General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Jiuliu Bazhu

Jiuliu Bazhu (九流霸主, also known in English as Jiu Liu Overlord) is a 2020 Chinese costume romantic comedy television series starring Bai Lu and Lai Yi, first streamed on Tencent Video on October 23, 2020¹. Set in the late Tang dynasty, it follows a romance between the leader of a street gang from the city's "lower nine streams" and a wealthy silk merchant from the "upper nine streams", two social tiers that the plot treats as hostile classes¹.

Key fact	Detail
Original title	九流霸主 (Jiu Liu Ba Zhu); English title Jiu Liu Overlord²
First broadcast	October 23, 2020, Tencent Video exclusive¹
Director and writers	Directed by Qiu Yu (邱钰); written by Qiu Yu, Liu Qiang, Fu Chong, and Ni Qu³
Lead cast	Bai Lu as Long Aoyi; Lai Yi as Li Qingliu; with Fang Yilun, Xu Muchan, Zhai Zilu, Hou Peishan, Zheng Xiaoning, and Huang Xiaolei¹
Episode count	36 episodes of about 45 minutes per most listings; some databases list 48⁴^•²
Production companies	Penguin Pictures (Tencent), Xinguangying, and Oxygen Pictures¹
Finale	November 27, 2020⁵

Spoilers

Setting and premise

The story is set in the late Tang dynasty, after the An Lushan rebellion, when regional warlords carved up power. The fictional city of Yincheng (银城), located in Jiannan in the rich Sichuan basin, has become a silk-trading hub, but rival factions infest it. The city is split at the Wanhua Restaurant into a north city, home to officials, notables, and wealthy merchants of the "upper nine streams", and a south city, home to street rogues of the "lower nine streams"; the two tiers feud constantly⁶.

Li Qingliu (Lai Yi), master of the New Silk Road silk shop and the richest merchant of the upper tier, is about to display his prized gold-thread garments at the annual exhibition when the gold thread disappears. Long Aoyi (Bai Lu), leader of the Longzhu Gang and the dominant figure of the lower tier's south city, is fighting the oppressive Snake Gang outside the restaurant at the same moment. The theft case forces the two to investigate together⁷. Li Qingliu begins the story distrusting poor commoners, whom he suspects of the theft; through Long Aoyi he sheds that prejudice, while she learns commerce from him⁴.

Plot development

The investigation of the gold-thread theft draws the leads into wider conflicts. A corrupt merchant's schemes leave commoners homeless, and Li Qingliu, as the representative face of the merchant class, is pushed to the center of public anger. His hidden identity as a prince is then revealed, and to protect Long Aoyi and the common people he enters the palace; Long Aoyi follows to seek redress for the people, and the two reunite there and expose the truth together⁷. In the finale the merchant's plot fails, the upper and lower tiers of the capital live in peace, and the leads end up together⁴.

Supporting characters interleave with the leads' story: the third prince Li Zhao (Fang Yilun), who arrives in Yincheng as salt-and-iron commissioner while concealing his own agenda; the account-keeping Du Xiaoxian (Xu Muchan); the steward Yan Bin (Zhai Zilu); and the blunt Xiao Qin (Hou Peishan)¹^•⁶. Later episodes move into palace intrigue, including Li Qingliu being pressed into marrying Du Xiaoxian and Li Zhao's fatal attempt to assassinate the chancellor Yuan Zai³.

Production and broadcast

The series was produced by Penguin Pictures, Xinguangying, and Oxygen Pictures, directed by Qiu Yu, and filmed with Bai Lu and Lai Yi in the lead roles¹^•⁸. It premiered on Tencent Video on October 23, 2020, and ran to its finale on November 27, 2020¹^•⁵. Listings disagree on the total episode count: Tencent's WeTV platform, TheTVDB, Douban, and TVmao list 36 episodes of roughly 45 minutes, while Ninenovel, JustWatch, and one Chinese synopsis site list 48⁷^•⁴^•⁹^•². WeTV's own page also credits "Du Du" as director, whereas nearly all other listings credit Qiu Yu⁷^•³.

The series was one of several costume dramas Tencent Video scheduled for 2020, announced alongside titles such as Legend of Xiao Chuo and The Chang'an Youth¹⁰.

Viewership and reception

During its run the series charted in industry tracking of weekly online drama viewership. In week 44 of 2020 (November 2 to 6) it ranked seventh among dramas and web dramas with 72.70 million weekly views; in week 46 (November 16 to 20), 24 days after release, it ranked ninth with 54.32 million weekly views and an aggregate heat score of 51.16¹¹. Its Weibo topic hashtag reached nearly one billion reads by the time of the finale⁵.

Critics split their verdicts between the two leads. A Sina Entertainment review published on premiere day called the show a formulaic but entertaining costume idol drama, praising Bai Lu for playing the character rather than her own celebrity and calling her comic timing precise, while criticizing Lai Yi's performance as expressionless line-reading¹². Promotional coverage emphasized the reversed gender dynamic of the pairing, a domineering gang-leader heroine and a refined, timid merchant hero, as the show's distinguishing trait¹³. Viewer reviews on Douban described it as a serviceable "two strong leads" romance that works as light viewing⁹, and a retrospective fan review scored it 3.6 out of 10, finding the early mystery-comedy episodes enjoyable but the later palace-intrigue stretch rushed and under-explained¹⁴. On IMDb the series holds a 7.0 rating¹⁵.

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

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