General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

White Cat Legend (大理寺少卿游)

White Cat Legend (大理寺少卿游) is a 2024 Chinese live-action costume mystery comedy series adapted from the manhua Da Li Si Ri Zhi (大理寺日志, also translated as White Cat Legend) by the comic artist RC. It stars Ding Yuxi as Li Bing, a white cat who serves as Assistant Minister of the Dali Temple, the Tang dynasty's highest judicial office, and Zhou Qi as the country boy Chen Shi; it aired on iQiyi from February 20 to March 8, 2024, in 36 episodes.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original title / English title	大理寺少卿游 / White Cat Legend¹
Source material	Manhua Da Li Si Ri Zhi (大理寺日志) by RC; the first live-action adaptation of the comic²^•³
Broadcast	iQiyi, February 20 to March 8, 2024; 36 episodes of about 45 minutes¹^•⁴
Production	Director Wang Wei; companies iQiyi and Enlight Media (Beijing Enlight Media); filmed August 24 to December 22, 2022⁵^•⁴
Lead cast	Ding Yuxi (Li Bing), Zhou Qi (Chen Shi), Miles Wei (Qiu Qingzhi), Ding Jiawen (Cui Bei), Zhang Yicong (Sun Bao), Feng Man (Wang Qi), Wa Er (Ali Baba), Ren Min (Shangguan Qin)⁴
Reception	Douban score 6.8 from about 18,000 raters, below the 8.2 and 8.3 of the animated seasons⁶^•²
Franchise	Animated seasons 1 and 2 aired on Bilibili in 2020 and 2022; a third animated season of 16 episodes is scheduled for summer 2026²^•⁷

Spoilers

Premise and setting

The story is set in the divine capital under a reigning empress, in a setting drawn from the late Tang and Wu Zetian period. The Dali Temple, the court that held the empire's highest judicial authority, comparable to a modern supreme court, is shaken by rumors of a demon cat killing people. Li Bing, son of the former Dali Temple minister, returns to the capital in white cat form three years after his family was massacred and he himself was attacked and disappeared. He meets Chen Shi, a country youth searching for his brother, and together with the temple's Mingjingtang team of investigators, Wang Qi, Ali Baba, Cui Bei, and Sun Bao, he handles everyday cases and wrongful convictions while becoming entangled in the capital's mysteries and political struggles.²^•⁸

In the comic, Li Bing is a man with a cat's face who must take medicine to keep human form, otherwise he becomes an uncontrolled cat. The live-action version keeps the setting but cannot show a cat-faced actor, so Li Bing mostly appears as a human who can transform into a cat and has cat-like traits, including a keen sense of smell used to track people and objects.²

From comic to animation to live action

The source manhua is a suspense-mystery work set against the Li Tang and Wu Zhou periods. It was first adapted as a 2D animated series by Haoliners Animation (好传动画), with season 1 airing on Bilibili in 2020 and season 2 in 2022; both seasons earned Douban scores of 8.2 and 8.3 respectively.² The animation's producer Shang You, founder of Haoliners, said the live-action team consulted with RC and the animation studio, particularly on how to render Li Bing, and that early proposals including a CG cat version did not satisfy the team.⁹

The live-action series was announced with its cast at a filming start ceremony on August 24, 2022, and wrapped on December 22, 2022.⁵^•¹⁰ Director Wang Wei said the central challenge was making audiences accept a comic turned into live action, and that the team worked out the world scene by scene; the visual effects supervisor described extensive CG work for the switches between human, cat, and half-cat forms, including labor-intensive tracking for a single cat pupil.¹¹

Reception and criticism

The drama's reception was divided. Early Douban comments mixed praise and criticism, with much of the debate centered on the "dimensional wall" (barrier between 2D animation and live-action plausibility) between the two-dimensional comic and the three-dimensional live-action version.² A review in Jiemian noted that the biggest argument was not how the lead "plays a cat" but that the show underperformed as a detective comedy, with the comic's exaggerated elements blending awkwardly into live action.¹²

Critics identified two recurring weaknesses. First, the mystery plotting relied on stacked filler scenes and on Li Bing explaining deductions in dialogue rather than on investigation, evidence reading, or psychological analysis, which reduced viewer participation. Second, the script repeatedly used Li Bing's cat attributes as a superpower: he transforms into a cat to infiltrate places and, in human form, changes his eye color to track scents, so key evidence arrives through special abilities rather than reasoning, which critics said weakened the deductive appeal.² A Douban review also criticized the ensemble writing, rating the characterizations of Li Bing, Chen Shi, and Cui Bei as well drawn but most other team members as flat, and argued that the group scenes compressed the case-solving segments.¹³ The original character Shangguan Qin, played by Ren Min and created for the drama, was singled out by several reviewers as an unappealing addition that diluted the plot.¹⁴^•²

On aggregate, the drama reached a Douban score of 6.8 from about 18,000 users, well below the animated adaptation's scores, in a 2024 costume-mystery lineup alongside Judge Dee's Mystery that underperformed commercial expectations.⁶ Positive coverage highlighted Ding Yuxi's feline mannerisms, including cat-paw-shaped hairpins and catlike gestures, and the series topped Maoyan heat, Datawin, and Weibo drama influence rankings during its run.¹⁵^•¹⁶

Distribution and franchise

Beyond mainland China on iQiyi, the series streamed internationally on iQIYI International and reached Taiwan through iQiyi, HamiVideo, and Chunghwa Telecom MOD, and Egypt and other regions through OSN+.¹⁷^•¹⁸ In Japan it was released as 大理寺日誌〜謎解く少卿には秘密がある〜, with exclusive early streaming on U-NEXT in three batches from December 4, 2024 to February 5, 2025, followed by DVD releases and satellite broadcast.¹⁶

The franchise continued in animation: a third season of 16 episodes, produced by Haoliners Animation, was scheduled for summer 2026 on Tencent Video, continuing the story of Li Bing and Chen Shi investigating strange cases in Luoyang tied to the secret of Li Bing's transformation.⁷

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 Sp to Z

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

Notice something wrong?