General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Spring of the Blade (一瓯春)

Spring of the Blade (一瓯春, Yi Ou Chun) is a 2026 Chinese historical romance and revenge television series directed by Pan Anzi, starring Xu Kai as Shen Run and Zhou Ye as Xie Qingyuan. Adapted from You Sijie's novel of the same name, it ran for 30 episodes and premiered at noon on September 17, 2026 on iQiyi and Youku simultaneously.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original title	一瓯春 (Yi Ou Chun), English title Spring of the Blade¹
Source novel	By You Sijie, serialized on Jinjiang Literature City from October 11, 2019 to January 14, 2020, 102 chapters, about 470,000 characters; print edition published by Changjiang Press in November 2020³
Broadcast	30 episodes of about 42 minutes each, premiered September 17, 2026 on iQiyi and Youku; final episode September 30, 2026²^•⁴
Lead cast	Xu Kai as Shen Run (alias Yan Rui); Zhou Ye as Xie Qingyuan (original name Chen Yunya); Fu Dalong in a special appearance⁵^•²
Setting	Southern Song dynasty, in and around the city of Qiantang⁶
Production	iQiyi with Guangmang Yingye and Xiaolanhua Entertainment; Gao Mingqian as chief producer and artistic director; Li Qiang as script director⁷^•⁸
Editing	Originally planned as 40 episodes, cut to 30 in editing⁹

Spoilers

Premise

The story is set in Southern Song Qiantang and follows two avengers whose lives crossed in childhood. Xie Qingyuan lost her mother at a young age and lived on the streets; Shen Run, the son of a military family ruined by a family tragedy, was sent to the army. The two met at their lowest points and parted with a promise to survive, sealed by a single coin Shen Run gave her.⁶^•¹

Nine years later their positions have reversed. Xie Qingyuan returns to the Xie household, outwardly a gentle, compliant daughter, while secretly working step by step to uncover the truth of her mother's death. Shen Run has risen to become a powerful court official and is ordered to Qiantang to investigate a major corruption case involving disaster-relief grain, with the Xie family among his targets. He arrives under the alias Yan Rui, posing as a lavish, wasteful imperial envoy while secretly conducting the inquiry.⁶^•¹⁰

The series combines household intrigue within an aristocratic family compound with court politics, and its marketing centered on a "double-strong" premise: both leads are capable avengers who begin by using each other and move toward mutual protection. The opening episodes stage a blood-written verse in the abandoned Danyue courtyard prophesying family disasters, followed by an unquenchable "curse fire" in the Xie mansion that spreads rumors of a curse; the old matriarch responds by recalling the long-lost granddaughter to the family, and the fire is in fact Xie Qingyuan's own scheme to re-enter the household.¹⁰^•⁵^•⁶

Cast and characters

Xu Kai plays Shen Run, described in promotional material as a ruthless, many-faced strategist, who also appears under the identity Yan Rui. Zhou Ye plays Xie Qingyuan, whose original name is Chen Yunya, a clear-headed woman hiding her schemes behind a fragile facade.⁵ The supporting cast includes Bai Shu as Shen Che, Min Chunxiao as Lian Fanqiao, Ke Ying as Xie Qingru, Estelle Chen (Chen Yihan) as Xie Qingrong, Zhang Yao as Mei Yinghua, Miao Pu as the matriarch Hu Wenzhuo, Xu Zhenxuan as Li Congxin, Huang Xiaojuan as the old lady of the Xie family, Fu Dalong as Xie Shu, and He Ziming as Wei Changyan.⁵ Zhang Tian'ai appears as Xie Qinghe.¹¹

Production and filming

The drama was produced by iQiyi with Guangmang Yingye and Xiaolanhua Entertainment, with Gao Mingqian, founder of Guangmang Yingye, as chief producer and artistic director and Li Qiang as script director.⁷^•⁸ Filming took place largely in Jiangnan locations. A major venue was the Kunshan Digital Dreamworks outdoor base near Zhouzhuang, which covers about 146 mu and recreates the Song-dynasty streetscapes of Along the River During the Qingming Festival using traditional Xiangshan-bang construction techniques; the production also filmed at Puyuan Fashion Town in Tongxiang, Zhejiang, using more than 100 real locations after roughly 80 days of set preparation.¹²^•¹³ The production team also reported making about a thousand props for the Song-dynasty setting.¹⁴

The series was originally planned as 40 episodes and cut to 30 in editing; the broadcast was also moved from an iQiyi exclusive release to a joint iQiyi and Youku release before airing.⁹ The release schedule gave VIP members six episodes on premiere day, two episodes daily from September 18, then one episode daily from September 22; the final episode aired on September 30, 2026.¹⁵^•⁴

Reception

Critical response was divided. Praise concentrated on the visual side: reviewers and viewers singled out the Song-dynasty aesthetics, the real-location sets, the costume and prop design, and Xu Kai's use of his own voice in the role, which drew strongly positive comment.¹⁶^•¹⁷ A review in The Paper called the show "a beautifully plated dish whose cooking is not quite done," crediting the director with texture and craft while faulting the storytelling.¹⁶

Criticism focused on structure and pacing. A Lianhe Zaobao review reported that, according to online accounts, the drama had more than ten screenwriters, which it linked to inconsistent characterization and a visibly fragmented narrative; it also described confusing editing in the first three or four episodes, with the heroine's childhood storyline, the household intrigue, and the hero's investigation cutting against each other, and background music described as gloomy and intrusive.⁶ Viewer reactions split along similar lines: some praised the fast, direct entry into the revenge and investigation plots, while others found the intercutting of the adult storyline with childhood flashbacks disjointed enough to abandon the show early.¹⁴ Because the similarly themed household-intrigue drama Lan Xiang Ru Gu aired at the same time, the two were frequently compared, with some viewers judging Spring of the Blade the weaker of the pair on narrative completeness.¹⁴

Aggregated ratings reflected the split: DramaWiki users gave it 3.67 out of 10 based on three votes, while TVmao users rated it 8.4 from 55 ratings.¹^•¹⁸

The source novel

The novel Yi Ou Chun by You Sijie, a Jinjiang Literature City author known for historical romance, ran from October 11, 2019 to January 14, 2020 in 102 chapters totaling about 470,000 characters, and was published in print by Changjiang Press in November 2020. Its premise follows the same skeleton as the drama: Qingyuan's mother is framed and expelled from the Xie family, Qingyuan is raised in the Chen household to age fourteen, is brought back to the Xie mansion to counter a run of misfortune, and there meets the commander Shen Run.³ You Sijie's earlier novel Futu Yuan had previously been adapted for television.¹⁹

References

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