Story of Kunning Palace – Jiang Xue Ning – Part 2

Part 1 is here

NING’S ALLIANCES AND INFLUENCE – FIRST AND SECOND LIFE:

The one thing that stayed consistent with both ‘lives’ was Ning’s ability to cultivate relationships with people around her. There is something about her that draws people to her.

In the first life, she had Zhou Yinzhi and You Fangyin. Zhou Yinzhi was never truly trustworthy, always more interested in furthering his own ambition and keeping his neck safe. The only reason he stayed loyal to Ning was because her ambition far outpaced his own. You Fangyin’s loyalty was purer, she stayed by Ning’s side even at the cost of her own life and safety.

In the second life, things are very different, with Ning trying to actively make changes and in doing so, she won over and also changed so many people she came into contact with.

There was of course You Fangyin, who remained steadfast as ever. But her relationship with Yan Lin matured. She was open and upfront that while she cared immensely for him, she was not in love with him and he took it well. (I’ll do a deep dive on the relationships in a separate post) Same with Shen Zhi Yi, she went from someone who actively harassed Ning in life 1 to becoming one of her staunchest supporters and protected her in the court (true love and probably the healthiest of all her potential suitors). Then we have Xie Wei, who probably underwent the greatest amount of growth. And finally Zhang Zhe and with him, she actively tried to undo the mistakes of her past.

NING’S PERSONALITY:

One of the aspects that I loved about Ning is that, whether it was life 1 or 2, she was very clear when it came to her objective. She pursues her goal with a single-minded focus and is capable of thinking ten steps ahead while keeping track of possible obstacles. In the novel, we have access to her thoughts quite a bit of it is just inner monologue) and they’re great insight into her character and her growth through the story.

Her arc in life 1 is a great example of just how dedicated she in when she sets her mind on something. Think about it, she becomes the empress with all of the cards stacked against her, with no backing at all, it was all her own doing. That is admirable and impressive.

Ning thinks that in life 1, she was too clever for her own good and all she wants to do in life 2, is stay under the radar and live a boring life. In most other stories, there would have been a perceivable shift in her thinking, like she would be more noble after being humbled in her first life, and that’s just not the case. She is still very much the same person, capable of being just as callous and cruel as she used to be. This aspect is more clear in the books because we have access to her thoughts. I was concerned about how they would pull this off in the show, but thankfully they did a great job.

She remains cunning and conniving throughout the story, it’s just that she chooses to focus her considerable mental resources to protect she comes to care about. And she is single-minded in that regard as well, even willing to put her life on the line if it means that she can save them (when she was willing to whisk away Shen Zhi Yi, while fully aware of what it would cost her.)

CONCLUSION:

Was Ning “evil” in her first life? She did what everyone around her was doing and continued to do throughout the narrative with the Xue family vying for control of the court, Xie Wei with his own vengeful vendetta among others. Are her actions somehow more heinous because she dared to be ambitious and work to make that ambition a reality?

Under that hardened shell was someone who was deeply hurt and let down by all those around her, it is any surprise then that she would want a modicum of control over the course of her own life? We have this idea in our heads that people, specifically women, should be kind to the people around them and I reject that idea. Ning didn’t have to be kind and if she did, who should she be kind to, her useless family, the people who mocked her or the women who tried to trip her up?

Ning tells us that, in the previous life, she reached the zenith of power by using people indiscriminately and she very clearly views this in a negative light. But I don’t think that’s necessarily true.

Let’s review shall we, the person she dumped most callously was Yan Lin. After he loses his family and is exiled, Ning tries to convince Shen Lang to bring him back, in fact, this was something she always intended to do.

We can assume (like in life 2) that she actively took care of and protected You Fangyin which is why she stayed by her side. I think Fangyin is an inherently decent person, if she found Ning being genuinely evil (like the Xue family) I don’t think she would have stuck around.

When she realised that she was at the end of her rope in life 1, she chose to sacrifice herself to save Zhang Zhe’s life. She didn’t need to do that. If she was truly as callous as she thought she was, she would not have spared another thought for him.

I think that Ning is her own greatest critic. Taking into account, the setting of the story, Ning sees her ambition as dishonourable. Women are meant to work behind the scenes and not make too much noise. Power struggle within the harem? Perfectly fine, because that is a woman’s space. But the wider society? How dare a woman have ambitions beyond marriage and children! While Ning is fairly progressive, she’s not immune to the subconscious social prejudices of her time.

It is no surprise then that Ning thinks she was evil but as the viewer/reader, we know that she’s far from that. She’s not the conventional, dull, do-gooder female lead we usually get. Instead, in Ning, we have a nuanced and complicated female protagonist who takes back the reins of her life. She is calculating and manipulative but she is also capable of being incredibly selfless. She uses her skills to protect her loved ones but also does not shy away from using those same skills to take down people who would do her and hers harm.