General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Legend of Xiao Chuo (燕云台)

The Legend of Xiao Chuo (燕云台, Yan Yun Tai) is a 48-episode Chinese historical television drama broadcast in 2020, adapted from Jiang Shengnan's novel of the same name and telling the life of Xiao Yanyan, the Khitan empress and regent of the Liao dynasty.¹ It stars Tang Yan as Xiao Yanyan, Shawn Dou as Han Derang, Charmaine Sheh as the eldest sister Xiao Hunian, and Jing Chao as Emperor Yelü Xian, with Jiang Jiajun directing.²

Key fact	Detail
Original title	燕云台 (Yan Yun Tai); English title The Legend of Xiao Chuo¹
Episodes / year	48 episodes, 2020¹
Broadcast	Beijing TV and Tencent Video from 3 November 2020¹
Source	Novel Yan Yun Tai by Jiang Sheng Nan, who also served as screenwriter¹^•³
Main cast	Tang Yan (Xiao Yanyan), Shawn Dou (Han Derang), Charmaine Sheh (Xiao Hunian), Jing Chao (Yelü Xian)²
Genre	Historical, political, romance¹
Historical subject	Xiao Chuo, also known as Xiao Yanyan, wife of Emperor Jingzong of the Liao dynasty (916–1125)⁴

Spoilers

Story

The drama follows Xiao Yanyan, the third daughter of the Liao prime minister Xiao Siwen and the Elder Princess of Yan. As the youngest child, favored by her father and her two elder sisters, she grows into a bold woman who dares to think, speak, and act, and she and the Han official Han Derang fall in love and pledge themselves to each other early on.²

Circumstances separate the lovers. The three Xiao sisters are each married into a different branch of the imperial Yelü clan descended from the dynasty's founder: the eldest sister Xiao Hunian marries the Prince Taiping, Yansage; the second sister Wuguli marries Yelü Xiyin, a grandson of the founding emperor; and Xiao Yanyan, after an encounter with Emperor Jingzong (Yelü Xian), enters the palace as his consort, beginning her legendary career.²

From empress to regent. Although the marriage to Yelü Xian is not built on romance, Xiao Yanyan serves as a dedicated empress and wins her husband's respect once the policies she introduces prove her capability. After Yelü Xian's death she is entrusted with governing the country as regent for their son, and she is eventually able to marry her true love Han Derang, who has become the most influential Han official in the Liao court.¹ The later episodes bring the drama into conflict with the invading Song, a great power seeking to seize the Liao's Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, the territory that gives the series its title.⁵

Historical basis

The protagonist is a documented figure. Xiao Chuo, also known as Xiao Yanyan, was the wife of Emperor Jingzong and assisted him in propelling the Khitan-ruled Liao dynasty (916–1125) to the zenith of its prosperity, which the historical record counts among the few women who changed the course of Chinese history.⁴ The screenwriter Jiang Shengnan has said she chose Xiao Yanyan not out of personal favor but because her role could best carry the full weight of the era's transformations, bearing the story of the time forward like a ship.⁶

The series depicts the Liao's program of adopting Han Chinese institutions, and its narrative weaves the sisters' personal fates together with this state project as the Liao moves toward prosperity.⁷ Commentators noted that the production grounded itself in historical sources while balancing historical truth and artistic invention, and that details such as the Khitan noblewomen's crowns were reconstructed bit by bit from Liao dynasty tomb finds, presenting northern minority material culture within a shared Chinese historical context.⁸^•⁹ Reviewers also observed that the drama's Nanjing is not the modern city of that name, and that its costumes differ from the historical dress of the Liao.¹⁰

The novel and its author

The drama adapts Yan Yun Tai, a historical novel by Jiang Shengnan, a writer and screenwriter born in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, vice chair of the Zhejiang Online Writers Association, and the author of Legend of Mi Yue. The novel belongs to her planned Song–Liao–Xia trilogy of historical novels, with the Liao volume taking Empress Dowager Xiao Yanyan as its protagonist. The complete four-volume edition was launched at the Shanghai book fair in August 2020, before the television adaptation aired.⁶ Critics of the novel described it as an epic of the Khitan Xiao family's three sisters amid a nomadic people's founding of a dynasty and its adoption of Han institutions, praising its solid use of historical sources and tight storytelling.¹¹

Reception

The premiere met a divided response. In its first episodes the drama drew a low Douban rating of 4.9, with Chinese viewers complaining about the acting, particularly Tang Yan's, and about a 37-year-old actress playing a young girl; some early viewers also disliked the idol-drama flavor of the heroine's first meeting with Han Derang.¹²^•³ Nevertheless, in the week of its debut it reached a CSM59 rating of 2 percent on Beijing TV, one of only two dramas that week to do so, and took first place among online dramas, with Tang Yan climbing to second in the celebrity rankings.¹³

Overseas performance. Despite the mixed domestic reviews, the series won popularity overseas. It was broadcast in Japan with Japanese subtitles on TVQ Kyushu and Tokyo MX under the title 燕雲台 -The Legend of Empress-, and China Daily reported that tales of the Liao dynasty remain rare on domestic screens, which made props and settings a large challenge for the crew.⁴^•⁵^•¹⁴ Among international viewers, commentary frequently highlighted the drama's depiction of the Khitans, whose women could hold power in ways less restricted than in the southern Chinese dynasties, and the chemistry between Xiao Yanyan and Han Derang, whose story centers on mutual respect and support rather than romance alone.¹⁵

References

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