Story of Kunning Palace

Jiang Xuening once climbed to the heights of influence by wrapping herself in court intrigue and exploiting everyone around her, but when the king Shen Jie was poisoned she fell from grace and spent her final days under house arrest while Xie Wei razed the city. Ordered to be buried with the emperor, she wakes with a second chance and vows to keep away from the palace that destroyed her. Despite that promise, familiar schemes pull her back in and she becomes entangled again with palace politics and with Xie Wei, the man she hates most. The series tracks her repeated choices and the heavy consequences of trying to rewrite a doomed fate, relentlessly.

Released in 2023, Story of Kunning Palace is directed by Francis Nam, Gu Zhiwei and Chu Yui-bun, created by Shi Jing and Ren Zhuang Liu, and stars Bai Lu, Zhang Linghe and Wang Xingyue, with Jacky Zhou and Liu Xiening.

There are no widely reported major award wins or nominations for the series in available sources. It has attracted viewer votes and online discussion, but no high-profile festival or national television awards have been recorded, though fan-voted polls have acknowledged the cast and received modest recognition online.

While not a breakout global hit, the show found a niche among fans of palace dramas, sparking conversation about rebirth plots, costume design, and the lead pairing. Scenes and outfits have been shared heavily on fan channels, and viewers often remix clips and create fan art.

Viewer ratings sit around 7.818/10 from 22 votes, reflecting generally favorable impressions. Critics and viewers praise the leads' chemistry and the tangled court politics, while some note uneven pacing and repetitive choices by the protagonist. Major themes include power, ambition, guilt, and the possibility of changing fate.