History Series / TheLegendOfDugu

'''The Legend of Dugu''' (Chinese: 独孤天下, ''Dugu Tian Xia'') is a Chinese series starring Hu Bingqing, Li Yixiao and Ady An as the titular Dugu sisters. The series is set during the final years of the chaotic Northern and Southern States era in Chinese history, in the state of Western Wei and its successor, Northern Zhou. Since the fall of the Eastern Han [[UsefulNotes/DynastiesFromShangToQing dynasty]] more than 300 years prior, China has never been unified under a single dynasty (apart from the last decade of Sima Yan's rule after unifying the Three Kingdoms); the Disaster of Yongjia in 311 opened the floodgates for non-Han tribes to invade China. The series dramatizes the lives of Dugu Xin and three of his daughters, as the clan deals with a prophecy: " 帝星未明. 然， [[TitleDrop 独孤天下]]". (''Di Xing wei ming. Ran, Dugu Tian Xia'', "The Emperor Star is unknown. But, the Dugus shall have China.") With the prophecy hanging over the clan, the three Dugu daughters soon find themselves embroiled (willingly or otherwise) in political alliances and upheavals, as factions seek to prove or disprove the prophecy.

* WidowWoman: Lihua, as (the last) empress dowager of the Northern Zhou, and then princess under her father's reign. Just like in history, while she did not take concrete action to prevent her father's takeover, she actively expressed her disapproval and refused to remarry.

* YoungFutureFamousPeople: Unlike her sisters whose achievements are shown in-series, Mantuo would not live to see her son Li Yuan establish the Tang Dynasty after the disastrous rule of her nephew Yang Guang. [[note]]She was posthumously declared empress by Li Yuan, who crowned himself emperor in his early 50s.[[/note]]

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: This being during the Northern and Southern States era, emperors come and go at the drop of a hat. Often, they were deposed by military officials with great power, who in turn installed themselves as emperors.

* SuccessionCrisis: The issue of succession was a persistently thorny one, both in-series and later during the Tang. The epilogue noted that Li Yuan was himself forced to abdicate by his second son Shimin after the Xuan Wu Gate incident.[[note]]While not mentioned in-series, Yang Jian changed the crown prince from his eldest son Yong to Guang. Guang then had Yong and his other brothers killed during his reign. Further down the road, the first Tang crown prince who was the first choice for the title and managed to inherit the throne was Tang ''Xuan''zong, Li Yuan's great(x2)-grandson. Even then, it was Xuanzong's elder brother Xian who notably refused the title of crown prince first; after his death, Xuanzong posthumously honored him as Emperor Rang (让，signifying his giving up of the throne). [[/note]]

* SuccessionCrisis: The issue of succession was a persistently thorny one, both in-series and later during the Tang. The epilogue noted that Li Yuan was himself forced to abdicate by his second son Shimin after the Xuan Wu Gate incident.[[note]]While not mentioned in-series, Yang Jian changed the crown prince from his eldest son Yong to Guang. Guang then had Yong and his other brothers killed during his reign. Further down the road, the first Tang crown prince who was the first choice for the title and managed to inherit the throne was Tang ''Dai''zong, Li Yuan's great(x4)-grandson.[[/note]]

** In the series, Banruo lived to become empress; historically, she passed away before Yuwen Yu became emperor. [[note]]Yu crowned himself Emperor about 2 years after taking over from Jue. Also another PragmaticAdaptation, as this change allows the series to avoid answering the historical mystery of why Yuwen Yu delayed his coronation as Emperor.[[/note]] Also, Yuwen Yu did at least have one other consort, Lady Xu.

* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: Dugu Xin's daughters were ultimately more ambitious and capable than his sons, with the ladies' achievements overshadowing the gents'. [[note]]Historically, this was said to be a main reason why Li Yuan's cousin Dugu Huai'en later attempted to rebel against him during his war to unify China; Li had drunkenly cracked a joke at Dugu during a banquet: "Cousin, now that the sons of your aunts have become emperors, maybe the next one might be you?" Dugu took this to be a slight, and prepared to rebel, but was ultimately stopped and killed.[[/note]]
* ObviouslyEvil: Yuwen Hu, who though handsome has the face of a villian.

However, history has the answer: Dugu Banruo (An) would only become an empress posthumously, after her husband Yuwen Yu ascended the throne during the Northern Zhou dynasty; her youngest sister Qieluo (Hu) would become the founding empress of the Sui Dynasty, which would finally unify all of China [[note]]Qieluo's daughter Yang Lihua would become the penultimate empress of the Northern Zhou; Qieluo's husband Yang Jian would later leverage on him being the father of the last empress dowager of the Northern Zhou (Lihua) to seize power.[[/note]]; Mantuo (Li), the middle sister, would become the matriarch of the Li clan, who would establish the Tang Dynasty 37 years after the founding of the Sui.

* SuccessionCrisis: The issue of succession was a persistently thorny one, both in-series and later during the Tang. The epilogue noted that Li Yuan was himself forced to abdicate by his second son Shimin after the Xuan Wu Gate incident.[[note]]While not mentioned in-series, Yang Jian changed the crown prince from his eldest son Yong to Guang. Guang then had Yong and his other brothers killed during his reign. Further down the road, the first Tang crown prince who was the first choice for the title and managed to inherit the throne was Tang ''Dai''zong, Li Yuan's great(x4)-grandson; while Xuanzong was his father's Ruizong's first crown prince, his elder brother Li Chengqi notably refused the nomination first.[[/note]]

* HistoricalInJoke: Banruo stabbing a horse in the first episode is very likely a reference to Meiniang stabbing the Iron Stallion in ''Empress''.

* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Averted by [[spoiler]]Mantuo[[/spoiler]]'s child.

'''The Legend of Dugu''' (Chinese: 独孤天下, ''Dugu Tian Xia'') is a Chinese series starring Hu Bingqing, Li Yixiao and Ady An as the titular Dugu sisters. The series is set during the final years of the chaotic Northern and Southern States era in Chinese history, in the state of Western Wei and its successor, Northern Zhou. Since the fall of the Eastern Han [[UsefulNotes/DynastiesFromShangToQing dynasty]] more than 300 years prior, China has never been unified under a single dynasty (apart from the last decade of Sima Yan's rule after unifying the Three Kingdoms); the Disaster of Yongjia in 311 opened the floodgates for non-Han tribes to invade China. The series dramatizes the lives of Dugu Xin and his three daughters, as the clan deals with a prophecy: " 帝星未明. 然， [[TitleDrop 独孤天下]]". (''Di Xing wei ming. Ran, Dugu Tian Xia'', "The Emperor Star is unknown. But, the Dugus shall have China.") With the prophecy hanging over the clan, the three Dugu daughters soon find themselves embroiled (willingly or otherwise) in political alliances and upheavals, as factions seek to prove or disprove the prophecy.