At the Song Emperor’s Spring Festival banquet, the talented Liu Yu’e beats all gents in riddle and is rewarded by the Emperor with a jade coin. She gives it to her husband Chen Jichang. Su Qincao, an unwilling candidate for the Emperor’s harem, infiltrates into the palace as a songtress and seeks help from her cousin Su Dongpo. Dongpo and Jichang often hang out and mess things up, which leads to Yu’e reporting them to the Empress. The Empress punished them by reducing their salary.

Dongpo lines Jichang and Lanting up first as a revenge, secondly also as to solve the problem of Qincao. Yu’e makes Jichang vow to the rosewood stick for his fidelity while also sends Liu Xiang to spy on him. Dongpo advises Qincao to seduce Jichang and ask for the jade coin as the gift of engagement. Liu Xiang discloses all he spied to Yu’e for a generous reward.

Back home, the infuriated Yu’e beats Jichang with the bevowed rosewood stick and orders him to kneel and repent by a willowy pond. Dongpo seeks the chance to instigate Jichang to divorce with Yu’e which he then does. She then goes to the court for justice, Yu’e’s uncle Gui Yushu tries to punish her for being a shrew. However, he himself is ordered to kneel by his wife.

Jichang and Yushu then go to seek help from the Emperor. The Emperor orders Yu’e to let Jichang keep Qincao as his concubine but she refuses and chooses to take arsenic instead. In her last word, she urges Jichang to be loyal to Qincao. Her words move Jichang. Fortunately, the Empress has replaced the poison with vinegar. Finally, the couple is reconciled and reunited.

Scholar Wen Bizheng encounters Huo Dingjin, daughter of high official Minister Huo, at a nunnery. He finds her double-pearl phoenix hairpin and pretends to be a fortune teller to meet her. Finally, he sells himself as a servant to the Huo family. Ding Hanchang, the Prince’s adopted son, has no real talents but he wishes to marry Dingjin. During the Prince’s birthday banquet, Bizheng exposes his lack of abilities and embarrasses him. Bizheng brings flowers to Dingjin’s chamber, and Qiuhua makes Bizheng promised to adopt her as his sister before he could see his love. He then leaves for the civil examination.

Upon learning the news of her marriage to Hanchang, Dingjin sets fire to the chamber and runs away. Dingjin and Qiuhua becomes homeless in the capital and luckily, the old Prime Minister Liu Jing adopts Dingjin as his own daughter. The emperor reads the “Imperial Prayer to Heaven” written by Dingjin, and is so impressed he makes her a princess. Bizheng wins the champion scholar title but he refuses to marry the princess. During the feast, he realizes the princess is his lover Dingjin, but Hanchang also tries to make his claim. To settle the matter, Bizheng marries his adopted sister, Qiuhua, to Hanchang.

Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor tells Princess Changping to select her husband, and Zhou Shixian, the son of the Minister of Coachman, becomes the chosen. However, the capital falls to the rebels when Shixian is being ennobled at the Palace. Emperor Chongzhen puts his wives to death before killing his daughters with his sword. Then, he hangs himself at Meishan.

The Princess, having been wounded by her father, is rescued by Zhou Zhong. Knowing her father and brother’s plot to surrender the Princess to the Qing Emperor, Zhong’s daughter Ruilan, assisted by an old nun, helps the Princess disguise as the deceased nun Weiqing and lives in seclusion. A year later, passing by the nunnery, Shixian comes across the Princess picking firewoods as a nun. After a few queries of her true identity, Shixian reunites with the Princess and arranges to meet her again that night.

As Shixian comes for the Princess with Zhong and his son Baolun at the Purple Jade Villa, Shixian persuades her to go back to the palace with him and begs the Qing Emperor to give a decent burial for her father and release her brother. With their wishes granted, the Princess and Shixian ask for their wedding ritual to be performed under the camphor tree. Then, they both take poison and sacrifice for their country.

To select a husband for her daughter Fengwei among his students Chen Yansheng, Feng Guohua and Jia Congshan, Chancellor of the Jizhou Academy, Luo Guangchi announces whoever succeeding in the imperial exam can marry Fengwei. Congshan acquires the first place with his political power, while the talented Yansheng only gets the second place. Disappointed, Yansheng returns to homeland. Yet, as he arrives earlier than Guohua and Congshan, Guangchi agrees on the marriage between him and Fengwei.

To get back his love, Congshan plots to murder Guohua and shift the blame on Yansheng. Mistakenly, he kills Fengwei’s cousin Li Xiangwen instead. Guohua hears this case of murder. Although Yansheng tries his best to prove his innocence, Congshan adds unfair remarks about him. Guohua has no choice but sentence Yansheng to see service at the border for three years. To protect Fengwei and Madame Li from Congshan’s rage, Guohua flees with them.

Princess of Kingdom Qi saves Yansheng’s life and assigns him to an important post. Congshan leads his soldiers to fight against Kingdom Qi, yet defeated by Yansheng. He hides at the reclusive place of Guohua, Fengwei and Madame Li. The trio is arrested as they provide a shelter for the defeated general, while Yansheng is the one to hear the case. Yansheng gives Guohua and Fengwei a hard time.

Fortunately, Madame Li and the Princess prove that nothing immoral has happened between Guohua and Fengwei. Prince of Liang visits Kingdom Qi as a peacemaker and brings along Congshan. Seriously injured, Congshen reveals the truth before his death. Yansheng and Fengwei finally reunite, and the Princess and Guohua get married.

Wang Ruilan, daughter of the Minister of War, is separated from her mother during the war and meets the cultivated talent Jiang Shilong one day in the wilderness. They fall in love during the journey and Wang Ruilan gives Jiang Shilong her hairpin as a token of marriage.

On the other hand, Madame Wang meets and adopts Jiang Shilong’s sister Jiang Ruilian. Wang Ruilan and Shilong take refuge at where Qin Xingfu stays and get married. However, Wang Ruilan’s snobbish father, Wang Zhen, separates the couple. Grieved, Jiang Shilong tries to drown himself in river. Madame Bian saves and adopts him.

Wang Zhen is promoted to prime minister three years later and he intends to marry Wang Ruilan and Jiang Ruilian to the best two candidates in the imperial examination. In fact, they are Jiang Shilong and Qin Xingfu under new names. Jiang Shilong and Wang Ruilan go to the Xuanmiao Temple to mourn their beloved one before the wedding. They meet again at the Moon Pavilion and give the snobbish Wang Zhen a good lesson. The two pairs of lovers are finally reunited.

It is an age of chaos in the dusk of the Ming dynasty with all the rebels and invader. Just before the empire falls, the Emperor, Chongzhen, slays his wife and daughters for their dignity before facing the inevitable. One of his daughter, the Princess Changping toughed through it, and wanted to stay in a nunnery to escape everything. But destiny doesn’t allow, it lets her husband, Zhou Shixian, to be able to find her again in the nunnery. Shixian convinces Changping to pretend surrender to Qing government in order to exchange for the release of her brother and a proper burial for her father. And after all is set and done, they are married under a camphor tree and drink up poison wine to sacrifice for their country.

Shangguan Yunlong and Situ Wenfeng both win victorious battles, so the Emperor bestowed upon them the title “Marquis of the South” and “Marquis of the West.” As they both get on their way home, their processions run into each other and refuse to give way.

Unable to resolve the conflict, they return to court. Back at court, the Emperor has a difficult time appeasing them as they both threaten to retire. The Emperor resorts to make Wenfeng a princess and marry her to Yunlong. Inside the wedding chamber, Yunlong and Wenfeng are shocked but are forced to accept the marriage due to the Emperor’s order.

The next morning, the Northern barbarians invade and the young couple fight each other to lead the army. Yunlong and Wenfeng get into a deal to fight for the general commander’s seal but one is not able to defeat the other. The Emperor does a lucky draw and Wenfeng wins. Yunlong purposely reports to the camp late and is ordered to fight alone as punishment. Yunlong is surrounded and writes a letter asking for help. Wenfeng leads the army to rescue him and defeats the enemies. The couple finally dissolve their grudges and return to court in victory.

Cao Zhi and Zhen Mi are in love. However, Cao Cao wants to make Zhi his successor, so he chooses Chen Dezhu to be Zhi’s wife instead of Mi for her being a captive. He further marries Mi to Cao Pi, brother of Zhi, to quench Zhi’s affection for Mi. On the wedding night, Pi, under the pretense of drunkenness, unleashes his hatred and jealousy towards Zhi. Overwhelmed with worries about Zhi’s safety, Mi falls into Pi’s trap by asking Zhi to meet her in private. As a result, Zhi is exiled to Linzi.

After Cao Cao has died, Pi becomes the king. He begins to purge his brothers to secure his rule. After the failure to summon Zhi back to the capital, Pi forces Mi to write to urge Zhi to return with the excuse that the Queen Dowager misses him.

On the Copper Bird Terrace, Pi orders Zhi to compose a poem within seven steps. If he fails, Zhi will be sentenced to death for his undeserved fame. To Pi’s surprise, Zhi accomplishes this challenging task with Mi’s encouragement. After hacking a foot off a clay tripod cauldron to illustrate how helpless Pi will be without his brothers, Mi drowns herself into the Luo River. Mourning her by the River, Zhi dreams of Mi ascending to the heaven and becomes the Goddess of the Luo River.

To gather money for his travel, Shanguan Yunhe and his family member Dong Cheng sell their calligraphy works at Temple of Hanshan. Meanwhile, Princess Danfeng who is offering incense tries to pull down the stall. Yunhe and Cheng stop her and the Princess learns about their stories. Admiring the good-looking and bright Yunhe, the Princess makes him a gift of a piece of gold, which is rejected by Yunhe. Danfeng is pushed away from her servents when the mobs riot at the temple. Luckily she is saved by Yunhe and Cheng. To hide her true identity, Danfeng makes up a fake name as Qionghua and takes Yunhe as her brother. Afterwards, the Chief Commander finds Danfeng. After knowing the Emperor is seriously sick, Danfeng agrees to leave for home. Fang Lingzhu mistakenly drinks the knock-out drops prepared by Zhang Wenfeng. Misunderstanding in the dark that the other one is their own lover, Lingzhu and Wenfeng spend a loving night together. In the imperial palace, Yunhe misses Qionghua (Danfeng) so much that he refuses to complete the exam paper. Danfeng loves him even more after finding out his intention. Thus she orders to pick Yunhe as the first place in the examination and invites him to be the princess’ husband. Lingzhu accuses Yunhe of breaking her heart, while Cheng confesses the truth to everyone. Eventually both of the loving couples are happily united.

Li Yi, a talented young man, comes to Chang’an to attend the imperial examination with Cui Yunming and Wei Xiaqing. On the night of the Spring Lantern Festival, he meets Huo Xiaoyu and recovers her purple hairpin which becomes their love-token. They get married that night.

However, the daughter of Lu, the supreme official of military affairs, loves Li Yi after he picks returns her lost handkerchief. Owing to his refusal of being Lu’s son-in-law, Li Yi is appointed to a military post beyond the Great Wall even he comes out first in the imperial examination. And thus the young couple is separated.

Nothing is heard from Li Yi for three years and Huo’s living becomes difficult, but she keeps subsidizing Yunming from time to time. At last, she has to pawn even the purple hairpin. Meanwhile, Lu has Li Yi summoned to Chang’an to be his son-in-law, and beat Yunming to death for his refusal to be the matchmaker for Li Yi and his daughter. In order to quench Li Yi’s affection for Xiaoyu, he further procures the purple hairpin as a proof of her remarriage.

At Ci’en Temple, a Chevalier in Yellow Gown, after hearing her story, helps Xiaoyu to reunite with Li Yi. However, Lu has his men take Li Yi back to marry his daughter during their reunion. As advised by the Chevalier, Xiaoyu comes to claim her husband back at the wedding. Just when Lu tries to beat her to death on the accusation of intrusion, the Chevalier comes as the emperor’s brother. He deposes Lu for his evil deeds and reunites Xiaoyu and Li Yi.