General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

The Autumn Ballad (嫣语赋)

The Autumn Ballad (嫣语赋, also romanized Yan Yu Fu) is a 2022 Chinese historical romance and suspense television series of 34 episodes, directed by Ding Yingzhou and starring Qiao Xin as Qiu Yan and Xu Zhengxi as Liang Yi. It premiered exclusively on Tencent Video on February 5, 2022 and concluded on March 6, 2022.¹^•² The story follows Qiu Yan, the least favored daughter of the Qiu manor, who uses her wits to escape the inner courtyard, untangle a series of mysterious cases, and move from sparring with the cold-faced, scheming duke Liang Yi to standing beside him.³

Key fact	Detail
Chinese title / English title	嫣语赋 (Yan Yu Fu) / The Autumn Ballad; alternate Chinese title 雁起时¹^•⁴
Episodes and runtime	34 episodes, about 45 minutes each¹^•²
Broadcast	Tencent Video, February 5 to March 6, 2022; two new episodes at 8:00 pm on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays²^•⁵
Director and writers	Directed by Ding Yingzhou; screenplay by a six-person team: Lu Chen, Zhang Siyao, Zhan Haoran, Liu Zikun, Xiao Guo Jingsha, and Han Yifei¹
Main cast	Qiao Xin as Qiu Yan; Xu Zhengxi as Liang Yi, head inspector of the Firewood Office; Liu Ruilin as Qin Xuan; Xu Yating (Kabby Hui) as Qiu Min¹
Production	Tencent Penguin Pictures and Dream Ax Media (聚禾影画); filmed in Xiangshan from July 5 to October 28, 2020¹^•⁴
Viewership	Passed 100 million views within 3 days of release and 800 million within three weeks; cumulative plays reached 787 million by late February 2022⁵^•⁶
Ratings	Douban 5.8/10 (42,569 raters, as of March 18, 2024); Tencent Video 7.7/10; IMDb 6.8/10⁵^•⁷

Spoilers

Plot

The series is set in a fictionalized ancient China. Qiu Yan (Qiao Xin) is the unloved second daughter of the Qiu household, born to a concubine, whose only apparent route out of the family compound is an arranged marriage.⁴^•⁸ The opening turns this premise on its head: at her wedding, the groom He Feng collapses coughing and dies on the spot during the bows, and Qiu Yan notices the strange detail that his fists were clenched, since the dead she has seen were all limp.⁹

Determined to clear her name after the marriage falls apart, Qiu Yan begins investigating her husband's mysterious death and crosses paths with Liang Yi (Xu Zhengxi), the head inspector of the government's investigative agency.⁸ The two move from battling each other with wits and boldness to understanding and accompanying each other, and their partnership deepens into romance as they work together to protect her family when it faces a sudden accusation.¹^•⁸ The official synopsis frames the heroine's arc as using her own effort and wisdom to step out of the deep courtyard, unravel one mystery after another, and finally win happiness and love.³

Cast and characters

Qiao Xin plays Qiu Yan, with Pei Jia Xin as the young Qiu Yan. Xu Zhengxi plays Liang Yi, described in Chinese listings as a cold-faced, scheming marquis or duke (冷面腹黑侯爷), with Hu Chang Lin as the young Liang Yi. Liu Ruilin plays Qin Xuan, a nobleman's son and friend of Liang Yi, and Xu Yating plays Qiu Min, Qiu Yan's half-sister.¹^•¹⁰ The supporting cast includes Zhan Yu as Song Jin, Liang Yi's subordinate; Ma Yashu as Royal Consort Guo; Zhang Yicong as Yuan Lang; Gao Sheng as Jiang Yun; and Wang Jiayin as Qing Dai, Qiu Yan's maid.¹^•¹¹

Production

The drama was produced by Tencent Penguin Pictures with Dream Ax Media (聚禾影画), with Zhang Na and Liu Chang as chief producers.¹^•⁴ Filming began in Xiangshan in July 2020 and wrapped on October 28, 2020, when the cast lineup was officially announced with character stills.⁴^•¹² The script was promoted as an original screenplay rather than an adaptation, written by a team of six screenwriters.¹³^•¹ A concept poster was released on July 6, 2020, and the premiere date was announced on January 31, 2022.⁵

Broadcast and viewership

The series premiered on Tencent Video on February 5, 2022, entering the Chinese New Year viewing season, with two episodes released at 8:00 pm on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays; members could watch ahead of the free schedule.⁵^•¹⁴ It broke 100 million views within three days and 800 million within three weeks, and by February 27, 2022 its cumulative plays stood at 787 million, a strong result among dramas launched at the same time.⁵^•⁶ A later report put its total above 1.1 billion plays about 29 days after launch, and it ranked 12th in the March 2022 television drama prosperity index top 30.¹⁵^•⁵ During its run it also overtook the higher-budget xianxia drama Mirror: Twin Cities in platform heat, despite being a lower-budget production.¹⁶

Reception

Critical response was divided. Commentators praised the character writing: Qiao Xin's Qiu Yan was described as neither a naive ingénue nor a passive heroine but a clear-eyed, self-interested "black lotus" (Chinese drama slang for a scheming, self-interested heroine) whose core is that women should control their own fate, and the male lead Liang Yi was likewise written as cunning and ruthless yet fundamentally upright.¹⁷^•¹³ On February 8, 2022, China Women's News praised the drama with the comment that literary works need to keep pace with the times, an endorsement reposted by People's Entertainment's Weibo account.¹⁸ Critics also noted that the drama devoted more screen time to storytelling than to romance, and that its frequent reversals of genre expectations set it apart from formulaic costume romances.⁵^•¹⁹

The criticisms centered on craft. Reviewers found the case reasoning weak in places, with investigations that existed mainly to move the plot along, and the Yangzi Evening News criticized the leads' live-voice line delivery, noting that while Xu Zhengxi's voice was widely praised for its tone, his articulation fell short.¹³^•²⁰ After the finale, many viewers judged the ending rushed and poorly resolved, and industry commentary attributed the drama's failure to break out beyond its core young female audience to that ending controversy along with uneven mid-run plotting.²¹

The ending drew a formal apology. After the series concluded, screenwriter Lu Chen published a long post apologizing to viewers and to the cast, explaining that the six screenwriters were a single team rather than a patchwork assembled by the producers, that many disputed plot points were her own decisions, and that the team had misjudged the target audience's tastes in their first attempt at the costume-idol genre.²²

Costume controversy

On February 14, 2022, viewers noticed that one of the heroine's costumes appeared identical to a costume from the 2019 web drama 惹不起的殿下大人, even though the two productions had different stylists. On February 19, the drama's styling director Song Tao replied that the costume had indeed been borrowed free of charge from that production's team and had been worn on a lead by mistake, and he apologized.⁵ The incident fed a broader criticism that the drama's costumes were largely off-the-shelf hanfu brand garments that viewers could already buy themselves.²³

Ratings summary

Aggregated scores varied widely by platform: 5.8/10 on Douban from 42,569 raters as of March 18, 2024, 7.7/10 on Tencent Video from about 53,000 raters, 6.8/10 on IMDb, and 9.0/10 on Viki from over 18,000 users.⁵^•⁷^•²⁴ The drama has since been distributed internationally on platforms including WeTV, iQIYI, Viki, and Netflix in some regions.²⁵^•²⁶

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

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