Qin em perspectiva : narrativas históricas e ficcionais em The king's womam

Abstract

The Qin dynasty (221 – 206 a.C) was the first Chinese imperial dynasty, which provided the foundation for the imperial system that endured for the next two millennia. The cdrama The King’s Woman depicts the years before the Chinese unification and focuses on one of the most emblematic figures of its history, Ying Zheng, who would become The First Emperor. Besides this important character, the cdrama focuses on the palace plots and, while in a fragmented China, the interstate politics that culminate with the conquest of the other States by the hands of Qin. The goal of this research, therefore, is to analyse, through the traditional Chinese historiography, the representation of this period and its infamous historical figures, after two thousand years of negative narratives by the following dynasties. In this context, the cdrama is a means to an end, by the Popular Republic of China, to divulge Chinese ideals to the diaspora of Chinese people and to the international audience. Thus, even though the period depicted is mainly seen as negative, the cdrama represents Qin and its ruthless ruler as necessary for the unification and preservation of what we know today as China, in a moment in which a permanent fragmentation threatened this civilization.