The Sword & The Brocade 锦心似玉 2021

[SnT]

So nice to read these comments n long postings. I watched up ep 42 n nice to see all these thoughts n recaps. I feel the same as well. I love the scene of he literally fall of the chair w her blowing hia chest. I m sure he flinch not from pain but from garnering whole his being from restraining himself. Poor guy. 

[OsmanthusTea]

34 minutes ago, abs-oluteM said:

With regards to the romance, perhaps I am slightly sadistic . I somewhat enjoyed  LingYi pushing her away . Of course I wouldn't want this to go on forever but it was nice to see her trying to win his heart, and him being very cool about it all. 

 

Me too....I feel a cold pleasure when I saw her turning the earth up side down inside out in order to wins him back.....

[OsmanthusTea]

The conversation between Madam Luo and ErNiang’s mom on her sick bed is such a heartbreaking and eye opening one. They destined to be enemies with no chances of reconciliation just because of their status as legal wife and concubine.
 

They schemed and backstabbed each other for years, hated each other deeply but in the end no one wins. Both lost the same exact thing they fought over and more. 
 

HouYe feels hurt because of ShiYi’s distrust and insincerity and how he thought she's only feels guilty and gratitude towards him. I know ShiYi is on the wrong but HouYe now knows how all of his women feel all this time.

Edited March 27, 2021 by OsmanthusTea

[Toby]

14 hours ago, 40somethingahjumma said:

Gradually the game takes a different form and it's a game that Lingyi feels at liberty to be a part of because it doesn't make him feel like a worm. Xu Lingyi can be free to be himself and to be the kind of husband, he has (unconsciously) always wanted to be. Nobody likes to be manipulated or trapped into something. Especially a man with integrity. But they are more likely to be willing if they can be persuaded with sincerity of the benefits.

 

Still I could be wrong. I've only watched 20 episodes so far. But as I said, it's addictive.

 

 

 

 

 

I might be wrong but i think whenever Lingyi said "because u are my wife" where it hit the right button like ur view (i am not good with verbal so i just keep it to myself and seem like others or this case you voice it out).

 

i read and like it so much of everyone pov (i am not a stalker haha).maybe because for me, most of the things in life are not only down to simple term whether right or wrong,can or cannot etc.i love that i can understand more thru everyone input or an idea merely not because of this drama.everyone thought are reshape me in a way on how to see my surrounding (people/situation etc) differently and be a better person to others.

 

p/s-everyone post gave me deep warm vibes (sorry as i am an introvert so i am comfy with those i can click with only).  i think maybe this is one of the reason i created an acccount instead of be a silent reader of this specific thread(first time ever).hohoho.

i read somewhere that 'words are like keys,if u choose them right they can open any heart and shut any mouth'

12 hours ago, SnT said:

So nice to read these comments n long postings. I watched up ep 42 n nice to see all these thoughts n recaps. I feel the same as well. I love the scene of he literally fall of the chair w her blowing hia chest. I m sure he flinch not from pain but from garnering whole his being from restraining himself. Poor guy. 

 

lol. i thought he was fall of the chair because of him trying not to be so close to his Furem(madam?) since he still in mad mood.maybe he afraid he will mood swing back to his chasing behaviour for her instead.hahaha

Edited March 28, 2021 by Toby

[OsmanthusTea]

Hmmm, I realised something about Madam Luo. Despite how cruel and heartless she seemed to be towards Luo Harem,  one thing she did them right. She married off ALL of the Luo Girls from the concubines as legal wife which is unusual even though she did it with a purpose in ShiYi and ErNiang's case. ErNiang's husband is an only heir to a dukedom which is a higher rank than a marques (LingYi has greater influences than Wang because of his merits in military). I know she has a son of a biscuit as a husband but she has great power in Wang household and the society if only she knows how to uses it, just like ShiYi whose life wasn't all smelling like flowers in the beginning of her marriage.  That's why Madam Luo said to ErNiang's mom that ErNiang's plight is self-implicated.

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by OsmanthusTea

[AwkwarDerp]

10 minutes ago, OsmanthusTea said:

Hmmm, I realised something about Madam Luo. Despite how cruel and heartless she seemed to be towards Luo Harem,  one thing she did them right. She married off ALL of the Luo Girls from the concubines as legal wife which is unusual even though she did it with a purpose in ShiYi and ErNiang's case. ErNiang's husband is an only heir to a dukedom which is a higher rank than a marques (LingYi has greater influences than Wang because of his merits in military). I know she has a son of a biscuit as a husband but she has great power in Wang household and the society if only she knows how to uses it, just like ShiYi whose like wasn't all smelling like flowers in the beginning of her marriage.  That's why Madam Luo said to ErNiang's mom that ErNiang's plight is self-implicated.

 

Well as we’re waiting for the drama and me reading the book, I learned that most of concubines were married in because Luo Madame wanted to.....which I was a bit surprised, cause it said that most of concubines were servant so she decided to give them a status. 5th Lady was a daughter of Madame Luo’s servant but her mother didn’t stop serving Luo Madame even after given birth, so 5Th lady was raised under Luo Madame’s hand. I can see like even in the drama she’s strict and stuff but she never done anything cruelly to hurt any of them, especially the daughters

[OsmanthusTea]

17 minutes ago, AwkwarDerp said:

Well as we’re waiting for the drama and me reading the book, I learned that most of concubines were married in because Luo Madame wanted to.....which I was a bit surprised, cause it said that most of concubines were servant so she decided to give them a status. 5th Lady was a daughter of Madame Luo’s servant but her mother didn’t stop serving Luo Madame even after given birth, so 5Th lady was raised under Luo Madame’s hand. I can see like even in the drama she’s strict and stuff but she never done anything cruelly to hurt any of them, especially the daughters

 

In the beginning of the drama we were told that ErNiang is Madam Luo's fav daughter after YuanNiang, that's why ErNiang was super confident that she will be marries off to HouYe. As we can see Madam Luo wasn't a biased person, when ErNiang is deemed unsuitable for HouYe she chose ShiYi. While Madam Xu is a totally biased in how she deals with her family.

 

Madam Luo did what it needed in order to preserves the family.

Edited March 28, 2021 by OsmanthusTea

[NiteWalker]

New stills release for tomorrow Finale for VIP!!!

 

 

 

[abs-oluteM]

13 hours ago, OsmanthusTea said:

The conversation between Madam Luo and ErNiang’s mom on her sick bed is such a heartbreaking and eye opening one. They destined to be enemies with no chances of reconciliation just because of their status as legal wife and concubine.
 

They schemed and backstabbed each other for years, hated each other deeply but in the end no one wins. Both lost the same exact thing they fought over and more. 

You are so right about this. I do not envy being in any of their positions. Shi Yi in her personal musings felt that regardless of whether one was a legal wife or a concubine, or even the daughters to either one, a woman's life then was hard. I can understand why they schemed against each other  and jostled for favour with the man of the house , and made every conceivable effort to secure the best marriages for their daughters. 

--------------------------

 

While watching eps 34 to 36, it dawned on me that both the Xu brothers were probably in some ways men ahead of their times or perhaps born in the wrong era. While they are born at a time where polygamous families were the norm , and was even encouraged, both brothers are clearly more suited to and desire a monogamous relationship. I won't go as far as to say that the writer is trying to put in some social commentary to the pitfalls of supporting a harem, but it is clear the screenwriter understood the heart of the modern viewer who would want the male lead to only love one woman.5th brother is a man utterly devoted to his wife - who grieved much upon finding out he may have wronged her by sleeping with the maid on a drunken night. You could see how relieved he was discovering he was being duped.

 

Even in the case of our Hou Ye, he has never wanted to have more women to satisfy any physical or emotional desires he may have. The "acquisition" of the concubines were always of a practical reason - to repay a favour or to provide financial support  for these women. If in modern times, Shi Yi was probably the soul mate that he has been waiting for. Her feelings for him became of paramount importance to him for the very 1st time in his life. So the scenes leading up to the kiss and consummation of the marriage felt a lot sweeter because he finally feels secure that her efforts here aren't purely just out of guilt or gratitude.

 

[That said, I do feel sorry for the other concubines. In some ways , I wish that Hou Ye has given them some fair amount of attention. (though of course this may not go down well with the audience). There's a great deal of loneliness being married into that household despite the material comforts. So I know why they all start to despise and blame Shi Yi for every thing despite her being a fair and kind matron of the home. ]

 

In those times , and sometimes even now, men often do not have much time for their children . Child rearing was often the mother's responsibility. So it was interesting that Shi Yi would encourage him to spend more time with his boys. He seems to have taken the advice one minute but next thing you know they have decided to send Yu off to "boarding school". I thought that was quite jarring and don't quite agree seeing that Yu was only 10. From what I understood it was also to protect Yu from being wrongly influenced by the Ou family ( since Hou Ye is suspicious of the trade relations between Concubine Wen's family and the Ou's ) .While I can see the virtues of him getting the best education, and perhaps it was the norm at that time for young men to grow up quickly , I felt sorry for Concubine Wen who had no say in the matter. 

[NiteWalker]

@abs-oluteM we are lucky not to go thru that generation....maybe we did in the past life however i'm glad im where i am now lols

[OsmanthusTea]

1 hour ago, abs-oluteM said:

While watching eps 34 to 36, it dawned on me that both the Xu brothers were probably in some ways men ahead of their times or perhaps born in the wrong era. While they are born at a time where polygamous families were the norm , and was even encouraged, both brothers are clearly more suited to and desire a monogamous relationship.

 

Did you notice that their late father also has no concubine/s????

 

I can totally understand of why HouYe's concubines are getting restless especially after he decided to send his son the boarding school. Despite his mom is a concubine, she has the right to be consulted regarding her son's future. HouYe just simply talked it out with ShiYi and informed the mom that her son will be send away.....  I will stage a coup d'état if I am her....

Edited March 28, 2021 by OsmanthusTea

[SnT]

30 minutes ago, OsmanthusTea said:

 

Did you notice that their late father also has no concubine/s????

 

I can totally understand of why HouYe's concubines are getting restless especially after he decided to send his son the boarding school. Despite his mom is a concubine, she has the right to be consulted regarding her son's future. HouYe just simply talked it out with ShiYi and informed the mom that her son will be send away.....  I will stage a coup d'état if I am her....

U r so right. He is really a very very male chauvinistic man w his family n concubines. U know those... Qin not educated to raise a xu boy, send yuge away n just inform the birth mum, he was extremely uncommunicative w chunge, when he make up his mind of the persons say qiao, tong he just guve them cold shoulder... All quite mean i feel in a way. 

[abs-oluteM]

55 minutes ago, OsmanthusTea said:

I will stage a coup d'état if I am her....

Same here. I felt it more since my boy is exactly that age and still like my baby - so happy playing with his toys that I cannot imagine him being away from me.

 

I agree @SnT . I do feel that he sometimes makes decisions that would seem pretty hurtful to the other  women because he was not very communicative. So it is nice to see Shi Yi bringing a slow change in him. 

[OsmanthusTea]

@SnT @abs-oluteM

I would say the main issue between HouYe and his harem is the lack of trust that leads to miscommunication or no communication at all that damage their relationship.

[Funnypeopleswim]

On 3/26/2021 at 7:54 PM, OsmanthusTea said:

 

HouYe’s new robe....🤪🤣

 

What is that from?

[Funnypeopleswim]

16 hours ago, OsmanthusTea said:

The conversation between Madam Luo and ErNiang’s mom on her sick bed is such a heartbreaking and eye opening one. They destined to be enemies with no chances of reconciliation just because of their status as legal wife and concubine.
 

They schemed and backstabbed each other for years, hated each other deeply but in the end no one wins. Both lost the same exact thing they fought over and more. 
 

HouYe feels hurt because of ShiYi’s distrust and insincerity and how he thought she's only feels guilty and gratitude towards him. I know ShiYi is on the wrong but HouYe now knows how all of his women feel all this time.

 

I agree. They were fated as enemies. It’s hard to see how a wife and concubine can be friends unless they have a tact understanding. But those situations are rare. It doesn’t help that there is so much power and command at stake and they only thing that can change that is having your husbands favour.

 

I did think the irony of Houye and Shiyi was great. 

 

1. That he was the one who had to court her in the beginning. When everyone else was trying to please him.

2. Now that Shiyi is trying to win him over you can see how those courtship tricks don’t work on Houye. Like making him his favourite food. Because he has lost the trust he had in her.

 

Thankfully she does finally gain his forgiveness, with her honesty and sincerity.

 

 

@Toby You don’t need to apologize for being an introvert. I am one too. 

[Funnypeopleswim]

The practice of sending one’s kids away from school differs from family to family. My mom would never agree to it but my dad was raised that way. 

 

I heard in Britain kids are sent away to boarding school at 6 years old. I though 10 was too young but 6 is even worse.

 

But Houye might have been sent away himself as a kid and thought it, served him well. Whereas Concubine Wen is from a merchant class and probably has a different practice. 

 

I didn’t know until the subtitles came out that they though Wen could be the spy. I mean in the beginning I thought so too. But she’s so upfront and terrible with schemes, as we soon shall see. 

 

I kind of like Wen, she’s straightforward. She and Erniang are similar but she didn’t seem to have Erniang’s bitterness. Sadly that come after.

 

Her son is so nice too. I hope in the end the brothers get to grow up together and be close instead of being rivals. It would be nice if Shiyi could give them that.

 

I hated the dinner scene with the Madam Xu, Shiyi and Houye. She was still in her traditional values, your just a concubine’s daughter attitude. I know, I know, she’s just being typical MIL but her prejudice is sad.

 

To me she’s one of the villains of the family. It’s her attitude and conservativeness that has cause a lot of the problems of the Xu. But unfortunately she is probably very typical of the time. 

Edited March 28, 2021 by Funnypeopleswim

[OsmanthusTea]

@Funnypeopleswim

It's a common practice even until now to send kids away to boarding school BUT the problem here is how HouYe totally disregard WenNiang as a mother of the child. He didn't even discusses it with her but asked the young son's approval and then informed her that her only son will be send away. But when it came to ShiYi's matters, he will goes out of his way to talks lengthy and arranges whatever it takes to suits her needs. In a way HouYe is like Madam Xu in playing favoritism. So who can blame the concubines' coup d'état? He should blames himself.

[Funnypeopleswim]

1 minute ago, OsmanthusTea said:

@Funnypeopleswim

It's a common practice even until now to send kids away to boarding school BUT the problem here is how HouYe totally disregard WenNiang as a mother of the child. He didn't even discusses it with her but asked the young son's approval and then informed her that her only son will be send away. But when it came to ShiYi's matters, he will goes out of his way to talks lengthy and arranges whatever it takes to suits her needs. In a way HouYe is like Madam Xu in playing favoritism. So who can blame the concubines' coup d'état? He should blames himself.

 

I agree he’s a terrible husband to Wen. He should blame himself.

 

But I’ve said so before.

 

I didn’t think about it before but he does play favourites.

[OsmanthusTea]

31 minutes ago, Funnypeopleswim said:

 

I agree he’s a terrible husband to Wen. He should blame himself.

 

But I’ve said so before.

 

I didn’t think about it before but he does play favourites.

 

HouYe obviously doesn't learn any lesson from how he felt so hurts from ShiYi's distrust and suspicion to him. He does the same exact thing with WenNiang. He suspected her as Ou's spy without solid evidences he even "punishes" her by sending her son away. He is not only terrible toward WenNiang, he is a crappy husband for QinNiang too. I felt so bad when he decided not to give WuYe's child to her with a sorry excuse of she is not educated enough. I am sure QinNiang can takes it better if HouYe and ShiYi at least put a little effort to comforted her or "compensated" her but NOOOOOO, in their eyes QinNiang is less than a human. But with DanYang the Duke's daughter they will comforted her when she faced problems. See, how they play favoritism....

Edited March 28, 2021 by OsmanthusTea

[SnT]

And this madame xu is really terrible. She basically don see value in concubines n their kids. Like yuge must be separated from chunge. Shu child is so much lowered thsn di child..

N she wants to get him more concubines to hv children which she doesnt think highly off. If something happen to houye, wuye will take over as next houye n his di son will be next heir. So what's this hoohaas of having having more kids by concubines. So make sense right??? 

Edited March 28, 2021 by SnT

[NiteWalker]

tonight is our finale night....i couldnt believe it....after this week no more HouYe with ShiYi!!!

[NiteWalker]

Poster from WeTV to celebrate the finale for tonight

 

[abs-oluteM]

1 hour ago, NiteWalker said:

tonight is our finale night....i couldnt believe it....after this week no more HouYe with ShiYi!!!

What? Lol! I am still only at eps 36. No subs for the rest yet 

[SnT]

13 minutes ago, abs-oluteM said:

What? Lol! I am still only at eps 36. No subs for the rest yet 

Is ok... Slow n sweet. No need to rush... The last 9 episodes had kinda been stressful to watch. I m sure tonight 3 will not be so nice like the first 30 ish..