The series is a murder mystery pertaining to serial killing. The story starts in AD 1609 of the Ming Dynasty, Du County in Jiangnan. Qu Sangeng(Bai YuFan) a Yamen runner/bailiff of Hunter squad and Gao Shicong(Liu YiTong) a Yamen auxiliary bailiff, find corpse of Captain Leng(Wang Ce) displayed as a Scarecrow in a field of Qijia Village. This is the first murder followed by a series of murders. Master Wang, a scholar running a school, Chen Wang a servant of Lu residence who supposedly drowned 20 years ago, Dr.Cheng a genius doctor, Mr.Zhang the butler of Mr.Xue, Mr.Zhao former business partner of Lu Yuanbao....Sangeng who has a personal interest in the case because his master and mentor Captain Leng was the first victim, finds a link to all these murders. The murderer is killing all survivors of the fire that engulfed Lu residence 20 years ago, taking the life of Lu Jinxin the owner of Lu residence and his family members along with many servants. The killer is leaving quotes from The Analects of Confucius near the victims' corpse, however the messages are left in a sarcastic manner opposite from its intended meanings.

During the course of his investigation aided by his friends a scholar 'Turkey' Feng Ke Zhui (Zhang Hao Wei) and Shicong, Sangeng discovers clues to dark conspiracy, changed identities, hidden motives and dark core of human psyche taking the viewers on a thrilling adventurous ride of never ending guessing game.

Two main themes that I perceived from the series are;
1. Injustice and how different people deal with it.
2. Principally all Humans are prone to corruption in spite of eons of teachings from great Sages.



[ 1. Injustice and how different people deal with it.]

I am referring to Judge Song Chen previously Song Zhongqiu a very talented poet and a Calligrapher(Nong Li) and County Magistrate Wei's conversation in Episode 12, Magistrate Wei alludes to the injustice Mr.Song suffered due to faulty justice system that throws and tortures suspects in the prison and then after conducts investigation. Many guilty people are roaming free and many innocent people are wrongly indicted having their lives ruined even if found not guilty later.

Magistrate Wei is eager to know what Judge Song has to say about the word 'INJUSTICE'. Mr.Song replies that there are countless victims in this world, but absolute justice never happened. Magistrate Wei wants to know what Mr. Song means by that. Mr.Song continues that Wei may not know that there is no single window in the prison. But a person in prison can't tell when it is day and night. But a person in prison can feel the day elapsing.

Magistrate Wei becomes serious and inquires how a person can perceive day and night.

Mr.Song grimly replies that a person can watch his tortured flesh slowly rot away. Mr.Song used to think there was a threshold between life and death, Life is on one side and death is on the other side. Just a momentary thing but then he found out death could be very slow, and people could die little by little. One day, the prison door opens and someone comes in and tells you that your case has been overturned. Mr.Song laughs sarcastically at this.
Magistrate Wei looks sympathetically at Mr.Song.. Mr.Song in a bleak continues that by that time a person is already half-dead. Half of a person becomes ghost, and you can never turn back into a human. You are half human, half monster. Mr.Song is of the opinion that "JUSTICE THAT COMES TOO LATE IS NOT JUSTICE".

Magistrate Wei responds that Mr.Song's grievances are not from prison. He doggedly continues that Mr.Song was known as a top talent, famous for his painting and calligraphy.

But now he can't even pick up a pen with his right hand. He asks Mr. Song, " IS THAT THE GREATEST INJUSTICE FOR YOU? " Wei continues to speak when Mr.Song returned home, the court had reversed his case, but nobody believed that Mr.Song was wronged. All of the people talked about how much Mr.Song would have spent, whom he had bribed, and how he had used his connections to avoid lawsuit, " ISN'T THAT INJUSTICE CRUELER THAN THE PRISON SENTENCE? " Magistrate Wei says Mr. Song had a good friend, they were as close as brothers but Mr.Song couldn't withstand the punishment and betrayed him in prison by putting the blame on him. His friend used his death to prove his innocence. "COULD THIS BE THE GREATEST UNFAIRNESS IN MR. SONG'S HEART? " According to Magistrate wei's opinion Mr.Song can't live in peace even if the court cleared Mr.Song's name, Yet those who reported in the court, those who caused his disability, those who were busy with infighting and those who accused him of bribery, none of them EVER RECEIVED any punishment. Magistrate concludes "IT'S NOT ONLY ABOUT INJUSTICE. YOU JUST DON'T KNOW HOW TO TAKE REVENGE. "

The above conversation reflects two different ideologies. Magistrate chose personal revenge to honour his dead friend Lu Buyou's sacrifice. He gave more importance to personal grievances and spiraled down the dark path becoming as guilty as the original conspirators... Where as Judge Song leaving aside his own personal issues and grievances chose a righteous path and tried to uphold justice for other innocent people who were ensnared by the flaws in the justice system and decided to punish all guilty people lawfully, irrespective of their status. He became a role model and epitome of the most sagacious judge.



[2. Principally all Humans are prone to corruption in spite of eons of teachings from great Sages.]

Here I am referring to the conversation between Sangeng, Turkey and Shicong in episode 3.

All three Shicong, Sangeng and Turkey meet at night and get drunk after finding relevant facts. They sigh that a person can never know another person. ... They toast a drink to Confucius because he's been teaching people morality for centuries in vain. In the end, the world is still filled with animals who don't talk, think or behave like humans. But Confucius should not be mad, he should not see it as his failure. It's just so hard to be a decent man. [All three agree very hard, very hard]

Also ironically, In episode 12, Young Xiao Baozi "Turtle" accidentally discovers Lu Zhong's golden treasure. They were slabs of engraving of The Analects of Confucius. One engraving was "Some people hurt others for themselves (referring to Lu Zhi). While some hurt themselves for others (referring to Lu Buyou). Master Lu you hurt yourself for someone else. So I will repay you for your gold.... In a twisted manner Turtle decided to hurt someone else too in the name of justice.

CONCLUSION : The world is full of bad men ready to commit follies and their basic nature cannot be changed by nurture.


Overall: A wonderful series, all the dialogues are meaningful, focusing on true beings of Humans. In my opinion, it should be watched again at least once. Kudos to the scriptwriter and actors, it was a tightly written drama keeping the audience guessing right up till the end.



PS: I have written an in depth summaries of all 12 episodes, posted in the discussion thread of this drama page.... If anyone is interested in reading it use the link below, I will ALSO leave a clickable link as a comment to this review. (Summaries are in depth so they contain MAJOR SPOILERS)


https://mydramalist.com/discussions/fan-cheng-zhi-xia/120497-detailed-episodic-summary-and-musings-contains-spoilers