General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Calming the Storm (定风波)

Calming the Storm (定风波, also promoted in English as Calming Waves) is a 2025 Chinese costume suspense detective drama produced by iQiyi with Tomorrow Legend Pictures, directed by Zhao Jintao and starring Wang Xingyue and Xiang Hanzhi. It premiered on iQiyi on August 1, 2025 and ran for 36 episodes.¹^•² The title is a cipai (词牌名, a fixed tune-pattern name for classical Chinese lyric poetry), best known from Su Shi's poem beginning "莫听穿林打叶声".³

Key fact	Detail
Format	36-episode costume suspense detective drama, original screenplay¹^•⁴
Premiere	August 1, 2025, iQiyi exclusive online broadcast in mainland China⁴
Lead cast	Wang Xingyue as Xiao Beiming; Xiang Hanzhi as Zhong Xueman; Chen Youwei, Zhang Nan, He Luoluo, and Deng Kai in supporting roles²
Key creatives	Director Zhao Jintao; chief screenwriter Zhang Yunxiao; art director Zhao Dongling⁴
Structure	Seven interlocking cases arranged as a "puzzle" that resolves the main mystery of the "Night Fiend" (夜煞)⁴
Production start	Cast and filming announced by the official Weibo account on May 9, 2024⁵
Reception	Douban opening score 7.0/10 (27,935 raters as of August 23, 2025); iQiyi heat peak 8,377; over 600 million cumulative effective views by August 24, 2025⁶

Spoilers

Premise

The story is set in the fictional realm of Daqi (大亓). Xiao Beiming (萧北冥), the realm's foremost detective, is framed on his own wedding day as the demonic "Night Fiend" (夜煞), accused of murdering his master, and forced to flee after leaping into Fengbo Lake with his survival unknown. Three years later, serial killings in the capital reproduce the Night Fiend's methods, and Xiao returns to clear his name. He rejoins his junior fellow apprentice Zhong Xueman (钟雪漫) and a team of companions to solve a series of strange cases, expose the truth behind the Night Fiend, and calm the turmoil threatening the realm.¹^•²

The six-person investigative team combines complementary skills: the coroner-physician Feng Qingzhuo (风清浊, played by Chen Youwei), described by the actor as a martial-arts-free "healer" figure who joins the constabulary from a jianghu (the martial-arts world of wanderers, sects, and fighters outside official society) sect; the upright constable Tong Shuang (童双, He Luoluo); the young noblewoman Huo Dairong (霍黛蓉, Zhang Nan), who joins the group during the investigations; and Zhuge Kongyun (诸葛孔云, Deng Kai), a rival who becomes a friend.¹

Narrative structure

The series uses what chief screenwriter Zhang Yunxiao called a "puzzle-style" (拼图式) design: seven cases are constructed within a single complete story framework, and only when the last piece is in place does the full picture of Calming the Storm become visible.⁴ Each case, such as the "bride sewn to death" and "heaven-scorched corpse" cases, works as an independent mystery, while cases like the "ghostly escort convoy" and the "sea-cliff monster" tie directly into the main storyline about the Night Fiend.¹ The drama thus combines a unit-case format with a continuous exoneration plot, mixing jianghu chivalry, court intrigue, and plot reversals.¹

Production and broadcast

The official Weibo account announced the cast and the start of filming on May 9, 2024, with Wang Xingyue and Xiang Hanzhi as leads, Chen Youwei and Zhang Nan as main cast, He Luoluo as special guest star, and Deng Kai as invited star; production was credited to iQiyi with Tomorrow Legend Pictures as co-producer.⁵ iQiyi released trailers from September 2024 under the English title Calming Waves.⁷

The premiere schedule gave VIP members two episodes daily at 18:00, six on the first day; from August 15 the VIP pace slowed to one episode daily, with one free episode per day for non-members.⁶ A Japanese broadcast on the channel Galaxy Theater (银河剧场) was scheduled from September 6, 2026.⁶

Reception

The drama opened amid a crowded summer 2025 slate of costume dramas on iQiyi, following Zhao Xue Lu, whose heat value had passed 10,000; Calming the Storm was the platform's second costume detective drama of the season and Wang Xingyue's first top-billed male lead role after The Double (墨雨云间).⁸ Reviewers described its visual style as typical of Chinese-style horror, though less graphic in close-ups than Zhao Xue Lu.⁹

By the numbers, the series performed solidly rather than record-breakingly. Its peak Yunhe (云合) effective-playback market share reached 10.2% as of August 13, 2025; its iQiyi heat value peaked at 8,377 as of August 14; cumulative effective plays reached 585 million by August 22 and passed 600 million by August 24, 2025.⁶ Douban opened at 7.0/10 from 27,935 users as of August 23, 2025, a higher opening score than Zhao Xue Lu's 6.4.⁶^•¹⁰ A CCTV review praised the interlocking reasoning, the youthful ensemble's character arcs, and the audiovisual design, reading the title's "calm" (定) as the search for conviction and truth within the storm.⁶ In December 2025 the drama won in the drama unit of the 2025 iQiyi Scream Night awards.⁶ Wang Xingyue's character Xiao Beiming was nominated in the 2025 Weibo Annual Character selection.¹¹

Distinct works with the same title

The title 定风波 is shared by several unrelated 2025 productions. Chun Lai Ding Feng Bo (春来定风波, Spring Comes to Calm the Storm) is a 28-episode costume romance directed by Wang Yiqing, starring Xu Haiqiao and Hai Lu, streamed on Tencent Video from April 10, 2025.¹² A separate 80-episode short drama titled Ding Feng Bo premiered on October 14, 2025.¹³ Neither is connected to the iQiyi detective series.

References

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 symbols to Co

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

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