Nirvana in Fire

Twelve years after the Chiyan army was destroyed as traitors in a political conspiracy, a frail strategist called Mei Changsu arrives in the capital with a reputation for making whoever he backs the winner. Under the new name and the ruined body is Lin Shu, the commander's son who lived, poisoned and disfigured but alive. He works himself into the succession fight not for the throne but for the verdict that buried seventy thousand men, quietly steering his cousin Prince Jing toward power while exposing the officials who engineered the massacre.

Princess Nihuang, who once loved Lin Shu before his supposed death, and Prince Jing himself are drawn into Mei Changsu's long game against rivals like Prince Yu and the conspirators shielded by Marquis Xie Yu, as the plan to clear the Chiyan name puts Mei Changsu's failing health on a collision course with his own sense of duty.

Nirvana in Fire starred Hu Ge as Mei Changsu, with Liu Tao, Wang Kai, Victor Huang, and Wang Jinsong in key supporting roles. The 54-episode series aired on Dragon TV and Beijing TV in 2015 and won the Flying Apsaras Award for Outstanding Television Drama along with a string of prizes at the 2016 Shanghai Television Festival, becoming one of the most acclaimed Chinese historical dramas of its decade.