General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20267 min read

The Blood of Youth (少年歌行)

The Blood of Youth (少年歌行, Shao Nian Ge Xing) is a Chinese wuxia (Chinese martial-arts fiction genre featuring heroic warriors) franchise that began as a web novel by Zhou Munan (周木楠), became a 3D animated series in 2018, and reached its widest audience as a 40-episode live-action drama broadcast on Youku from 26 December 2022 to 28 January 2023.¹^•² The story follows a group of young martial artists drawn into the struggle over a mysterious golden coffin, and it is noted for staying close to its animated source while using heavy CGI in its fight scenes.³

Key fact	Detail
Original work	Web novel 少年歌行 by Zhou Munan (周木楠), who also wrote the drama screenplay⁴
Animated series	3D donghua, 26 episodes, streamed in China from late 2018 to June 2019²
Live-action drama	40 episodes, Youku, 26 December 2022 to 28 January 2023, 18:00 air time¹
Director	Yin Tao (尹涛), with the original author as chief screenwriter⁵
Main cast	Li Hongyi as Xiao Se, Liu Xueyi as Wuxin, Ao Ruipeng as Lei Wujie, Li Xinze as Tang Lian, Lin Boyang as Sikong Qianluo⁶
Reception	Douban score rose from 7.3 at premiere to 7.9 by late February 2023 and reached 8.0 about two months after the finale; the 2018 animation holds 8.5⁵^•⁷
Franchise	Four animated seasons through 2025, spin-off dramas including Darksided Legend (暗河传) and The First Generation (少年白马醉春风), and a sequel drama announced for 2026⁸^•⁹

Spoilers

Story

The plot opens with the death of Master Wangyou of Hanshui Temple and the appearance of a golden coffin, which sets the jianghu, the world of martial artists, into conflict as factions scheme to seize its contents.¹⁰ The aspiring young hero Lei Wujie is traveling to the great Xueyue City when he strays by mistake into Fallen Snow Villa. His first heroic deed goes badly: he destroys much of the inn and falls into debt to its mysterious owner, Xiao Se, and has no choice but to take Xiao Se along on his journey.¹^•³

On the road the pair meet Tang Lian, a disciple of the Tang sect who is escorting the golden coffin to the Nine Dragon Temple in the western regions, and the group fights off the assassins and sects competing for it.¹^•² The coffin turns out to hold not treasure or martial secrets but a young monk, Wuxin, the disciple of Master Wangyou and the son of the demonic cult leader who invaded the central plains twelve years earlier as a hostage arrangement expires.² Xiao Se is himself a displaced prince, the sixth prince Xiao Chuhe, once the heir closest to the throne, who was exiled for shielding an uncle accused of treason.¹¹

Reviewers describe the drama as an ensemble piece in which each character carries a story line of their own, with the young leads joined by a prominent supporting cast, and note that the plot moves quickly from one conflict and location to the next.³^•⁵

Franchise

The drama's success made live-action comic and animation adaptation a strategic focus for Youku, which committed to continued development of the Shao Nian Ge Xing IP.¹² The universe expanded through prequels and spin-offs: The First Generation (少年白马醉春风) starring Hou Minghao streamed in 2024, and Darksided Legend (暗河传) starring Gong Jun streamed in 2025.⁹ A direct sequel drama, Shao Nian Ge Xing Zhi Nan Ming Li Huo (少年歌行之南明离火), was officially announced with a teaser poster and the start of filming in May 2026, four years after the first season, with Li Hongyi returning as Xiao Se, Ao Ruipeng as Lei Wujie, and Liu Xueyi confirmed to return as Wuxin; Yin Tao and Zhou Munan again direct and write, and the production introduces an ink-wash particle technique blending 3DCG with traditional Chinese painting.⁹ At a ten-year anniversary event for the franchise in Hangzhou in August 2026, the rights holders announced parallel animation and live-action production for the sequel, preparation of further projects including Darksided Legend 2 and Jun You Yun, and a new Zhou Munan novel, Shao Nian Xuan Hu Lu, expected in 2027.¹³ A separate short-drama spin-off, The Blood of Youth: Quest of Heroic Hearts (少年歌行之天下无双), a 24-episode wuxia following new characters seeking the shattered Tianzhan Sword, premiered on Youku on 28 January 2026.¹⁴

From novel to animation

Zhou Munan's novel was already popular enough to be adapted into other media before the live-action version. The 3D animated series began streaming on Chinese video platforms at the end of 2018 and completed its 26-episode run in early June 2019.² A contemporary review in Literature and Art Daily credited the animation with a distinctive youthful tone: less of the grim life-and-death combat of older wuxia, more of the open-hearted chivalry of young heroes who act on their own convictions rather than calculations of advantage.² The same review noted that the "golden coffin" arc occupies only 27 chapters of the novel, less than a twentieth of the whole story, so the animation's writers expanded it substantially, planting palace-intrigue plotlines early and adding secondary characters.²

The animation ran for further seasons: Wind Flower Snow Moon Arc in two parts from July 2021 to May 2022 (32 episodes) plus a special episode, Immortal Mountain Beyond the Sea Arc from October 2023 to April 2024 (26 episodes), and Blood-Soaked Heavenly Revelations Arc from January to June 2025.⁸^•¹⁰

The 2022 live-action drama

Youku's live-action version was directed by Yin Tao, whose earlier credits include Love and Redemption, Under the Power, and Who Rules the World, with Zhou Munan himself as chief screenwriter.⁵ The production's stated principle was fidelity: character designs, the main plot line, and signature scenes were preserved, with cuts made only where the limited episode count required them.⁵ Casting followed an "adaptability" standard using young actors; Li Hongyi reportedly went through more than a dozen audition rounds for Xiao Se, a role chosen because his own temperament, sharp-tongued on the surface and sincere underneath, matched the character.¹²

Production scale. The drama is CGI-heavy, combining digital effects with real action choreography in a setting the creators call "high martial, low mysticism" (高武低玄).⁵ By the ninth episode it had already staged more than 30 fight scenes; the crew forged 100 weapons and tailored 205 costumes for 84 characters, and the visual-effects work was done by Yihe VFX, the team behind Love and Redemption.⁵ Set dressing drew on Tang-dynasty architectural forms, and fight sequences such as "Ten Thousand Trees in Bloom" and "Ruoyi's Sword Dance" became widely shared highlight scenes.⁵

Reception

The drama premiered without traffic-driving stars and became an early-2023 hit. From its 26 December 2022 debut to its 28 January 2023 finale it topped third-party charts including Lighthouse, Yunhe, Maoyan, Guduo, Datawin, and Kuyun, and broke the 10,000 mark on Youku's internal heat index 20 times.¹² Its Douban score opened at 7.3 on 6 January 2023, rose to 7.9 by late February, and reached 8.0 roughly two months after the finale, an unusual upward trajectory for an adaptation of a beloved animation.⁵^•⁷ Early skepticism about the relatively unknown young cast gave way to praise for the faithful adaptation and the CGI action.⁷

The adaptation also fed back into the source material: according to Youku data, 42 percent of the drama's viewers had previously watched the animation, and viewership of the animation series rose more than 800 percent while the drama aired.¹² The audience skewed young, with the core group aged 18 to 24 and viewers aged 18 to 29 accounting for 80 percent of paying users.⁴ The drama collected several awards, including best new director and best web drama at the 19th China-US TV Festival, best youth series screenplay at the 9th Hengdian Film and TV Festival Wenrong Awards, and an annual quality series honor at the 2024 Golden Peng / seventh Golden Bone Net Video Gala.¹¹ It was later released in Japan on DVD as Shao Nian Ge Xing: Beginning of the Legend in three boxes between December 2024 and February 2025.¹¹

References

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