General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Song Of The Moon (月歌行)

Song of the Moon (月歌行) is a 2022 Chinese television series in the xianxia (immortal-hero) romance genre, adapted from the novel Ben Yue (奔月) by the Jinjiang Literature City author Shu Ke (蜀客). It was directed by Lin Jianlong (林健龙), stars Zhang Binbin (张彬彬) and Xu Lu (徐璐), and ran for 40 episodes on the streaming platform iQiyi from December 15, 2022 to January 10, 2023.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Native title	月歌行 (Yue Ge Xing); English title Song of the Moon²
Source material	Novel Ben Yue (奔月) by Shu Ke, published on Jinjiang Literature City³
Director and writers	Lin Jianlong; screenwriters Dianqianhuan (殿前欢), Jiyue Jiaojiao (寂月皎皎), and Wang Ting (王烃)⁴
Lead cast	Zhang Binbin as Lu Li / Luo Ge; Xu Lu as Liu Shao; supporting roles by Wang Youshuo, Zheng He Huizi, Wang Yilun, and Ma Yue¹
Format	40 episodes of about 45 minutes, released daily on iQiyi²
Run	Premiered December 15, 2022; final episode January 10, 2023²
Production	iQiyi and Yide Culture; filmed September 28, 2020 to January 16, 2021 at Hengdian⁵

Spoilers

Premise

The story follows Liu Shao (柳梢), the cherished only daughter of a wealthy family. As a child she meets a mysterious immortal in a dream; he tells her she is destined to leave the family estate and accomplish great deeds, and takes her on a three-day journey through the world. In exchange for those three days of happiness, she gives up her future fate, and the immortal leaves a seal between her brows with the words that they may meet again in ten years.⁶^•¹

Ten years later, on her 18th birthday, a strange light emanates from her body and draws demons to the Liu household. The land demon king Ao Hen (獓狠), seeking a powerful spirit essence for his wounded son, attacks the manor. Liu Shao is saved by the demon hunter Lu Li (陆离) and his teacher Lu Sheng (卢笙). Lu Li resembles the immortal from her dream, but he has no memory of his life before meeting his teacher, and he has been told that the Bao Yue Sword (抱月剑) can unlock the mystery of his origins, with Liu Shao as the key to drawing it. The two enter Duke Wu Yang's manor (武扬侯府) together to train in repelling demons, and their intertwined destinies unfold from there.⁶^•⁷

The series keeps the multi-realm worldview of the source novel, spanning the immortal realm (仙居), the human world, and the demon realm, and follows the leads from cultivation (training of supernatural power toward immortality in Chinese fantasy) training toward the destiny of protecting the human world.³

Cast and characters

Zhang Binbin plays the male lead in multiple identities: the mortal demon hunter Lu Li, the immortal leader Luo Ge (洛歌), and, per the drama's resolution, the moon god Yue Guang (月光上神). iQiyi's promotional material notes that he plays four roles in the drama, and an interview with the two leads discusses which of his roles he favored.¹^•⁷ Zhang, born in 1993, made his debut after passing an audition for Micro Times and became known through Love O2O (2016) and later costume dramas including The Legend of Xiao Chuo era works and The Rational Life era hit Sito (司藤).⁶

Xu Lu plays Liu Shao, who in a past life was the goddess Yao Ling (曜灵). Her character arc moves from a sheltered heiress to a cultivator who carries the story's theme of a small figure taking on the duty of saving the world.⁷^•³

The supporting cast includes Wang Youshuo (王佑硕) as He Na (诃那), a noble water-demon lord carrying a ten-thousand-year curse; Zheng He Huizi (郑合惠子), born in 1994, as Luo Ning (洛宁), an immortal of West Yin Mountain and sister of the Wuxiang Immortal Lord; Wang Yilun (王以纶) as A Fu Jun (阿浮君); and Ma Yue (马月) as Bai Feng (白凤).²^•⁶

Production

The project was announced in August 2020 as an iQiyi xianxia romance produced by iQiyi, its Yijiang studio, and Yide Culture, with Lin Jianlong directing and a planned 120-day shoot starting in late September 2020.⁸ Filming took place at Hengdian World Studios from September 28, 2020 to January 16, 2021.⁵ The production followed a restrained, elegant design for costumes and props, with streamlined silhouettes and light color palettes for the main characters.⁵

The soundtrack includes the theme song Zhu Yue (逐月) performed by Zhou Shen (周深), the ending theme Ruo You Xianzhi (若有先知) and the insert song Ban Xin Jie (半心劫), both performed by Zhang Binbin.⁹

Release and reception

The drama premiered on iQiyi on December 15, 2022, with two episodes released daily, and concluded on January 10, 2023.² Its commercial performance was strong by platform measures: on its second day it rose to the top of the Guduo web drama index and held that position for three consecutive days, and its iQiyi heat value reached 7731, fourth on the platform's drama heat chart.³ Baidu Baike records that the first four episodes drew over 100 million views and that during its run the iQiyi heat value exceeded 8000, with daily and weekly chart leadership on several data platforms and an audience that was about 90 percent women aged 18 to 30.⁵

Critical reception shifted over the run. Early reviews were harsh: a NetEase Entertainment commentary published December 21, 2022 called the drama poorly made and predictable, criticizing a familiar hero-saves-the-beauty opening and a naive female lead.¹⁰ By December 26, 2022, the Japanese service Record China reported that the drama had reversed its early poor reviews, with a Douban user score of 8.1, second among then-airing Chinese dramas, crediting Zhang Binbin's multi-role performance.¹¹ The scores later settled lower: as of December 18, 2023, Douban stood at 5.4 out of 10 from 15,833 raters, while iQiyi's own score was 7.3.¹² The English-language review site Chasing Dramas gave it an initial 5.5 and a final 5 out of 10, praising the cast and visual effects while finding the writing lackluster.⁷

A GuDuo commentary in The Paper read the drama as telling a small-figure heroism story from a female perspective: the consciousness of self-sacrifice and saving the world is embodied in Liu Shao, an ordinary girl, rather than in a high-born protagonist, which reviewers cited as the drama breaking class expectations within the genre.³ The finale used a dual-ending design, which the Chinese-language encyclopedia entry describes as a first among xianxia dramas.¹²

Distribution

Beyond mainland China, the series streamed on iQiyi's international site iq.com and was later licensed in Japan, where it was released on home video by Happinet under the title 月歌行 with a promotional campaign built around the two leads.¹^•⁶ A separate, unrelated iQiyi project titled The Song of the Moon, adapted from Liu Fei's novel Yue Chen Yin (月沉吟), has been listed as in development and should not be confused with this series.¹³

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026