General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

The Promise of Chang'an (长安诺)

The Promise of Chang'an (长安诺, Cháng'ān Nuò) is a 2020 Chinese costume drama web series directed by Yin Tao (尹涛), starring Cheng Yi, Zhao Yingzi, Han Dong, Liang Jingxian, Han Chengyu, and Yang Chaoyue, and streamed exclusively on Tencent Video.¹ It ran from September 10 to November 12, 2020, in 56 episodes of about 45 minutes each.² The series is a rights-acquired remake of the classic drama Xiaozhuang Mishi (孝庄秘史), with its plot line closely followed but its historical setting entirely replaced by a fictional kingdom.³

Key fact	Detail
Original title / English title	长安诺 (Cháng'ān Nuò) / The Promise of Chang'an¹
Run	Tencent Video, September 10 – November 12, 2020; 56 episodes, about 45 minutes each²
Director and writers	Yin Tao; screenwriters Liu Fang, Li Huimin, Cheng Tingyu, Cheng Yu, and Pan Huicheng¹
Source material	A licensed remake of Xiaozhuang Mishi (孝庄秘史), with the plot line copied and the historical background fully fictionalized³
Setting	The fictional kingdom of Dasheng (大晟), following its path from turmoil to prosperity¹
Ratings (as of August 30, 2025)	Douban 6.1/10 (68,878 raters); IMDb 6.5/10 (308 raters); Tencent Video 7.7/10 (127,000 raters)¹
Total views	About 1.6 billion against a production cost of 30 million yuan⁴

Spoilers

Plot and setting

The story is set in the fictive Sheng country (大晟国) and follows Helan Mingyu (贺兰茗玉), granddaughter of the Lord of Yonglin, from a bright, carefree girl to the wise and respected Grand Empress Dowager of the kingdom.²^•⁵ In youth she forms a bond with Xiao Chengxu (萧承煦), the ninth prince of Shengzhou, played by Cheng Yi.⁶ When news of Chengxu's death in battle is mistakenly reported, Mingyu marries his older brother, King Xiao Chengrui (萧承睿, played by Han Dong), to protect Chengxu's younger brother.¹^•⁶

Chengxu returns and wins repeated military victories that help Chengrui take the throne and found the Dasheng state, but his growing power draws the emperor's suspicion; learning the truth about his mother's death and his father's succession, he resolves to seize the throne in revenge.¹ Before he can act, Chengrui dies of a recurring illness and leaves a decree naming Mingyu's young son Xiao Qiyuan (萧启元) as his successor, in part to check Chengxu.¹ Mingyu spends the later episodes balancing the boy emperor against Chengxu, who still seeks to marry her; Qiyuan eventually dies of illness alongside his beloved consort Dong Ruoxuan (董若萱, played by Yang Chaoyue), and Mingyu once again stands beside a newly enthroned child emperor for the sake of the state.¹

The character mapping to the source material is direct: Xiao Chengxu corresponds to Dorgon (多尔衮) in Xiaozhuang Mishi, a role that ends with neither career success nor love and death on the battlefield.⁴

Production and origin

The series was produced by YUESHI Media, China Wit Media, and H&R Century Pictures, with producers Jiang Lei and Deng Xibin, and was filmed at Hengdian World Studios; its distribution license number is (浙)剧审字(2019)第008号.⁷^•¹ Rather than an original script, the production bought the rights to Xiaozhuang Mishi and adopted a "copy-paste" approach to the plot line while completely fictionalizing the historical background, replacing the early Qing setting with the invented Dasheng kingdom.³

Yang Chaoyue, then a member of Rocket Girls, made her acting debut with a special guest appearance in the series as Dong Ruoxuan.⁸

Release and scheduling strategy

A deliberate premiere date. The series was announced and launched with less than 27 hours between the official announcement and its release, and its first episode went online on the very day of the paid finale of Love and Redemption (琉璃), the xianxia (Chinese fantasy genre of immortal cultivators) hit starring the same lead actor, Cheng Yi.³ The two dramas shared a director, screenwriters, production companies, and much of the cast, so the platform's aim was to carry the earlier hit's momentum directly into the new series.³^•⁴ The strategy drew criticism from fans of both dramas, who called the scheduling "吃相难看" (unseemly), and commentators noted that pairing two dramas with the same cast carried the market risk that viewers would fail to separate the roles.³

On Tencent Video the series updated two episodes at 20:00 on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with members able to watch six episodes ahead; from October 1, VIP members could pay 3 yuan per episode for advance viewing, and the finale was made available early on October 22.¹

Reception

Viewership. By Yunhe data, the series reached a 5.49% share of effective plays on its second day, second only to Love and Redemption on the web drama chart, and by Guduo data it held third place in overall heat from the day after its premiere onward.³ On September 12, 2020, its Vlinkage play index stood at 65.29.¹ Growth then flattened: after 42 episodes the series had accumulated 890 million views, about 20 million per episode, a level commentators described as unremarkable rather than a failure.⁴ The final total of about 1.6 billion views exceeded the director's expectations, against a production cost of only 30 million yuan.⁴

Critical and audience response. Audience reaction split. Cheng Yi's performance was widely praised as that of a "剧抛脸" (an actor who sheds each role completely): viewers found his ninth prince entirely distinct from his Love and Redemption character despite the back-to-back airing.⁹ Zhao Yingzi, by contrast, was criticized for a lack of chemistry with Cheng Yi; commentators attributed this to her mature, stately image rather than her acting, and to her role as Dongfang Furen in Love and Redemption, which made the pairing feel jarring to viewers who had just seen her as an older-generation character.⁹^•³ Comments such as "the leads have no chemistry" and "this is too distracting" were common in the series' comment sections.³ Other complaints targeted the reuse of the Love and Redemption cast and the melodramatic rewriting of the source story.⁴

Aggregated scores as of August 30, 2025 stood at 6.1/10 on Douban (68,878 raters), 6.5/10 on IMDb (308 raters), and 7.7/10 on Tencent Video (127,000 raters); Rakuten Viki users rated it 8.5/10 from 6,140 ratings.¹^•⁵ In December 2020 the series was shortlisted for the Weibo Popular Drama award at the 2020 Weibo TV Series Awards.¹

Director Yin Tao said in an interview that it would be the last time he worked with Cheng Yi, joking that he kept assigning him tragic roles and feared fans would send him blades.¹⁰

Distribution outside China

The series is available internationally with subtitles in English, Chinese, French, and other languages on Rakuten Viki, where it can be streamed free with ads, and can be purchased as a download on Amazon Video; a DVD edition is also sold.⁶^•⁵ JustWatch lists the season as 60 episodes of 46 minutes, while Chinese and other databases list 56 episodes of about 45 minutes.⁶^•¹

References

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