"There is a Tree on the Immortal Terrace" tells a story of a tragic love story between two generations and a story of protecting the common people. Twenty years ago, the head of the Xishan School, Mu Qingge, was accidentally killed in order to seal the spiritual spring on his apprentice, the "demon child" Su Yishui. Su Yishui found the reincarnation tree to help him be reborn. Twenty years later, Mu Qingge reincarnated as Xue Ranran, and Su Yishui accepted him as his apprentice. The two began a "transfer" love story with a reversal of the master and apprentice identities.
Poster of "There is a Tree in Sendai"
After watching too many Xianxia and Gupu dramas, I occasionally have this feeling: the Xianxia universe actually has three major conservation laws:
The conservation of props (the male and female protagonists rely on it to fall in love and also to break up), the conservation of makeup (the supporting female character’s makeup is self-castration), and the conservation of master-disciple relationship (the abusive relationship between master and disciple is a secret recipe passed down from generation to generation).
As the "Xianxia test-taker" of the 2025 Spring Festival, "There is a Tree in Xiantai" perfectly interprets this formula and can be regarded as a model of "self-cultivation of Xianxia dramas."
Conservation of props: Doraemon's pockets are emptied
As an important branch of ancient puppet drama, Xianxia drama has always been a high-incidence area for script criticism. After rigorously analyzing the level of screenwriters, script structure, production process, the importance of the script by the drama party, and other realistic reasons, when I watched "Xiantai Youshu", some more chaotic inferences occasionally appeared in my mind. For example, some Xianxia dramas have weak scripts. Could it be that the screenwriters rely too much on props? It feels like Doraemon's pockets are empty, and he can barely keep up with the emotional twists and plot development of the male and female protagonists. The ups and downs of the emotions of the male and female protagonists, good and bad, just confirm the law of conservation of the role of props.
The props in fairy tales are like credit cards in the real world - the more you swipe them, the smoother the plot. In "There is a Tree in Xiantai", props are "liquid assets" that drive the plot. Mu Qingge suddenly forced Su Yishui to hand over the spiritual spring because he saw Su Yishui's future through the props; Xue Ranran was weak and sick after reincarnation, but he held the "Xian Xiu Kucheng Dan" prop to forcibly prolong his life; why couldn't Mu Qingge tell Su Yishui the truth, because the props didn't allow it (he would vomit blood if he said it); Su Yishui loved Mu Qingge so much, why couldn't he say it, because the props didn't allow it (he would vomit blood if he said it).
Whenever the plot gets stuck, the screenwriter will come up with a "props issuance plan"; and the emotional heat of the male and female protagonists in the play is all due to the props. It seems that as long as the props are issued quickly enough, the audience's IQ can't catch up with the plot loopholes. However, in the fairy tale drama, even if the inflation level of props is so high, when Mu Qingge replaced Su Yishui's identity as the "demon", no one took out the props for a rigorous test and verification. You believe her when she says she is a demon, which directly reduces the logic of the props to zero.
Stills from "There is a Tree in Sendai"
Conservation of Appearance: Limited Edition Hard Currency
As an ancient idol drama, if you want to say whether it is good-looking or not, first of all, you have to look at whether the actors are good-looking or not. Looking through the discussion posts on the Internet, some people think that the female lead actress Xiang Hanzhi's small round face is a bit plain and unworthy of the important role of the female lead, while others think that she is easy-going and friendly, and has the spirit of the girl next door in the golden age of Taiwanese idol dramas; some people think that the male lead actor Deng Wei's face is pitiful and shining, while others discuss whether it is a bit too technological, or has the charm of a certain old friend who has stepped on a sewing machine. This is called it is difficult to satisfy everyone. But at least this kind of discussion shows that many viewers still tacitly agree that the first productive force of ancient idol dramas is the appearance of the male and female leads, which can also prove from the side that if you don't talk about appearance, it is easy for ancient idol dramas to have nothing to talk about.
Stills from "There is a Tree in Sendai"
In ancient Chinese dramas, appearance is both a hard currency and is often limited in number. This seems to be the conservation of appearance in ancient Chinese dramas. It is rare to see an ancient Chinese drama with the highest appearance per capita, and it is more common to see ancient Chinese dramas with controversial appearance.
For example, the drama "There is a Tree in Xiantai" sometimes makes people think: the ultimate accomplishment of a supporting actress in a fairy-tale drama is to actively give up her beauty and strive to be a "human background board" to ensure that the heroine is as dazzling as a "firefly in the dark night" in front of the camera.
For example, when the four major sects were besieging Mu Qingge in the play, the female elders all wore the same hairstyle as Master Miejue, and their makeup was so simple that it seemed as if they shared a box of expired loose powder. This spirit of self-sacrifice is comparable to the "scapegoat" in the workplace: you can forget my face, but you must remember the beautiful tears of the heroine.
The makeup of the supporting actresses in fantasy dramas is like a carefully planned "aesthetic poverty alleviation" - using their dullness to illuminate the heroine's protagonist halo.
Stills from "There is a Tree in Sendai"
But it is the audience's eyes that suffer. When I choose to watch an ancient idol drama, I choose to use fast-moving love to stimulate my tired nerves after work, but fast-moving love must also ensure basic visual beauty to have the joy of dreaming. I am not criticizing the looks of the male and female protagonists. I personally still admire the two actors, but as the saying goes: spring comes when a hundred flowers bloom. If you put two fresh cut flowers in a bare garden, it is difficult for me to feel happy about the arrival of spring. I will only feel more bleak and difficult to bear, and try to be decent.
Master-disciple Conservation: The "Intangible Cultural Heritage Project" of Xianxia Drama
The master-disciple relationship in "There is a Tree in Xiantai" can be called a "replica of ancient abuse stories". In the first life, Mu Qingge was misunderstood by Su Yishui, but she died tragically to seal Su Yishui's spiritual spring, sacrificing herself completely for her apprentice. In the second life, Su Yishui turned on the "daddy boyfriend" mode for the reincarnated Xue Ranran, protecting her well while self-attack: "I have been in seclusion for 18 years, and every day I punish myself for not protecting you well". The master-disciple relationship in the play basically follows the "ancient idol emotional assembly line operation": cold master + lively apprentice = contrast cuteness; red-dressed queen + pure wolf dog = sexual tension; seclusion and self-abuse + reincarnation protection = BE aesthetics. This routine of "stabbing in the previous life and giving out sweets in this life" makes the audience curse "rustic" while eating life and death.
Stills from "There is a Tree in Sendai"
Ancient puppet dramas and fairy tales without sadomasochism between teachers and students are like Chongqing hotpot without butter, which means they have no soul. From "The Journey of Flower" to "The Purple Flower", "Zhou Sheng Ru Gu", "Yu Gu Yao", "Once Upon a Time There Was a Spirit Sword Mountain"... and today's "There is a Tree on Xiantai", whether it is a male teacher and a female student, or a female teacher and a male student, many of them follow the routine of "the teacher-student relationship is insurmountable, the master does not open his mouth to sacrifice for the student, the student misunderstands and abuses the master, and the misunderstanding is resolved later and the master is abused again". There are also reverse situations, but basically they do not go beyond this framework. It can only be said that the sadomasochism between teachers and students has become the "intangible cultural heritage inheritance project" of fairy tales. In short, the love between teachers and students must be sadomasochism. After all, the difference in status is there. If you make it harmonious and cheerful, it will be useless to have this sense of taboo. Sadomasochism is not a dinner party!
But if we want to complete the sadomasochistic love framework from the identity setting of the male and female protagonists, we don’t have to limit it to the master-disciple relationship. In my opinion, there is still a lot of room for exploration of the male and female protagonists in fairy tales. Since it is a fairy tale fantasy, why can’t the male and female protagonists’ personalities go a step further, such as why can’t they be the master and the spiritual weapon? Just imagine, a female fairy who is skilled in alchemy and her loyal and fiery alchemy furnace, how can they not have a love-hate relationship?
Or, how can the sadomasochistic love between the male and female protagonists with natural differences in status not be a border collie who has practiced for a hundred years and entered the state of transformation and a husky monk who has practiced for a thousand years but has not yet established a foundation, and the sadomasochistic love caused by the difference in IQ and class? Even based on the current discussion of the "four loves" context on the Internet, the male and female protagonists can be designed according to the natural attributes of biological species. For example, after a yellow eel girl falls in love with her male master, she undergoes a sex reversal and becomes a male. How sad!
The current data of "Xiantai Youshu" is still acceptable, which shows that the survival rules of Xianxia dramas are still the same few sets of combination punches. If the combination punches are not too outrageous, the basic market can be guaranteed. After all, many times, we criticize the routines while paying for them. However, the drama is still a long way from being a big hit, which shows that accurate reproduction, no breakthrough, and laborious innovation will have a chance to reach the ceiling.
I still hope that ancient costume dramas and fantasy dramas get better and better. After all, after so many years of writing reviews about them, I have already developed Stockholm syndrome for this genre. How can this not be another kind of sadomasochistic love?
