COLLECTION · Series · 1997

御花子

Original title

Set against the backdrop of late Qing-era Beijing and the eight counties east of the capital, the series is based on a real figure who escaped from the Qing palace and on whose palm Empress Dowager Cixi once personally wrote the character "Hua" (Flower). It tells the story of the rise and fall of the Beggars' Guild, the "called beggars" organization active in the capital region during the late Qing. On the tenth day of the tenth month in the third year of the Guangxu reign (1876), Cixi was celebrating her fortieth birthday. After enjoying chrysanthemums at Coal Hill, she was returning to the palace when, upon reaching the West Second Long Street in the inner court, she suddenly heard a child crying. Cixi ordered the child to be found. It turned out that the child was Ji Haizi, the son of Yu Ma, the wet nurse Cixi favored most. Cixi remarked offhandedly, "Where did this little beggar come from?" Then, at the urging of the eunuch Li Lianying, Cixi wrote the character "Hua" on the palm of the child's left hand. It turned out that before Li Lianying entered the palace, he and Yu Ma, the child's birth mother, had been sweethearts who had grown up together. Back in the humble room where Yu Ma lived, Li Lianying used a needle to prick the character "Hua," written by Cixi herself, firmly into the child's palm. From then on, because of this extra character on his palm, the fate of Ji Haizi...