mission connected to the search for the Longquan treasure, while the long-vanished Bu Liang Ren commander (不良帅) returns to the scene.⁹

Franchise and adaptations

Bu Liang Ren is the first work of the Hua Jianghu (画江湖) franchise, which grew to include Hua Jianghu Zhi Lingzhu (2015), Hua Jianghu Zhi Bei Mo Ting, Hua Jianghu Zhi Huanshi Men Sheng, and others; the earlier series Xialan was later folded into the same brand.³^•⁵ A spin-off animated film, Hua Jianghu Zhi Tiangang (画江湖之天罡), released on December 29, 2023; trade reporting describes it as the first web animated film of the Bu Liang Ren series.⁴^•¹²

The IP extended early into live action. A web drama co-produced by Roen Digital and iQiyi began filming in 2016, directed by Wu Bai (五百) with screenwriter Rao Jun (饶俊), starring Zheng Yecheng and Fan Shiqi; a larger television series started filming in Beijing's Changping district on June 10, 2017, produced by Beijing Ying Bainian Culture Media with supervising director Teng Huatao, starring Yang Xuwen as Li Xingyun and Mao Xiaotong.³^•⁶ A 2025 survey of Chinese comic-adaptation dramas listed the 2016 Bu Liang Ren live-action series among the domestic adaptations that combined word of mouth and popularity, while noting the genre's broader difficulties in producing breakout hits.¹³ A mobile game, novels, and a planned feature film rounded out the franchise's licensing program.⁵^•¹⁴

Production

Roen Digital, founded in 2003, positioned the series as animation for adult audiences from the start; the studio stated that adult animation relies more on plot than on character merchandise, which shaped its choice of the wuxia genre after market research.⁵ The company produced the series with its self-developed real-time rendering and development system, the Mandala Multimedia Intelligent Development System (曼陀罗多媒体智能开发系统), which it had used since 2012, first on the animation Xialan (侠岚) and then on the Hua Jianghu series.⁶

Script development was an early difficulty: before Bu Liang Ren there was no large-scale animated serial for adults on the Chinese market, and scripts commissioned from outside animation and film writers proved unsatisfactory, so the studio wrote its own, with director Guan Xin (关心) personally handling the writing.⁵ Character design also changed during development: the villains Hei Bai Wuchang (黑白无常, the Black and White Impermanence pair) were first conceived as ugly ghosts following folk tradition, then redesigned with attractive appearances to suit the audience, and their popularity led the writers to expand their role beyond the original plan.⁵

The Chinese voice cast includes Bian Jiang (边江) as Li Xingyun, Shen Qiuxiang (朱雀橙) as Ji Ruxue, Zhao Yi (赵毅) as Zhang Zifan among other roles, Yan Mengmeng (阎萌萌) as Lu Linxuan, and Zhao Shuren (赵述仁) as Li Huan and Li Siyuan.¹

Seasons and reception

Seven seasons had aired by mid-2025, with an eighth announced. The episode counts and broadcast windows have varied considerably across the run:¹

Season	Episodes	First broadcast	Final episode
1	54	July 31, 2014	August 27, 2015
2	40	July 21, 2016	April 20, 2017
3	40	October 25, 2018	October 17, 2019
4	13	April 29, 2021	July 8, 2021
5	12	January 20, 2022	March 31, 2022
6	12	March 2, 2023	May 11, 2023
7 (九幽玄天)	12	March 27, 2025	June 5, 2025

On the review site Douban, the seasons scored 6.2 to 7.9 on Bangumi's aggregated figures for seasons 1 through 6, with season 6 reaching 9.4 on Douban and season 7 falling to 5.2 on Bangumi (5.9 on Douban per IT Home).⁴^•⁷ Season 7, subtitled Jiuyou Xuantian (九幽玄天), premiered on March 27, 2025 as a "Beijing Big Audio-Visual" key project supported by the Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau, with new episodes on Tencent Video each Thursday at 10 a.m.; its first-day all-network heat value exceeded 24,000.¹⁰^•¹¹

Season 8. On June 22, 2026, at Tencent Video's annual animation release event, the studio published a concept PV for season 8 and announced exclusive streaming on Tencent Video in 2027. The PV shows Li Xingyun returning to his homeland, war fires rising in the Central Plains, upheaval at Huanyin Fang, and mysteries surrounding Ji Ruxue. Both the director and screenwriter change to Shu Yicheng (舒奕橙), who directed season 4, the season that scored 9.1 on Douban; IT Home framed the change against season 7's steep ratings decline.⁷^•⁸ The report described season 8 as a transitional season toward the series' final chapter of the chaotic era, gathering plot threads planted across the first seven seasons.⁸

International titles

Overseas databases list the series under several English names, including A Portrait of Jianghu: Bad Guys (IMDb, TheTVDB) and fan translations such as The Degenerate: Drawing Jianghu used on official Tencent Video YouTube uploads.¹⁵^•¹⁶^•¹⁷

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026