The East Palace

The East Palace, also known internationally as Goodbye My Princess, is a 2019 Chinese historical romance drama adapted from Fei Wo Si Cun’s novel of the same Chinese title, Dong Gong. The series stars Peng Xiaoran as Qu Xiaofeng, the ninth princess of the Western Liang kingdom, and Chen Xingxu as Li Chengyin, the crown prince of the Central Plains kingdom of Li. Rather than presenting their marriage as a conventional courtship, the drama builds its central tragedy around political conquest, deception, memory loss, and the consequences of dynastic power. It was released in China on the streaming platform Youku on February 14, 2019. Xiaofeng first encounters Chengyin when he is operating under the name Gu Xiaowu. Her early affection for him is inseparable from his calculated mission: he gains her trust while pursuing objectives that serve Li’s imperial interests. The drama later reveals that actions connected to Chengyin’s rise helped destroy Xiaofeng’s family and homeland. Their relationship is therefore shaped not simply by rivalry between spouses but by Xiaofeng’s trauma and Chengyin’s inability to escape the brutality behind his status. A major turning point sends both characters into the River of Forgetfulness, after which Xiaofeng loses memories that Chengyin retains. He remembers them. Much of the series’ tension comes from the mismatch between Xiaofeng’s altered understanding of the past and Chengyin’s knowledge of what he did before the river. At court, she becomes crown princess, while factions and succession disputes make private feeling inseparable from statecraft. Wei Qianxiang plays Gu Jian, Xiaofeng’s childhood companion and a significant figure in the conflict surrounding her. The supporting cast also includes Wang Zhifei as Emperor Li and Luo Jialiang as Qu Wencheng, Xiaofeng’s father. These relationships give the drama its cross-border political setting, contrasting the Li court with Western Liang and its royal household. Its story does not treat amnesia as a simple comic device; it intensifies an already fatal imbalance of knowledge. The East Palace’s title is rendered Eastern Palace, but The East Palace is used for the drama in English listings. Its 2019 production brought the novel’s tragic premise to a serialized screen format, with Peng Xiaoran and Chen Xingxu carrying the narrative as Xiaofeng and Chengyin. The show is defined by its refusal to separate romance from the violence that made the union possible: Chengyin’s position as heir is the source of both his authority and Xiaofeng’s suffering.