General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Tang Dynasty Tour (唐砖)

Tang Dynasty Tour (唐砖) is a 2018 Chinese time-travel wuxia light-comedy web series produced by iQIYI and Lehemei Pictures, adapted from the novel of the same name by the web novelist 孑与2, and starring Wang Tianchen (王天辰), Zhang Jianing (张佳宁), Zhang Zhiyao (张智尧), and Anita Yuen (袁咏仪). It premiered on iQIYI on 29 October 2018.¹

Key fact	Detail
Original title / English title	唐砖 / Tang Dynasty Tour¹
Premiere	29 October 2018, iQIYI (exclusive online broadcast)¹
Episodes	Listed as 36 episodes of about 40 minutes by Baidu Baike and TheTVDB; 37 episodes of about 45 minutes by the Chinese encyclopedia wiki and JustWatch¹^•²^•³^•⁴
Source novel	《唐砖》 by 孑与2, a Qidian web novel with 550,000 followers and over 30 million clicks⁵
Key creatives	Director Zhu Dongning (祝东宁); screenwriters Yang Kailin (杨凯麟) and Long Xiaoshan (龙小山); chief producers Dai Ying (戴莹), Zhang Xiaolong (张晓龙), and Liu Hangzheng (刘航筝); executive supervisor Gordon Chan (陈嘉上)¹^•⁶
Award	Chinese Culture Communication Award (drama category) at the 14th Chinese American TV Festival¹
Sequel	《云归喜事》 (Yun Gui Xi Shi), 40 episodes, starring Zhang Yunlong and Zhang Jianing, iQIYI exclusive from 2 October 2026⁷

Spoilers

Premise

The story follows Yun Buqi (云不器), a logistics and security worker with a scientific expedition team who, after an accident during an archaeological dig, is transported to the Zhenguan era of the early Tang dynasty. He is forced to live under the identity of his own distant ancestor, Yun Ye (云烨).¹^•³ In the Tang capital he meets Li Anlan (李安澜), a royal daughter who looks exactly like his deceased girlfriend Xiao Ran, and the two become entangled.⁸

Using modern skills, Yun Ye repeatedly rescues Li Anlan and others from danger, becomes a close friend of the crown prince Li Chengqian (李承干), and wins the appreciation of early-Tang figures such as Cheng Yaojin (程咬金), while unintentionally becoming caught in an elaborate conspiracy woven by the powerful minister Hou Junji (侯君集).³ The cast places Zhang Zhiyao as Li Shimin and Anita Yuen as Empress Zhangsun; Wang Yongquan, who played the upright official Zheng Xipo in In the Name of the People, appears as the founding emperor Li Yuan, and Ma Yue, who had played Li Shimin in The Governance of Zhenguan (贞观之治), takes the role of the minister Wei Zheng.⁵

Source novel and author

The series adapts the novel 《唐砖》 by 孑与2, a member of the China Writers Association, vice chairman of the Gansu Provincial Writers Association, and a platinum-tier author of China Literature (Yuewen Group), who won the 2017 Mao Dun Literature Newcomer Award for online literature.⁹ On Qidian the novel had a following of 550,000 readers and more than 30 million clicks, and it won the site's 2013 "History and Military King" award.⁵ The novel has been collected by the National Library of China.⁹

The title reflects the protagonist's aim, stated in the novel itself, to become "a brick" of the great Tang: after obtaining household registration, he uses modern knowledge to produce inventions, relieve the emperor's worries, and benefit the people.⁵ A 2019 survey of historical web fiction credited 《唐砖》 with popularizing a historical genre through its everyday storytelling, warm characters, and light style, and with establishing a writing template followed by later works such as 《贞观大闲人》 and 《唐朝工科生》.¹⁰

Production

A first-time producer with an etiquette background. Zhang Xiaolong, known as an etiquette director for productions including Story of Yanxi Palace and Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace, took on his first role as a producer for 《唐砖》, alongside his duties as art director.⁶ He described the aim as combining the weight of a historical drama with the lightness of a costume comedy, so that the collision of cultures produces a complementary result.⁶

Dai Ying, iQIYI's vice president and general manager of the self-produced drama development center, bought the rights to the novel in 2015, reasoning that a web novel popular with online readers already matched the platform's user base.⁶^•¹¹ The adaptation deliberately departed from the source: the author 孑与2 told the producers that a faithful transcription would offer no surprise, and that changes were needed to leave room for imagination.⁶

The production emphasized period detail in sets, etiquette, and daily life to build audience immersion in the early Tang setting, and the marketing framed the show as bringing Tang culture to younger viewers.¹¹ Trade coverage also highlighted the series' "farming" (种田) elements, everyday depictions of clothing, ritual, tools, and production, as a first full screen realization of that web-novel genre, giving the show a differentiated position among costume dramas.⁵

Reception and performance

The series performed strongly on iQIYI's internal metrics: its content heat peaked at 7242, it topped the platform's popularity and rising charts, and it held first place on the Maoyan network heat chart and the Baidu television drama chart, leading Yunhe Data's network-drama screen-time ranking for a full week.¹² The main Weibo topic surpassed 600 million reads with 2.15 million discussions.¹ The finale arrived on 5 December 2018.¹²

Critical response was divided. Before broadcast, overseas rights had been sold to Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei, and the series appeared in Malaysian mainstream newspapers; on 30 October 2018 it received the Chinese Culture Communication Award (drama category) at the 14th Chinese American TV Festival.¹³^•¹ Among general audiences it drew celebrity support from dozens of entertainers and early praise for its pacing and production values.¹³ Fans of the novel, however, objected that the adaptation had changed the story beyond recognition, and reviewers criticized the mix of light-comedy and serious-drama elements, the acting of the new lead actors, and anachronistic props such as seal-script calligraphy in a Tang setting.¹⁴^•¹⁵ One trade analysis noted that viewers nicknamed the show a "low-budget version" of A Step into the Past and described its early heat as moderate.¹⁶

Place in the male-audience IP wave

《唐砖》 was iQIYI's entry in the late-2018 round of adaptations of "male-frequency" (男频) web novels, launched on 29 October 2018 ahead of Tencent Video's Ever Night (31 October) and Youku's Back to the Ming Dynasty: The Story of Yang Ling (1 November), as the three major platforms competed on the same category in the year-end season.¹⁶ iQIYI positioned the show as a model for adapting male-audience IP through genre innovation, and the platform built tie-in features such as a "gold brick rain" animation when users searched the title.¹²^•¹³

A sequel, 《云归喜事》, was later produced with Zhang Yunlong replacing Wang Tianchen as lead opposite returning star Zhang Jianing. It runs 40 episodes and premiered as an iQIYI exclusive on 2 October 2026.⁷

References

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