{ "id": "ep1rbdbmr4", "slug": "a-dream-within-a-dream", "title": "A Dream Within a Dream (书卷一梦)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials", "label": "International serial drama and telenovelas", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials" }, { "id": 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"label": "China · 2021 and later: Titles Cr to In", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-cr-to-in", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021", "label": "China · 2021 and later", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials", "label": "International serial drama and telenovelas", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_international_serials" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials", "label": "East Asian web and streaming serials", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-cr-to-in", "label": "Titles Cr to In", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-cr-to-in" } ] } ], "excerpt": "A Dream Within a Dream (书卷一梦) is a 2025 Chinese 40-episode costume transmigration comedy directed by Guo Hu, starring Li Yitong and Liu Yuning, which premiered June 26, 2025 on iQIYI and Jiangsu TV and set iQIYI's 2025 first-day heat record.", "snippet": "A Dream Within a Dream (书卷一梦) is a 2025 Chinese 40-episode costume transmigration comedy directed by Guo Hu, starring Li Yitong and Liu Yuning, which premiered June 26, 2025 on iQIYI and Jiangsu TV and set iQIYI's 2025 first-day heat record.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_int_serials_east_asia.east_asian_web_streaming_serials.alpha-cr-to-in", "markdown": "# A Dream Within a Dream (书卷一梦)\n\n**A Dream Within a Dream** (书卷一梦) is a 2025 Chinese costume romantic comedy in which a struggling modern actress is pulled into the world of an ancient-costume drama script and must fight both its villain and the script mechanism itself to change her character's fate. It was directed by Guo Hu, written by Ren Zhuangliu and Xia Luote, and stars Li Yitong and Liu Yuning.[1](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_31047564) The 40-episode series premiered on June 26, 2025 on the iQIYI streaming platform and Jiangsu Satellite TV.[2](https://thetvdb.com/series/a-dream-within-a-dream)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Chinese title | 书卷一梦 (Shū Juàn Yī Mèng), also translated as \"A Dream within the Scroll\"[2](https://thetvdb.com/series/a-dream-within-a-dream) |\n| Format | 40 episodes, about 45 minutes each; fantasy, romance, comedy, period transmigration[2](https://thetvdb.com/series/a-dream-within-a-dream) |\n| Broadcast | Premiered June 26, 2025 on iQIYI and Jiangsu Satellite TV; ran through July 2025[2](https://thetvdb.com/series/a-dream-within-a-dream) |\n| Leads | Li Yitong as Song Xiaoyu / Song Yimeng; Liu Yuning as Nan Heng[2](https://thetvdb.com/series/a-dream-within-a-dream) |\n| Opening heat | 7687 within 12 hours and 8500 within 25 hours of launch, an iQIYI 2025 first-day record[3](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B9%A6%E5%8D%B7%E4%B8%80%E6%A2%A6/63583440) |\n| Final heat | Surpassed 9600 on iQIYI after the finale[4](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_31172113) |\n| Douban score | 7.0; also topped Maoyan's all-network heat chart in June 2025[5](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_31148829) |\n| Overseas reach | TOP1 on iQIYI International across eleven countries and regions; TOP1 in Hong Kong[6](https://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2025/0829/2025082902198.pdf) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Premise and plot\n\nThe story opens at a table read for a fictional costume drama called *Qingning Yi Meng* (清宁一梦, \"A Dream of Qingning\"), where a love-triangle scene in which three characters stab one another while spinning in a circle is defended as a crowd-pleasing set piece.[7](https://www.tvmao.com/kanju/Z2FmayZb/episode) Song Xiaoyu (宋小鱼), a bit-part actress played by Li Yitong, then finds herself transported into that script world as its heroine, Song Yimeng (宋一梦), a nobleman's daughter fated to be used and discarded by the villainous male lead.[2](https://thetvdb.com/series/a-dream-within-a-dream)\n\nHer opposite is Nan Heng (南珩), played by Liu Yuning, a ruthless prince whom the script repeatedly forces toward her despite her efforts to flee. However hard she resists, the plot keeps pushing the two together into scripted \"famous scenes,\" and when she strays from the story she is trapped in loops of fatal outcomes.[2](https://thetvdb.com/series/a-dream-within-a-dream) The drama treats the script mechanism as an irresistible force: when characters deviate, a keyboard sound in their heads signals the screenwriter's power, and key beats such as the first meeting, a rescue from drowning, and a fated kiss cannot be avoided.[8](https://static.nfnews.com/content/202507/15/c11511361.html?enterColumnId=17)\n\nThe series uses this premise to satirize costume-drama conventions. Song Yimeng, retaining her modern speech and an insider's view of the industry, comments directly on the tropes around her, from under-budgeted fight scenes to the lighting, slow motion, and spinning shots of obligatory kiss scenes.[8](https://static.nfnews.com/content/202507/15/c11511361.html?enterColumnId=17) The Beijing Youth Daily noted the comedy of anachronism: she lights a candle with a lighter and is taken for a sorceress, a physician checks her pulse and recommends blood-pressure medicine for a heart rate of 120, an assassin complains about losing WiFi during a hit, and she pitches the emperor on the \"996 blessing\" theory of overwork, earning a punishment of copying the *Analects* one hundred times.[9](https://app.bjtitle.com/8816/newshow.php?did=52fffc8b64f04f16aebebb8b205cadf9&mood=wx&newsid=6677704&typeid=99&uid=379810)\n\nA second layer develops as the \"paper people\" of the script world awaken. A candy-eating boy notices that the heroine keeps remarrying, showing that when Song Yimeng dies and restarts, the world's time does not reset, only the characters' memories are wiped. Nan Heng, disturbed that his body acts against his will, creates a masked, gentler alter ego, Li Shiliu (离十六), to resist the screenwriter's power, and other characters gradually stop serving the plot.[8](https://static.nfnews.com/content/202507/15/c11511361.html?enterColumnId=17) The finale resolves both timelines, with the modern cast and the script characters each reaching a happy ending, a structure reviewers described as a \"play within a play within a play.\"[4](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_31172113)\n\n## Production\n\nThe drama is an original work, not an adaptation, from Linmon Pictures, with Guo Hu (director of *Mysterious Lotus Casebook* and *One and Only*) directing and the screenwriting team of Ren Zhuangliu (*[Story of Kunning Palace](https://www.edgepedia.org/story-of-kunning-palace)*) and Xia Luote.[10](https://www.cpophome.com/a-dream-within-a-dream-li-yitong-liu-yuning/) Screenwriter Wang Juan, speaking at the first China Radio and Television Quality Content Conference, said the novel-length work impressed him as having expression, substance, rich plotting, and fully built characters.[11](https://whwb.cjn.cn/resfile/2025-06-27/12/B2025-06-27A1201.pdf)\n\nIts slot itself became a story: the costume drama *The Litchi Road* was pulled from Jiangsu Satellite TV's June 26 prime-time premiere and replaced by *A Dream Within a Dream*, a late change that drew wide discussion, and the series entered with more than 2.5 million reservations on iQIYI.[12](https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2025-06-26/doc-infckxsh4749524.shtml?froms=ggmp) The production also incorporated intangible-cultural-heritage paper-cutting elements.[12](https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2025-06-26/doc-infckxsh4749524.shtml?froms=ggmp) Liu Yuning performed the ending song 《长风谣》 (\"Ballad of the Long Wind\").[13](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_10jefcm1mf5.html)\n\n## Reception and performance data\n\nThe series set iQIYI's 2025 record for first-day heat, reaching 7687 within 12 hours and 8500 within 25 hours of launch, and topped Maoyan's all-network heat chart, Guuduo's web-drama heat index, and Douban's real-time trending lists.[3](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B9%A6%E5%8D%B7%E4%B8%80%E6%A2%A6/63583440) Heat continued to climb through the run and broke 9600 after the finale.[4](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_31172113) On Jiangsu Satellite TV it drew a 1.98 percent rating in 35 cities (rank 1) and 1.84 percent in 71 cities (rank 2) in its slot, and the production was certified as an S+ summer hit by Yunhe Data; Douyin topic views exceeded 8 billion, first among dramas in the same period.[14](https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2025/0929/2025092900934.pdf) The Beijing Youth Daily reported a single-day viewing record above 100 million and industry projections, at a daily pace of about 60 million views, that it could become 2025's first costume drama to pass 2 billion total views.[9](https://app.bjtitle.com/8816/newshow.php?did=52fffc8b64f04f16aebebb8b205cadf9&mood=wx&newsid=6677704&typeid=99&uid=379810)\n\nOverseas, the series was carried on iQIYI International, WeTV, Viu, and YouTube in the first half of 2025, ranking TOP1 on iQIYI International across eleven countries and regions, TOP2 on WeTV in Indonesia, TOP2 in Malaysia, TOP4 on Viu's hit list in Singapore, and TOP1 in Hong Kong.[6](https://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2025/0829/2025082902198.pdf)\n\n## Critical response\n\nReception was divided between praise for its deconstruction of the genre and criticism of its execution. *Global Times* culture coverage praised its absurdist style, the comic collision of modern language with period setting, and its stylized take on the familiar transmigration-into-a-book motif as an exploration of the genre's boundaries.[3](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B9%A6%E5%8D%B7%E4%B8%80%E6%A2%A6/63583440) The Guuduo review credited the show with rebuilding the costume-drama formula around the awakening of fictional characters and a finale that met and exceeded audience expectations.[4](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_31172113)\n\nCritics focused on the gap between the subversive shell and a conventional core. Pengpai News argued that after the early episodes spent on mocking costume-drama clichés, the series failed to hold viewers through plot alone, did not escape the framework of formulaic costume romance in pacing, emotional development, or characterization, and saw its heat stall around 9500.[3](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B9%A6%E5%8D%B7%E4%B8%80%E6%A2%A6/63583440) The Southern Metropolis-area outlet Nanfang Plus made a similar point: the drama ridicules the hero-saves-heroine trope yet forces the hero to save the heroine repeatedly, and mocks the masked-lover cliché while having the heroine fall for the hero's masked alter ego, so that beneath the madcap comedy it still follows the old path of mutual love through misunderstanding.[8](https://static.nfnews.com/content/202507/15/c11511361.html?enterColumnId=17) A streaming-industry analysis grouped it with *Lin Jiang Xian* as a drama whose innovative narrative broke genre formulas but split audience opinion because its emotional resonance fell short.[15](https://vv.lmtw.com/mzw/content/detail/id/244161)\n\n## References\n\n1. [《书卷一梦》：编剧键盘一响，内娱古偶中枪, The Paper (Pengpai News), June 27, 2025](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_31047564)\n2. [书卷一梦 (A Dream Within a Dream), TheTVDB](https://thetvdb.com/series/a-dream-within-a-dream)\n3. [书卷一梦（2025年郭虎执导的古装爱情剧）, Baidu Baike](https://wapbaike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B9%A6%E5%8D%B7%E4%B8%80%E6%A2%A6/63583440)\n4. [从数据和口碑复盘，《书卷一梦》为何颠覆古装剧, Guuduo Network Film & TV via The Paper, July 14, 2025](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_31172113)\n5. [从《书卷一梦》到《开端》：\"无限流\"与\"时间循环\"为何爆火？, The Paper](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_31148829)\n6. [Linmon Media interim report, HKEXnews, August 29, 2025](https://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2025/0829/2025082902198.pdf)\n7. [书卷一梦第1集分集剧情, TVMAO](https://www.tvmao.com/kanju/Z2FmayZb/episode)\n8. [平等创飞一众古偶，它靠\"发癫\"出圈？, Nanfang Plus, July 15, 2025](https://static.nfnews.com/content/202507/15/c11511361.html?enterColumnId=17)\n9. [《书卷一梦》热播报道, Beijing Youth Daily app, 2025](https://app.bjtitle.com/8816/newshow.php?did=52fffc8b64f04f16aebebb8b205cadf9&mood=wx&newsid=6677704&typeid=99&uid=379810)\n10. [A Dream Within A Dream - Chinese Drama 2025, CPOP HOME](https://www.cpophome.com/a-dream-within-a-dream-li-yitong-liu-yuning/)\n11. [古装轻喜剧《书卷一梦》江苏卫视开播, Wuhan Evening News, June 27, 2025](https://whwb.cjn.cn/resfile/2025-06-27/12/B2025-06-27A1201.pdf)\n12. [暑期档开战，四大平台剧集对垒, Economic Observer via Sina Finance, June 26, 2025](https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2025-06-26/doc-infckxsh4749524.shtml?froms=ggmp)\n13. [书卷一梦, iQIYI official page](https://www.iqiyi.com/a_10jefcm1mf5.html)\n14. [Linmon Media Management Discussion and Analysis, HKEXnews, September 29, 2025](https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2025/0929/2025092900934.pdf)\n15. [为什么《临江仙》《书卷一梦》都没大爆? 传媒1号 via 流媒体网, July 9, 2025](https://vv.lmtw.com/mzw/content/detail/id/244161)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › East Asian web and streaming serials › Titles Cr to In*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/a-dream-within-a-dream", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/a-dream-within-a-dream.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"A Dream Within a Dream (书卷一梦)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/a-dream-within-a-dream. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[A Dream Within a Dream (书卷一梦)](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-dream-within-a-dream)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/a-dream-within-a-dream](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-dream-within-a-dream). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"A Dream Within a Dream (书卷一梦)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/a-dream-within-a-dream. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "A Dream Within a Dream is a 2025 Chinese 40-episode costume transmigration comedy directed by Guo Hu, starring Li Yitong and Liu Yuning, which premiered June 26, 2025 on iQIYI and Jiangsu TV and set iQIYI's 2025 first-day heat record." }