General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Legend of Zu Mountain (蜀山战纪之剑侠传奇)

Legend of Zu Mountain (蜀山战纪之剑侠传奇) is a 2015 Chinese television series in the xianxia (immortal-hero) fantasy genre, produced by Jiangsu Straw Bear Pictures (江苏稻草熊影业) with Wu Qilong (吴奇隆) as producer and starring Zhao Liying (赵丽颖), Chen Weiting (陈伟霆), Wu Qilong, and Ye Zuxin (叶祖新).¹ It is adapted from the novel The Legend of the Swordsmen of the Mountains of Shu (蜀山剑侠传) by Huanzhulouzhu (还珠楼主, Li Shoumin), and it was the first drama released under a "web before TV" (先网后台) model, premiering as a paid exclusive on iQIYI before airing on a satellite channel.²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Original title	蜀山战纪之剑侠传奇 (The Legend of Zu); network version shortened to 蜀山战纪, TV version titled 剑侠传奇¹
Production	Jiangsu Straw Bear Pictures; producer Wu Qilong; director Huang Weijie (黄伟杰); 54 episodes of 45 minutes⁴
Online premiere	22 September 2015 on iQIYI in paid VIP mode, six seasons released monthly on the 22nd (the sixth season has 4 episodes)³^•⁴
TV premiere	16 January 2016 on Anhui TV as the station's new-year drama, two episodes nightly¹
Audience figures	3.52 million plays in the first hour online; Anhui TV average rating above 1, a station yearly high⁵
Source material	Huanzhulouzhu's novel 蜀山剑侠传²
Franchise	Sequel 蜀山战纪2踏火行歌 began filming in December 2016; a film version was developed with Alibaba Pictures⁵

Spoilers

Plot

The story is set in the late Ming period, when the Shu Mountain sword sect (蜀山剑派) leads the righteous faction of the martial world and the righteous and evil sides contend.³ The sect's leader Zhuge Yuwo (诸葛驭我), to protect the world from the Green Robe Venerable (绿袍尊者), who seeks the Red Soul Stone (赤魂石), seals the stone inside the gifted young man Ding Yin (丁隐). Ding Yin joins the sect to learn its sword arts and avenge the people against the Green Robe Venerable. He then discovers that Yu Wuxin (玉无心), the Green Robe Venerable's daughter, looks exactly like his late wife, and the two fall in love while intrigue spreads inside the sect itself.³

Ding Yin and his fellow disciples Dan Chenzi (丹辰子), Zhuge Ziying (诸葛紫英), Zhou Qingyun (周青云), and his sworn brother Xiao Zhang fall into a larger conspiracy that splits the group apart. In the ending, Ding Yin sacrifices himself to save the world, dying together with the Green Robe Venerable; Yu Wuxin wanders the world alone to carry out his wishes, and Dan Chenzi remains to succeed as the sect's leader.³ The tragic ending drew complaints from viewers, many of whom asked the broadcaster not to cut the TV version's final episodes.⁷

Franchise and adaptations

蜀山战纪 was conceived from the start as a multi-platform intellectual property covering film, games, animation, and e-commerce.⁵

Mobile game. A licensed 3D MMORPG mobile game was developed by Blueport Interactive (蓝港互动), produced under Wu Qilong's supervision, and co-released with iQIYI, timed to launch alongside the satellite broadcast in January 2016. Characters have both righteous and evil sides with two sets of NPC settings, mirroring the drama's theme that a single thought separates good from evil.⁸
Web game. A browser ARPG of the same name, developed by Shanghai Jiazuo Network Technology and released by iQIYI, launched in winter 2015 and was operated on platforms including Mengle and Gemeng; it earned 33 million yuan in its first three months.⁹^•⁵
Books and music. A tie-in novel, 蜀山战纪之剑侠传奇 (ISBN 9787539966335, Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House, January 2016), was adapted by Pan Chen from an original story by Huang Weijie, and an e-book edition was released on 20 September 2015. The music catalog included ten songs performed by Zhou Bichang, Andy Hui (许志安), Wu Qilong, and Zhao Liying, among others.⁵^•¹⁰
Film and sequel. A film version, 蜀山战纪之永世情劫, was developed with Alibaba Pictures, and a second television series, 蜀山战纪2踏火行歌, centered on the next generation of the first drama's main characters, entered production in December 2016 with location work in Hengdian and New Zealand.⁵

Production and release model

The series was filmed from January to 21 May 2015 at Hengdian, Wuxi, and in Guangxi.⁴ Its release broke with the usual Chinese practice in which a drama airs on television first and reaches streaming platforms later. iQIYI proposed the "web first" arrangement, and after negotiation with broadcasters the two sides settled on a schedule in which iQIYI released ten episodes a month as a paid VIP exclusive while the television partner followed in a daily slot.³ Producer Liu Xiaofeng (刘小枫) said iQIYI bought the online premiere rights at a price comparable to two top-tier satellite channels' prime-time rates, and that the satellite channels and actors supported the arrangement.⁶

Two versions of one drama. The full title at the start of production was 蜀山战纪之剑侠传奇; the network version was shortened to 蜀山战纪 because the full name was too long, and the television broadcast took the name 剑侠传奇.¹ Because the two platforms ran at different rhythms, ten episodes monthly online against two episodes nightly on television, and served partly different audiences, the production made separate cuts: the editing positions and methods, the placement of cliffhangers, and even the music differ between the network and television versions, and the endings are not the same.¹ When the fifth season went up on iQIYI on 22 January 2016, viewers watched the finale overnight, and the fifth season passed ten million clicks within five hours of release.⁷

Reception

At a project seminar in Beijing on 9 April 2015, critics and academics discussed the drama before release; Cui Baoguo, vice dean of Tsinghua University's School of Journalism and Communication, praised its promotion of traditional Chinese culture and the martial-arts spirit, and literary critic Ding Linyi called it a return to tradition with themes on the continuity of Chinese civilization.⁵^•¹¹ Viewers rated the visual effects highly, citing the sword-riding flight sequences and combat effects as polished for the genre.⁴ The licensed mobile game reached first place on Apple's App Store free-download chart within a week of release, stayed near the top of the grossing chart for 41 consecutive days, and won the 2016 Golden Plume Award for the mobile online game players paid most attention to.⁵

References

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