Beyond The Realm of Conscience - Historical Basis - Trivia

Trivia

• Empress Dowager or Grand Empress Dowager Guo was resented by Concubine Dowager (later Empress Dowager) Zheng. The two women were rivals for a long period of time, especially after the ascension of the latter's son Emperor Xuãnxong. The Grand Empress Dowager was disrespected by Empress Dowager Zheng and Lee Yi to such an extent that she really attempted suicide by throwing herself of the tower.
• Grand Empress Dowager Guo tried to commit suicide as she failed to demand respect from Emperor Xuānzong and Empress Dowager Zheng. She tried to jump from the Qinzheng Tower, but failed. That night, she died, though the cause of her death remains a mystery. It is suspected that Emperor Xuãnzong hashed her put to death.
• Consort Wang was in the rank of cairen instead of guifei during her lifetime as her family was neither prominent nor noble. It was only after her death that she was elevated to the rank of yinfei. It is traditionally held that Consort Wang and her husband were truly in love with each other.
• Instead of being sentenced to death by Empress Dowager Guo, in history she committed suicide because she was saddened by the death of her spouse. This moved even the jealous concubines who resented the devotion she had from her husband, and even Emperor Xuãnzong himself.
• Li Yi is believed to have sought refuge at a Taoist monastery at some point, though this is not a confirmed historical fact.
• Li Yi was thought to have had low intelligence and confidence before he ascended to the throne. However, after his ascension he revealed extraordinary abilities as a political leader.
• Emperor Wuzong did suffer during the latter part of his reign in health due to alchemists' pills. In the series, he was given a pill by the fictional huifei who thought it would be of benefit to him. Many of the Tang Emperors actually believed in the purported health benefits of these pills, though modern scientific evidence reveals that these pills were toxic.
• Emperor Wuzong was killed by ambitious powerful eunuchs that held immense power at the latter part of the Tang Dynasty, which was already nearing its end during the time setting of the series. The eunuchs in the series killed him to place Li Yi on the throne because they thought that he would be easy to control, as the Prince of Guang put on a facade.
• The Imperial Household Bureau was one of the six Imperial Bureaus of the Tang Dynasty.
• The series is set during the latter years of the Tang Dynasty, around about half a century before the Tang Dynasty's end. The Tang Empire at this time was controlled by powerful, ambitious, corrupt eunuchs, and the Tang Emperors gradually lost more and more power to them. The Tang Dynasty reached its peak in culture and power during the reign of Emperor Xuānzong's ancestor Emperor Xuanzong's reign, before it was sent into decline by the An Shi Rebellion during Xuanzong's reign. Emperor Xuānzong was an Emperor during the decline of the Tang Empire, and he was the last strong ruler of the Tang Dynasty.
• In the television drama, Taoism appears as the initially as the religion and accepted philosophy of the imperial family and imperial government. However, after Li Yi comes to the throne, Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy is discussed by the characters in their dialogue, and Buddhist worship took the place of Taoist worship. Emperor Xuānzong revived Buddhist worship that was unsupported by the few Emperors before him. Buddhism flourished under the Tang Empire, and it was during this golden age in Chinese history that the system of adapting to the three schools of Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese Buddhism was solidified for the first time. This ideology of adapting to the philosophies of all three would last for millennia. Confucianism was promoted primarily for its appreciation of various virtues, including collectivist ideals of family units and interdependence between the people and units of the state. Taoism was promoted for its appreciation of nature, balance and moderation in all things, as opposed to the Legalist ideals of Ancient, feudal China. Buddhism was imported as an Indian faith and remains hugely popular from the Tang Dynasty.
• In history Empress Dowager Zheng outlived Li Yi and saw her grandson Emperor Yizong of Tang ascend the throne as a grand empress dowager. As the eldest son of Li Yi, in fact, Yizong was born 14 years before Li Yi's ascension But all through the series, Li Yi is seen as childless. In the series, Emoress Dowager Zheng is portrayed more sympathetically in a tilt towards the rights of the working class than the picture of a resentful and socially ambitious empress dowager drawn by historians. Historians often view Empress Dowager Guo with sympathy in contrast, as a woman who was born into nobility.