# Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty (梦回大清)
**Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty** (梦回大清, *Menghui Daqing*) is a Chinese time-travel romance novel by the web novelist Jin Zi (金子), first serialized on Jinjiang Literature City in 2004, and the 2019 television drama *Meng Hui* (梦回) adapted from it. The novel follows a modern office worker who visits the [Forbidden City](https://www.edgepedia.org/forbidden-city) and wakes up in the Kangxi era of the [Qing dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/qing-dynasty), at the center of the succession struggle among the emperor's sons. It is counted as one of the founding works of the "qingchuan" (清穿, time travel to the Qing) genre.[1](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5251323)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original novel | Serialized on Jinjiang Literature City from 2004; written by Jin Zi (金子)[1](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5251323) |
| Genre standing | Called the pioneer of "qingchuan" fiction, novels about traveling back to the Qing dynasty[1](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5251323) |
| "Three great mountains" | Ranked with Tong Hua's *Bubu Jingxin* (from 2005) and Li Xin's *Dubu Tianxia* (from 2006)[1](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5251323) |
| Novel ending | The heroine Ming Wei is ultimately sentenced to death, a tragic close typical of the genre[1](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5251323) |
| Television adaptation | *Meng Hui* (梦回), 40 episodes, Tencent QQ web channel, December 14, 2019 to January 23, 2020[2](https://www.cpophome.com/dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty-landy-li-wang-anyu) • [3](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/45539/dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty) |
| Lead cast | Landy Li (Li Landi) as Ming Wei / Xiao Wei; Wang Anyu as the 13th prince Yin Xiang; Liu Jun as the Kangxi Emperor[2](https://www.cpophome.com/dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty-landy-li-wang-anyu) |
| Early reception | A Douban score of 3.9 from 4,278 users three days after launch, against 7.5 for the novel[4](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5270860) |
## Spoilers
### Story: The television adaptation
**Story.** The drama opens in the 21st century rather than the Qing. Xiao Wei, an intern who loves Qing architecture, receives a palace lantern with mysterious power from an old woman while researching in the Forbidden City. From that night, the 13th prince Yin Xiang appears in her apartment whenever he dreams, and the two fall in love across time. When the dream connection ends, she makes a wish at the Forbidden City and travels back to the Kangxi era, entering the dangerous inner court and the princes' fight for the throne.[2](https://www.cpophome.com/dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty-landy-li-wang-anyu) • [7](https://www.soompi.com/article/1378094wpp/lighthearted-and-enchanting-5-reasons-to-watch-dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty) After she crosses over, she and Yin Xiang lose their memories of each other.[4](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5270860)
## The novel
Jin Zi began serializing *Menghui Daqing* on Jinjiang Literature City in 2004. The story follows an ordinary white-collar woman who, while visiting the Forbidden City, crosses into the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty. Its fresh, humorous, and winding style attracted a large readership, and the genre it anchored expanded quickly afterward; 2007 was later called the "year of time travel" (穿越年) for the form's peak.[1](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5251323) A print edition was published by Shenyang Press in December 2010, and a Sogou Baike entry records a later serialization on Qidian Girls' Network beginning December 13, 2019.[5](https://baike.sogou.com/m/fullLemma?lid=138042)
The novel's premise places its heroine among the "nine sons contesting the heir position" (九子夺嫡), the succession fight among the [Kangxi Emperor](https://www.edgepedia.org/kangxi-emperor)'s sons, a setting qingchuan writers favored because court intrigue offered both drama and human entanglement.[1](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5251323) Like most time-travel heroines, the protagonist cannot change history; in *Menghui Daqing*, Ming Wei is ultimately sentenced to death. The Paper's critic read this tragic structure as a negation of time travel itself and an affirmation of the present, giving readers a reason to move forward in their own lives.[1](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5251323)
Together with Tong Hua's *Bubu Jingxin* (serialized from 2005) and Li Xin's *Dubu Tianxia* (serialized from 2006), the novel is known as one of the "three great mountains of qingchuan" (清穿三座大山), and all three were later adapted for television.[1](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5251323)
## The television adaptation
**Production.** The drama *Meng Hui* (梦回), also listed in English as *Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty*, was produced by Tangren Media, the company behind the 2011 drama adaptation of *Bubu Jingxin* (*Scarlet Heart*). Li Guoli (Lee Kwok Lap) served as director, with Chen Shuliang and Yuan Shuwei; the screenwriter was Wang Lizhi; producers included Cai Yinong (Karen Tsoi), Li Eryun, Huang Xing, Chu Fei, and Su Min.[2](https://www.cpophome.com/dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty-landy-li-wang-anyu) • [6](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Dreaming_Back_to_the_Qing_Dynasty) It ran 40 episodes of about 45 minutes on Tencent's web channel, airing Thursdays through Saturdays at 20:00 from December 14, 2019, with the finale on January 23, 2020.[3](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/45539/dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty) • [2](https://www.cpophome.com/dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty-landy-li-wang-anyu)
**Cast.** Landy Li plays the heroine, credited as Ming Wei in the Qing timeline with a second identity, Hala Yu Ning, and as Xu Qiangwei in the modern one; Wang Anyu plays the 13th prince Yin Xiang, Xin Yunlai the 14th prince Yin Ti, Sun Anke Ming Hui, Ding Qiao Yin Zhen, and Ni Songyang the Crown Prince Yin Reng. Liu Jun appears as the Kangxi Emperor.[6](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Dreaming_Back_to_the_Qing_Dynasty) • [2](https://www.cpophome.com/dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty-landy-li-wang-anyu) The main cast was largely new to audiences apart from Landy Li, a choice commentators read as aiming at a younger viewership.[7](https://www.soompi.com/article/1378094wpp/lighthearted-and-enchanting-5-reasons-to-watch-dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty)
Producer Cai Yinong distinguished the adaptation from *Scarlet Heart*: there the heroine Ruoxi is passively swept into history, while *Menghui Daqing*'s premise allows repeated crossings, so Xiao Wei can choose her own fate and act more bravely.[4](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5270860) The drama also departs from the novel's cast of focus: while it keeps the historical alignment of the 4th and 13th princes against the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 14th, it brings Ming Hui, Ming Wei's sister, to the center of the succession battle.[7](https://www.soompi.com/article/1378094wpp/lighthearted-and-enchanting-5-reasons-to-watch-dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty)
## Reception
The adaptation met a poor response. Within three days of launch, 4,278 Douban users had rated it 3.9 out of 10, far below the 7.5 the novel held on the platform. Critics and viewers focused on plot logic problems, the handling of the heroine, and disappointment with Tangren Media, long known for hit costume dramas.[4](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5270860) A Paper critic argued the drama's depiction of Qing palace life failed basic plausibility: princes entering and leaving the consorts' palace at will, maidens leaving the palace freely with princes, the heroine burning paper money in mourning inside the palace, and the 14th prince binding the 9th prince, each a breach of etiquette or a capital offense under palace rules, yet presented without consequence.[1](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5251323)
The first five episodes drew particular criticism for spending their length on the 13th prince's dream visits to the modern apartment, a device reviewers compared to the films *How Long Will I Love U* and *Your Name*, before the memory loss that resets the story.[4](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5270860) International coverage was warmer: Soompi framed the series as a lighthearted, standalone retelling of the succession struggle by the team behind *Scarlet Heart*, noting its expected strong soundtrack, sets, and costumes.[7](https://www.soompi.com/article/1378094wpp/lighthearted-and-enchanting-5-reasons-to-watch-dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty) The series is distributed internationally on WeTV, Viki, and Kukan.[2](https://www.cpophome.com/dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty-landy-li-wang-anyu) • [8](https://wetv.vip/en/play/6p56t86t2yandfz-Dreaming_Back_to_the_Qing_Dynasty)
## Place in the time-travel genre
The novel's 2004 serialization predates the television boom that made qingchuan a mainstream form. Hong Kong TVB's adaptation of [Huang Yi](https://www.edgepedia.org/huang-yi)'s *A Step into the Past* won the Hong Kong ratings championship in 2001, the mainland's first time-travel romantic comedy *Chuanyue Shikong de Ailian* aired in 2002, and in 2011 the dramas *Gong* and *Scarlet Heart* both became yearly hits, marking the peak of the genre's influence before regulators tightened policy on time-travel dramas.[1](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5251323) Within that history, *Menghui Daqing* is remembered as the work that established the female-oriented qingchuan formula, a modern woman among the Kangxi princes, which *Scarlet Heart*, *Palace*, and later adaptations reused.[1](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5251323)
## References
1. [曾于里 (2019). 《梦回》：下一部《步步惊心》？做梦吧. 澎湃新闻.](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5251323)
2. [Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty, CPOP HOME](https://www.cpophome.com/dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty-landy-li-wang-anyu)
3. [Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty, TVmaze](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/45539/dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty)
4. [猫影文娱 (2019). 《梦回》难比《步步惊心》，唐人的清宫穿越剧失灵了？ 澎湃新闻.](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5270860)
5. [梦回大清, Sogou Baike](https://baike.sogou.com/m/fullLemma?lid=138042)
6. [Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty, DramaWiki](https://wiki.d-addicts.com/Dreaming_Back_to_the_Qing_Dynasty)
7. [isms (2020). Lighthearted And Enchanting: 5 Reasons To Watch "Dreaming Back To The Qing Dynasty", Soompi](https://www.soompi.com/article/1378094wpp/lighthearted-and-enchanting-5-reasons-to-watch-dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty)
8. [Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty, WeTV](https://wetv.vip/en/play/6p56t86t2yandfz-Dreaming_Back_to_the_Qing_Dynasty)
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*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*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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